Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Among the wealthier blacksmiths was John Holtam, who lived in a dwelling with
nine rooms and outhouses. 147
Probate inventories suggest that the zone’s blacksmiths
were mostly involved in farming and were a cut above most other village craftsmen.
Before 1750 a handful of needlemakers spilled over from the Needle District into
this zone. 148
John Widdows, needlemaker of Wixford, was a witness to the marriage
bond of an Ayrshire merchant, John Harvie, who married a local girl. Harvie and his ilk
provided a two-way link with Scotland, perhaps bringing Scottish cloth to the midlands
and returning home with needles and other products. 149
After 1750 Inkberrow parish was home to a few needlemakers, who for the most
part probably lived along the Ridgeway adjoining the established needlemaking parishes.
In the 1790s Rev. Heath comments: ‘The chief employment is agriculture; a few persons
prefer the sedentary occupation of needle making and weaving and vend their work in the
neighbouring towns, it is difficult to account for this choice, for though the profit of the
business may, occasionally, be greater than that of a day labourer, it is by no means so
certain; till very lately (when there arose a demand for large needles for the use of the
navy) they were obliged to have recourse to field labour to support their families, and
could only earn two-thirds the wages of a professed labourer; besides which they are
generally more unhealthy and more inclined to drunkenness.’
The Inkberrow
needlemaker who left probate in the 1760s was indeed a poor man. 150
147 WoRO, probate of John Holtam, blacksmith, Great Alne, 1678, £58-14-0. However, (unusually), his
inventory lists the debts that he owes, totalling £30-6-0, another reminder for the historian to beware in
placing too much emphasis on inventory values, when some appraisers deduct debts and other don’t
mention them. (If his debts were deducted, he would only be worth £28-8-0.)
148 For example, WoRO, marriage licence of John Andrews, Inkberrow, needlemaker, Sept. 1729, and
probate of Joseph Badson, Inkberrow, 1729, £102-0-0.
149 WoRO, marriage licence of John Harvie, Ayrshire, merchant, Nov. 1736, witnessed by John Widdows,
Wixford, needlemaker. N. B. Other merchants from SW Scotland feature in Worcester diocese marriage
licences at this period too and Scottish pedlars are mentioned locally.
150 WoRO, probate of John Hunt, Inkberrow, needlemaker, 1765, £10-9-6.
223