________________________________ Original From: J GOULD <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, 31 October, 2008 17:10:59 Subject: Re: [GLS] keepers Rural Gloucestershire to the cities <Farmers tended to be better educated than the hoi polloi. They needed this to be able to run the farm and sell their produce.  Jeff   Dar All As regards "Farmers" and "Ag Labs" it is necessary to consider the timeline. Almost every villager was a "Farmer" to some extent, before enclosure and subsequent "purchase" of villagers land to consolidate holdings, thus making the the villager "Farmer" a servant or Ag Lab of the wealthy man who had built up a large holding. When you look at your family trees and see 12, 14, 20 children of a man described in the 1841 Census as a "Farmer" and 10 years later "Farmer of 200 acres employing 6 men", consider: if these 6 men are his sons, on his death, how much land will each have? Very often it all went to the eldest, who is subsequently described as "Farmer" and the others become "Ag Labs" And what of the next generation?  If only the eldest son inherited, then younger siblings as well as cousins were destined to be described as "Ag Labs" The Ag Lab was not therefore necessarily un-educated, just poor. Hence, when new opportunities for earning a living elsewhere in Britain, (Midlands, Lancashire, Yorkshire - Industrial, Wales & Yorkshire - Mining) or even Overseas in the Dominions, people moved.  Jim Parsons http://www.payman.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk