Family Dispersal in Rural England: Herefordshire, 1700-1871
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FAMILY DISPERSAL IN RURAL ENGLAND: HEREFORDSHIRE, 1700-1871 by KATHERINE JOAN LACK A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham March 2012 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis tested a methodology for tracing eighteenth- and nineteenth-century migrants, based on the Cambridge Group reconstitution methods. It began with a sample from Whitbourne parish in the under-researched county of Herefordshire, investigating the effect of regional urbanisation and industrialisation on migration choices. Longitudinal family dispersal patterns were traced, and comparisons were made with studies in other regions. The method focused on out-migration, setting spatial mobility in its wider context, and increasing its representativeness by incorporating additional search strategies for less visible groups, including married women. A high tracing rate was achieved, and the method is proposed as a viable tool for analysing migration from small rural parishes which are considered unsuitable for conventional reconstitution studies. The west midlands industrial areas were not apparently a destination for this population until the second quarter of the nineteenth century, but there were early migrants to Worcester, London, and later to Cheltenham, Cheshire and elsewhere, especially for domestic service and urban service trades. Some familial trends were observable, and others related to land holding, occupation and geographical propinquity. Marriage and dependent children did not prevent migration, but literacy and transport networks were found to be strongly associated with occupational options and distances moved. To Mother 1924-2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was funded by a Research Studentship from the Economic and Social Research Council. I would like to pay tribute to my supervisor, Dr Leonard Schwarz, for his unfailing support and enthusiasm during this research project. In the course of innumerable visits to their archives, I have been helped by the good offices of the staff and volunteers at the Family History Branch of the Worcestershire Record Office, the Herefordshire County Record Office and the Bromyard and District Local History Society. I have also benefited from the kindness of the staff of the Nottingham Record Office, the Dorchester Archives and the Cheltenham Local History Library. The Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry have made available to me copies of their transcript of the Clifton upon Teme and Lower Sapey registers, and a data-base of their Greater Birmingham Marriage Index, the Herefordshire Family History Society gave me access to the civil registers for Whitbourne, while the Economic and Social Data Service provided Michael Turner’s transcript of the 1801 Parochial Crop Returns. Dr Matt Edwards and Dr Sylvia Gill have been a source of considerable solidarity, and my husband Paul has made it all possible. CONTENTS page CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 General Introduction 1 1.2 Definitions 5 1.3 Migration and Population Mobility 6 1.4 The Research Area 14 CHAPTER TWO: CONTEXT 16 2.1 Introduction 16 2.2 The Research Period 16 2.3 The Law and Population Mobility 18 2.3.i. The Poor Laws 18 2.3.ii. Apprenticeship 24 2.4 Regional Differences and the Need for Local Studies 25 2.4.i . The Impact of London 25 2.4.ii. Regional Variations 27 2.4.iii. Variations at County and Registration District Level 31 2.4.iv. Differences at the Parochial Level 34 2.4.v. Summary 35 2.5 Herefordshire 35 2.6 The Agricultural Context and Other Employment Options, from a Herefordshire Perspective 38 2.6.i. Farm Service, Wages and Payments in Kind 38 2.6.ii. Crops 47 2.6.iii. Enclosure 53 2.6.iv. Women’s and Children’s Employment 55 2.7 The Disease and Dearth Context 57 2.7.i. The Weather and Harvests 57 2.7.ii. Disease and Epidemics in the Region 58 2.8 The Urbanisation of the West Midlands 61 2.9 Transport 67 2.9.i. Roads 67 2.9.ii. Water Transport 70 2.9.iii. Railways 73 2.10 Conclusion. Herefordshire Out-migration: Problem and Context 74 CHAPTER THREE: THE SAMPLE PARISH 82 3.1 Introduction 82 3.2 The Geographical Context 82 3.3 Agriculture and Occupations 85 3.4 Population 92 3.5 Baptisms versus Burials 96 3.6 Mortality 98 3.6.i. Crude Death Rate 99 3.6.ii. Childhood Mortality 101 3.6.iii. Life Expectancy 105 3.7 Age at First Marriage 107 3.8 Conclusion 111 CHAPTER FOUR: METHODOLOGY 113 4.1 Introduction to the Research Questions 113 4.2 Research Position 116 4.3 The Family Reconstitution Method 121 4.3.i. Methodological Outline 121 4.3.ii. Limitations of Family Reconstitution for Migration Studies 125 4.3.iii. Implications of Moving Beyond the Parish Boundaries 128 4.4 The Sample 132 4.5 The Sources: Potential and Pitfalls 136 4.6 Methodological Implications of Different Methods of Analysis 145 4.7 Constructing the Data-base 149 4.8 Two Worked Examples 161 4.8.i. Minimising False Linkages 161 4.8.ii. Confirming Improbable Linkages 163 4.9 Summary 165 CHAPTER FIVE: RESULTS 166 5.1 Introduction 166 5.2 Migration Between Baptism and Marriage 171 5.2.i. Exogamy versus Baptism to Marriage Distance 171 5.2.ii. Method 174 5.2.iii. Exogamy and Marriage Horizons in the Whitbourne Sample 176 5.2.iv. Baptism to Marriage Distances for Whitbourne Marriages of Non-native Whitbourne Descendants 182 5.2.v. Changes in Baptism to Marriage Distances by Marriage Cohort 183 5.2.v. a. 1700-1812 184 5.2.v. b. 1813-1836 186 5.2.v. c. 1837-1850 188 5.2.v. d. 1851-1871 190 5.2.vi. Male Baptism to Marriage Distances, by Occupation 193 5.2.vii. Literacy and Baptism to Marriage Distances 198 5.2.vii. a. Introduction 198 5.2.vii. b. Whitbourne Literacy in Context 201 5.2.vii. c. Analysis 203 5.2.viii. Conclusion: Migration Between Baptism and Marriage 207 5.3 Migration over Whole Life: Baptism to Burial 207 5.3.i. Method 207 5.3.ii. Whole Life Migration According to Baptism Cohort 208 5.3.ii. a. Cohort 1700-1709 209 5.3.ii. b. Cohorts 1710-1749 210 5.3.ii. c. Cohorts 1750-1809 210 5.3.iii. Whole Life Migration According to Year of Death 213 5.3.iv. Whole Life Migration from Whitbourne by Area of Destination 215 5.3.iv. a. Migration from Whitbourne by Baptism Cohort 216 5.3.iv. b. Migration from Whitbourne by Decade of Death 220 5.3.v. Whole Life Migration of Second Generation Whitbourne Descendants 224 5.3.vi. Whole Life Migration Distance and Year of Death 228 5.3.vii. The Effect of Literacy on Whole Life Migration 229 5.3.viii. The Effect of Marriage on Whole Life Migration 231 5.3.viii. a. Net Effect 231 5.3.viii. b. The Effect of Family Size 233 5.3.ix. The Effect of Male Occupation on Whole Life Migration 234 5.3.ix. a. Whole Life Migration and Occupation: Married Men, All Baptism Places 235 5.3.ix. b. Whole Life Migration and Occupation: All Men and All Baptism Places 238 5.4 Migration from Baptism to Place of Residence in 1871 240 5.4.i. Method and Methodological Commentary 240 5.4.ii. Net Migration According to Individual Characteristics 243 5.4.iii. Known Migrants and Derivation of Potential Migrants 244 5.4.iv. Out-migration of Whitbourne Natives, by Area of Destination 247 5.4.v. Migration of Second Generation Whitbourne Descendants 255 5.5 Spatial Patterns of Long-distance Out-migration 260 5.6 The Role of Kin and Acquaintances in Long-distance Migration 263 5.6.i. Parent-child Effects 263 5.6.ii. Kin and Acquaintances 264 5.6.iii. Migration Overseas 267 5.7 Conclusion 271 CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION 272 6.1 Overview 272 6.1.i. Migrants versus Non-migrants 275 6.1.ii. Distances 281 6.1.iii. Return Migration 284 6.2 Spatial Factors: Employment Opportunities and Priorities 286 6.2.i. Whitbourne in the Context of East Herefordshire and West Worcestershire 287 6.2.ii. Worcester 293 6.2.ii. a. Introduction 293 6.2.ii. b. Worcester as a Migration Destination 294 6.2.iii. London 295 6.2.iv. Cheltenham 298 6.2.v. Birmingham and the Black Country 299 6.2.vi. Cheshire and Lancashire 304 6.2.vii. Overseas 305 6.3 Personal Social Capital 307 6.3.i. Gender 307 6.3.ii. Land Holding 309 6.3.iii. Life-cycle Stage, Family Size and Social Networks 311 6.3.iv. Occupation 317 6.3.v. Intergenerational Effects 322 6.3.vi. Literacy 323 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION 330 7.1 Introduction 330 7.2 Methodological Assessment 332 7.3 Evaluation and Summary of Findings 334 BIBLIOGRAPHY 343 APPENDIX: ACCESS ‘DESCENDANTS’ DATA-BASE MAPS page Figure 3.1: The Parish of Whitbourne, Herefordshire 84 Figure 5.20: The Parishes of the Whitbourne Area 217 GRAPHS page Figure 2.1: Acreage of Oats in the 1801 Crop Returns, and County Rainfall 49 Figure 2.2: Herefordshire-born Individuals in Leigh, Worcestershire, in 1851 78 Figure 2.3: Herefordshire-born Individuals in Claines Suburb, Worcester, in 1851 79 Figure 2.4: Herefordshire-born Individuals in Cheltenham, in 1851 80 Figure 3.2: Employment in Whitbourne in 1851, Age 10 and Over 90 Figure 3.3: Employment in Whitbourne in 1851, Age