Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

general comments regarding occupational terminology are also given below and female
occupations are included. In some sources before 1730 descriptors are in Latin, which can
cause problems of interpretation. These comments on occupational descriptors are brought
together for convenience here, but these points and other similar observations are dealt
with more closely in the text in Chapters 4 to 8.
Agriculture:
Male: yeoman, husbandman, farmer, farm bailiff, grazier, gardener, horse dealer,
veterinary surgeon, castrator/cutter, warrener, cow leech, dealer in cattle/pigs, pig-driver,
drover, shepherd, farm labourer and other farmworkers.
Female: dairymaid, milkmaid, jobbing woman?
Sometimes it is relevant to treat yeomen, husbandmen and farmers together,
sometimes not. The term ‘farmer’ began to gain currency in this area from the early
eighteenth century, but by Victorian times husbandmen, and more particularly yeomen, are
still mentioned. In some records other terms for farmers are used such as renters,
copyholders and freeholders. ‘Gardener’ may mean different things according to context.
Extractive industries and building:
Male: surveyor, builder, bricklayer, (stone)mason, slater, plasterer, painter, plumber,
glazier, pavier, road labourer, road mender, thatcher, stone-quarrier, stone-cutter,
quarryman, quarry labourer, limeburner, brickmaker.
The term ‘builder’ was not used locally until the late eighteenth century. Carpenter
is always discussed in the Wood and charcoal section.
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