Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

less flexibility for labourers, so they were unable to make enough wealth to trouble the
probate courts. 34
It may be significant that more labourers in Salford Priors, with its
large expanses of waste, left probate documents than elsewhere in this zone. 35
One
‘labourer’ who left probate documents was Robert Hacocks whose £114-8-6 included
few possessions, but £101-1-6 ‘money in good hands’ and £9-15-0 ‘money that lies very
doughtfull’. 36
Perhaps he was one of the independent Vale smallholders who were
market-gardeners but also laboured for their ‘bigger’ neighbours. Another in this
category may have been William Tandy, who was referred to as labourer and yeoman. 37
Some husbandmen were also referred to as yeomen in their probate papers, showing that
distinctions between these descriptors were not clear. The ‘gardeners’ in this zone may
have been growing vegetables and fruit for the Birmingham market. 38
In the second half of the eighteenth century the percentage of farmers leaving
probate declined in both enclosed and unenclosed parishes. 39
However, in marriage
licence data the number of farmers is similar at the start and end of the period, while
graziers increase from 0 to 3. This may indicate a real growth in the number of graziers
34 S. Jones, ‘The development of needle manufacturing in the west midlands before 1750’, p. 364, discusses
inward migration to the needle district at this time. Perhaps many poor from Zone B migrated to Zone D.
35 Inventories of labourers ranged from GlosRO, probate of Thomas Roberts, Welford, labourer and
husbandman, 1684, £1-17-6, to WoRO, probate of Thomas Cooke, Bevington, (Salford Priors), labourer,
1680, £42-18-2.
36 WoRO, probate of Robert Hacocks, Milcote Lodge, Weston, labourer, 1710, £114-8-6.
37 GlosRO, probate of William Tandy, Welford, labourer/yeoman, 1712, £3-3-2. More than half this zone’s
‘husbandmen’ in probate were in Long Marston, where perhaps landholding or customary terminology
differed from the other parishes. Although lower, the inventory values of husbandmen in this zone
generally follow the same trends as those of yeomen.
38 WoRO, marriage licence of John Hill, Bidford, husbandman, Oct. 1738, witnessed by John Randle,
Bidford, gardener, and marriage licence of Henry Chamberlain, Warwick, tailor, Nov. 1738, witnessed by
Thomas Alderton, Salford Priors, gardener. Martin, ‘The social and economic origins of the Vale of
Evesham market gardening industry’, and C. Upton, A History of Birmingham, (Chichester, Phillimore,
2001), p. 85, discuss the transport of produce from the Vale of Evesham to Birmingham at this period.
However, Randle and Alderton may have been one of the other types of gardener, rather than marketgardeners.
39 In particular, the number of those termed ‘husbandmen’ declined markedly.
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