The Agricultural Labourer and His Family.
In 1700, the national economy was mostly based on
agricultural production. The Agriculture Industry employed most of the
workforce of the whole of Great Britain, The population of England and Wales
was 5.5 million people at that time, the greater proportion being in England.It is known that in England 75% of the population was employed in Agriculture
The proportion of Agricultural workers in Wales was believed to be higher still than in England . The work was the lowest paid in the country and the practise of a 'tied cottage' meaning the house was lived in only if you worked for the owner, was common. Gangs of labourers often travelled from farm to farm during seeding or harvest which is why, when looking for ancestors many appear to be living on several farms over the years. It was not wealth but work which made the farm their 'home'.
No mechanical or technological help was available to the average worker, he relied almost entirely on Oxen which in those times were much smaller animals than one sees in modern Britain circa 20th C.Sometimes Horses could be used, again animals smaller in size than modern day and his own strength.
Where previous to 1694 the barter system had been the dominant way
to obtain items and occasionally a coin or two minted by various Kings. The Bank
(as we know it 2016) developed in the 17th century.*(1) The Bank of England was founded in 1694 and
so our Agricultural Labourer was paid in Coin of the Realm.)
The majority of labourers were hired on a day to day basis
as "wage labourers", earning about one shilling a day (5p in 2016).In
the 1700s,(and throughout the agricultural history) extra money could be earned
during Harvest time and the whole family would be involved for several weeks
from Hay gathering to seeds. Their day would last from 12 to 15 hours of hard physical labour.
For the lucky Agricultural Labourer he would be able to work
year round for a single farmer, he would be housed in a cottage owned by the
farmer himself and the tied cottage meant that labour wages included the cost
of rent and so wages where lower still than the national average.
Of course living in a tied cottage could be a dangerous
situation as any problems with the 'boss' could mean losing the home and with
little or no intervention from external sources a family could literally be
thrown out of their home in a matter of hours and of necessity need to apply to
the Parish for help. This would take the form of food, sometimes clothing
though not shoes as most children would be barefoot and it was common for feet
to be wrapped in old rags and simply bound to the foot) later in history an
application to the Parish resulted in living in The Workhouse.(3)
The Agricultural worker was for the most part on equal
footing for pay with other workers until the mid 1700's when a diversity began
to show as larger towns and Cities began to develop and work became available
offering better wages than those of the rural areas.From then the Agricultural
Labourer who steadily became the worst paid members of the workforce , a
situation which continued into the late 1900's.
The adult man would be expected to carry out many duties,
his fitness was important, from digging ditches to drain land, to building the
new hedges and later the famous Welsh stone walls as the Enclosure Acts came
into force.His ability to dig for many hours rough and often stony ground,
lift and carry stones and cart huge amounts of soil and debris. To use the
tiller, the scythe the spade with vigour and strength. To be able to drive the
oxen which where little more than the size of a modern day calf in Medieval
times, to be able to cause a horse or an oxen to pull to draw the ploughs and
to be able to walk for miles, was desperately important.The alternative was to
starve, literally.
In Powys, Cattle where the dominant bred animal with Sheep a
close second. The Herdsman and The Drover where often one and the same person
and his knowledge of the beast and its needs where as important as his ability
to herd and drive.Many weeks walking took place when Cattle had to be moved, in
Powys the Cattle went to Shrewsbury and from there to the Midlands to fatten
then on to London more often than not.
Cattle needed to be fed and that meant a constant attention
to growing Hay for food and Straw for bedding as well as roots such as turnip
for winter feed. Sewing fields meant first they needed ploughing, on poor farms
the men used a wooden plough and it is possible if a horse wasn't available or
an Oxen then the man himself would 'pull his weight' in harness with others.
Then the sewing and the growing began then the reaping.Hay needed to be stacked
for the winter and Turnip to be stored and Potatoes and other roots for winter
feed for both animal and human.The water meadows needed to be planted for the
early spring. If there was an orchard that too would be tended as would the
fencing to keep out vermin.
Hunting was also part of his labour, keeping rabbits in huge
warrens was a common practise in Wales. Rabbit was a valuable source of meat
and the skins which made fine capes for the wealthy but warmth and cover for
the poor.Clearing fields of stray rabbits, keeping the weasel and the fox away,
hunting the wild boar and the wolf in the forest meant men where needed,
wanted, necessary and in the 1700's agriculture was labour intensive.
Owen in 1603 wrote A man doth sand for himself,lime for his son and marl for his grandchild (Owen 1603). This single line explains that the Farmers were knowledgeable of the need to restore land when agriculturally used . Even in Elizabethan times the farmer was aware of soil
exhaustion.
Though the actual methods of farming where changing dramatically
from the two field system to the three field system, with one field left fallow
every year to recover its richness. This was causing added time to the Agricultural Labourers work load.
It also means that our Agricultural Labourer knew he would
be Liming soil, Manuring Soil or Sanding it, one way or another...it was hard
work.Forests to be cleared, Buildings to be repaired for the stock to be
housed. Though it was common in the cottages called Longhouses (a single story
building) to bring the personal livestock of the labourers into the home
keeping one half of the building for the livestock,one half for the humans the
shared heat of them keeping warmth in the freezing winters.
Typical stock for the labourer to keep himself would be a
pig for meat, a goat for milk, Hens for Eggs, Bees for Honey and a Dog for
protection of the livestock.Cats where feral, living wild in the barns and
stock pits to keep rats and mice down. A good fighting dog could earn the
worker extra money at one of the local dog fights held for entertainment in
those days, or bear baiting.However a loss of any one of those animals meant
that the family would have a hard time in the coming months.It was a rich Labourer
if he could afford a Milch Cow. Goats milk and Sheep's milk where more the
labourers source.
In the majority of households it was necessary for the whole
family to contribute to the food, the clothing, the sustenance on all levels
The labourer's wife was usually a working woman, and children too were put to
work at an early age.Ten and twelve hour days where common and as soon as a
child was able to walk, and follow instructions then the child worked alongside
Father or Mother wherever possible.
The children where often the gatherers of fruits and roots,
helping with the gathering of hay and straw. Following the men in the fields
perhaps to kick the soil over the seeds the men had sewn or gathering the hay
as the men scythed it down.
Children where used for watching the livestock,looking for
wolves and foxes.(1)
The girls were expected to work alongside their mother in a
variety of handicrafts and household chores.The woman's domain was as hard and
as labour intensive as the mans and often while pregnant year after year.The
boys, from about the age of seven, as they became stronger, would be working
beside their father 10 or 12 hours a day, doing a full day's hard work
contributing to the family budget.
Schooling was almost unheard of for labouring classes,any
who did receive schooling usually only did so for a few scant years. (2)
Children were expected to work with adults and work hard.
The Agricultural Labourer would work from sun up to sun down, sleeping as soon
as it became dark, rising as soon as Cock Crowed at the rise of the first
light.
Where the man of the house was responsible for cutting wood
for the fire and mending any walls or fences, his days labour was long and
tiring. His rest would be a necessity and the Housewife had her own duties to
perform.The first being a hot meal for her husband, waiting on the table, ready
for when he came in exhausted from his long hours work.
The Woman of the house and the children made heavy
contributions to the home life.As soon as a child was old enough, amongst the
duties would be gathering wood some for kindling some for sometimes to make
wattle fences.Gathering fruit from hedgerows and woodlands included a lot of
berries and some nuts, the Burdock Plant and wild mint and other herbs and wild
foods, the mushrooms and the Beech Mast and Acorns for both Pig and
human to eat.As soon as a child was 7 or more they began to work alongside the
adults leaving those duties for younger children. When no child was available
then those duties where taken up by the Housewife.
The boys working with Father, the Girls would be graduating
to larger contribution to the home, carding wool or weaving, plaiting. Straw or
sifting it free of dust as it was used for bedding and for plaiting into mats
and hats as well as crosses for church or corn dollies to sell at the country
fairs.
Making Cheeses and Butter. Perhaps gathering willow withes or rushes to
weave into baskets for the home. Washing fleeces to make wool, carding and
preparing it, winding it and the arts of sewing and household duties for the
table, like feeding the hens or the ducks and Geese.
Brewing the vinegars and
the beers for those able to do so or making cider from pears or apples. Wines
where made from hedgerow fruits and leaves and medicines too. Food had to be kept
for a long time without the benefit of modern day conveniences of refrigerator or
tins. Food was dried, jammed, jellied, smoked,pickled,jarred.jerked.and stored
in soil in underground cellars or small tunnels.Packing good food for winter
was a time consuming work.
Diet was meagre and often boring. One hot meal a day was
common with Oat gruel to break fast and a stew (pottage) for supper of whatever
vegetables where available.The daily needs where always for fuel and for food
and water.Water was more often than not from a well or a local stream and that
too had to be brought to the house, few people had a Well close by. Many shared a
water supply with a neighbour and keeping the well clear of dead animals, from
rats to the unwary hedgehog and the insects and other fauna was as much of a
daily job as scourging the house for fleas ,mice, rats, and bats.Wells where
simply holes in the ground , often a danger to an inquisitive child or straying
animal.It was rare to see a well enclosed by a wall with the movie styled winch
and rope with a bucket, it was a rope, a wooden pail and hard labour to drop, fill and haul to the surface.
Clothing and footwear where usually home spun . The housewife would weave loose woollen cloth to make skirts and
finespun was usually bought but money being a scarce commodity meant often the
labourer wore rags for working in and it was common for both men and women to
strip to the waist to preserve clothing just as men walked barefoot to work to
save there one pair of boots for the hard work they did.
The thrift of being poor meant that everything was recycled
right down to the smallest cloth scraps which where made into patched clothing
and ultimately patch worked covers for the bed. Sack cloth was woven from the
roughest of thread and made into a mattress stuffed with straw for sleeping on.If you where lucky then one would be stuffed with feathers though they could also house many fleas and
other livestock if the feathers hadn't been boiled first.
Washing clothes was a communal activity for the wives if
they lived close enough, people gathered at streams or in larger places special
wash houses but for the Labourers family washing was often in a local stream
and for those with a little more
material goods a boiler in the back yard. Out in the yard would be the 'kettle'
a big metal bowl used to make tallow for candles, soap for washing, rendering
fat and if wool was being cleaned that too and the dyes for wool and cloth.
With life itself consisting of much work towards simply
sustaining life a day off being rare, it was enjoyed to the full .A day at a
Fair or for celebration was special, planned for, anticipated with great
excitement.
Many people enjoyed cockfighting and bull baiting, Bear
Baiting existed as did Dog Fights .There where other sports such as Bare
Knuckle Fighting when a man would fight another for money but in the country
the Fox Hunt was not considered a sport as such. The Fox killed livestock at a
time when the loss of one sheep or one hen was an enormous loss the Fox was an
enemy that had to be killed.
Though Riding to Hounds was fox hunting for the Rich as an
entertainment there are historical records that show that Bear hunting took
place.
The occupation of Rome in the early centuries had added to
the variety of the wild beasts available. The escapees from the menageries of
the Roman Fort had continued to breed in the wild giving us Pheasant for
example and other animals.Dogs too had a reputation, they where working animals
not often pets and could be savage beasts as cruel in there attacks as any wolf
pack. Dogs becoming feral was a problem for both mankind and for his sheep and
cattle.In some areas the Big Cat is referred too and as Romans used Lions and
Cheetahs in their war the occasional big cat escapee is a probability not just
a guess ! Even today in 2016 the stories of Big cats up in the hills continues.
The Romans had introduced fallow deer to Britain, just for
hunting and along with the native Wild Boar (a very dangerous beast) and sundry
other animals, actual hunting was for both food and sport and the agricultural
labourer would be brought in as a beater, banging and shouting to drive the
game towards the hunters.
Rabbit, hare,duck,swan,rooks,thrushes,crows,pheasant and
many other animals where the sport of the common man as much as the Lord of the
manor, dependant on the rules laid down by the Lord , then some of these fowl
and beasts where the province of Lords and Gentry only, those available to the
Agricultural Worker where a welcome addition to the food sources.
Wild horses evolved from escapees too and Wales had many
wild horses which could devastate crops if the herds started to gallop around
the land.Shepherds had need to be able to catch and kill such beasts as they
would attack domesticated animals. Wild bears and wild boars eventually died out
along the centuries but wolves remained a problem for some time until the early
1800, stray wolves where still being killed in Wales at that time.
Sundays where generally the Lords Day and a day of rest
except during Harvest though even then the Labourer was expected to attend his
masters church of choice for service.
Wales rural communities where largely self supporting which
was not necessarily the case elsewhere.
Retirement was unheard of. A Man could expect to work until
he died, being 70 meant lighter work perhaps, but you still worked.Living to a
great age was unusual though.The average lifespan of an adult was 32 years in
the early 1700's rising to 39 years (though in 1720 it dropped to 30 years due
to widespread disease.) After 1800 the average age for an adult to live to was
40. During 1727-1730 and again during 1740-1742 epidemics swept through England
and Wales causing a massive peak in mortality in the early crisis as much as
88% increase above the norm and in the second crisis an average of 40% above
the norm mortality . The Barret family however have an unusually longevity in
the male line throughout history bar accidents. Infant mortality is high and
Mothers dying in childbirth is frequent but those surviving this, tend to live
beyond the national average by several decades.
County MP's where elected in those times by persons known as
*the 40 shilling freeholders* and eventually if you had a house and a hearth
and didn't receive poor relief you could vote in an election. Each county seems
to have had a variety of reasons why a person could or could not vote.
As a result the occasional member of my ancestors shows up in
registers other than Parish ones and frequently the words indicate a strong
Agricultural tradition within the hierarchy of the family and the occasional
Reeve or sometimes a closer relationship to the Lord of the Manor is indicated.
Church records, registers and sometimes records personal to
a wealthy family have gifted information throughout the searches for years
before the 1500's.
The Parish Register which is often the sole source of
genealogical information for some areas was begun in England wales and Ireland
in 1538 but not until Rose's Act in 1813 where the registers printed and kept
more or less uniformly the same from parish to parish.In Wales as little as 1
in 3 parishes kept records during the 18th Century.The change in religion also
played a part in lack of birth information as Non Conformist beliefs where
widespread throughout the British Isle for many years. Religion was not
followed as strictly as it became so in the 19th Century.
An act known as Hardwickes Act 1753 made only marriages
conducted by an Anglican Clergy recognised as valid'
The lowest rate of population growth appears to have been in
agricultural areas with towns and cities and especially those with large
manufacturing places supporting a fast population growth as well as an influx
of people moving into the areas to obtain work.
In the 18th century drinking tea became common even among
ordinary people and Smoking clay pipes
and taking snuff where also part of personal enjoyments.Though drinking
alcohol was still a social event with public houses or rather in those days it
was called a Tavern, available, the Housewife would also brew various country
wines, mead, cider and ales.However in Wales no tavern sold alcohol on Sundays
this being seen as The Lords Day, a holy day.
Next to cattle/ sheep and the agricultural trade came the woollen industry.
It began to become important as the cloth trade moved up into mid and North
Wales in the 16th Century. Run by The Drapers Company of Shrewsbury which was
based throughout Machynlledd. Mewrioneth (now Gwynedd),Montgomery and Denbigh.
A survey in 1747 shows £100,000 of out put which though not massive (Yorkshires
output being in excess of 2 million for example) was an aid in creating work
for an ever growing population. With Slate mines,(over a million slates sold in
1688 alone) Coal Mines,some tin and Copper and the ever present fishing
industry on the coast work was available. Not financially lucrative but it kept
families fed. Why was it so important that other work was available ? because technology was about to spread its wings over the farmers lands.
Shrewsbury controlled the whole of North Wales cattle industry.The agricultural Labourers work became less
labour intensive throughout the 1700's as the Industrial Revolution began to
produce machinery. This would make some of the work possible to do, with one
man instead of ten. Slowly the big cities and the towns began to demand more
workers for the increasingly diverse products being created, invented and
demanded. People began to migrate and families began to live many miles away
from each other. This was possible as transport such as trains where invented
and better built coaches, roads and new towns began to develop and the
Agricultural Labourer, looking for work...began to migrate.
In 1752 our Agricultural Labourer along with the rest of
Britain's inhabitants gained an extra 11 days age when the old Julian Calender
was changed to the Gregorian Calender we are familiar with today 2012.The 2
September 1752 was followed by 13 September.
(1) Quoting William of Malmsbury relative to wolves in King
Edgar's time "He, Edgar, imposed a tribute upon the king of Wales exacting
yearly three hundred wolves. This tribute continued to be paid for three
years,but ceased upon the fourth, because 'nullum se ulterius posse invenire
professus;' it was said that he could not find any more";that is, in
Wales'
Be that as it may the Wolf was not totally extinct until the
1700's possibly even the 1800's and with little or no real information
available the people would not know of extinction, but they would know of
deaths, hunts, and all the tales and the fears of a wolf and so a Shepherd
watched for all the predators, including the Wolf.
(2)Though broader minds had begun education for the ordinary
working people; here and there throughout Wales and England, it was not a
common practise.
(3)The Workhouse in Forden had a reputation for being one of
the better ones, yet men lived in one area, women in another and children in
another ,a child from 2 years was not deemed to need its mother. Food was
rationed and everyone had to work to earn the right to stay. The House of
Industry as Forden Workhouse was known used the Whip as a punishment for
misdemeanours and the Scolds Bridle.
Quoted from:-
ancestryaid.co.uk/boards/family-history-genealogy-information/5839-agricultural-labourer.
MaryC
In the 18th century, travel as we know it today was usually
neither desired nor under- taken by the labouring classes, isolated in their
village communities except for an occasional journey of a few miles to a nearby
village or market town. Parish records show that many would be born, married
and die within the confines of their small world, and our labourer would not
have the level of national and world news that we enjoy today. He would have
scant knowledge of the events of the time that moulded the destiny of Britain
and the world outside. Such things as the American and French Revolutions and
the Scottish Jacobite risings in the mid-1700s would pass him by, unless he was
personally involved. It might be months or years later that news of these
events would filter through to him. Yes, there were newspapers, but few
agricultural workers could read or write.
written by
Susan Morrison-Jones 2012
rewritten 2016
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Ashton, T.S. - ‘The Industrial Revolution 1760-1830’ Oxford
University Press [1948]
Flinn, M.W. - ‘An Economic and Social History of Britain
Since 1700’ Macmillan
[1963]
Hill, C.P. - ‘British
Economic and Social History 1700-1975’ Edward Arnold [1977]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Agricultural_Revolution
Mark Overton is Professor of Economic and Social
History BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/agricultural_revolution_01.shtml
Society and Economy in Modern Britain 1700-1850 By Richard Brown
http://www.cepr.org/meets/wkcn/1/1679/papers/Brunt-Dennison-Simpson_Chapter.pdf
http://www.geevor.com/media/teaching%20resources/coal%20mining.pdf
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