Chapter 18

The Times: 1702-1776

Dress was plainer than before. Gentlemen wore white linen

shirts; waistcoats fitted at the waist and covering the trunk at least;

long lawn ties wound around the throat and tied in front with the tails

tucked in, knee-length coats that were wide in the skirts and in the

sleeve cuffs and having large gold, silver, or bronze buttons which

didn't reach to the buttonholes on the other side of the coat; knee

breeches of cloth, knitted wool, thread, and silk; and silk stockings

rolled up at the knee. Some shoes had metal buckles. Gold fobs with

watches or seals hung from the breeches pocket. The clothes were made

of silk, satin, or velvet and often in colors such as yellow, orange,

scarlet, blue, violet, pink, and dull slate, and decorated with gold

and silver trimmings. A slender sword was worn on the side. Short wigs,

often powdered with heavily scented white or gray wheat flour, with

rolls over the ears and hair tied at the back, were worn for formal

occasions. Wigs were made of human, horse, goat, or cow hair, or

mohair, worsted, silk, or wire. Sometimes feathers and cork were also

used. There were new colors and cuts of dress for every season. By

1750, wearing a sword was just a symbol of gentility. Gentlemen often

had valets to help them dress. Ladies wore fitted full-length dresses

held out by hoops with shoulders hidden, sometimes with a laced bodice

with stays, and lace at the neck. The waistline fashion fluctuated

between high and low and in tightness. The dress could be brocade,

satin, velvet, silk, etc. Some put jewels in their hair and had high

elaborate hats with wide brims tilted forward. Hair was in ringlets at

the side or dressed close to the head with a small top knot covered

with a laced cap. They also wore wigs when dressing up, decorated with

ribbons and artificial flowers. Hooded cloaks were used outdoors and

hoods were used for sun or wind. They carried leather purses with

gloves at elbow length. Both gentlemen and ladies wore cosmetics and

face patches and used tooth powders, breath sweeteners, lip salves, and

choice perfume. Some had false teeth of bone or ivory wired into place.

Both gentlemen and ladies had accessories such as fans, handkerchiefs,

head scratchers, and elaborately designed snuff boxes, patch boxes, and

perfume containers. Both sniffed tobacco snuff but only men smoked it.

They walked with tall, elegant canes, and women also carried parasols.

Hats were made of wool and hair of beaver, rabbit, or camel. A popular

hat was three-cornered, and usually of beaver or dark felt. There was

often a rosette or such to show one's political opinion. Straw hats

were worn in the summer. There were ready-made clothes and shoes,

especially for children. Night gowns and night caps were worn to bed.

About 1714, umbrellas for rain were introduced. They were made of waxed

silk or taffeta. All but the poorest wore silk and lace. A prosperous

countryman wore riding clothes consisting of breeches and boots,

cut-away coat, and low top hat.

The highest class were the peers and peeresses of the House of

Lords and their spouses and families. They were the nobility and held

the high political offices, the high ranks in the army and navy, and

owned large estates, usually scattered over the country. Some were

lawyers or merchants. There was much intermarriage among these

families. Indeed, many a noble family had salvaged its fortunes by

marriage to a London merchant. The richest people in London were

international merchants. These high class families lived in mansions

with four or five living rooms, two to five acre gardens, and stables.

The next class were the gentry. Their family heads had land and

were often Justices of the Peace. They were sometimes members of the

House of Commons. The oldest son took over from his father, while the

others had to find a living such as in the church, law, medicine, or

trade. The gentry usually lived in mansions.

The old yeoman class was disappearing due to their selling

their land to larger landowners. Farming on a large scale was more

productive.

The next class were the "middling sort". In this class were

merchants, lawyers, substantial tenant farmers, smaller freeholders,

millers, innkeepers, in town traders, middlemen, clothiers,

ironmongers, goldsmiths, grocers, linen drapers, apothecaries, school

masters, clerks and civil servants, customs and excise men, and

.shopkeepers, who now kept their wares inside and lived on the second

floor. The town people lived in town houses of two stories plus an

attic.

The next class were the manual workers. These were wage earners

or independent craftsmen, farriers, rural smiths (who shod horses and

made stair rails, window-bars, torch extinguishers, lamp irons, bells,

bolts, hinges, locks, and fire-grates), sawyers, carpenters, joiners,

wheelwrights, nail makers, brick makers, plumbers (made lead cisterns,

kitchen sinks, rainwater heads, drain pipes and lead flats for houses

and ornaments), thatchers, spinners (silk, flax, hemp, wool, hair),

dyers, wool combers, weavers, shoemakers, hat makers, belt and buckle

makers, dressmakers, milliners (hats, caps, bonnets, cloaks, hoods,

muffs), feather workers, button makers, lace makers, steel pin makers,

brewers, cutlery makers, soap makers, candle makers (made from beeswax,

tallow, mutton-fat, or beef-drippings), comb makers,

barber/hairdressers (shaved, cut hair, made wigs and braids, and let

blood), curriers, leather workers, carpet weavers, paper makers,

tin-plate makers, printers, enamel workers, braziers and coppersmiths

(made kettles, saucepans, canisters, milk pails, lanterns, candle

boxes, candle sticks, and lamp lighters), basket makers, jewelers (made

rings, perfumes, match boxes, buckles, and tops of canes), watch and

clock makers, type founders, letter cutters, trunk and chest makers,

cabinet makers, saddlers, coach body builders, coach carriage makers,

shipwrights, rope makers, and sail makers. These workers typically

worked in their stone or brick houses in a rural setting, with gardens,

a cow, a horse, pigs, and poultry around them on 2-6 acres. They now

ate white or wheaten bread instead of rye bread, much meat and cheese,

and drank tea. Working men could now afford leather shoes. These people

also worked in the harvesting of grain. Some consolidation of work was

starting. For instance, the weaver, who had furnished himself with warp

and weft, worked it up, and brought it to market himself was being

displaced by weavers who worked under supervision for one merchant in a

town on looms the merchant had acquired. Many women and children were

so employed. It was not unusual for a man to work 13 hours a day for 6

days a week. The wage earners were well above the subsistence level as

long as trade was good. Real wages were higher than at any time since

the mid-1400s. But eventually, as the employer came to realize how

dependent the weaver had become on him, wages tended to fall. In 1757 a

Gloucester weaver, with his wife to help him, could earn, when work was

good, from 13s. to 18s. a week. A few years later, he could only earn

about 11s. A woman spinner earned 10-15d. a day in 1764, but 3-5d. in

1780. In the same period, men's wages fell from 17d. to 10d. a day.

Only certain workers, whose special occupation needed greater skill,

e.g. the wool-combers, whose wool was longer and of better quality than

carded wool, and shearers, were better paid. In 1770, wool combers made

13s. a week; their wage was about the same all over the country because

they traveled form town to town in search of work and always supported

each other. Also in 1770, Newcastle miners earned 15s. a week,

Sheffield cutlers 13s.6d. a week, a Rotherham blacksmith 13s. a week, a

furnace keeper at Horsehay about 12s. a week, a Staffordshire potter

from 8-12s., a Witney blanket weaver or a Wilton carpet weaver 11s. or

more a week, a Manchester cotton weaver from 7-10s. a week, and a Leeds

cloth weaver about 8s. In this class also were ploughmen, cowmen,

dairymaids of the bigger farms. They had cottages of wood, clay, and

straw, with clay floors and low ceilings, and a divided ground floor. A

few had homes built of stone, covered with slate or thatch.

Wages of industry were higher than those of agriculture. In

1770, a day laborer earned 5-6s. a week in winter and 7-9s. in summer,

without board or lodging. In the short harvest time, he could earn 12s.

a week.

Lastly were the mass of the population of London: hordes of

laborers who depended on casual employment and could be dismissed at

will.

About half the population had no resources but their labor,

which was usually unskilled and lowly paid. In good times they had just

enough to feed themselves.

The gap between rich and poor became greater. Marriage remained

a main way to wealth. Also, one trained in the law could aspire to have

a successful career in high political office, which also brought

wealth. But there was less social mobility than in the previous century

and many landed families were consolidating their position.

Industrialists who had made a fortune for example, in steel, cotton,

coal mining, and porcelain, and merchants who wanted to turn themselves

into landed gentlemen found it very difficult to buy landed estates.

Old dissenter families, Quakers in particular, who were highly esteemed

as businessmen, as industrialists, and as model employers were excluded

from the Anglican landowning society. Rich tradesmen, artists, actors,

and writers found it difficult to buy substantial houses in the small

market towns and countryside because of an entrenched hierarchical

atmosphere there that didn't exist in London. The only gentlemen who

were in household service were librarians, tutors, or chaplains. They

ate with the family and did not consider themselves servants. Servants

were kept more at a distance. By the 1750s the servant class was

clearly defined. Their quarters were moved to the basement of the house

and they ate together in the kitchen. But some householders still had

special occasions when everyone ate together in the dining room, with

the servants at one end of the table. Servants had no right to free

time or to holidays. In 1767 about one tenth of the population in

London had servants. Even bricklayers and milk sellers had a servant.

Most families had just one servant. Most wives employed some other

woman or child to help in washing and scouring or in the minding of the

children.

London had grown beyond the locations of its walls around the

City. London stretched ten miles along the Thames, and was three miles

wide in the center. On the east of the City was the port and industry.

The west side ended at Hyde Park and Regent's Park and was residential.

In 1710 it was still possible to shoot woodcock in Regent Street. In

1750, Westminster Bridge was opened. In 1760, the City walls were taken

down to ease congestion. The typical London house, usually brick, was

on a rectangular plan and had a basement to utilize all the space

possible. Walls were now more covered with hung damask, brocade, silk,

and wallpaper or plain paint rather than by wood paneling. There were

pictures on the walls. On the first floor was a front hall or parlor

and a back parlor. One of these parlor rooms was the most important

room, where the family entertained or spent leisure time. In it were

sofas, armchairs, and stools of mahogany or white gilded wood. They

were upholstered with damask or needlework. Imported mahogany was

replacing the favorite walnut that had replaced oak. Much wood was

inlaid with a variety of other types of woods. There was also a carved

tripod table, china table, card table, and perhaps bookcases and/or

tea-table. Furniture with original designs made by the cabinet-maker

Chippendale was available. His genius was in combining various motifs

into one harmonious design. Cabinet makers had to keep abreast of his

standards and to imitate them to conform with their customers' orders.

Cabriole legs with claw and ball feet came into fashion with Queen Anne

about 1712. Between windows were tall mirrors. From 1760, glass

chandeliers hung from the ceiling to reflect candlelight coming from

standing candlesticks or glazed hanging lanterns with brass frames. The

fireplace had an elaborate mantel. The fire was kept going all day. It

was lit by a tender box, which was unreliable. An iron fireback was

behind the fire. The firewood was placed on andirons. Fire grates were

used from about 1712. At a corner of the building was added a closet.

On the second floor was a dining room, continuation of the closet

below, and a drawing room, dressing room, or bedroom, and perhaps a

study or music room with harpsichord. The dining room had a fireplace;

curtains over the windows looped up at the cornices; one or more

mahogany tables; a set of mahogany chairs with leather or hair- cloth

seats fixed with brass nails, perhaps with some sort of metal

springing; two mahogany sideboards with marble tops; cupboards or

shelves or cabinets with displays of china porcelain; a wine-cooler; a

dumb-waiter; and a folding leather screen. The china, which was

displayed, was mostly imported, but there was some English china.

Later, there was famous Wedgwood stoneware and pottery with bright,

unfading glaze, or with dull black and red surfaces, biscuit ware of

pale green, blue or purple, upon which white designs stood out like

cameos. They came from the pottery factory at Staffordshire founded by

potter Josiah Wedgwood in 1769. There were silver and pewter plates and

serving pieces, silver candlesticks, silver knives, spoons, and two and

three pronged forks, glass saltcellars from 1724, and fingerbowls from

which one rinsed one's mouth or cleaned one's fingers after dinner

which were made of glass from about 1760. On the third floor were

bedrooms and a nursery. In the bedrooms, there was a high bed with

curtains, canopies, piles of blankets and pillows, and steps up to it;

wardrobe; chairs; a hand wash stand; chests of drawers; writing bureau;

dressing table with a couple drawers and a mirror; swing standing

mirror; tin rush candle canister; and night commode. Children and

servants slept on low wooden bedsteads. Walls were stucco, a form of

cement that could be sculpted, or paneled or hung with silk and printed

paper. Servants, such as the page and footmen, slept in the attic and

perhaps in the kitchen or cellar. There was a wood staircase for the

family and a back staircase for the servants. The floors and stairs

were protected with carpeting. The kitchen was in the basement or in a

covered shed in the back. It had an open fire and a tin oven. The cold

water tap over the stone sink could supply cold water from a cistern in

the basement or hand-pumped to a roof cistern through wooden pipes at

very low pressure at stated hours for a fee. There was a wash shed in

back. Water pumped from the Thames into underground pipes was thus

distributed to householders three times a week. Some water came from a

well or spring, rain, and street water sellers. Water carriers were

still employed at set fees. Water was kept in lead cisterns. The

wealthy had basement cisterns filled by a commercial company. The free

public conduits of water were out of use by 1750. The front door of the

house had two strong bolts on the inside and a heavy chain. The windows

could be shuttered and barred. There were sash windows with cords and

brass pulleys. At the back of the house was a garden and perhaps a

coach house or stables. Landscaping to reproduce an idealized country

scene replaced formal gardens. Foreign trees were imported. The latrine

was usually not in the house, but somewhere in the back garden area.

Under it was a brick drain leading to a public sewer or to a cesspool.

Smelly gases arose from it. Sometimes people gathered such waste up to

sell to farmers returning home in an otherwise empty wagon. In 1760,

patented inside toilets began to be used. Each stood in its own room. A

watchmaker named Alexander Cummings patented in 1775 the water-closet,

which had a stink trap u-bend behind which, after flushing, water

resided and prevented the backflow of noxious sewer gas. Its pans and

overhead cisterns were made of pottery. They were supported by wood

structures. There were better cements for building. Chinese porcelain,

embroidery, and lacquer work were popular. Furniture and landscaped

gardens were often done in a Chinese style.

Many of the well-to-do now lived in districts without as well

as within the city limits. Many streets east of the City were named

after the governing families whose estates were there. Their mansions

had interior columns, archways, marble halls and fireplaces, carving,

gilding, rich colors, and high ornamented ceilings. They each had a

picture gallery, a library, stables with coachmen, grooms, and

stableboys, and a still-room for concocting liquors and cordials such

as cherry brandy, sloe gin, and elderberry wine. Medicine and scents

were also developed in the still-room. Hands were washed in bowls held

up by wooden stands. There were built-in bathtubs, but they usually

lacked hot and cold running water, so hot water usually had to carried

up to them.

In these mansions, there were many private parties and balls.

The standard for politeness here was high and gentlemen were expected

to keep their tempers. This came about because impoliteness could

easily lead to a quarrel and then a duel. The pistol was replacing the

sword as the weapon of choice for duels. Good manners developed for all

occasions, with much less swearing and less rudeness. By gentlemen's

agreements, men did favors for each other without a monetary price, but

with the expectancy of a favor in return. The love of one man for

another was recognized as the highest and noblest of human passions.

People of high social standing left their country estates to spend the

winter season in their townhouses in London with its many recreations

such as receptions, routs ]fashionable gatherings], levies,

masquerades, balls, dinner parties, clubs, pleasure gardens, theaters,

shops, shows, taverns, and chocolate and coffee houses. Coffee houses

provided Turkish coffee, West Indian sugar and cocoa, Chinese tea,

Virginia tobacco, and newspapers. They were frequented by learned

scholars and wits, dandies, politicians, and professional newsmongers.

Men of fashion often engaged in wagers and gambling at their clubs and

coffee houses. There were wagers on such matters as the longevity of

friends and prominent people, fertility of female friends, wartime

actions, and political matters. Gentlemen often had valets. Carriage by

sedan-chair was common. In 1776, Buckingham House was bought as a

palace for the royal couple.

Physicians and lawyers lived in two-story brick mansions with

attics and sash windows that could be lifted up and down with the help

of a pulley. They had rectangular wood panes each with a sheet of glass

cut from a circle of blown glass. The old blown glass was not regular,

but had a wrinkled appearance. The center of each pane of glass was

thicker with a knot in the middle left from the blow pipe. In front of

the house were railings which supported two lanterns at the doorway.

People from different parts of London differed in ways of

thinking, conversation, customs, manners, and interests. For instance

there were sections where sailors lived, and where weavers,

watchmakers, and cow keepers each lived and worked. There were many

specialized craftsmen who worked with their own tools in their own

shops or houses, for some superior who had contact with the market and

who supervised the final processes of manufacture. These included the

goldsmiths, upholsterers, coach makers, saddlers, and watchmakers, all

of whom had many dependents. The watchmakers had specialists making

wheels, pinions, springs, hands, dials, chains, keys, caps, and studs

in their own houses. The type of industrial organization most common in

London was that in which work was given out to be done in the homes of

the workers: the putting out system. Some industries, such as

watchmaking, silk weaving, and shoemaking were on both a putting out

system and a system of an apprenticeship to journeymen working on piece

work. Shoes were made to order and ready made. The customer was

measured in a shop, the clicker cut out the upper leathers, which were

given to the closer to be closed, and then to the maker for the sole

and heel to be put on. Another class of shoemaker worked alone or with

an apprentice in a garret, cellar, or stall, using pieces of leather

cut out for him by the currier or leather cutter. London industries

included the making of bread, beer, spirits, and vinegar; sugar

refining; tobacco refining and snuffmaking; spinning and/or weaving of

woolens, worsteds, silk ribbons, tape, and cloth; and making printed

calico, clothes, linens, laces, tassels, fancy embroidery, stays,

stockings, hats, shoes, leather goods such as boots, shoes, hats,

gloves, harnesses, and saddles, jewelry, glass, candles, tapestry,

musical instruments, cutlery, furniture, paint, varnish, paper, tools,

swords, guns, heavy artillery, ships, sails, rope, carriages, precious

and base metalwares such as brass and pewter ware, and printer's ink

and glue; printing; and publishing. Surgical instruments made included

straight and curved knives and probes, lancets, scissors, spatulas,

trepans (for cutting bone), and cupping cases. Optical instruments made

included eyeglasses, telescopes, and microscopes. In 1727 eyeglasses

were held in place by frames that went over the ears, which replaced

unreliable cords over the ears and leather straps tied behind one's

head. Also made were nautical instruments, quadrants, sundials,

sectors, globes, scales, model solar systems, and air pumps.

In London, the old distinction between craftsmen and laborers

was blurred by the existence of trades which employed workmen under a

skilled foreman instead of journeymen who had served an apprenticeship.

These trades were, on a large scale, new. Among the most important of

these trades were the distillers and brewers of liquors, the

tobacconists and snuff makers, the sugar refiners and soap boilers, the

vinegar makers, and makers of varnish, glue, printers' ink, and colors.

The latest chemical theories and the chemical explanation of dying

brought about the invention of new colors and new processes in dying

cloth. Workers in these trades were considered as laborers, but their

wages were high and their positions relatively secure. They learned

their jobs by doing them. The older trades of a similar character, such

as tallow melters and chandlers, wax chandlers, fellmongers [removed

hair or wool from hides in preparation for leather making], and the

tanners, employed journeymen.

The skilled artisan who worked at home and either made goods

for a master or sold to the trade verged into the shopkeeping class. On

the other hand, the lowest type of shopkeeper, the chandler, the dealer

in old iron, the tripe shop, the milk retailer, the keeper of a cook

shop or a green cellar belonged to the class of casual and unskilled

labor. The lowly chimney sweep, paid 6d. a day, served an

apprenticeship as a boy, and then was his own master.

The watermen and lightermen, by virtue of their fellowship and

their apprenticeship and often the ownership of a boat, belonged to the

class of skilled laborers. Craftsmen in the building trades and

paviours had their laborers as smiths had their hammermen to do the

heavy work at laborers' pay. The street ragpickers, the ballad sellers,

and the match sellers belonged to the class of beggars.

There were buildings for boiling and distilling turpentine, for

casting brass or iron, and for making glass for chemical works for sale.

Working women in London in 1750 were employed in domestic

service: 25%, nursing and midwifery: 12%, cleaning and laundry: 10%,

vitiating: 9%, shopkeeping: 8%, hawking: 6%, and textiles: 5%. Those

employed in domestic service were mostly young women who later married.

Some women were schoolteachers, innkeepers, or manufacturers, which

were middle-class employments. Many women in the realm engaged in a

variety of occupations from fanmaking and hairdressing to catering,

and, as widows, often carried on their husband's trade, including

bookselling, hatmaking, building or ironmongery.

Although shops still had small frontages of about 15 feet and

the windows had small panes of bottle glass which partly obscured the

view of the goods, there were magnificent shops with large windows

displaying fine goods. There were bookshops, and print shops with

prints of political satire with caricatures. The shops were generally

open six days a week from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and years later to 10 p.m.

In 1675 Josiah Wedgwood opened a showroom in London for his high

quality pottery from Staffordshire. Consumption was on a mass scale,

many people buying what they wanted instead of just what they needed.

There were circulating libraries, public concert halls, and

professional boxing matches. At coffee houses, chocolate houses, and

taverns, people played at dice and cards, gambled, talked politics and

read daily newspapers, in which there was advertising, reports of

marriages and deaths, grain prices, and book reviews. Different

professions and classes and groups, such as the whigs, the tories,

classical scholars, scientists, clergymen, intellectuals, actors,

writers, and journeymen of particular crafts, had their favorite

meeting places. Coffee houses reflected the character of their

neighborhoods. They acted as postal centers, lost property offices,

business addresses, physicians' consulting rooms, lawyers' and

merchants' businesses, matrimonial agencies, masonic lodges, auction

rooms, and gambling dens. Some retained a supply of prostitutes. Many

taverns had a rentable private room for the better-off to drink wine,

have meals, meet friends, gamble, do business, and hold meetings of

societies and clubs, especially political clubs. From this beginning

sprang private clubs such as the Blue Stocking Club in 1750 and the

Literary Club in 1764, Lloyd's for sale and insurance of ships in 1771,

and the stock exchange in 1773. The Blue stocking Club was established

by women who organized conversational parties with guests of intellect

and wit. There was opera, playhouses, concerts usually with Georg

Handel's oratorios such as The Messiah or the foreigners Bach and

Haydn, tea-gardens, fire works, balls, masquerades, wax works, beer

shops, and bawdy houses, except on Sunday. There were straight plays,

comic operas, and melodramas. Three-dimensional sets replaced the two-

dimensional backdrop. Plays containing thinly veiled satires on

politicians were becoming popular. Some plays had crude and licentious

material. Theaters still shared a close association with brothels.

Unlicensed theaters were closed down by a statute of 1737, but most

came to acquire patronage to get a license. This shaped the development

of drama in London for a century.

The Beggar's Opera depicting an immoral society unable to

master its bandits was written by John Gay as a powerful attack on a

government which most of London hated. With its many ballads it became

very popular. One such ballad goes:

"Through all the employments of life -

Each neighbor abuses his brother;

Whore and Rogue they call Husband and Wife;

All professions be-rogue one another.

The Priest calls the Lawyer a cheat,

The Lawyer be-knaves the Divine;

And the Statesman, because he's so great, Thinks his trade as honest as

mine."

Another is:

"A Fox may steal your hens, sir,

A Whore your health and pence, sir,

Your daughter rob your chest, sir,

Your wife may steal your rest, sir,

A thief your goods and plate.

But this is all but picking,

With rest, pence, chest and chicken,

It ever was decreed, sir,

If Lawyer's hand is fee'd, sir,

He steals your whole estate."

The Thames was crowded with sailing boats and with a line of

boats waiting to unload. Foreign and native ships lined the river banks

in rows. Theft of cargo from docked ships was still a problem and

pirates were still executed at low tide on gallows. Londoners went to

the bridges crossing the Thames to breathe fresh air. London air was so

smoky and polluted by coal-burning in kitchens and factories that it

gave a cough to newcomers. The river was so polluted by the sewers by

1760 that all the swans and most of the fish had disappeared. A Mansion

House was built for the Mayor in 1753. The king's zoo had ten lions,

one panther, two tigers, and four leopards. Deer hunting in Hyde Park

was now confined to its northwest corner, which was enclosed for the

king, who occasionally hunted there. Elsewhere in the park were laid

out walks and fountains. Gardens were now natural instead of formal.

The streets were usually crowded with people and traffic. Many people

traveled by sedan chair. On the streets were barrows with goods such as

lace, threads, fruits, and chickens; beggars, ballad singers,

musicians, bands, street dancers, apple women, piemen, muffin men,

fruit sellers, nut sellers, pudding sellers, milk maids selling milk

from buckets, milk sold directly from the cow, vendors of asses' milk,

hawkers, newspaper boys, scavengers with carts, postal collectors,

lamplighters on their ladders, wenches, chimney sweeps, rat catchers,

pick pockets, swaggering bravados, strolling strumpets, brawling

watermen, card sharps, overdressed beaux, dancing dogs, and acrobatic

monkeys. Each trade had it own call. Billingsgate open-air market was

now exclusively for the sale of fish. Small tradesmen such as dairymen,

butchers, bakers, fishmongers, and chandlers delivered to regular

customers food bought from distributing centers. Workers by necessity

lived near their place of work because there was no cheap transport and

walking through the streets after dark was unpleasant and dangerous.

Hours of work for most craftsmen was from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., six days a

week.

It was common for working class families in London to live in a

single room of their house and rent the rest, furnished, to people of

different degrees of prosperity and even of different social grades.

Servants and apprentices slept in the kitchen, the shop, or the garret.

The very poor, such as casual laborers and street sellers, silk

winders, charwomen, usually lived in damp cellars subject to floods

from excessive rain, or in cold and windy garrets. Tenancy was usually

on a weekly basis because of the general uncertainty of life and trade.

Conditions were so cramped that cabinet makers made beds which

masqueraded in the day time as tables, bureaus, cupboards, or

bookcases. The very poor slept in common lodging houses, sleeping

uncovered on the floor, twenty to a room. Some poor families slept in

small hovels made of mud and straw with their pigs, domestic fowl,

dogs, and even asses and horses. Homeless children slept on the

streets. All classes lived so much at coffee houses, alehouses or

clubs, which they often used as their addresses, that house room was a

secondary consideration. There was an alehouse on almost every street

in London to provide cheap food and beer, lodging, employment

information, credit, newspapers, tobacco, and meeting places for

tradesmen. Some alehouses were recognized employment agencies for

certain trades, such as the hatters, smiths, carpenters, weavers, boot

and shoe makers, metal workers, bakers, tailors, plumbers, painter and

glaziers, and bookbinders. They were often run by one of the trade,

retired or otherwise. Some alehouses catered to criminals and

prostitutes. For cheap and simple eating there were chophouses,

cookshops, and beef steak houses.

There were about 10,000 English immigrants a year to London in

the 1700s. They were mostly young people. London needed many immigrants

because of its high death rate. Over twenty London people a week died

from starvation alone; they were mostly women. Only about one-fourth of

London's population had been born in London. Especially welcome were

sturdy country people for heavy manual labor, the better educated boys

from the north for shops and offices, and the honest country people, as

contrasted with London's poor, for domestic service. Girls mostly

looked for domestic service, but were sometimes made the mistress of

the housekeeper or steered into prostitution as soon as they entered

the city. An ambitious young man would seek an apprentice job, work

hard, flatter his master, and try to marry his master's daughter. It

was easier to find a place to live in London than in the villages,

though there was much overcrowding. Many shopkeepers and workshop

owners in London were involved in leasing, purchases, and contracts.

Queen Anne was authorized by Parliament to build about 50 more

churches in London and Westminster and their suburbs, to be paid for by

a coal tax on imports into the port of London. Churches in London were

to be rebuilt with money paid by funeral rates, rates for tolling the

bells, and rates for the use of palls [altar cloths]. Queen Anne also

appropriated all her revenues from the first fruits and tenths of

ecclesiastical benefices: 16,500 pounds, to the clerical poor in 1704.

There were fewer quarrels among passersby on the London

streets; men were less likely to wear their swords. But there were fist

fights by common men which gathered crowds and occasioned betting. Most

crime was petty theft, but mobs and riots were frequent, as there were

no police. Watchmen and constables were often old and physically

incapacitated. The watchmen were householders taking their turn. This

duty of householders watching the streets had evolved from the ancient

obligation of wards to provide men to guard the walls at night. But few

wanted these jobs by which they could offend their neighbors. Many

citizens paid a rate to be excused from watch and ward duty. Constables

were often tavern keepers. Many riots were started when penal laws

against the Catholics were repealed. They began with the cries of "no

popery", but then targeted rich men's houses. Mobs sacked and pillaged

at will, burned houses, and flung open the prisons to increase their

numbers. There were political riots between Tories and Whigs. Working

men still used violence to protect their livelihoods, such as

destroying the lodgings and public houses of cheap immigrant labor such

as the Irish. The stocking-knitters destroyed stocking-knitting frames

so that the number of apprentices who could be employed would not reach

the limit specified by its guild's regulations. Parish workhouse

children also provided a cheap supply of labor which forced down the

wages of the stocking knitters. In 1720 a statute banned wearing of

calico after mobs tore calico garments off women. In 1765, thousands

marched on Parliament and persuaded it to ban foreign silk imports. But

when a mob destroyed engine-looms, the army was used against the

rioters and two of them were hanged. This was the last major mob

action. Around the Tower, there were still demagogues standing on

upturned carts haranguing passing crowds. The Tower area was a favorite

place for demonstrators, and for unemployed and dissatisfied workmen,

particularly coal heavers and underpaid seamen protesting their low pay

and poor living conditions. There was more crime, especially at night,

now with organized bands of men or gangs of children. Bounty hunters

made a lot of money catching offenders. In 1736, to deter the frequent

robberies, burglaries, and other felonies at night, many glass lamps

were set up in places determined by the mayor. They had to burn from

sunset to sunrise. In 1736, a lighting rate was imposed by the City to

pay for all night lighting all year by hired lamplighters. Anyone

breaking or damaging the lights of London would forfeit 40s. for the

first offense, 50s. for the second offense, and 3 pounds for the third

offense. The aldermen had to contract to pay for lighting, trimming,

snuffing, cleaning, supplying, maintaining, and repairing them. To pay

for this system, citizens paid according to the amount of rent their

holdings were worth. If they didn't pay, they could not vote.

Bad areas of thieves and prostitutes and the slums east of the

City were gradually being replaced by warehouses and offices. In 1757,

London Bridge was widened and the houses were cleared off it. There

were lanes for carriages in the middle and for pedestrians on each

side. Its arches were also widened to make the passage of vessels

underneath easier. Lights were put on it to be lit all night. And

watchmen were put on it for protection and safety of passengers. This

was paid for by tolls of 1/2 d. per horse, 1d. per carriage, and

2d.-1s. for vessels with goods passing underneath. About 1762, a body

of enterprising citizens secured private acts of Parliament which

allowed them to levy a house tax in return for providing paving and

lighting, which then greatly improved, as did sanitation. Sidewalks

were raised between the street proper and the buildings, replacing the

protective posts which had lined the roads. Flat stones were put in

place of the pebbles on the roadway. Signs hanging out from stores,

which had blocked the sunlight, were placed flat on the front of the

buildings. This also made the streets more airy. The buildings were

given numbered addresses and street names were placed on buildings.

Loading and unloading could not exceed one hour. Nuisances like empty

carts could be removed. Cranes used in warehouses had to be stored in

unobtrusive places. One who drove on the foot pavement had to forfeit

10s. for the first offense, 20s. for the second offense, and 40s. for

other offenses. Wells were dug and pumps erected for watering the

streets. Pavements were to be repaired on complaint. Dust boxes and

dust holes were built and had to be used for refuse awaiting pickup by

the raker or else forfeit 10s. In 1762, the system of having every man

responsible for cleaning the street in front of his door, which

occasioned piles of rubbish in the central troughs of the streets

waiting for the next rain to be washed away, was abandoned. But house

occupants were required to keep the sidewalk in front of their house

clean or else forfeit 2s. If one broke a light, he had to pay damages

if it was accidental, and also 20s. if willful. Wards were to choose

substantial inhabitants to be collectors for a year at a time to

collect the rates, which were not to exceed 1s.6d. per pound of rents.

If one declined to be a collector, he had to forfeit 50 pounds. There

were special stands for hackney coaches, which were 12s.6d. for a day

of twelve hours. Their regulations were extended to Sundays.

In London, the normal system of building was for builders to

buy up leases, put up a new building, and sell it before the lease

became due. The rules for party walls between buildings were made more

stringent: 2 1/2 bricks thick in cellar, 2 bricks thick to the garret

floor, and 1 1/2 bricks above the roofs or gutters. They had to be made

of brick or stone. In 1772, rain water from roofs had to be carried to

the streets in lead or other pipes that were affixed against the side

of the building. In 1774, iron, copper, or other pipe or funnel for

conveying smoke or steam were not to be near any inside timber, or in

front of most any building or next to any public street, square, or

court.

In the 1720s firefighters had to fill a tank on a wagon by hand

with buckets. On top of the tank was a hose that could spray water

high. London parishes were authorized to place upon the water pipes

underground stop-blocks of wood with a plug and firecocks to go into

such pipe at various distances so that there would be no loss in time

in digging down to the pipes to get water to fight fires. Parishes were

required to keep at known places, ladders and a large engine and a hand

engine to throw up water to extinguish fires including one leather hose

with socket fitting the plug or firecock, so that buckets would not be

needed. The Sun Insurance Company was incorporated for fire insurance

in 1711. Insurance offices were authorized to employ watermen with

poles, hooks, and hatchets to be always ready at a call to extinguish

fires.

No more than 12 sacks of meal, 12 quarters of malt, 750 bricks,

or 1 chalder of coal per load on wagons or carts with wheels bound with

[narrow] iron tire are allowed within ten miles of London or

Westminster, or else forfeit one horse. This is to prevent decay of the

roads.

For every wagon and cart in London, there must be a person on

foot to guide it to prevent the maiming, wounding, and killing of

people, especially the old and children, when drivers ride on their

wagons and carts. Later, it was required that carts must display the

name of the owner and be registered. Still later, there was a penalty

of 10s. for not having a person on foot to guide any cart. Later still,

in 1757, if a new owner of a cart did not put his name thereon, he had

to forfeit 40s., and the cart and horse could be seized and sold to pay

the forfeiture. Persons willfully obstructing passage on streets with

empty carts or barrels or pipes shall forfeit 5-12s. or do hard labor

up to one month. The justices of London assessed rates and made

regulations for carriage of goods. Certain houses and buildings were

bought and pulled down to widen several streets, lanes, and passages.

In 1774, persons driving cattle in London, whose negligence or

improper treatment of such cattle cause them to do mischief shall

forfeit 5-20s. or else go to a House of Correction for up to one month

or be publicly whipped.

The roads around London were neither very attractive nor very

safe. Along them was land covered with water from drains and refuse and

dung heaps. Hogs were kept in large numbers on the outskirts and fed on

the garbage of the town. Smoking brick kilns surrounded a great part of

London. In the brickyards vagrants lived and slept, cooking their food

at the kilns.

Queen Anne's drinking of tea made it a popular drink, but it

was still expensive. This habit improved health because to make tea,

the water had to be boiled before drunk. Breakfast included tea and

bread and butter, and later toast with melted butter. The rich also had

coffee and chocolate. The morning newspaper was often read at

breakfast. The chief dinner dishes were roast beef, roast mutton,

boiled beef or pork, with puddings and vegetables. Roast meat was still

the basic diet of town and country gentlemen. There were also fowls,

tripes, rabbits, hares, pigeons, and venison. Many elaborate sauces

were made. The national dish was the pudding, a compound of steak,

kidney, larks, and oyster. Drinks included ginger beer, lemonade,

barley water, coffee, chocolate, tea, and foreign wine. Port from

Portugal was introduced about 1703, and rum about 1714. Rum, made from

sugar, first became popular as a medicine, well-whisked with butter.

Beer was drunk by the poorer and middle classes. The poor could afford

very little meat now, unlike 200 years ago. Their standard fare was

cheese, bread, and tea, the latter of which was usually from used tea

leaves bought from rich houses.

Households were smaller; a peer had a household of about 25-50.

The proportion of women in a household grew to one-third to one-half.

Dinner guests sat and were served in order of rank, with gentlemen on

one side of the table and ladies on the other. Later, a fashion came in

to sit alternately by sex. Dinner was in several courses and lasted a

few hours. Toasts might be made. It was bad manners to put one's elbows

on the table, to sniff the food, to eat too slowly or too quickly, to

scratch, spit, or blow one's nose at the table, or to pick one's teeth

with a toothpick before the dishes were removed. After dinner, the men

drank, smoked, and talked at the table. There was a chamber pot under

the sideboard for their use. Politics was a popular subject. The women

talked together in the drawing room. Later, the men joined the women

for tea and coffee. The evening often finished with card games, reading

newspapers, verse-making, fortune-telling, walks in the garden,

impromptu dancing, perhaps gambling, and supper.

The nobility and gentry became more mobile and now mixed

together at parties. At these afternoon parties, there were a variety

of simultaneous activities, instead of everyone participating in the

same activities together as a group. Guests could choose to engage in

conversation, news, cards, tea-drinking, music, dancing, and even go

into supper at different times. Sometimes a man other than her husband

escorted a lady to a party. Having lovers outside marriage was socially

accepted if discrete.

Single women were discouraged from thinking of their

independent status as desirable. Their single status was to be regarded

as unfortunate. Weddings took place in public in church instead of

privately. There were banns, or announcements, publicized before the

wedding so that anyone who knew of a reason why the marriage should not

take place could speak up. Brides wore a white silk or satin dress with

a train. Over one third of brides who were capable of having children

were already pregnant when they married. In 1753 a marriage statute

required licenses to marry, the consent of parents or guardians for

minors to marry, the calling of banns, and four weeks residence in the

parish where the license was given by bishop or other authority. These

requirements addressed the problems of the kidnapping of heiresses,

prostitutes trapping unwary youths after getting them drunk, and

priests performing marriages clandestinely and not in church, which

required banns. Two witnesses to the marriage were required to sign a

certificate of marriage, which was then to be registered in the parish

books. Manufactured goods relieved ladies from baking of bread,

brewing, and spinning. So they often visited with friends, wrote

letters, embroidered, and supervised the servants.

Funerals ceremonies started with socializing at the house with

refreshments, then going in a procession to the church for burial, and

finally returning to the house for more socializing.

It was possible for a woman-covert to be seized of land in fee

simple or in tail general or special to her separate use, free from

control or intermeddling of her husband.

Houses were warmed in winter by burning coal. Moderate homes

had tent-beds in use, with which cloth was hung on all four sides of

the bed from a light iron framework above the bed. The beds were warmed

with a warming pan heated in a fire before use. There were often bed

bugs and fleas. Everyone wore nightcaps to bed. Pewter tableware was

used, but the poor used tinware instead. Copper, brass, and iron pots

and pans were increasingly common.

Most towns had a regular market once or twice a week. In them,

street cleaning was still a responsibility of individual householders.

Water was still obtained from wells and pumps. There was no municipal

government as such. Public works were done by special commissions set

up for particular purposes, such as lighting, cleaning and paving the

streets, night watchmen, traffic regulation, removing nuisances, and

improving local amenities. Large towns had hospitals for the poor. In

the larger manufacturing towns, there were literary and philosophical

societies for debates and discussions. These put together libraries for

use of their members. Also in these large towns, there were

booksellers' shops, printing houses, weekly newspapers, playhouses,

concerts, and horseracing courses, the latter of which was mostly

patronized by gentlemen. Some private citizens of various towns

followed the example of London and obtained from Parliament the right

to levy a house rate for paving and lighting.

Towns tended to be known for certain specialties, such as

seaside holiday resorts, spas like Bath, cathedral towns, fashionable

shopping for gentry, and towns with certain industries like glass and

china manufacture, pinmaking, pottery, tanning, manufacture of linen,

silk, cotton, and the knitting trade. Certain towns were famous for

certain varieties of wool cloth. Before 1750, a town with more than

5,000 inhabitants was considered a large town. Shopkeeping was

supplanting fairs and markets. Certain industries were done on a large

scale and required workers to be at the same site, e.g. brewing and

distilling; building ships; printing fustians; making paper, soap from

animal fat or candles; coal mining, iron production, mining and

smelting of tin and copper, refining of salt, and digging of clay.

Certain other industries also required some kind of power or team work

for their production, e.g. refining sugar; finishing cloth; making

bricks; glassmaking; manufacture of ropes and sails, and processing of

copper and brass into rods and sheets. Often the manufacturer's house

was surrounded by the many cottages of his workers. There the wife and

children usually were busy carding and spinning. Putting out work and

subcontracting were widespread and created many small-scale

capitalists. Workers' hours were typically 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Though grammar schools were endowed for the education of local

poor boys, they sought fee-paying sons of gentlemen. They taught

arithmetic as well as reading and writing. Translation and reading of

Latin was still important, e.g. Aesop's Fables, Virgil, Cicero's

Letters, Caesar's Commentaries, Horace, Pliny, Juvenal, Ovid, Livy, and

Plautus. The "Eton Grammar" book replaced the "Royal Grammar" as the

standard for Latin and English grammar. The boys lived in boarding

houses superintended by "dames" or older boys. There were usually two

boys to a bed. There was bullying and initiation ceremonies such as

tossing small boys up from a held blanket or having younger boys run

naked in the snow. There were occasional rebellions by the boys and

fights with the townspeople. Flogging with a birch or caning with a rod

until blood was drawn from the bare buttocks was the usual punishment.

There were some national boys' boarding schools such as Eton,

Winchester, and Westminster. In these schools, boys could mix with sons

of rich and powerful people, thus establishing important connections

for their adult life. But there was more bullying of small boys by

large boys at these schools and the smaller boys became menial servants

of their seniors. Occasionally there were student riots. However, most

grammar schools were not residential. Because the grammar schools were

limited to boys, many boarding schools for girls were established.

Tradesmen's daughters were often sent to these to learn to act like

ladies. Most upper class girls were taught, at home or at school,

English, writing, arithmetic, drawing, courtly dancing, needlework,

music, and French. Dissenting academies were established for those who

did not pass the religious tests of the grammar schools. Pencils were

now in use.

Sons of gentlemen usually took "The Grand Tour" of the

continent before going to university. These tours lasted for months or

years, and always included Paris and a Protestant French university.

The students went in groups with tutors. The chief purpose was now

cultural, instead of practical. On these tours there was often

misbehavior such as drinking and fighting. In 1720, Travelers Checks

were developed for those on the Grand Tour.

The universities began to teach science. The new professorships

at Cambridge University were: chemistry, astronomy, experimental

philosophy, anatomy, botany, geology, geometry, and Arabic. Ideas in

geology challenged the Bible's description of the creation of the world

and there was a controversy over the origin and nature of fossils. In

1715, a large pointed weapon of black flint was found in contact with

the bones of an elephant in a gravel bed in London. Oral and written

examinations began to replace disputations. Few professors lectured.

Dissenters were excluded from universities as well as from

offices and grammar schools. Oxford and Cambridge Universities were

open only to members of the Church of England, so other universities

were established for dissenters. They taught geography, mathematics,

science, physics, astronomy, mechanics, hydrostatics, and anatomy. At

Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard Universities, students in science were

relegated to different instructors, buildings, and degree ceremonies

than students in literature, who often looked down on them as socially

and intellectually inferior.

The Inns of Court had ceased to provide residence. The period

of education at law school at the Inns of Court was now reduced in 1760

from seven to five years for ordinary students and to three years for

graduates of Oxford or Cambridge Universities. The textbooks were:

"Doctor and Student" by Christopher Saint-German in 1518 and

"Institutes of the Laws of England" by Thomas Wood in 1720. Most landed

families tried to ensure that at least one member of the family in each

generation was educated at the Inns of Court after going to Oxford or

Cambridge. In 1739, attorneys formed a "Society of Gentlemen

Practitioners in the Courts of Law and Equity". In order to earn a

living, most attorneys had to attach themselves to some great patron

and serve his interests. So it was hard for an ordinary person to find

an impartial attorney or to find any attorney willing to contest a

powerful family.

The first encyclopedia came into existence in 1728. In 1740 was

the first public circulating library in London. Samuel Johnson put

together the first dictionary in 1755. It standardized spelling and

pronunciation. Then came dictionaries for the arts, sciences, and

commerce. There were histories with political biases such as the Earl

of Clarendon's "History of the Great Rebellion". Alexander Pope wrote

witty satire on human faults of the period such as "Rape of the Lock".

Daniel Defoe wrote "Robinson Crusoe", "Moll Flanders", and "The Poor

Man's Plea" protesting disparity of judicial treatment of rich and

poor, for instance for drunkenness. Henry Fielding wrote one of the

first novels: "Tom Jones". Joseph Addison wrote essays on social

behavior. Jonathan Swift wrote the satire on the times, "Gulliver's

Travels". Samuel Richardson wrote some of the first novels, such as

"Clarissa"; he wrote on values such as religious faith, moral virtue,

and family closeness. Catherine Macaulay started writing her weighty

and impressive "History of England". Many schoolmistresses wrote

textbooks on a variety of subjects. Poet and essayist Hester Chapone

wrote "Letters on the Improvement of the Mind". Elizabeth Carter wrote

poetry and translated Greek works; her work was published in "The

Gentleman's Magazine". Hannah More wrote the play "The Inflexible

Captive". The diaries of Caroline Girle Powys Daniel told of her

extensive travels in the nation, and the various life styles of polite

society she visited. Defoe's newspaper was the first great political

journal. He claimed that the people have a right to control the

proceedings of Parliament. Essayists like Richard Steele, who

introduced the periodical essay in his newspaper, and Joseph Addison,

in his newspaper, wrote in a conversational style about the social life

around them and the thoughts and behavior of common men and women in a

light and good-humored way. They separated humor from the old-style

farce and gave it taste and gentility. And with this came a moderation,

reserve, and urbanity in matters of religion, politics, and society.

Religious issues even became a matter of indifference. Fairies,

witches, astrology, and alchemy were no longer taken seriously by

educated men. Tales of fairies, witches, ghosts, and miracles were

deemed appropriate for children. Childrens' stories were becoming a

distinct literary form. Nursery rhymes included "Hush-a-bye baby on the

tree top" and the five little piggies. "Mother Goose's Melody" was

published in 1765. There were picture books for children such as

Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty. Craftsmen made small

models of their wares, such as dolls' china, dolls' furniture, silver,

and flat lead soldiers. Babies had rattles and teething rings.

In 1710 copyrights for books was given for 14 years, renewable

for another 14 years. Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad and

Odyssey made him financially independent. He collected advance payments

from subscribers who would be listed in the book. A new book industry

emerged in London with booksellers as master manufacturers who employed

writers, authors, copyers, and subwriters. Booksellers sold books of

sermons, histories, political and literary satires, literary criticism,

and dictionaries. There was a growing popularity of novels. Books were

expensive to buy. Regular magazines on the new and strange were

published. There were three daily, six weekly, and ten thrice yearly

newspapers. Newspapers increased in number from 8 founded in 1700 to a

total of 25 in 1727. By 1753, there were over a million throughout the

country. Workmen usually began their day by reading a newspaper at a

coffee house.

Authors of books which have been registered at the Stationers

Hall had the sole liberty of printing and reprinting such book for 14

years. Others who printed or sold or published such -forfeited the

books and paid one penny for each sheet found in their custody, 1/2 to

the Queen and 1/2 to the suer. The printer had to give a copy of each

book printed to the Company of Stationers, the Royal Library, the

libraries of the Oxford and Cambridge universities, and certain other

libraries.

In 1775, the two universities in England, the four universities

in Scotland, and the several colleges of Eton, Westminster, and

Winchester were given in perpetuity a copyright in books given or

bequeathed to them.

The British Museum was incorporated to hold the collections of

Robert Cotton of manuscripts, books, records, coins, and medals and of

Hans Sloane, which contained rare books, coins, precious stones,

pictures, plants, and mathematical instruments and had been left to the

public.

Italian opera was introduced in 1706 by Georg Handel on his

visit to England. His music became the standard music of Georgian

England. The Academy of Ancient Music was founded in 1710. It set the

standard of selection and performance. In existence were the violin

(including ones made by Stadivari), viola, cello, double bass, oboe,

trumpet, clarinet, bassoon, trombone, horn, flute, harp, organ,

harpsichord, in which the strings were plucked, and piano, in which the

strings are struck by little hammers. Orchestras had at least thirty

members. Many hymns were written.

Painting by artists developed. Gentlemen had portraits painted

of their horses and dogs as well as of family. Joshua Reynolds painted

the wealth and beauty of England. Painters such as Gainsborough did

landscapes and dramatic history paintings too, but neither of these

sold as well as portraits. Scenery was painted for the theater. Places

of business had signs painted which portrayed animals. Coaches were

painted with mythological creatures and such. Gentlemen collected

antique statuary and painting, such as by Rembrandt and Rubens. In 1711

an academy of painting was founded, which included women painters. The

first public exhibition of paintings was in 1760. The Society of

Artists was formed in 1761 and incorporated by royal charter in 1765.

This differentiated them from the Painter-Stainers Company of face

painters, coach painters, and house painters. The Royal Academy of

London was founded in 1768 to merge all private academies and societies

into one official body and to recognize the best artistic work. Joshua

Reynolds was its first president. It was at first financed by the king.

Under George I, sculptors became distinct from masons. They did

monuments and portrait busts of the royal family, nobles, and great

men. From Italian influence, Palladian architecture came into vogue. It

was typified externally by a panoramic look achieved by horizontal

lines, balanced alternatives of plain wall and openings, and portico

with a heavy pediment like the front of a Roman temple. Stucco was

often used to plaster housefronts, flute columns, and ornament

pediments. Architects took students. Designers of engraved, etched, and

historical prints were given the sole right to print them for 14 years.

Copiers had to forfeit 5s. per print.

Foreigners were now interested in learning about English life,

philosophy, and opinion. They learned English to read English

literature such as Shakespeare. No longer were France and Italy the

only centers of culture and influence on other nations. By 1713,

England was the leading sea power by far.

The Royal Society was still the principal focus of scientific

activity. Issac Newton was its President for several years and drew in

more foreigners. Its members were mathematicians, chemists, botanists,

physicians, engineers, authors, poets, and theologians. Papers given

there generated much discussion at its meetings. Newton opined that

small particles attract each other by some force in a similar way that

large bodies attracted each other. This force in immediate contact was

exceedingly strong and performed chemical interactions, but at greater

distances had no effect. Also there were local associations and

societies. There were learned journals such as "Philosophical

Transactions".

Drovers bought cattle in the countryside, drove them to big

towns, and sold them to fattening graziers or fatted them themselves.

Then they were driven into town and sold to the wholesale butcher, who

sold the carcass to the retail butcher, the hides to the tanner, and

the bones to the glue maker. Flocks of geese were also driven into

towns, after their feet were given a protective covering of tar. There

were also middlemen wholesalers for cheese, butter, cloth, and iron.

There was a rage of distemper among the cattle so serious that

to prevent its spread, the king was authorized by Parliament to make

regulations for prohibiting the removal or sale of cattle and for the

burial of distempered cattle. Later, the king was authorized to

prohibit the killing of cow calves. No one was to sell any ox, bull,

cow, calf, steer, or heifer until he had possession of such for forty

days or else forfeit ten pounds, Later, the king was authorized to

regulate the movement of cattle from one place to another.

The main industry of the country was still agriculture. In the

countryside, about half the arable land was under the open field

system, in which land was cultivated in common. Enclosures of land were

still taking place. The enclosures were now done by statutory

commissions to ensure equitable allotments.

Agricultural improvements came first to enclosed land, which

comprised about half of the agricultural land. In the 1733, Jethro Tull

published a book about his 1701 invention of the seed-drill to first

pulverize the soil for cultivation without manure and then to deposit

seed at a uniform depth in regulated quantities and in rows instead of

being thrown haphazardly. Also explained was the horse-hoe to stir the

soil about the roots of the plants to preserve moisture, promote

aeration, admit warmth, and destroy weeds. There were more horses than

oxen in use now in the fields. -The horse-hoe was first used by large

independent farmers on enclosed land. Also invented was a threshing

machine with a set of sticks to replace hand threshing with flails.

Under-drainage as well as irrigation was practiced. Lord Townshend

alternated turnips, grasses, and grain in his fields, and thus provided

winter food for his cattle. The two-field crop rotation with fallow

periods was often displaced by the three-field system rotating grain

crops, legumes, and fallowness. Independent farming gave rise to the

improvement of breeds of livestock by selective breeding.

Enclosed land produced 26 bushels of grain compared to 18

bushels for common field land. It produced 9 pounds of sheep fleece

compared to 3 1/2 pounds for common field land. Overall, soils were

improved by being treated with clay, chalk, or lime. Artificial pasture

was extended and there was increased use of clover, sainfoin, and

rye-grass. Grain productivity was four times that of 1200. A fatted ox

was 800 pounds compared to the former 400 pounds which it weighed from

the 1300s to the 1600s. The fleece of sheep increased fourfold.

By statute of 1756, persons having rights of common in certain

land may, by the major part in number and in value of each's tenement,

enclose such land for planting and growth of timber or underwood.

Every village had a smith, carpenter, and miller. The larger

villages also had a potter, a turner, a malster, a weaver, a tanner,

and perhaps a mercer or grocer middleman. Wheelwrights made ploughs,

harrows, carts, and wagons. Ploughs had one, two, or no wheels. Poor

farming families took up extra work in the villages such as making

gloves, knitting stockings, or spinning yarn. Craftsmen still helped

farmers at harvest time.

Much of the rural population was now dispersed over the

countryside instead of being concentrated in villages because so many

small holders had sold out due to enclosures of farm land, especially

of common land and waste land. The rural working class lived in two

room cottages, with low ceilings, small windows, and an earth floor.

Patience was required for those willing to wait for an existing cottage

in a village to be vacated. Most laborers did not marry unless and

until they found a cottage. Ancient custom that a person could build a

home for himself on waste land if he did it in one night was ceasing to

be respected. Farmers usually preferred employing day-laborers than

keeping servants. There were many migrant workers, mainly from Ireland,

for the busy summer haymaking and harvesting.

The children of laborers and of small farmers had little

schooling because they were needed for work. They scared the birds,

weeded the fields, picked the stones, tended the poultry, set beans,

combed the wool, and collected the rushes and dipped them in the tallow.

Farm people relied on well water or rain water collected in

lead cisterns. A farmhouse fireplace had pots hung from iron rods.

Saucepans sat on iron stands, which were stored above the mantel when

not in use. Spits were rotated by pulleys powered by the upward current

of hot air or by a mechanical device. Bacon was smoked in the chimney

accessible by a staircase or upper floor.

There still existed customary freeholders, who owned their land

subject to certain customary obligations to the lord of a manor.

The people displaced by enclosure became laborers dependent on

wages or paupers. Their discontent was expressed in this poem:

- "They hang the man and flog the woman - - That steals a goose from

off the common - - But leave the greater criminal loose - - That steals

the common from the goose."

Eventually there was some relief given to the poor workers. By

statute of 1773, wastes, commons, and fields having several owners with

different interests might by three-quarters vote in number and in value

of the occupiers cultivate such for up to six years. However, cottagers

and those with certain sheep walks, or cattle pasture, could not be

excluded from their rights of common. By statute of 1776, the

Elizabethan statute restricting locations where cottages could be

erected and their inhabitants was repealed because the industrious poor

were under great difficulties to procure habitations.

Land could be rented out at ten times the original value. Land

was typically rented out for 7, 14, or 21 years. Great fortunes were

made by large landowners who built grand country estates. The

manufacturers and merchants made much money, but agriculture was still

the basis of the national wealth. As the population grew, the number of

people in the manufacturing classes was almost that of the

agriculturalists, but they had at least twice the income of the

agriculturalists.

The greatest industry after agriculture was cloth. Most of this

activity took places in the homes, but families could earn more if each

family member was willing to exchange the informality of domestic work

for the long hours and harsh discipline of the factory or workshop.

More wool was made into cloth in the country. Dyed and finished wool

cloth and less raw wool and unfinished broadcloth, was exported.

Bleaching was done by protracted washing and open-air drying in "bleach

fields". There were great advances in the technology of making cloth.

Thomas Lombe, the son of a weaver, became a mercer and merchant

in London. He went to Italy to discover their secret in manufacturing

silk so inexpensively. He not only found his way in to see their silk

machines, but made some drawings and sent them to England hidden in

pieces of silk. He got a patent in 1718 and he and his brother set up a

mill using water power to twist together the silk fibers from the

cocoons into thread -in 1719. His factory was five hundred feet long

and about five stories high. One water wheel worked the vast number of

parts on the machines. The machines inside were very tall, cylindrical

in shape, and rotated on vertical axes. Several rows of bobbins, set on

the circumference, received the threads, and by a rapid rotary movement

gave them the necessary twist. At the top the thrown silk was

automatically wound on a winder, all ready to be made into hanks

[coils] for sale. The workman's chief task was to reknot the threads

whenever they broke. Each man was in charge of sixty threads. There

were three hundred workmen. Lombe made a fortune of 120,000 pounds and

was knighted and made an alderman of London. After his patent expired

in 1732, his mill became the prototype for later cotton and wool

spinning mills in the later 1700s. There were many woolen manufacture

towns. Clothiers might employ up to three thousand workers. At these,

the spinning was done by unskilled labor, especially women and children

in villages and towns. Weaving, wool combing, and carding were skilled

occupations.

In 1733, clockmaker and weaver John Kay invented a flying

shuttle for weaving. It was fitted with small wheels and set in a kind

of wooden groove. On either side there were two wooden hammers hung on

horizontal rods to give the shuttle and to and fro action. The two

hammers were bound together by two strings attached to a single handle,

so that with one hand the shuttle could be driven either way. With a

sharp tap by the weaver, first one and then the other hammer moved on

its rod. It hit the shuttle, which slid along its groove. At the end of

each rod there was a spring to stop the hammer and replace it in

position. The flying shuttle doubled the weavers' output. Now the

broadest cloth could be woven by one man instead of two. This shuttle

was used in a machine for cotton. But the manufacturers who used the

flying shuttle combined together and refused to pay royalties to Kay,

who was ruined by legal expenses. Now the price of thread rose because

of increased demand for it. The weavers, who had to pay the spinners,

then found it hard to make a living. But the process of spinning was

soon to catch up.

In 1738, John Wyatt, a ship's carpenter who also invented the

harpoon shot from a gun, patented a spinning machine whereby carded

wool or cotton was joined together to make a long and narrow mass. One

end of this mass was drawn in between a pair of rotating rollers, of

which one surface was smooth and the other rough, indented, or covered

with leather, cloth, shagg, hair, brushes, or points of metal. From

here, the mass went between another set of rollers, which were moving

faster than the first pair. This stretched the mass and drew it into

any degree of fineness of thread by adjusting the speed of the second

pair of rollers. Then the thread went by a flier, which twisted it.

After this the thread was wound off onto spindles or bobbins, whose

rotation was regulated by the faster pair of rollers. Or the mass could

be drawn by rotating spindles directly from one pair of rollers. This

machine was worked by two donkeys and was tended by ten female workers.

Because of bankruptcy in 1742, the invention was sold to Edward Cave,

the editor of "Gentleman's Magazine". He set up a workshop with five

machines, each fitted with fifty spindles and worked by water wheels.

Carding was done by cylindrical carding machines invented by Lewis Paul.

In 1764, the plant was bought by carpenter and weaver James

Hargreaves. He was watching his wife spin when the spinning wheel

tipped over onto its side. It continued to revolve, while the thread,

held between two fingers, seemed to be spinning itself, even though the

spindle was in a vertical instead of a horizontal position. It occurred

to him that a large number of vertical spindles arranged side by side

could be turned by the same wheel and that, therefore, many threads

could be spun at once. He named his machine the "the Jenny" after his

wife. This "spinning Jenny" could spin a hundred threads at a time. He

patented it about 1770. The machine consisted of a rectangular frame on

four legs. At one end was a row of vertical spindles. Across the frame

were two parallel wooden rails, lying close together, which were

mounted on a sort of carriage and slid backwards and forwards as

desired. The cotton, which had been previously carded, stretched, and

twisted passed between the two rails and then was wound on spindles.

With one hand the spinner worked the carriage backwards and forwards,

and with the other he turned the handle which worked the spindles. In

this way, the thread was drawn and twisted at the same time. The jenny

did the work of about 30 spinning wheels. No longer did it take ten

spinners to keep one weaver busy. But manufacturers refused to pay him

royalties for his invention. He was offered 3,000 pounds for his rights

in the jenny, but refused it. The courts held that the model of his

jenny had been used in industry before it was patented and any rights

he may have had were declared to have lapsed. Nevertheless, he made

over 4,000 pounds. The spinning jenny was used in many homes.

Richard Arkwright came from a poor family and was taught to

read by an uncle. He became a barber and made wigs. He taught himself

crafts necessary to invent and patent in 1769 a spinning frame worked

by a water wheel, which he called a" water frame". He strengthened

cotton thread by adding rollers to the spinning process which were able

to strengthen the cotton thread and make it of even thickness so that

it could be used instead of costly linen as the warp. With capital from

two rich hosiers, he set up a workshop next to a swift and powerful

river running down a narrow gorge. Then he turned his attention to

weaving this thread with multiple spinning wheels in the first

practical cotton mill factory. In 1773, he set up weaving workshops

making pure cotton calicoes which were as good as Indian calicoes. This

was the first all-cotton cloth made in England. He had confronted and

solved the problem of a statute of 1721 which proscribed wearing or

using printed, painted, stained or dyed calicoes e.g. in apparel, bed,

chair, cushion, window curtain, and furniture, except those dyed all in

blue, or else forfeit 20 pounds by a seller, 5 pounds by a wearer, and

20 pounds by other users. The purpose was to provide wool-working jobs

to the poor, whose numbers had been increasing excessively because of

lack of work. Arkwright argued that the statute should not include

printed or painted cloth made in Great Britain in its ancient tradition

of fustians with an all linen warp for strength and a cotton weft for

fineness. This statute was so "clarified" in 1735. When wool-weavers

had expressed their opposition to imported printed cottons and calicoes

by tearing them off people, a statute of 1720 provided that any one who

willfully and maliciously assaulted a person in the public streets or

highways with an intent to tear, spoil, cut, burn, or deface the

garments or clothes of such person and carried this out was guilty of

felony punishable by transportation for seven years. The prohibition

against the manufacture and wearing and using of pure cotton fabrics

came to an end in 1774 on arguments of Arkwright made to Parliament

that his pure cottons would bleach, print, wash and wear better than

fustians.

In 1775, Arkwright added machines to do work prefatory to

spinning. Raw cotton was first fed by a sloping hose to a feeder that

was perpetually revolving. From here it went a carding machine of three

rollers of different diameters covered with bent metal teeth. The

first, with teeth bent in the direction of its revolution, caught up

the cotton fibers. The second, revolving in the same direction but much

faster, carded the fibers into the requisite fineness by contact with

the third, whose teeth and motion were in the opposite direction. Next,

a crank and comb detached the carded cotton so that it came off as a

continuous ribbon. Then the ribbon went into a revolving cone, which

twisted it on itself. Eventually Arkwright became rich from his

creation of the modern factory, which was widely copied. He established

discipline in his mills and he made his presence felt everywhere there,

watching his men and obtaining from them the steadiest and most careful

work. He provided housing and services to attract workers.

After cotton, the inventions of the spinning jenny and the

water- powered frame were applied to wool. Silk and cotton manufacture

led the way in using new machinery because they were recently imported

industries so not bound down by tradition and legal restraint. Yarn

production so improved that weavers became very prosperous. Cards with

metal teeth challenged the use of wood and horn cards with thistles on

them in carding wool. Merchants who traveled all over the world and saw

new selling opportunities, and therefore kept encouraging the

manufacturers to increase their production and improve their methods.

Factory owners united to present suggestions to Parliament.

Manufacturing broke loose from traditional confines in several

ways. To avoid the monopolistic confines of chartered towns, many

entrepreneurs set up new industries in Birmingham or Manchester, which

grew enormously. Manchester had no municipal corporation and was still

under the jurisdiction of a manor court. It sent no representative to

the House of Commons. All over the country the Justices of the Peace

had largely ceased regulating wages, especially in the newer industries

such as cotton, where apprenticeship was optional. Apprenticeship

lapsed in many industries, excepting the older crafts. Several legal

decisions had declared seven years practice of a trade as good as an

apprenticeship.

Apprentices still lived in their masters' houses and were still

treated as family members. The regulations of the Cutlers' Company

remained in force as its masters used their great manual skill to make

cutlery in their own homes with the help of their children and

apprentices. Trades in some towns which had guild regulations that had

the force of law hung on to their customs with difficulty.

Although there were few large factories in the country under

effective management of a capitalist, trade unionism was beginning as

two distinct classes of men were being formed in factories. The factory

owner was so high above his workmen that he found himself on the same

level as other capitalists, the banker, who gave him credit, and the

merchant, who gave him customers. Journeymen in factories could no

longer aspire to become masters of their trade and no longer socialized

with their employers. Hard and fast rules replaced the freedom of the

small workshops. Each worker had his allotted place and his strictly

defined and invariable duty. Everyone had to work, steadily and without

stopping, under the vigilant eye of a foreman who secured obedience by

means of fines, physical means, or dismissals. Work started, meals were

eaten, and work stopped at fixed hours, signaled by the ringing of a

bell. Factory hours were typically fourteen hours or more. Organized

resistance, as usual, began not with those most ill-treated, but with

those men who had some bargaining power through their skills.

Wool-combers, who worked next to a charcoal stove where they

heated the teeth of the comb, were the most skilled of the cloth

industry were hard to replace. Since they were nomadic, they quickly

organized nation-wide. They agreed that if any employer hired a comber

not in their organization, none of them would work for him. They also

would beat up and destroy the comb-pot of the outsider. In 1720 and

1749, the Tiverton wool-combers objected to the import of combed wool

from Ireland by burning Irish wool in clothiers' stores and attacking

several houses. They had strike funds and went on strike in 1749. Their

bloody brawls caused the military to intervene. Then many of them left

town in a body, harming the local industry. The earnings of

wool-combers was high, reaching from 10s. to 12s. a week in 1770, the

highest rate of a weaver.

In 1716, the Colchester weavers accused their employers of

taking on too many apprentices. When the weavers organized and sought

to regulate the weaving trade, a statute was passed in 1725 making

their combinations void. Strike offenses such as housebreaking and

destruction of goods or personal threats had penalties of

transportation for seven years. Still in 1728, the Gloucester weavers

protested against men being employed who had not served their

apprenticeship.

When the journeymen tailors in and around London organized a

union, a statute made their agreements entering into combinations to

advance their wages to unreasonable prices and to lessen their usual

hours of work, illegal and void, because this had encouraged idleness

and increased the number of poor. Tailors' wages were not to exceed 2s.

per day and their hours of work were to be 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the

next three months, and 1s.8d. per day for the rest of the year. A

master tailor paying more would forfeit 5 pounds. A journeyman

receiving more was sent to the House of Correction for 2 months.

Justices of the Peace could still alter these wages and hours depending

on local scarcity or plenty. Despite this statute, the journeymen

tailors complained to Parliament of their low wages and lack of work

due to their masters calling them to work only about half the year.

There was much seasonal fluctuation in their trade as there was in all

trades. The slack period for the tailors was the winter, when the

people of fashion retired to their country estates. After their

complaint, their wages then rose from 1s.10d. per day in 1720, to

1s.8d.- 2s. in 1721, to 2s.- 2s.6d. in 1751, to 2s.2d.- 2s.6d. in 1763,

to up to 2s.7 1/2 d. in 1767, and to 3s. in 1775. Foremen were excluded

from wage control. When they complained of their long hours, which were

two hours longer than the 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. of most handicraft trades,

their hours were reduced in 1767 by one hour to 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and

their pay was set at 6d. per hour for overtime work at night during

periods of general mourning, e.g. mourning for a deceased courtier.

Their work hours were lowered another hour to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in 1768.

The stocking frame-knitters guild, which had been chartered in

1663, went on strike to protest the use of workhouse children as an

abuse of apprenticeship which lowered their wages. They broke many of

their frames, which belonged to their employers, to limit their number.

In 1749, combinations to advance wages, decrease hours of work,

or regulate prices were declared void for journeymen dyers, journeyman

hot pressers, all wool workers, brickmakers and tilemakers, journeymen

servants, workmen, laborers, felt and hat makers, and silk, linen,

cotton, iron, leather, and fur workers in and around London. The

penalty was prison or hard labor at a House of Correction for three

months without bail. In 1756, Justices of the Peace were to determine

the rates of wages of wool workers according to numbers of yards. But

this was repealed the next year to prevent combinations of workers.

Wage agreements between clothiers and weavers were declared binding.

Clothiers not paying wages within two days of delivery of work

forfeited 40s.

In 1763 the silk weavers in east London drew up a scale of

wages, and upon its being rejected, 2000 of them broke their tools,

destroyed the materials, and left their workshops. A battalion of

guards had to take possession of the area. In 1765, the silk weavers

marched on Westminster to stop the import of French silks. In 1768, the

weavers rebelled against a 4d. per yard reduction in their wages,

filling the streets in riotous crowds and pillaging houses. After the

garrison of the Tower came, the workmen resisted with cudgels and

cutlasses, resulting in deaths and woundings. The throwsters [those who

pulled the silk fibers from the cocoons of the silk worms and twisted

them together to make a thread] and the handkerchief weavers also

became discontent. A battle between soldiers and silk weavers at their

meeting place resulted in several men on both sides being killed. In

1773, wages and prices for the work of journeymen silk weavers in and

around London were designated to be regulated by the Mayor and Justices

of the Peace. Foremen were excluded. No silk weaver could have more

than two apprentices or else forfeit 20 pounds. Journeymen weavers

entering into combinations forfeited 40s. This statute satisfied the

weavers, but they formed a union to ensure that it was followed.

In 1750, 1761, and 1765, there were strikes which stopped the

work of the coal industry and harbor at Newcastle for weeks. In 1763,

the keelmen formed a combination to force their employers to use the

official measure fixed by statute for the measurement of loads of coals.

The book "Consideration upon the East-India Trade" dating from

1701 advocated free foreign trade. It argued that the import of goods

from India not only benefited the consumer but also the nation, because

it was a waste of labor to use it in producing goods which could be

bought cheap abroad. This labor could be better put to use at easily

learned plain work in the new industries. Also the low cost of imported

goods would motivate the invention of machines in the nation which

would be even more efficient in manufacturing these goods. But English

manufacturers were still suspicious of free trade.

Making beer and distilling gin from barley were widespread. The

pastimes of gambling and drinking were popular with all classes. In the

trades, this was promoted by the uncertainties of life and work and a

general sense of instability. Many London tradesmen started their day

with a breakfast of beer, bread, and cheese, the traditional breakfast

of countrymen. Gambling and dissipation reduced some London men with

good businesses to destitution, the work house, or street begging.

Drunken gentlemen played pranks such as imitating a woman in distress

or throwing a person in a horse trough. Some innkeepers had "straw

houses" where customers who were so drunk they were unable to walk home

could sleep in fresh straw. A person could get drunk for a few pence.

Gambling with cards was a popular pastime after dinner. Cricket matches

were played by all classes instead of just by humbler people; there

were county cricket matches. Gentlemen often took their coachmen with

them to public events such as cricket matches. Tennis was a sport of

the wealthy classes. Billiards, chess, and games with cards or dice

were played, especially in alehouses. There was horse racing on any

open ground to which people brought their horses to race. Jockeys tried

to unseat each other. Hunting of rabbits and then foxes replaced deer

hunting. Bird and duck hunting was usually with flint lock guns instead

of hawks, as the hedges provided cover from hawks. There was fishing

with line, hook, and bait. Watching the hanging of felons, about 35 a

year in London, was popular, as was going to Bedlam to watch for a fee

the insane being flogged. People went to the Tower to try to get a

glance at a famous prisoner looking through a window or taking a walk

along the battlements. Besides the grand pleasure gardens for gentry,

there were lesser pleasure gardens in London for working families,

which offered fresh air, tea, beer, swimming, fishing, courting,

bowling, and cheap entertainment. Running, vaulting, and leaping were

still popular in the countryside. Fairs had amusements such as fire

swallowers, ventriloquists, puppet shows, acrobats, jugglers, animal

performances, pantomimes, boxing, dwarfs, and albinos, but less

trading. In 1769 was the first circus. Circuses included feats of

horsemanship and clowns. There was also eating and drinking

competitions, foot races, football, archery, some wrestling, and some

bowling on greens or alleys. In winter there was ice skating with

blades and sliding. The right of public access to St. James Park became

entrenched by the 1700s. There was sailing, rowing, swimming, and

hopscotch. George III made sea-bathing popular and it was supposed to

be good for one's health. There was steeple chasing as of 1752.

Horse-racing was given rules. On Sunday, there was no singing, music

playing, dancing, or games, but the Bible was read aloud, prayers were

said, and hymns were sung. Sabbath-breakers were fined by magistrates.

Men often spent Sunday in a tavern.

In general, commodity prices were stable. But when harvests

were poor, such as in 1709 when there was famine, and between 1765 and

1775, bread prices rose. The price of wheat in London, which since 1710

had been between 25s. and 45s., rose to 66s. in 1773. Then the poor

engaged in food riots. These riots were often accompanied by mob

violence, burning, and looting of grain mills, shops, and markets. The

English economy was so dependent on foreign trade, which had trebled

since the 1710s, that the slightest disturbance in the maritime trade

threatened the English with starvation. In many localities the men in

need of parochial relief were sent around from one farm to another for

employment, part of their wages being paid from the poor rates. The

poor often went from parish to parish seeking poor relief. Settled

people tended to fear wandering people. Parishes sought to keep down

their poor rates by devices such as removing mothers in labor lest the

infant be born in the parish. So a statute was passed that a child born

to a wandering woman could not have the place of birth as his

settlement, but takes the same settlement as his mother. Another device

to prevent others from establishing settlement in a parish was for its

farmers to hire laborers for only fifty-one weeks. Also, some

apprentices were bound by means other than indenture to avoid

settlement. Laborers who came to work in industries were refused

settlement and sent back to their original parishes whenever they

seemed likely to become dependent on the rates. Statutes then provided

that a parish must give settlement to apprentices bound for forty days

there, not only by indenture, but by deed, writings, or contracts not

indented. In 1722, parishes were authorized to purchase houses in which

to lodge or employ the poor and to contract with any person for the

lodging, keeping, maintaining, and employing of the poor. These persons

could take the benefit of the work, labor, and service of these poor,

which was then used for the relief of other poor. The poor refusing

such lodging could not then get relief. Many of the poor starved to

death. The propertied classes turned a blind eye to the predicament of

the poor, opining that they were idle or could save more and did not

need higher earnings.

Charitable organizations gave to the poor and set up all day

Sunday schools to set wayward children on a moral path. The Sunday

schools could accommodate children who worked during the week.

Punishment of children by parents or others could be by whipping or

even sitting in stocks. About half of the people were dependent on poor

relief or charities.

Desertion by a man of his family was a common offense. Parishes

providing upkeep for the family sent men to find the errant husbands.

The parish would ask unmarried mothers who was the father of their

child and then force him to marry her or pay for the upkeep of the

child. He often made a bargain with the parish to release him of his

obligation for a sum of money paid to the parish. But many young parish

children died of neglect, and later, parishes were required to list

children under four to aid in accounting for them. Divorces were still

few and expensive, but increasing in number; there were more 60 in this

period. It was easier for a man to get a divorce for one act of

adultery by his wife, than for a wife to get one for habitual

unfaithfulness.

Vagrants and other offenders could be committed to Houses of

Correction as well as to county gaols, because of the expense of the

latter.

Crime was exacerbated by orgies of liquor drinking by the

common people, especially between 1730 and 1750, the sale of which did

not have to be licensed as did ale. In 1736, it was required that

retailers of brandy, rum, and other distilled spirituous liquors be

licensed and to pay 50 pounds a year for their license, because

excessive use had been detrimental to health, rendering persons unfit

for useful labor and business, debauching their morals, and inciting

them to vices. Only persons keeping public victualing houses, inns,

coffee houses, alehouses or brandy shops who exercised no other trade

were allowed to obtain a license. This excluded employers who had sold

liquors to their journeymen, workmen, servants, and laborers at

exorbitant prices. Street vendors who sold liquors had to forfeit 10

pounds. A duty of 20s. per gallon was imposed on the retailers. There

were riots in London against this statute and its new duties. There had

been a tremendous growth in liquor drinking, which did not stop but

went underground after this statute. In 1753, a penalty of 10 pounds or

hard labor for two months was made for selling spirituous liquors

without a license. Also licenses were restricted to people who were

certified by four reputable and substantial householders to be of good

fame and sober life and conversation. Sellers had to maintain good

order in their premises or else forfeit 10 pounds. About 1754 only

innkeepers, victualers, and vendors paying rent of at least 200

shillings could sell gin at retail. The punishment for the second

offense was whipping and imprisonment. That for the third offense was

transportation out of the country. In 1751, additional duties were

placed on spirituous liquors to discourage immoderate drinking going on

by people of the meanest and lowest sort to the detriment of the health

and morals of the common people. In 1761, these duties were again

raised. In 1768, officers were authorized to seize all horses, cattle,

and carriages used to transport foreign spirituous liquors for which

duties had been evaded. In 1773, the penalty for selling without a

license was raised to 50 pounds, which could not be mitigated below 5

pounds. Half the forfeiture was to go to the suer.

The informer system for enforcing laws had its drawbacks.

Informers were not trained and were sometimes retaliated against for

informing. Sometimes this meant being tortured to death. Sometimes

there were schemes in which a leader of thieves, would take a profit in

the stolen goods by posing as a good citizen who tracked down and

returned them to the owners for a fee. Also he might inform on his

companions to get the reward for informing or to punish a troublesome

one. Sometimes the owner of goods was involved in a fake robbery. An

effort in 1749 to turn the whole haphazard system of informers, into a

specialized organization for the detection and apprehension of

criminals had caused a mob to form and make threats. Englishmen

associated a police force with French tyranny. Nevertheless, about

1750, Sir John Fielding, a Bow Street magistrate, and his half-brother

picked men to police the street under the direct control of the Bow

Street magistrates. This first police district made an impact on the

increasing violence of the times. In 1753, a proposal before Parliament

to have a national census was also defeated by public fear of liberty

being curtailed by having to make account of the number and

circumstances of one's family and giving out information that could be

used by enemies both in the realm and abroad.