Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

31%
4%
Figure 2.2. Dundee Recruitment Patterns, 1770
Dundee Recruitment Patterns, 1770
2%
63%
Tradesmen
Professional
Seafaring
Victualling
Figures 2.1 and 2.2 provide a tangible representation of recruitment
patterns within the Dundee lodge. Between 1745 and 1770, several interesting
trends are apparent. Although the percentage of tradesmen declined by almost
20 per cent, victualling and seafaring trades accounted for 33 per cent of the
overall membership. Significantly, no gentlemen were recorded in 1770 and
professional trades declined from 13 to 6 per cent.
Unlike the steady rise of gentlemen and landowners characterizing
London lodges after 1768, the Dundee lodge exhibited a marked decrease of
professionals and gentlemen. 187 Certainly, only a partial picture emerges as no
data is available between 1745 and 1770. However, lodges frequently were
tardy in their returns, and 1770 may well represent the combined membership
data from 1746-1770. If this is indeed the case, No. 49 only admitted an average
187 See Clark, British Clubs, 319-325 for a full analysis of eighteenth-century London and
provincial English lodge occupational returns.
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