Occupation?

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Derek Jempson
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Occupation?

Postby Derek Jempson » Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:31 am

One of my hobbies is genealogy, and I am usually pretty good at deciphering old documents, but I am really stuck on this one. This clipping is from the 1841 Census and shows my wife's great-great-great grandfather, Edward Edwards with his family in a property in St. Mary's Terrace on the West Hill, Hastings. What is causing me problems is Edward's occupation (sixth column from the left). It's a very simple word that to me looks like "Marina", but that isn't an occupation. It could be "Mariner", but I think that would be unlikely - most males in Hastings at that time were labourers of one kind or another. Not only that, if you look at the capital "M" in Mary in the third column on the left, you can see that it is entirely different. So, maybe it's a "K", or an "H", but what would the word be then - any ideas?


1841.jpg

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Derek Jempson
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Re: Occupation?

Postby Derek Jempson » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:59 am

P.S. Ignore the long downstroke - I think that was added accidentally later.

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ColinL
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Re: Occupation?

Postby ColinL » Tue Aug 22, 2017 11:41 am

Hi Derek
I have looked at the image on FMP and it certainly looks like 'Marina' to me, albeit with an incorrect spelling; not unusual for census compilers at the time. It could have been that he was employed on merchant ships rather than being local when the description would have been fisherman. His 1851 entry describes him as a labourer when living in Long Field on the West Hill

I note that his abode in 1841 was described as St Mary's Place, St Mary's Terrace. Not sure what bit that would have been. Sorry not able to be more specific

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ColinL
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Re: Occupation?

Postby ColinL » Tue Aug 22, 2017 12:30 pm

I have thought of an alternative way of checking. In 1841 his daughter was 20 if she married sometime later, but before 1851 when Edward was a labourer, then the his occupation will be given on the marriage cert

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Derek Jempson
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Re: Occupation?

Postby Derek Jempson » Tue Aug 22, 2017 1:37 pm

I hadn't though of that, but unfortunately, it looks as if Sarah died unmarried at the age of 33. However, Amelia married in 1845. The registry index of course doesn't give her father's occupation - looks like it might be a ten pound spend to get a copy of the certificate!

Thanks also for the other thoughts. I knew about Edward's occupation in 1851, which is partly why I dismissed something as exotic as "Mariner" ten years earlier. Also, if he really was a mariner, he probably wouldn't have been present on the night of the census.

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Richard
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Re: Occupation?

Postby Richard » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:13 pm

There was a class of Marines listed as 'working onshore' and in that case he may have been present on the day/night time of the census?

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Derek Jempson
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Re: Occupation?

Postby Derek Jempson » Wed Aug 23, 2017 9:23 am

Indeed there was, and still is, apparently. Bearing in mind that Edward was 45 at the time, he may well have retired from active duty ten years later, taking on labouring work to keep a roof over his head.

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ColinL
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Re: Occupation?

Postby ColinL » Wed Aug 23, 2017 1:50 pm

An interesting snippet from the Observer from 1889 about the boat building industry of Hastings indicating the mariners that were based in the town in the early part of the century operated on local ships. Seamen would probably be required to deliver new boats to the ports from which they would operate. Much of the essential goods that were imported to Hastings were transported by sea given the fact that the two roads to London were rutted tracks
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BoatBuilding.JPG

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Derek Jempson
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Re: Occupation?

Postby Derek Jempson » Wed Aug 23, 2017 3:29 pm

That's another interesting line of thought, so quite possibly, he was involved in the delivery of new boats, which wouldn't have taken him out of the town for months at a time. He might even have had long periods at home earning a living by other means.

We tend to forget about Hastings history as a seafaring port. Mention the sea these days and everyone thinks about the fishing industry.

Poring over old records is fascinating, but it really only gives a little snapshot of what was going on, and it's all too easy to make false assumptions.

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ColinL
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Re: Occupation?

Postby ColinL » Wed Aug 23, 2017 4:35 pm

I am wasting much too much time!

But anyway, Thwaites & Winter were a boat builders at what is now Pelham Place. It seems that quite large boats were made there. Although this was in a Brighton paper I assume they did not have a yard there
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Thwaites & Winter.JPG


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