Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor ...... ?

Natalie Lerner

Does the old rhyme reflect the truth about occupations in the past? Not for Barnsley in the later part of the eighteenth century. There are a number of Taylors, but only one Tinker. Weaver and Wiredrawer would be a better description. Whilst searching the St Mary's parish records for my mother's family of Frudd, I noticed that after 30 January 1757, when a new volume was started, the clerk included the occupation of the groom. The marriages were recorded consecutively until 1790, covering more than 30 years and making it much easier to check them. The analysis of this set of records proved very interesting.

The number of marriages increased for each ten year period. The total for 30 years was 459, made up of 144 (1760-1770, omitting 1763), 152 (1771-1780), 182 (1781-1790). The number fluctuated widely from year to year from 6 in 1775, to 28 in 1788, but the general trend was to increase, the average being just under 16 per year.

It is quite easy to count the number of marriages, but to identify each occupation is much more difficult, because of the state of the register and the handwriting. Also, not every marriage was given an occupation, this being particularly true of men from another Parish, or when marriages were by licence, or surprisingly when a widow was being married. This may be because the clerk grudged writing anything extra!

The greater interest, however is the enormous range of occupations: there were 395 marriages where these were recorded, and 79 different occupations. Even if we condense a few which were obviously very similar this will not decrease the number significantly.

The commonest occupation was weaver with 75 men: about 19% of the total. The next most common was labourer , with 66 or 17%. The only other category with more than 20 men was that of Wiredrawer and Wiremaker. (1 have coalesced these two jobs although the clerk distinguished them. ) There were 35 of these, or 9%. The weavers increase their representation most markedly over the three ten years periods, rising from 6% to 13% to 29%. The wiredrawers do increase, but not as steadily. The labourers for the corresponding periods make up 14%, 17% and 18%, i. e. a pretty constant fraction of the labour force and unlike many villages where the great majority of working men were' Ag. Labs', quite a small proportion. This makes us realise that Bamsley, even by 1760, was a town.

The remaining occupations with numbers in double figures were: tailors 14 ( if we include breeches makers (3) and one hatter, this figure will be 17), masons 14, colliers 13, blacksmiths 12, cordwainers 10, shoemakers 10 and bleachers 10. If we regard cordwainer and shoemaker as minor variants of the same occupation, this will make 20; similarly, we could add the 4 whitsters to the bleachers, giving 14, and if we join together the 5 carpenters, 4 joiners and 2 cabinet makers, we get 11 woodworkers.The only people who can be identified as being directly concerned with farming are the 7 farmers, 3 yeoman and 7 husbandmen.

Some of the occupations make on realise that Barnsley was not only a town, but a fashionable one. Only 3 marriages were of 'gentlemen' however. Perhaps there were more, but they married in their wives' parishes. The Squire of Silkstone was married on 1st December 1760 to Rebekah Ellison. There were 2 'Peruke makres' and 2 stay makers. There are linen drapers throughout, and these are joined by a woollen draper in 1781 and a mercer in 1784. (A mercer sells silks and fancier materials.) Then there were 2 fiddlers who married in 1770 and 1776, and 2 'comedians' in 1789. ( I found it difficult to believe what I was reading, but the writing is quite clear!) Housebuilding was perhaps becoming more elaborate, since we have a glazier in 1776, two plumbers in 1771 and 1776, a bricklayer in 1780, and two plasterers in 1769 and 1774.

The first schoolmaster was married in 1772 and there is a second in 1790. There was an apothecary from 1761, and we have another in 1786, and two surgeons in 1781 and 1784. We can speculate that a brewery was set up about the middle of the period, because we have 3 marriages of maltsters. Previously beer was probably made by people on a smaller scale. (My ancestor Thomas Frode left his wife Ann, all his 'brewing barrens' in 1685. The 65th Regiment of Foot was quartered in the town as there were three army marriages in 1779 and 1780.

As well as the wireworkers already mentioned and the 12 blacksmiths, there were other metalworkers: 3 'naylers', 1 ironfounder, 1 whitesmith, 2 cutlers (these latter came from Sheffield), and a scissorsmith. There were people who carried things such as a waggoner, a draysman and a carrier . Some people were involved with skins and leather such as a woolcomber, 3 saddlers, a tanner and a fellmonger.

There are 51 occupations with only one or two representatives. Some of these with only one are a framework knitter (1771), hardswareman (1767), officer of the excise (1767) millwright (1771), clothier (1772), woodsman (1774), chimney sweeper (1764), papermaker (1764), gardener (1764), victaller (1778), wright (1779), heelmaker (1781), glassmaker (1784) and a tallow chandler (1788). There are only two clerks. What a contrast to today!

. Are these figures likely to be representative of the town as a whole? I mean by this, are all the the occupations represented, and in more or less the right proportion? The fact that there are so many occupations with only one representative suggests that Barnsley was urban and prosperous, with a variety of trades, but makes one wonder if there were other similar occupations whose practitioners did not happen to get married during the period, (though the fact that the figures cover 30 years make this less likely.) The proportion of labourers, at 16 % seems rather low, even for a town. The question whether there was a large number of labourers who could not afford to marry seems unanswerable.

The other striking fact is the absence of the learned professions- no parsons, physicians or lawyers. Did they marry elsewhere or was Barnsley not all that sophisticated? It seems unlikely that, if they were there, they did not marry.

Finally, in order to compare these figures with those for a century earlier, we can look at the returns for the Hearth Tax of 1672 for the Wapentake of Staincross, which included Barnsley. At this time, 130 households are listed for Barnsley. During this time, there were an average of 7 marriages a year ( calculated over 10 years, from (1669-1678). During 1761-1790 (30 years) there were an average of 16 a year. We can make a rather wild guess at the increase in the number of households of at least twice. Interestingly, Barnsley had 4 forges in 1672 and a shop as well as communal ovens.

I looked through the earlier records to see if any of the surnames present in 1672 were still there in the later period. I looked first for my own Frudd marriages, of which there are 9, and the only surnames occurring in these (whether of brides or witnesses) which are also found in 1672 were Frudd, Oxley, Denton, Wood, Sawyer, Clarke and Dickinson. I am sure that there are may more, but it is a mammoth task and requires the transcription of the whole register, which I do not have time for.

The first 60 records from 1757 to 1761 are all for parishes that are not Bamsley, the greatest number for Silkstone. I do not understand this, can anyone help me? Thereafter, we find that the parish is not always mentioned and one presumes that this means the bride and groom were both from Bamsley. In all the marriages from 1757-1790 there are 93 parishes named other than Barnsley. Now we must hope that if the occupations are to be taken as representative of the people of Barnsley , that these men were either coming to settle in Barnsley, or if not, that a similar number of men with equally varied occupations were marrying out of Bamsley .I do not see how this question can be answered without a comparison with other nearby towns.

Most of the men were coming from nearby parishes, for example, a large number from Silkstone, which is very near Barnsley. 15 were from Royston, 9 from Darfield, and 6 from Dodworth. Others, however, were from much further away in Yorkshire as York, Pontefract, 5 from Sheffield, 4 from Ecclesfield, 3 from Wakefield, and even some from as far out of the county as Lincoln, Stockport, and Nottingham. I have mentioned that the cutlers were from Sheffield. I looked to see if there was any other similar connection, but I could not see anything obvious. Bamsley was obviously drawing in people. I hope to be able to compare the occupations of 1760-1790 with those of a later period, at some future time.

© Natalie Lerner 1999

The above article was published in The Journal of the Barnsley Family History Society Vol 7 no 4 October 1999. It is reproduced here by permission of the Committee and Editors.
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