working life of women seventeenth century - School of Economics ...

AGRICULTUREher work, but generosity in meat and drink has alwaysbeen characteristic of the English farmer, and duringthe hungry years of adolescence the average girl whowas a servant in husbandry was amply nourished. Thencame marriage. The more provident waited long inthe hope of securing independence, and one of thosedesirable cottages with four acres of land, but tosome the prospect seemed endless and at last theymarried hoping something would turn up ; or perhapsthey were carried away by natural impulses andmarried young without any thought for the future.Such folly was the despair of Churchwardens andOverseers, yet the folly need not seem so surprisingwhen we consider that delay brought the youngpeople no assurance of improvement in their position.Church and State alike taught that it was the dutyof men and women to marry and bring forth children,and if for a large class the organisation of Societymade it impossible for them to rear their children,who is to blame for the fate of those children, theirparents or the community ?After one of these imprudent marriages the husbandsometimes continued to work on a farm as a servant,visiting his wife and children on Sundays and holidays.By this means he, at least, was well fed and wellhoused. The woman with a baby to care for andfeed, could not leave her home every day to work andmust share the children's food. In consequenceshe soon began to practise starvation. Her settlementwas disputed, and therefore her dwelling wasprecarious. Nominally she was transferred on marriageto the parish where her husband was bound as servantfor the term of one year, but the parish objected tothe settlement of a married man lest his childrenbecame a burden on them.No one doubted that it was somebody's duty tocare for the poor, but arrangements for relief werestrictly parochial and the fear of incurring unlimitedAGRICULTUREfuture responsibilities led English parishioners tostrange lengths of cruelty and callousness. The factthat a woman was soon to have a baby, instead ofappealing to their chivalry, seemed to them the bestreason for turning her out of her house and driving herfrom the village, even when a hedge was her onlyrefuge.The once lusty young woman who had formerly donea hard day's work with the men at harvesting wasbroken by this life. It is said of an army that it fightsupon its stomach. These women faced the grimbattle of life, laden with the heavy burden of childbearing,seldom knowing what it meant to haveenough to eat. Is it surprising that courage oftenfailed and they sank into the spiritless, dismal ranksof miserable beings met in the pages of Quarter SessionsRecords, who are constantly being forwarded fromone parish to another.Such women, enfeebled in mind and body, could nothope to earn more than the twopence a day and theirfood which is assessed as the maximum rate for womenworkers in the hay harvest. On the contrary, judgingfrom the account books of the period, they oftenreceived only one penny a day for their labour. Significantof their feebleness is the Norfolk assessmentwhich reads, " Women and such impotent personsthat weed corne, or other such like Labourers 2d withmeate and drinke, 6d without."' Such wages mayhave sufficed for the infirm and old, but they meantstarvation for the woman with a young family dependingon her for food. And what chanceof health andvirtue existed for the children of these enfeebledstarving women ?On the death or desertion of her husband thelabouring woman became wholly dependent on theParish for support.-----p-' Eng Hzst Rev, Vol XIII , p 52289