Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

district. 357
In the eighteenth century a variety of sources indicate the continued presence
of several butchers in this zone. The probate inventory of one such, James Moore of
Redditch, indicates that he also practised mixed farming and was valued at an impressive
£385. Amongst Moore’s customers was Sir John Huband, who had allowed his meat bill
to reach some £127. Other debts due to the butcher included £26 for calf-skins sold to
the tanner, a reminder of the symbiotic relationship between the two trades. 358
Despite
its land-locked nature, this zone was also served by a couple of fishmongers: Robert
Eaton of Feckenham, and Richard Alder, who supplied Coughton Court with sea-fish. 359
In the late Stuart period more exotic or luxury items found their way to residents
in a variety of ways. The Throckmortons at Coughton Court received their tobacco
through Captain Knottesford of a local gentry family. 360 However, the zone boasted a
‘haberdasher of hats’ and a bookseller. 361
There were mercers in these northern parishes,
but, as the customer-base was not yet very extensive compared with the market town,
some found it necessary to combine the mercer’s trade with another. Samuel Hemming
was also an innkeeper, while Walter Moore doubled as a blacksmith. In common with
other mercers they were well-off. Moore left some £20 worth of ‘goods in the marcerey
shop’ to his wife, who probably ran the shop anyway while he concentrated on his
357 References to the family include: WaRO, Studley baptisms, 1695/6, baptism of child of William
Holyoake, Studley, drover. WoRO, marriage licence of Thomas Holioake, Beoley, grazier, July 1679, and
of William Hollyoake, Tardebigge, grazier, July 1704. WoRO, probate of Thomas Holioake, Redditch,
(Tardebigge), gent, £630-3-2, 1685, who had large quantities of sheep and cattle. Other Holyoakes were
termed butchers or yeomen. Many were wealthy.
358 WoRO, probate of James Moore, Redditch, (Tardebigge), butcher, 1722, £385-19-8. A partial
explanation for the lack of probate-leaving butchers may be that successful butcher/graziers, such as those
encountered in the previous period, were now counted as yeomen or gentry.
359 WaRO,Throckmorton MSS, CR1998/LCB/26.
360 WaRO, Throckmorton MSS, CR1998/LCB/26.
361 WaRO, Coughton baptisms, 1695/6, baptism of child of George Hopkins, haberdasher of hats. WoRO,
probate of Thomas Haughton, 1697, mentions Thomas Brown, ‘bibliopol..’, (bookseller).
322