Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Table 7.13 Male occupational structure in Coughton (including Sambourne) from
baptism registers 1695-1769 (shown as % of fathers with known occupations)
1695-
1707
1720-
1729
1730-
1739
1740-
1749
1750-
1759
1760-
1769
Primary (with agricultural labourers) * 38.7 29.7 27.3 30.0 34.0 35.5
Primary (without labourers) 19.6 16.7 7.9 14.1 10.8 12.5
Secondary (with other labourers) * 60.6 66.3 71.0 67.9 63.5 63.7
Secondary (without labourers) 51.0 59.8 61.3 59.9 51.9 52.3
Tertiary 0.7 4.0 1.7 2.1 2.5 0.8
Needlemakers 7.2 33.3 44.1 43.8 37.3 40.6
All labourers 28.8 19.6 29.1 24.0 34.8 34.4
Total males with known occupations (n) 153 138 203 192 158 128
* Labourers allocated to primary or secondary according to the 1831 census. 31
The secondary sector was even more important in the eighteenth century economy
of Coughton than in that of Studley. Coughton moved significantly towards a more
specialised economy (concentrating on the needle industry) in the first quarter of the
eighteenth century, but the needle industry’s share plateaued later. 32
From the 1720s the
register distinguishes occupants of Sambourne from those of Coughton itself. 33
31 In the 1831 census approximately one third of labourers worked in the secondary sector in Coughton and
Sambourne combined. The same ratio of 1:3 was used for this earlier period too. From 1695-1707
occupations were given for 88.2% of fathers in baptisms; the figure for 1720-1769 was 95.8%.
32 Possible reasons for the changes in the needle industry are discussed below.
33 Coughton and Sambourne both contained a high proportion of Roman Catholics. (Ransome, ‘The State
of the Bishopric of Worcester 1782-1808’, p. 195, records 81 ‘papists’ out of a total of 577 souls, some
14%.) Consequently, there is no doubt some under-registration in baptisms, but many births of Roman
Catholic children are recorded in the register and their fathers’ occupations are included in the tables here.
Needlemakers include both Anglicans and Catholics.
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