In a message dated 24/08/2004 10:57:46 GMT Daylight Time, DMHolden@ntlworld.com writes: Was there a training school in Dumfries for Drapers? No but many young men from the Galoway region were recruited as drapers. A founder member of the D and G FHS has studied this and below are the sketchy notes I took during a recent talk on the subject he gave to the society........... there are other notes on the talk in the recent society newsletter, and articles on the subject in previous newsletters Innes had used the Dumfries and Welsh newspapers as sources ...plenty of adverts ...... looking for young 17-20 years old men of farming stock and used to the hard physical work of agriculture (because they had to carry bales of cloth on a round that might be 10 or 12 miles long) to become scotch drapers and tea dealers ..tea because it had such a high profit margin. The young men went off all over England but heaviest concentration in Lancashire and Methyr Tydfil.... biggest town in Wales in early 19th century. Whitechapel in London. Many came from the Glenkens area and Balmaclellan. Wages offered were £7-£10 per annum in the 1840s to about £20-25 in the 1850s and 60s + board and lodging and often clothes at cost price. Sometimes instead of wages they were offered a promise to set them up in business at the end of the 3 years. Often those advertising for young men were the older successful ones who'd started off the same way but now had acquired several 'rounds' and employed the young men to do the actual physical walking round with the goods. They wanted sturdy, sober (even teetotal) young men, not older than about 21, and definitely with no previous experience of being a draper. And adequate education ..basic writing and arithmetic ....not over educated. Because the business was run on credit and with illiterate customers there were lots of opportunities for fiddling and embezzlement...so no-one who might have the experience or the intelligence to do this was wanted. One chap was sacked for having an Irish mother. They would have to apply by letter to England or perhaps to local agent ...often schoolmaster or innkeeper. If successful they would probably walk to their new job..... or possibly take a ship to Liverpool..but stage coach would be too expensive. Successful ones, after working for 10 years or so and recruiting others to work for them, could acquire enough money to buy a farm ..not unusual to have made £2000 in the 1820s and 30s and even £5000 in the 1870s. There were quite a few newspaper reports of exhorbitant rates of interest and excessive profits...led to the formation of the Scotch Drapers Association ..to defend the trade against such attacks. Irene

Hi Irene and all, Thanks so much for that piece of information and history. It was of great interest to me, too as my g grandfather was a draper in Preston, Lancashire. He left Annan when he was 21 years of age. He'd been brought up on a farm outside Annan. Truly Grateful, Maureen POOL HOPE THOMSON SCOTT MACKIE FARISH in Annan. Was there a training school in Dumfries for Drapers? No but many young men from the Galoway region were recruited as drapers. A founder member of the D and G FHS has studied this and below are the sketchy notes I took during a recent talk on the subject he gave to the society........... there are other notes on the talk in the recent society newsletter, and articles on the subject in previous newsletters Innes had used the Dumfries and Welsh newspapers as sources ...plenty of adverts ...... looking for young 17-20 years old men of farming stock and used to the hard physical work of agriculture (because they had to carry bales of cloth on a round that might be 10 or 12 miles long) to become scotch drapers and tea dealers ..tea because it had such a high profit margin. The young men went off all over England but heaviest concentration in Lancashire and Methyr Tydfil.... biggest town in Wales in early 19th century. Whitechapel in London. Many came from the Glenkens area and Balmaclellan. Wages offered were £7-£10 per annum in the 1840s to about £20-25 in the 1850s and 60s + board and lodging and often clothes at cost price. Sometimes instead of wages they were offered a promise to set them up in business at the end of the 3 years. Often those advertising for young men were the older successful ones who'd started off the same way but now had acquired several 'rounds' and employed the young men to do the actual physical walking round with the goods. They wanted sturdy, sober (even teetotal) young men, not older than about 21, and definitely with no previous experience of being a draper. And adequate education ..basic writing and arithmetic ....not over educated. Because the business was run on credit and with illiterate customers there were lots of opportunities for fiddling and embezzlement...so no-one who might have the experience or the intelligence to do this was wanted. One chap was sacked for having an Irish mother. They would have to apply by letter to England or perhaps to local agent ...often schoolmaster or innkeeper. If successful they would probably walk to their new job..... or possibly take a ship to Liverpool..but stage coach would be too expensive. Successful ones, after working for 10 years or so and recruiting others to work for them, could acquire enough money to buy a farm ..not unusual to have made £2000 in the 1820s and 30s and even £5000 in the 1870s. There were quite a few newspaper reports of exhorbitant rates of interest and excessive profits...led to the formation of the Scotch Drapers Association ..to defend the trade against such attacks. Irene ______________________________