Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

category we find Richard Rawlins, mercer, of Welford, wealthy enough to fund a local
school and John Clarke, mercer of Pebworth, who boasted a shop, a brandy-house and a
tobacco-house. 180
In most villages one or two families retailed grocery and other wares. 181
The
inventory of Ann Gardner lists shop-goods including ‘some little remnants of oldfashioned
stuff’, which had probably lingered on the shelves since the time it was in
vogue. 1
82
Some eighteenth century butchers prospered, none more so than Samuel and
Robert Smith of Pebworth, father and son, who acquired much land. The father was
described as a gentleman, while his son sold up and settled in the capital. 183
This was
also a time of increasing activities for middlemen, such as the Savages of Pebworth. 184
Bidford’s records
at this time also reveal a couple of peruke-makers, one of whom was
also a barber. 185
Victuallers, some of whom were women, are recorded in the majority of the
parishes before 1800; only the small settlements off the beaten track apparently lacked a
pub. 186
Malting was a lucrative by-employment for farmers, bakers, publicans and
180 GlosRO, probate of John Clarke, Pebworth, mercer, 1721. Clarke’s tobacco-house contained an engine,
presumably for cutting or preparing tobacco. In Pebworth and in the nearby parish of Cow Honeybourne
Clarke held both arable and meadow-land. Perhaps illegal tobacco was still being grown locally to
supplement imported tobacco, which presumably found its way up the Severn and Avon from Bristol, along
with the brandy. For Rawlins’s charity school see the next section.
181 For example, WoRO, marriage licence of Richard Baxter, Bidford, grocer, May 1739. WoRO, probate
of Richard Popplewell, Bidford, grocer, 1785. Berrow’s Worcester Journal 11 Aug. 1763 also mentions
the sale of the shop occupied by George Sale, Bidford, mercer and grocer.
182 WoRO, probate of Ann Gardner, Cleeve Prior, spinster, 1739, £18-15-6. Other items include candles,
soap, spices, tobacco, sugar, thread, laces and linen.
183 SCLA, ER13/15/1.
184 GlosRO, probate of Richard Savage, Pebworth, dealer, 1759. WoRO, marriage licence of Richard
Savage, Pebworth, pig-dealer, Aug. 1787.
185 WoRO, probate of John Brown, Bidford, peruke-maker, 1762, and of John Bossward, Bidford, barber
and peruke-maker, 1769.
186 Bidford and Welford apparently had several public houses each. Licensed victuallers’ returns are
available for the Warwickshire parishes, (WaRO, QS35). For example Bidford in 1754 had 7 publicans
179