Irish born women were employed in domestic service (15-year-old Minnie Bowers worked at the Greyhound Inn, Swaffham), in nursing (Julia Wiseman of Kinsale was employed at Norwich Hospital) and in factory work (21-year-old Elizabeth Murrell of Dundalk was on the pay roll at a Norwich silk factory). Elizabeth Barnes of Walsoken worked in the fields and Catherine Brown of Heigham was a charwoman.

The census also records a surprising number of women who headed their own households: Elizabeth Kirkland, baker; Mary Gage, lodging-house keeper; Mary Porter, dressmaker; Letitia Taylor, schoolmistress; Rosanna Bowmer, midwife; Wilhelmina Middleton, needlewoman; Anne Barrett, laundress.

Some, such as Ellen Tyce, were widows with children. Ellen supported her two children as a starch-maker in Norwich. Mary Ann Buttolph, of Norwich, was a 25-year-old unmarried single mother with two sons, both born in Norwich. She had the first when she was 16, and working as a waitress.

Of four teaching nuns living together at Costessy, two - Mary Brennan and Theresa O'Brian - were Irish. The convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame at Norwich was headed by Elizabeth McShane, London born but probably of Irish descent. Only two of the teaching sisters were Irish born but most of the others, from London and Liverpool, had Irish names, as did many of the pupils.

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