Can any one tell me if a farm bailiff had to be able to read and write in the 1870s? My grt gr father put down on his marriage cert in 1874 that his father was farm bailiff, I know he could not write as he sign his marriages register with his mark and also when registering the birth of one of his children, he did the same thing. Was Henry trying to make out he was better then the family he was marring into? Sheila.