Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Occupational continuity within families
Many examples have come to light of certain occupations continuing within
families over three generations or more. As may be expected, where the family is
associated with a workplace such as a farm, quarry, inn or workshop, such continuity is
likely, but skills and social status also limited the choice of occupation for young men.
Marcia Evans has charted Somerset and Dorset families in the blacksmith trade over
several generations. 28
Similar studies would be fruitful for parishes and occupations in the
study area, especially if reasons for continuity or change of occupation within families can
be established.
Study area families who demonstrate extended occupational continuity include
Appleby (blacksmiths in Binton and Temple Grafton 1670-1788), Osborne (blacksmiths in
the Bidford area 1710-1851) and Badson (needlemakers 1677-1851). The Clarksons of
Feckenham were weavers from 1663 to 1781 and shoemakers from 1760 to 1851 and
parish-clerks throughout much of that time. 29
However, a more detailed investigation of such families would be needed to
ascertain how many sons followed their fathers’ occupations and why certain sons of the
same generation did not. Where there is an apparent break in continuity, a business is
sometimes kept in the family by handing it over to a son-in-law with a different surname.
In other cases continuity is achieved by passing a business to a former apprentice or
employee.
28 M. Evans, The Place of the Rural Blacksmith in Parish Life 1500-1900, (Taunton, Somerset and Dorset
Family History Soc., 1998)
29 Some of these families may have been in the same trade before or after the period of study and may have
moved outside the study area to continue their trade.
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