Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

was of course very similar to that in 1700.
As with groupings of parishes and
occupations, I have tried to maintain a commonsense approach to discussion of the data
of different periods, at once flexible but methodical. Apparent discrepancies between
sources may highlight that a certain age group or gender group is predominant in a
certain trade at a given time. Different sources mainly deal with different age-groups.
Some bridegrooms in marriage allegations in Period A are the same as those leaving wills
in Period B. 69
Change from one period to another is discussed and, where significant,
important years within a certain period are noted; for example, war years or times of great
mortality, which may skew the statistics. Data for each period has been treated as a
snapshot rather than using moving averages within the periods. 70
In discussing Period A
I will also refer to what was happening before 1660, while in Period D I also refer to
probate up to 1858 and to observations from the 1841 and 1851 censuses, where
relevant. 71
Chapter 8 serves as an overview of the whole study period and also considers
some of the themes and more general issues mentioned in Chapter 1, such as dual
occupations and the role of women and children.
Different sources are used in order to shed light on the occupational structure of
the study area from different angles. To a lesser or greater extent the occupations of the
rich, the poor and the middling are revealed. In the text dealing with each zone (in
Chapters 4 to 7) if one source is biased and omits or understates the presence of certain
69 In discussing Period A I will also refer to what was happening before 1660.
70 The exception to this is in Chapter 3 where moving averages are used for numerical data from baptism
registers.
71 As explained above, marriage licences from 1737 to 1754 for Worcester diocese have been published,
which makes them easier to use and so these years were chosen as one of the periods for analysis. For all
intents and purposes I count them as Period B even though these years actually straddle Periods B and C.
The shorter periods analysed from marriage licence data perhaps help to highlight changes which are
smoothed out in the continuous analysis of probate, as discussed in Chapter 8.
31