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Mobility in the 18th century

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  • Mobility in the 18th century

    After many hours ( days? ) of searching records, e-mails, blogs etc I am faced with having to believe that at least two of my ancestors made the move from Yorkshire all the way down to Cornwall ( via Staffordshire ) sometime in the late 1700's. A move like that is no big deal these days but it must have been no small feat in those days, especially if money was scarce. There is a lot of evidence that a good number of my ancestors were tailors, cloth cutters or associated in some way with textiles. Could that have been an attraction? Or was Cornwall a jumping off point for emigration and they just didn't go? Maybe I'm selling them short, but it doesn't seem to fit with the normal practice of the time and staying close to home your entire life.

  • #2
    Then, as now, people went where the work was.

    As far as mine are concerned, they followed friends, distant relatives, people from their own original village etc. Several of my Lancashire weavers fetched up in RUSSIA for a few years. Reading local history, this was because the mill owner had opened a factory in Russia and sent out experienced workers to train the local work force. then they came home and settled down as if nothing had happened!

    I also have people in the 1700s who suddenly vanished from their local village records and re emerged in places like the Caribbean. People were much more mobile than we think - or at least, some of them were. Others just stayed put of course.

    OC

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    • #3
      Both mine and OH's went all over the place.

      Mine for work and military....OH's for wealthy brides and business....

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      • #4
        i only have one family in my entire tree, that stayed put for more than 2-3 generations, they stayed in grinton, yorks for a little over 250 years. i find the wealthier families move quite frequently, which is why i have so much trouble with them pre census days. i don't have weavers, etc just miners and farmers. i have seen a few people move around in the farming industry. i guess the trade of your ancestor could give you some pointers. lawyers and gentry are hard, weavers shouldn't be!

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        • #5
          Bear in mind the importance of canals from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. Whilst they were built to facilitate movement of raw materials and then manufactured goods, they also provided a means of passenger and workforce transportation.
          A spin-off of the canal system was the growth of towns/villages along the routes - the growth of population in these places provided openings for skilled artizans, craftsmen and treadesmen.

          I think we sometimes forget how widespread water travel was and, later, the railway network. Many of our ancesters had access to a far wider and more frequent public transport system than we have today and took full advantage of it.

          Jay
          Janet in Yorkshire



          Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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          • #6
            Tin Mining in Cornwall would have been very lucrative in the 1700/1800's. Maybe they worked for landed gentry in the 1700's in Staffs/Yorks and they went as grooms or other servants to another estate in Cornwall? I had one who went to London as a groom in 1780, admittedly only from Northants, but many did travel as servants with their employers. I had some who went from Scotland to St Germans on the Lynher in Cornwall, admittedly in the 1800's rather than 1700's but they were into ship building and were engineersNeed to find out the local history of where they were in Yorks/Staffs, possibly who they were working for by seeing if you can find Settlement Certs in these counties at the CRO. Then where did they settle in Cornwall? Was it a fishing/shipbuilding area, clay pits/tin mining/lime kilns or any other minerals. The Tamar Valley was very lucrative for all these. If they had been in the navy in the 1700's/1800's then that is also possible to end up in Cornwall, as a few of mine were in the navy in Scotland and some were in merchant shipping.

            Janet

            Whoops, just realised you are from Canada so a visit to the CRO might be a tad difficult!

            Janet
            Last edited by Janet; 22-01-12, 13:09.

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            • #7
              We might look back from our own viewpoint and think what a massive undertaking such a move might have been. But consider these points
              1. No-one knew there would ever be any better way than to walk or ride on a cart or canal. Everyone did it so it was not such a big deal as it would be if we tried it.
              2. Poorer (normal!) people didn't have many possesions back then. They could probably carry most of what they owned, or push it on a cart.
              3. Few people actually owned their house so they could easily up-sticks and go .... maybe before they had time to change their minds!

              Anne

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              • #8
                The other thing - if you were a time-served craftsman, you could move freely about the country because it was assumed that you would always be able to earn your own living AND your trade guild would look after you if you fell on hard times, so you would never be a burden on the rates.

                Ag labs and the unskilled tended to stay where they were, partly because being an ag lab was poorly paid no matter where you went AND because it was difficult to move to another parish unless you had a job to go to, which you would have got at the annual hiring fairs, which tended to be fairly local anyway.

                OC

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                • #9
                  I have wondered at how one of my ancestors managed to get herself from Taunton to London with two children in 1828 to attend an poor law union heariing she was summoned to. I suppose the overseers must have laid on some sort of transportation - I can't imagine them walking all the way
                  CAROLE : "A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK"

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                  • #10
                    The navy and/or merchant marine tie in might work; I have found that the grandson of my wandering ancestor moved to London via Plymouth and Portsmouth and was a tailor who collected a small navy pension. It's tempting to follow up along these lines.
                    As for a visit to the CRO, just one more excuse I need to return to England for a visit! ( twist my arm )

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                    • #11
                      People walked much further than we would. I came across one chap in Darlington who would regularly walk to London. The Wesleys walked 200 miles fron college to home. People who bred fowl for the Christmas trade would drive their poultry several miles to market and make shoes for the poultry to protect their feet for the long journey.

                      Anne

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                      • #12
                        Plenty of work for a tailor to be had wthin the Navy and places like Maker (Cornwall) would spawn navy/army people from Plymouth just over the water!

                        Janet

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                        • #13
                          And to think of the fuss we make if our train journey is delayed because of "leaves on the line"!
                          ~ with love from Little Nell~
                          Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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