Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Gloucestershire ‘Men and Armour’. 16
The 1608 muster reveals 69 men with known
occupations: 8 yeomen, 20 husbandmen, 10 labourers, 6 weavers, 3 tailors, 1 shoemaker,
1 carpenter, 1 miller and 1 blacksmith. From this fortuitous early seventeenth century
evidence we can deduce that, to a large extent, the occupational patterns found in this
zone in 1660 were long-established.
Another parish in this zone, namely Harvington, has a document listing residents
with their occupations in 1695. 17
The occupations listed are as to be expected from other
sources, showing a mainly agricultural parish with a clergyman and a handful of
tradesmen and servants.
Despite the small sample and the lack of official apprenticeships in agriculture
and some other occupations, the analysis of the inland revenue apprentice books shows
shoemakers, tailors and retailers taking on apprentices, and confirms the lack of
needlemakers when compared with Zone D. 18
Following the pattern used in Chapter 4 discussion of occupational groupings
follows using statistical information from the sources shown in the tables above, but
reinforced with background information from other sources, where they throw light on
the organisation or operation of a certain trade. 19
16 J. Smith, Men and Armour for Gloucestershire, 1608, (reprinted Gloucester, Alan Sutton, 1980). A
census of able-bodied men. See Appendix 9.
17 See Appendix 8 Harvington Collection upon brief 10 th April 1695 ‘for the late dreadful fyer in
Warwicke’ (in WoRO, Harvington parish register).
18 See Appendix 23. The figures for textile and clothing in this zone include 4 female mantuamakers.
These are the only females who are recorded as taking on apprentices in this zone.
19 In particular probate inventories up to the 1760s give useful information.
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