Looking back to 1723
This weekend I’ve been having a look in the Hand in Hand policy registers to see what our customers of 300 years ago listed as their occupations. I’ve made a note of each occupation mentioned in the registers in the first 3 months of 1723 and how many times it occurs. There are 108 different occupations recorded in this period, ranging from still recognisable jobs such as plumber, carpenter, and fishmonger to more archaic occupations like horner (someone who made things out of horn), lorimer (someone who made bits, spurs, and metal mountings for saddles), and wharfinger (someone who kept or owned a wharf).
Many of the occupations in the 1723 register relate to the building trade, which is not surprising given the rate at which London was growing in this period: there are 26 carpenters, 9 bricklayers, 3 plumbers, 4 masons, 11 joiners (then spelled joyner), 1 brickmaker, and 3 glaziers recorded.
Furnishing and decoration of these properties was provided by 3 upholders (upholsterers), 1 carver, 1 statuary, 1 chairmaker, 5 pewterers (who would have made pewter plates, bowls and tankards), 1 turner, 2 painter stainers (decorators), 1 clock maker, 1 tinplate worker, 2 cutlers, 3 glass sellers, and 3 goldsmiths (a profession with links to banking as well as just producing objects in precious metals). In this three-month period, policies were also taken out by 5 tallow chandlers and 1 wax chandler who would have provided candles for lighting the homes and businesses in the capital.
Similarly, there are many trades represented which would have been required to keep the citizens of the booming city fed, watered, and clothed. In the first 3 months of 1723, policies were taken out by 8 bakers, 12 grocers, 3 salters, 1 oat meal man, 4 fishmongers, 5 butchers, 3 corn chandlers, 4 cooks, 1 poulterer, and 3 cheesemongers. The drinks and hospitality industries are represented by 6 victuallers, 1 distiller, 5 vintners, 4 innholders, and 9 brewers, while 3 coopers are also listed who would primarily have been producing barrels to store liquids such as beer and wine.
Occupations in the registers which relate to clothing London’s growing population include 6 tailors (then spelled taylor), 5 weavers, 4 glovers, 11 cloth workers, 19 haberdashers, 2 mercers (cloth merchants), 1 woolman, 6 drapers, 1 framework knitter (probably making stockings), 3 girdlers (making belts and girdles), 3 silk throwers, 2 dyers, 2 broiderers (embroiderers), 1 button seller, and 1 needle maker. Also listed are specialist accessory producers: 1 jeweller and 1 peruke maker (maker of wigs).
Footwear is represented by 2 cordwainers, who would have made new shoes from new leather (unlike cobblers who mended existing shoes), and 1 patten maker: pattens were a type of wooden platform which was designed to be worn underneath the shoe to lift the wearer and their shoes above the mud and dirt of the streets when they were walking outside.
Occupations linked to leather, which was used to make shoes, clothes, and to cover furniture are also well represented in the 1723 register. In the first three months of the year, policies were sold to 3 tanners, 2 curriers (leather finishers), 1 leather dresser, 1 skinner, and 3 leather sellers.
Finished leather would also have been passed on to make into saddles and bridles for the predominant form of transport, riding. In other registers we have entries for harness makers and bridle cutters but the list for the start of 1723 just contains 2 farriers and 4 lorimers (who made metal pieces of horse tack). Additional horse driven transportation appears in the form of 3 coachmakers, while London’s maritime heritage is evident in policies taken out by 2 mariners, 1 man from the Navy Office, 1 mast maker, and 7 shipwrights.
Representing the ‘professional classes’ we have 1 school master, 1 writing master, 3 lawyers, 6 members of the clergy (3 Reverends and 3 Doctors of Divinity), 3 medical doctors, 3 apothecaries (chemists), and 10 barber surgeons, who would have offered basic surgery and dentistry.
Some of the most common occupations in the registers are actually those linked to no occupation at all: in the first three months of 1723, the male ‘occupations’ that appear most frequently are Esquire (39 entries) and Gent (83 entries). This makes it hard to identify successful businessmen, writers, artists, architects, actors, and diplomats because they gave occupations which described their standing in society rather than the job that they did. It is possible to trace people through the registers who started out giving occupations such as brewer, goldsmith, or joiner and later described themselves as gentlemen when their commercial success had helped them rise up in society — usually by the time they took out insurance on their second ‘country’ homes in places like Kensington, Islington, and Hampstead.
As would have been considered normal at the time, all the women who took out policies in the first three months of 1723 were described only by their relation to men: as either spinsters (5 entries) wives (1 entry) or widows (44 entries). This makes it very difficult to spot ‘famous’ women who appear in the registers. With a few exceptions, like Catherine Kneebone who described herself as a tailor in 1722, and Martha Lucas who was described in the register of 1720 as citizen and turner, even highly regarded businesswomen and well-known actresses, dancers, and writers did not give their occupations when they took out policies.
There are a few occupations in the 1723 register which I’ve not yet managed to squeeze into this article, including a duke, a tobacconist, a founder, an armourer, and a glass grinder. My personal favourite, and the most unusual occupation recorded in the first 3 months of 1723, is that of trumpet maker John Harris who held policy number 2075 on his house in Berwick Street, Soho. As luck would have it, I had been struck by the unusual occupation before and kept a note that John Harris, trumpet maker of Berwick Street, had insured his life with our ancestor company Amicable Society in 1721 — Mr Harris obviously knew the value of insurance. A quick google search informed me that John Harris was the son-in-law of William Bull a ‘famous’ maker of English baroque trumpets who was Trumpeter Extraordinary to Charles II in 1666 and served as trumpeter to James II and to William & Mary. I followed policy 2075 back in the registers and discovered it was first taken out by William Bull himself in September 1701 — and it will probably come as no surprise that I hadn’t realised who he was because he only gave his occupation as Gent.
