Thanks Matt again for your input. Kindest regardsLynne ---------------------------------------- > To: [email protected] > Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:50:00 -0400 > From: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [WAR] C17 legal conveyance Brailes > > > <<3. If Thomas EDDEN was silk weaver of London, quite comfortable financially, > why would his son Robert (assumed), be a labourer and Robert's son John be a > common peddler? > It didn't quite "sit right" with me and still doesn't, but thank you for > clarifying the meaning of the transcript.>> > > > A silkweaver was not necessarily a wealthy man - many were employed journeyman weavers, others were struggling self-employed artisans, especially at the end of the 17th century when the influx of Huguenot silkweavers would have created a great deal of competrition. > > On the other hand one does occasionally find elderly men described as labourers who had previously been husbandmen or artisans, or even yeomen, presumably because they have handed the farm or business over to a son and are now maintained by him and the wages from an occasional bit of paid labour. Usually such people retained their former status in these circumstances, but it seems in some times and places they were re-categorised. > > > <<17 march 1689, marriage settlement to John EDDEN, chapman, and Mary EDDEN, > Margaret is there again, widow of Robert EDDEN, labourer deceased, says "Crowne > End of Brailes between the houses of Mary RIMELL and Mary PORTER, John EDDEN > signed his name (and he is a chapman), but Margaret "made her mark". If John > could write his name, it does rather imply that he was educated.>> > > > Undoubtedly educated enough to write his name, but more than that is uncertain - it is known that some people could write their name but nothing else. On the other hand plenty of poor rural folk did learn to read and write. > > Matt > > > > List archives are at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/WARWICK > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969