DUMFRIES-GALLOWAY-L Archives

From: "R & M Dunn" <>
Subject: Re: Drapers
Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 20:38:40 +1200
References: <v04011711b712545c53ba@[212.30.197.170]>

Hello Muff,
Thanks for your descriptive and detailed
answer to my queries re drapers in Preston.
I guess it was a case of where the work
was people migrated.
I found a book in my local library,
'The Industrialization of Europe1780 - 1914'
by W.O. Henderson
which describes Bolton, Blackburn and Preston
(among others) as great cotton towns.
Funny thing is....(you said your WORDEN ancestors
emigrated to America).... my POOLs moved back
to Annan, Dumfries!!
It's a strange old world we live in!
Cheers from 'an Indian summer' in NZ,
Maureen

> Hi, Maureen -
>
> Just a couple of small thoughts on your questions. First, regarding
> journeymen. This refers more to a level of expertise in a trade than to
> possible travel within the job, based on the old trade guilds system that
> evolved in the Middle Ages. A young person would apprentice himself to
> someone who was a master in a trade, and would begin to learn the trade at
> the lowest level. When he had learned all that entailed he rose to the
> next rank, eventually getting to journeyman level, which meant he
qualified
> for higher pay, more responsibility, and so on. With hard work,
> persistence and luck he would one day be classified as a master and would
> have apprentices and journeymen working for him, not to mention becoming
> quite rich in the process. This was in the days when there was no
> vocational education provided, so one had to go this route if one were to
> make it in life and had talents that could be built on. This applied to
> men - few women were permitted this sort of thing.
>
> The opera "die Meistersinger" of Wagner is about such a guild, only the
> product is singing rather than a manual trade.
>
> Then about Preston. It is not far from Liverpool, which was a favorite
> destination for folks leaving
> Scotland for whatever reason, primarily economic since work was usually to
> be had there, and it was a major port for folks departing for other lands
> or elsewhere in England by boat. It is also a university town, though I
> don't know since when. So as you say it could have been a move to be near
> relatives, but the family might have moved in search of work, betterment
in
> a better economy, or other reasons including that other Scots had moved
> there and found the place pleasing to them, thus sending back
encouragement
> for others to come join the Scottish community in the place.
>
> My Worden ancestors are from Leyland, not far south of Preston ...but they
> departed there to move to America (Cape Cod and then westward) at some
> point between the Mayflower and ten years later, presumably because of
> wanting religious or political freedom.
>
> So those are my contributions, though they are not exactly the answers to
> your questions.
>
> Muff
>

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• Re: Drapers by "R & M Dunn" <>