Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Professionals, gentry, domestic servants and others:
Male: postmaster, excise officer, clergyman, parish clerk, soldier, sailor, policeman,
lawyer, attorney, book-keeper, writing clerk, surgeon, physician, doctor, apothecary,
druggist, schoolmaster, teacher, preacher, minister, domestic servant, auctioneer, actor,
musician, comedian, gentleman, esquire, independent, annuitant, traveller.
Female: postmistress, schoolmistress, governess, nurse.
Terms such as esquire, gentleman and yeoman signify status rather than
occupation.
Esquires and gentlemen often included wealthier businessmen or
professionals, such as tanners or attorneys. Attorneys are rarely described as such locally
before 1780, and solicitors only occur after that date.
‘Traveller’ usually means an itinerant (usually of lowly status), perhaps a travelling
tinker or gypsy. However, in Redditch in the early nineteenth century it was used to mean
a commercial traveller, particularly in the needle and fish-hook trade. Although
gentlemen, esquires, annuitants, independents, gypsies and other travelling folk are
discussed in the text in each chapter, they are not included in the analytical tables which
deal only with men of known occupations.
Occupational analysis and tables
Certain occupational descriptors are so often interchanged that they have been
grouped together in analysis, for instance plumber, glazier and painter. In my specific
occupation tables I show some common occupations such as carpenters/joiners in their
own right, separate from others in their section. This table below shows the categories
used for analysis throughout Chapters 4 to 8.
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