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Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

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was also a haberdasher, his mother was of a gentry family. 272<br />

This places Ingram in the<br />

same sociological grouping as Alcester’s mercers, for inst<strong>an</strong>ce the Pickard <strong>an</strong>d Round<br />

families. The probate of Thomas Pickard the elder included £619 in bonds <strong>an</strong>d<br />

mortgages which hints at his role as a fin<strong>an</strong>cier. 273<br />

Another influential mercer was<br />

Stephen Hobbins, who wished his wife <strong>to</strong> continue his mercery <strong>an</strong>d drapery business after<br />

his death. 274<br />

With large sums of money involved the mercery business was not always<br />

secure. 275 Some mercers also advertised as grocers <strong>an</strong>d drapers. 276 The use of the term<br />

‘draper’ appears <strong>to</strong> grow in the nineteenth century as the term ‘mercer’ recedes, some<br />

drapers specialising in either linen or wool. Drapers cum mercers apparently increased in<br />

numbers over the study period. 277<br />

Other descrip<strong>to</strong>rs in this sec<strong>to</strong>r include one cowkeeper <strong>an</strong>d one greengrocer (both<br />

in Period D) <strong>an</strong>d pawnbrokers, general dealers <strong>an</strong>d dealers in coal, hay, corn, horse-corn,<br />

cheese, tea, salt, china, glass, <strong>an</strong>d earthenware (all in Periods C <strong>an</strong>d D). In Period D as<br />

well as the more general food-dealers we find: cake-seller, confectioner, pastry cook,<br />

cooker, milk-seller <strong>an</strong>d milkm<strong>an</strong>. The term ‘dealer’ or ‘merch<strong>an</strong>t’ had a whole gamut of<br />

me<strong>an</strong>ings including wholesale <strong>an</strong>d retail sales <strong>an</strong>d local or wider trading. 278<br />

John<br />

272 References include SCLA, DR134/31/4 <strong>an</strong>d ER3/464.<br />

273 WoRO, probate of John Round, Alcester, mercer, 1716, £279-8-0 <strong>an</strong>d of Thomas Pickard the elder,<br />

Alcester, mercer, 1699-1700, £808-17-0 <strong>an</strong>d of Thomas Pickard junior, Alcester, mercer, 1701, £935-7-6.<br />

274 TNA, PCC probate of Richard Jew, Alcester, mercer, 1774, shows that he owned much property <strong>an</strong>d<br />

wished <strong>to</strong> pay for his nieces <strong>to</strong> attend a good boarding school. Also WoRO probate of Stephen Hobbins,<br />

Alcester, mercer, 1798.<br />

275 Berrow’s Worcester Journal 25 June 1795 carries a notice that John Haines, Alcester, mercer, has<br />

assigned his estate <strong>to</strong> <strong>an</strong> Alcester schoolmaster <strong>an</strong>d <strong>to</strong> James Crosl<strong>an</strong>d, a Huddersfield clothier, for their<br />

benefit <strong>an</strong>d that of other credi<strong>to</strong>rs. It was hoped that he could pay at least 15s in the pound <strong>to</strong> his credi<strong>to</strong>rs.<br />

Crosl<strong>an</strong>d was probably the source of some of Haines’s s<strong>to</strong>ck.<br />

276 UBD 1792.<br />

277 Taking mercers <strong>an</strong>d drapers <strong>to</strong>gether: Probate reveals Period A: 5, Period B: 5, Period C: 4 <strong>an</strong>d Period<br />

D: 1. UBD 1792 lists 4 <strong>an</strong>d Pigot 1835 lists 7. WaRO, Alcester 1841 census, lists 6 (all male). None of<br />

these sources lists a haberdasher in <strong>an</strong>y period.<br />

278 In probate there were 3 dealers (all in Period D) <strong>an</strong>d UBD 1792 had 3 <strong>an</strong>d Pigot 1835 had 1 <strong>an</strong>d 3<br />

coaldealers. WaRO, Alcester 1841 census, lists 9 male dealers of various sorts <strong>an</strong>d 1 female dealer.<br />

125

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