Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

grammar school, directories now list a private boarding school and a girls’ school.
Alcester’s National School opened in 1843. 297
Before 1800 the health of Alcester and its hinterland lay in the hands of
apothecaries and barber-surgeons. John Yarnold, apothecary, owed money to a
Worcester grocer and a London druggist, from whom he no doubt sourced some of his
wares. Yarnold held land in three counties and acted as a banker and mortgage supplier.
Debts due upon bond amounted to some £390, which indicate that he may have
forwarded loans to a large number of people including the likes of Thomas Quinton who
stood in debt to him for a £5 mortgage. 298
The Yarnolds had run an apothecary’s shop in
the town since the 1640s, and other medical providers too belonged to long-lasting family
businesses, such as the Jennings and Brandish families, which included both apothecaries
and barber-surgeons. Barber-surgeons probably also supplied wigs, a speciality of
Stephen Round, ‘peruke-maker’. 299
Like the Yarnolds, peruke-makers, barber-surgeons
and apothecaries were typically from respected families in the town, related to mercers,
clergy and gentry. 300
In the nineteenth century medical needs were catered for by the
297 G. E. Saville, ‘A short history of Alcester’s schools, 1490-1912’, ADLHS, OP7, (1978), p. 9, and UBD
1792.
298 WoRO, probate of John Yarnold, Alcester, apothecary, 1707, £633-11-8 and of Thomas Quinton,
Alcester, joiner, 1702, £71-5-7.
299 WoRO, probate of Stephen Round, Alcester, perukemaker, 1735. Another barber cum peruke-maker
was Joseph Tilsley, also a netmaker, mentioned above in the textile section.
300 WoRO, probate of Richard Brandish, Alcester, apothecary, 1748, and of Joseph Brandis, Alcester,
surgeon, 1742, £1552-9-10, (of which £1500 was in the form of debts due to him). N. B. The name was
spelt both Brandis and Brandish. WoRO, probate of William Jennings, Alcester, surgeon, 1729, £115.
129