Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

documents. 312
Attorneys, Walter Jones and John Showel, also advertised as masters of
chancery. 313
As society modernised in the nineteenth century, demand grew for professional
services. Attorneys, or ‘solicitors’, as they were often now called, and also their clerks
are ever more evident in the records, as are land-surveyors and accountants. 314
Banking
facilities were provided by the likes of Hartland and Co., an outlet for the Tewkesbury
and Evesham Bank. 315
Amongst the town’s auctioneers was John Radbone, who was
also a broker, upholsterer, shoemaker and needle manufacturer. The town’s insurance
agents generally had another line of business too.
In earlier times many wealthy townsfolk also acted as early, unofficial bankers
backing local businesses, large and small, lending money and supplying mortgages. 316
The term ‘gentleman’ covered a multitude of sins, being used in different ways according
to circumstance or purpose; some referred to as ‘gentlemen’ in certain documents are
obviously successful tradesmen, such as Cornelius Cox, butcher. 317
Holderness
highlights the importance of credit in the rural economy, both in the form of sales credit,
evident in the probate of many Alcestrian artisans, but also the more substantial type of
312 For example, J. Clark, clerk to Mr Showel, witnessed the apprenticeship papers for Joseph Williams in
1780 (WaRO, Alcester apprentices, DR 360/79/49).
313 UBD 1792. (Berrow’s Worcester Journal 1 Aug 1799 reports that John Showel has been found guilty of
forgery.) The term ‘solicitor’ begins to be used in newspapers, for instance in connection with turnpike
trusts or associations for the prosecution of felons, as Walter Jones in Berrow’s Worcester Journal 8 April
1784. Some attorneys, such as Richard Attwood, are also called ‘scriveners’, and many are more usually
referred to a ‘gentlemen’.
314 WaRO, Alcester 1841 census lists 10 males in these professional roles.
315 West’s Warwickshire Directory 1830.
316 For example, WoRO, probate of Elizabeth Gittins, Bidford, widow, 1690, names Richard Beal, Alcester,
mercer, as principal creditor.
317 WoRO, probate of Cornelius Cox, Alcester, butcher/gent, 1680/1, £537-6-0. In Period A gentlemen’s
inventory values ranged from WoRO, probate of John Bovey, King’s Coughton, Alcester, gent, 1674, £7-
13-4, to that of Daniel Grove, Alcester, gent, 1682, £647-3-4. Those termed ‘gentlemen’ or ‘esquires’ in
probate include 12 in Period A (9.4% of males), 16 in Period B (9.5%), 5 in Period C (4%) and 21 in Period
D (15%). (Gentlemen are not included in my analysis of those with known occupations in the tables
above.) In the 1841 census there were 23 males and 41 females listed as gentry or independent or
annuitants or pensioners.
132