Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

commissioner was also the contact for the sale of local properties, while other gentlemen
act as stewards managing local estates. 209
After 1750 ‘gentlemen’ in such roles can
increasingly be identified as those trained in the law.
The gentlemen, esquires and baronets of this zone financed various businesses,
although their traceable investments were primarily in property and agriculture. As
expected, many gentlemen enjoyed great wealth, but others leave surprisingly small
sums. 210 Information regarding servants tends to be scarce, but the 1661 probate inventory
for William Allen, ‘serving man to Sir Thomas Rouse’, shows that he had investments,
property and corn of his own. 211
He was obviously a man of independent means, such as
a steward or bailiff. Unusually, two servants also appear in the zone’s probate records in
the next century. 212
The 1831 census for this central belt enumerates 12 male servants
over twenty and 7 under twenty, compared with 228 female servants. 213
Other sources in
Period D specify some servants’ roles such as footman or groom. Some washerwomen,
laundresses and nurses appear to be domestic servants while others were perhaps
independent workers. 214
209 Worcester Weekly Journal June 1748 (exact date unclear) and 20 July 1749 name John Hall of Temple
Grafton as the contact for properties in his parish and also in Wilmcote. Gentlemen (possibly attorneys?)
acting as early estate agents occur increasingly in newspapers of the next period. WoRO, BA5589/130(x),
names Thomas Tibbatts as steward of the manor of the vicarage of Inkberrow in 1742.
210 Gentlemen’s inventory values range from WoRO, probate of George Darby, Bouts, (Inkberrow),
gentleman, 1722/3, £4-12-6, to that of Francis Halford, Hilborough, (Temple Grafton), gentleman, 1697,
£1631-8-8. (The baronet, Sir Francis Rouse, Rous Lench, was valued at £770-6-2 in 1687.)
211 WoRO, probate and miscellaneous probate (794/145) of William Allen, Rous Lench,
servingman/yeoman, 1661, £78-0-0.
212 WoRO, probate of William Page, Kinwarton, servant, 1722, £29-12-0, and of William Gibbs, Great
Alne, servant, 1726, £52-12-11.
213 See Appendix 7: 1831 census. Male servants over 20 comprised 0.7% of adult males. Female servants
comprised 7.6% of all females.
214 WaRO and WoRO, 1841 and 1851 censuses.
234