Wages Set At Beccles Quarter Sessions (1682)

Taken from volume II (pp. 1412-19) of Isaac Gillingwater’s three-volume handwritten manuscript ‘A History of Lowestoft and Lothingland’ (c. 1800-10) – Suffolk Archives, Ipswich, 193/1/2&3. A local barber and wig-maker, he was the older brother of Edmund Gillingwater and lived in a house on the northern side of Tyler’s Lane (Compass Street).

Suff [Suffolk] ff [following]. The particular rates of the Wages of Labourers, Servants, Workmen and Artificers, by the year, Limited Rated and Approved by His Majes[t]ies Justices of the Peace in the said County of Suffolk at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, holden at the Town of Beccles, in the Shire house there for the said County, on Monday being the 24th Day of April, in the 34th Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King Charles II &c [etc.] and so confirmed by the Justices of the said County at the same Sessions held by Adjournment at Woodbridge Ipswich and Bury St. Edmonds [sic], in the said county, Anno. Dom. 1682. for one whole Year then next ensuing, according to the Form and Effect of the Statute in that Case made and provided.

[The four columns which follow (in the first four tables present) show, in order, the daily rates of pay for Summer with food and drink provided and without provision of the same at double the amount – followed by the same information for Winter. The latter season’s rates were lower because of fewer hours being available for work to be carried out. The Beccles Quarter sessions area covered the North-east area of Suffolk, consisting of Lothingland and Mutford Half-hundreds and the Hundreds oi Wangford and Blything. Thus, the area served by the market towns of Lowestoft], Beccles, Bungay, Halesworth and Southwold would have been the one catered for.]

• Day work was not necessarily regular in nature (and often wasn’t), being available during periods of peak activity and times of contingency.

• Trade apprenticeships for boys could begin as early as eight to ten years of age (especially where the death of a parent had occurred) and could be up to eight or ten years in length. 

• A carpenter would have been mainly employed in the structural work connected with housebuilding and repair.

• A free mason worked in stone – mainly limestone and sandstone (which were both 

commonly referred to as freestone) – and was capable of shaping and sculpting it.

• A rough mason worked in undressed or roughly dressed stone (even rubble, at times) to create foundations and walls.

• A carver/joiner was a woodworker who could both shape timber and make the components used mainly in constructing furniture.

• A plumber worked with lead (the name deriving from Latin plumbum) – but not in the sphere of domestic pipework for water-supply, which didn’t exist at the time. Much of his work would have been connected with the flashing and gullies used in roofing and with large-scale piping connected with brewing.

• A glazier would have been mainly employed in the trade of installing and repairing window glass.

• The terms thackster/reeder/fleeker all refer to the thatching trade and the material

commonly used – which was reed rather than wheatstraw. No wages shown for the thatcher during the winter may indicate that thatching was not carried out or may have been an omission of some kind. His servants/assistants would probably have worked through the winter, cutting and bundling reeds from November to March.

• The term ship’s carpenter/hewer refers to the trade of shipwright, which saw to the felling (hewing) of the oak and its use in the overall construction of a vessel.

• A clincher, or clencher, was an artisan who bent over the iron nails (by hammering them) protruding inside the hull of a ship made of overlapping planks, known as clinker construction.

• A holder was the man who held the nail on the outside and hammered it through.

• A chalker is the spelling used here for caulker – a skilled man who hammered oakum (shredded fibre from old ropes no longer in use) into the joints of the hull’s overlapping planks and sealed them with pitch. And who also did the same to the planking of the deck. The reference to a caulker “labouring by the tide” presumably refers to someone used to working down on the beach, where Lowestoft’s ships were built – particularly in the southern sector, from Rant Score down to what is now the bottom of Old Nelson Street.

• A paler/river spilt lengths of coppiced oak or chestnut down the grain to make the wooden uprights used in building paling fences. Rive is the word used to describe this means of splitting timber, deriving from Old Norse rifa. Paling, as a term, comes from the Latin palus, meaning “stake” or “pole”. 

• A woodman worked in areas of managed woodland to produce the timber for a wide variety of constructional jobs – as well as in the coppicing of hardwood species to form all kinds of rods and poles with a wide range of uses.

• The tiler/slater cannot have earned the same or less than his older apprentices, so there must be some kind of error here.

• A lath river split lengths of coppiced oak and chestnut down the grain to produce the wooden strips used to create lath-and-plaster walls and ceilings in houses.

• A lime burner roasted mined chalk in a kiln to produce the quick-lime used to make mortar.

• The first line is a continuation from the previous table.

• A caster of stone or clay was a man skilled in making moulded architectural features from a mixture of crushed and powdered building-stone and lime, and of clay and lime. This craft being suggestive of the luxury decorative work carried out in and on high-class dwellings.

• A brick striker made the bricks in a wooden mould of set size, compressing the clay into this and removing any surplus with a hand-held tool (made of wood or metal) known as a striker. After removal from the mould, bricks were left to dry for one to two weeks before firing in clamp or kiln.

• A dauber was a plasterer – using a mix of 3/4 parts sand to 1 of lime. 

• A water caster, in this case, was probably a water-diviner, rather than someone who assessed or predicted illness by studying the appearance of a patient’s urine.

• A graver of flags or turfs was a peat-digger. Zero winter wages suggest that the task was not carried out at this time of year.

• A knacker made horse-harness and saddles.

• A wool-comber prepared fleeces for spinning by cleaning them and raking the fibres to align them.

• A mill or quern-beater was a skilled workman who re-cut the grooves in worn millstones or hand-operated querns. The word beater means “mender” or “repairer”, deriving from Old/Middle English bete – a word also used in the term “beatster” or “beetster” for someone (often female) who repaired fishing-nets.

• A millwright built windmills.

• A thrasher would have worked on peas and beans, as well as grain.

• A ditcher of dry work refers to the digging of new ditches. 

• A woman winder was engaged in winnowing grain which had been thrashed. Zero wages for the winter period suggest that the task was not carried out at this time of year.

• The male hay-maker was definitely unwaged during the winter, because this work was generally carried out in June and July.

• Both the male hay-maker (in the previous table) and the female equivalent featuring here, in having zero winter wages, shows that the task was not carried out at that time of year. The same applies to all the harvest work itemised.

• A follower binder or raker describes two harvest-field tasks: the binder (usually female) gathered the cut corn and tied it into sheaves and stood them up (often assisted by children), while the raker (also usually female) raked up loose corn for binding into sheaves. The sheaves themselves were held together by twisted strands of straw.

• Wooding was the task of gathering firewood for household fires and ovens (where these were present). No ready explanation offers itself as to why this was not a paid winter task.

• Throughout all four tables above the winter wages shown were always lower than their summer equivalents because of shorter daylight working-hours. And, in either time of year, the wage paid without food and drink being supplied was double that of where it was given.

• There are a handful of cases where the Winter wage without food shown was more than half of the preceding payment, and the decision was made to make these conform to the overall pattern. 

• Work done by the Great was the term used for large-scale manual tasks carried out

by skilled operators.

• Oak boards would have had an important domestic use in the making of wainscot

panelling in houses, as well as in the construction of furniture. Shipbuilding would also have featured for the planking needed. Ash served to provide floorboards, planks for joinery, spokes for wagon and cart wheels, and handles for tools of various kinds – all of this because of its straight grain and elasticity.

• Poplar would have been the Black Poplar, Ebbell the White or Grey Poplar (the latter being a hybrid of the Black and White species) and Espe the Aspen. All four species here would have been used in making the planks for cart and wagon bottoms, for fencing poles and hurdles, and for clogs, domestic bowls and platters.

• Elm boards were used for flooring, chair seats, coffins (because of its water-resistant qualities) and suitable branches for parts of house and ship construction. Coppiced lengths of four to six inch diameter (and larger, on occasions) were sometimes augured out down the length, through the heartwood, to make water-pipes.

• Splitwork was the riving or cleaving of the six types of timber referred to for thicker sections of wood than that provided by boards or planks. Elm, for instance, formed the hubs of cart and wagon wheels, while oak served as the curved felloes comprising the rims. The framing of both houses and ships required greater thickness also – especially of oak.

• The first three types of faggot referred to were probably bundles of cut gorse – greatly favoured for firing bread ovens because of their rapid burning-rate and heat-producing qualities. And they also served to begin the firing process in brick-kilns and lime-kilns. The bond referred to was the tying of the bundle to secure it (with the double bond referred being two faggots tied together) – this being achieved by use of a length of the gorse itself or of equally flexible bramble.

• The brushwood faggot, being of lesser heating quality, would have consisted of the twigs of any hardwood species that came to hand, either by heathland scavenging or from the waste created by woodland coppicing. 

• Wethers were castrated male sheep, raised mainly to provide meat. The washing –and the allowing of drying-time – would have taken place before shearing in order to clean the fleeces.

• Hogs were hoggets: male or female sheep between one and two years old. They were smaller than wethers, hence the lower wage paid. 

• A flag bank was one made of cut peat-blocks, stacked four feet high for drying purposes. Rood is a variant spelling of rod – an old measure of length totalling 16½ feet (also known as a perch or pole), extended here to 21 feet so as to save money on the expense of the operation. The eight pence cost given here being what was paid per rod.

• The depth of the 21 feet-length of ditch is not stated. The term “well laboured” means properly done and the accompanying protective hedge planted beside was likely have been a combination of elm and either hawthorn or blackthorn.

• “For hedging a Rod at 21 foot per Rod the Hedge threequarters of a foot under the bond” refers to planting elm and hawthorn/blackthorn whips at nine inches depth in the ground. This, to enable good root culture and minimise drying out of what been planted. The low payment made suggests that the task was carried out quickly, by cutting a cross-slit with the blade of a spade to the required depth and heeling the whips in – an effective method of planting still in use.

• Skoring is a variant spelling of scouring – referring to keeping ditches clear of debris.

• Shareing is a variant spelling of shearing, referring to the cutting of corn sown mid-September to early November, This would have been mainly wheat and barley, with some oats and rye thrown in – depending on intended use and suitable soil conditions. The binding refers to the tying-up of sheaves and the shocking to standing them up (quite often) in two sets of three, slightly angled and touching each other at the top – with the diminishing space between them, bottom to top, allowing the circulation of air.

• With felling being the usual term for cutting down trees, its use here for harvesting peas and vetches, field-beans and rape-seed may seem odd – but could reflect their thicker stems than those of corn. All were used for livestock winter feed (especially horses), green or dried. While the roots of the first three named, being legumes, fixed 

atmospheric nitrogen in the soil to maintain and improve fertility.

• Again, as with the planting of a new hedge, digging a shallow ditch or drain and keeping it clear of debris would not have taken an experienced worker long to do. Hence the relatively low wage paid for such tasks.

• The splitting of the wood used to make fence pickets, together with the supporting rails and posts, is not named. Nor is the length of the rod distance referred to – but was probably the 21 feet referred to previously. Coppiced sweet chestnut was often used for palings and rails, because it split easily and was water-resistant, while oak tended to serve for posts.

• The high wages paid to top workmen, and those of lesser skill, for corn harvest activity show its importance in the farming year.

• The roofing tiles referred to were probably curved pantiles rather than flat pin-tiles/plain-tiles – lodged in place on the battens by a protecting nib (or lug) on the underside, instead of wooden pegs inserted through two pierced holes.

• Stock bricks were of higher quality than place bricks, with the latter being mainly used as backing for the former on the external walls of houses and also for the interior walling. With both tiles and bricks, the cost of digging and preparing the clay was included in the cost, in addition to the expense of moulding and firing the ware.

• All the occupations above are connected with farming, as indicated by the term Husbandry – with the word husband itself originally deriving from either Old English husbonda or Old Norse husbondi (meaning “master of a house”), before becoming applied to a number of other uses.

• A bailiff (or steward) was a man who ran a farm for his employer.

• At one time (particularly during the 16th to 18th century), a husbandman was the term used to describe a farmer of smaller scale than a yeoman. Here, it applies to an agricultural worker of varying age and experience – with hind being a surviving Middle English word for a farm worker of some kind.

• The fourth degree referred to related to a younger man than the two preceding ones.

• The four female servants listed represent the hierarchy of such menial employment.

• Everyone referred to here would have been working under contract, with this being usually of one year’s length and renewable (or not) at the end of the twelve months.

• The women and younger men were probably live-in servants, with food and drink provided, whereas the bailiff and older men (especially those with families) would have been housed in cottages. Some assistance with food and drink would have been negotiated, together with the ability to grow vegetables.

• The bulk of the set wage was usually paid at the end of the contract.

• Artificers were tradesmen who had completed their apprenticeships but who had not always worked at a trade sufficiently long, or become sufficiently skilled, to be regarded as master of aparticular craft. In larger towns and cities, masters would have beenhave been members of the various trade gilds/guilds present.

• Again, as in the previous table, these rates of pay were for contracted workers, often living in the employers’ houses – especially if just starting out on their own. 

• The top rate of £5 per annum, for brewers, worked out at just under 2s a week – slightly less than 4d a day for a six-day week. The lowest rate of £2 10s 0d (half the highest amount) for clothiers and spinners was therefore just under 1s a week and slightly less than 2d per day. With food and drink being provided for live-in workers, the rates of pay were reasonable. Not as high, though, for those not so accommodated.

• Arrowhead makers. In an age where bows and arrows had long ceased to be battlefield weapons, it may seem odd to have this trade listed. However, use of longbows and crossbows for hunting was practised on a small scale and archery competitions at local level were sometimes staged.

• Barriers is something of a problem. There has been no means of establishing exactly what this means – except to guess that it may have had something to do with the construction of partitions or other means of separation.

• Coopers constituted an important trade, since wooden barrels and casks were not only required for the storage and conveyance of liquids, but for dry goods of all kinds as well.

• Clothiers, in this case, were not the merchants and entrepreneurs of the finished woollen cloth trade, but a menial worker of some kind (probably female, considering the low wage paid) who assisted in the process of making cloth or clothes.

• Curriers were skilled workers who treated and refined leather after the process of tanning cattle hides had been carried out.

• Cutlers were makers of knives, forks, spoons, scissors and razors, along with a range of various metal trade-tools.

• Dyers produced and applied the various colours used in the cloth trade. 

• Fletchers made and fixed the feathered flights on arrows, using goose quills – particularly those of the wild Greylag species (Anser anser). Hence, the old archer’s toast: “Let’s drink together to the Greygoose feather and the land where the Greygoose lives.”

• Fullers were workers who cleaned, thickened and finished newly made woollen cloth – a process which entailed the removal of the natural oils present.

• Ferriers were farriers who made and fitted horseshoes – the initial word here being the Old French form, deriving from the Latin ferrum meaning “iron”. Farriers also often treated horse ailments of various kinds.

• Hat and felt makers are placed together because many hats (especially for working use) were made from felt – particularly that formed from rabbit fur, which was moistened with hot water, then compressed and dried.

• Hosiers made socks, stockings and underwear. The term hose (originally for long leg-wear) derived from Old English hosa, meaning “gaiter” or other kind of leg-cover.

• Pewterers were metal-workers producing domestic plates, bowls, mugs, tankards and other utensils from an alloy of tin and lead (70%-90% the former, 30%-10% the latter). The toxic lead was phased out during the 20th century and pewter is now 92% tin, 6% antimony and 2% copper.

• Shearmen worked in the woollen textile trade, removing the raised nap on newly made cloth as the final process in its production – the shears used being very large pairs of scissors.

• Smiths were metal workers, with blacksmiths working largely in iron and whitesmiths using non-ferrous metals such as tin and pewter. The term blacksmith derived from the smoke and soot created in heavy forge activity. 

• Spinsters was the term applied to people (mainly women, as indicated by the low wage-level) who spun woollen fibres and those of hemp or flax into yarn for making cloth. It later became the legal term for unmarried women, during the 16th and 17th century.

• Spurriers made the spurs used in horse-riding.

• Tanners made leather from cattle-hides.

• Tuckers was another term for fullers, as above.

• Turners, as referred to here, were probably woodworkers using pole-lathes to produce all kinds of items such as chair legs and spindles, domestic platters, bowls and dishes, and bobbins of varying nature. 

• Weavers used woollen and linen yarn to make cloth. 

• Woollen cloth workers is some kind of generalised term for men involved in this particular sphere of manufacture.

All of the occupations above represent the late 17th century, pre-industrial, land-based, rural economy of North-east Suffolk, with the rest of the County following an identical pattern via directives made from the other three Quarter Session areas referred to in the Introduction. Nothing of a maritime nature (fishing activity and seaborne trade) manifests itself, other than the trades of ship carpenter, clincher, holder and caulker referred to in the second table.

The first four tables form a continuum, dealing with Day Work, but the constraints of page-space in Isaac Gillingwater’s handwritten manuscript has it presented in the manner replicated here.

CREDIT: David Butcher