Lowestoft Occupations (1561-1750)

One of the many interesting features to emerge from the study of Lowestoft’s history over the years, and the attempts to reconstruct aspects of its past arising from the evidence discovered, is the town’s occupational structure. As can be seen in the table below, the main source in all four fifty-year blocks is parish register material, followed by probate documentation (wills and inventories of goods & chattels), with various other sources following on and with the Tithe Accounts featuring strongly in the last sub-period of all. The town is fortunate in having a high level of occupational detail present in its parish registers because this is not the case in all communities by any means - and, without it, this particular aspect of its history could never have been produced.

1. Documentary sources used

The process of recording marriages, births and deaths in parish registers began in 1538 on the order of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chief minister, after a trip to the near-Continent had drawn his attention to the process already well established in parts of France. Very few English parish registers date from this time, but by the mid-16th century the practice was generally well established. The surviving Lowestoft parish registers date from 1561 and, for the whole of the time following on, have entries showing little or no interruption (apart from 1640-63 - the period of the English Civil Wars, the Protectorate and the Restoration of the Monarchy). The wealth of detail concerning people’s relationships to one another, their occupations and their social status added greatly to making the process of family reconstitution of the documentation possible and enabling a more detailed assessment of the local community to be made. The original register book (probably made of parchment) was destroyed in a fire which burnt down the vicarage house on 6 March 1607 - but, luckily, John Gleson the vicar had made a paper copy of all entries up until then, which subsequently became the new official record.

2. Occupations, 1561-1600

Explanations

1. Mariner and sailor were interchangeable terms, with many of these seafarers being fishermen also. The vessels of the time were largely dual purpose, being involved in both commercial fishing and maritime trade.

2. The hook-maker would have the hooks used in line-fishing for demersal species.

3. The hoop-maker would have made ash hoops for binding and tightening the oak and ash staves of casks and barrels.

4.Husbandman was the term used of men engaged in agriculture at a small to medium level.

5. Neatherd meant cowherd - neat being an Old English word for cattle.

6. Cordwainer was a shoemaker - the word deriving from Cordoba in Spain, a place noted for the fine quality of its leather.

7. A currier was someone who further refined leather, after tanning - often dyeing it, if required.

8. A tawer was someone who made white leather by treating hides or skins with alum or salt to blanch them. This process was often applied to animal pelts other than those of cattle, such as pigs, horses and even dogs.

9. The weaver would have been employed in making either woollen or linen cloth, with both types of fabric being made in town at the time.

10. A sawyer would have been someone who operated a pit-saw and prepared lengths and thicknesses of timber for various uses.

11. The term smith would have applied mainly to blacksmiths, but would probably also have included whitesmiths - men who gave iron and steel products a fine, polished finish or who worked with tin, brass or copper. 

12. A tinker mended metal utensils of one kind or another.

13. A barber not only trimmed hair and beards, but also often performed minor works of surgery.

14. A proctor, in this case, probably referred to someone involved in legal work.

15 A scrivener was someone authorised to draw up contracts, write wills and perform other related legal work.

16. A surgeon was a medic of the time, who treated wounds and injuries and who also performed minor surgical procedures.

17. The victualler, here, was likely to have been someone involved in supplying ships with foodstuffs and beer.

18. A fletcher was someone who fixed the flights on arrows and often dealt in bows also.

19. The gunner was one of the men who manned the town’s three shore-batteries.

20. The singing man would have been a professional musician, usually employed in paid vocal work at a cathedral. It is difficult to see how he would have fitted into a Lowestoft context.

21. The labourer would have been a man of no specific trade, but someone who was skilled in being able to fulfil a number or roles as and when required.

22. The large number of male servants present in town is detectable mainly in the parish register burial entries and in the 1584 Muster Roll’s listing of able-bodied men. Their prominence may reflect the buoyant state of the fishing industry during the late 16th century (especially herrings), for it is noticeable that many of them were employed by the town’s mariners and merchants. Their surnames suggest that a majority (about 65%) were either from the town itself or from neighbouring parishes, but there is no indication as to their age, the ways in which they were hired, or how long they stayed with an employer. It has been estimated that, from the late 16th century to the early 19th, servants constituted about 60% of the national population in the fifteen to twenty-four years age group and comprised as much as 56% of the hired labour in some parishes. Nothing much is known about the male servants in Lowestoft, other than their names, but their considerable presence shows that they were an important part of the workforce. Their almost total absence from the family reconstitution exercise carried out on the parish registers (in the way of marriages and the baptism of children) appears to suggest that the were members of the age-group referred in the previous sentence but one and had not reached the typical age of marriage (c. 24-25 years) and set up households of their own.

A total of 550 occupations was collected in all from the five sources referred to in Table 1, but this was reduced to 515 after repetitions of the same person (especially in parish register entries) and certain other anomalies were allowed for.

3. Occupations, 1601-1650

Explanations

1. The boatman would most likely have operated a ferryboat involved in carrying goods to and from trading vessels anchored up in the inshore roads.

2. As in the previous set of explanations, the term sailor would have included men involved in both fishing and maritime trade. The use of the word fishermen probably related to men who were either solely or mainly occupied in that activity.

3. The boatwright would have been engaged in making small craft, as opposed to the shipwright who would have constructed larger vessels.

4. The ship’s carpenter might have been involved in constructing sea-going vessels or he could have been a crew member on board trading craft who had those skills and who was there to carry out maintenance work as and when needed.

5. A draper was someone who sold finished cloth of one kind or another, with woollen material being the main item of trade. 

6. The term grocer did not have the meaning of today, relating to the sale of foodstuffs. During the 16th and 17th century, a grocer was someone who was involved in the bulk sale of a variety of goods and therefore someone equivalent to a wholesaler. The word derived from gross, meaning “large” and referred to the scale of commercial activity. Some grocers of the time did, however, specialise in the sale of spices, dried fruits and sugar.

7. A cobbler was a mender of shoes, rather than someone who made them. The origin of the word is not known.

8. A knacker was a man who made leather harness and tack for horses. By the beginning of the 19th century, it had come to mean someone involved in the purchase and disposal of dead animals, as well as slaughtering badly injured animals or those no longer able to serve a useful purpose. The change of use had its origins in the earlier occupation and derived from the word knack, meaning a particular skill or clever way of doing things.

9. The trade of linen weaver derives from the Lowestoft area and the wider Waveney Valley having a notable industry in Late Medieval and Early Modern times relating to the manufacture of a coarse cloth made from locally grown hemp. This was known as loesti or Lowesto cloth and references to it are found in the Venetian State Papers (1456) relating to goods stored in its London warehouses. Certain economic historians have found the material mentioned in documentation for Damascus (1413), Beirut (1417) and Alexandria (1424).

10. The weaver references might well have applied to linen operatives as well as those working with wool.

11. The shearman was a highly skilled worker who cut finished broadcloths to the required size and also removed irregularities on the surface of the fabric after the nap had been raised by the use of teasels.

12. The house carpenter must have largely specialised in helping with the building of houses and with interior alterations to the timber-framing.

13. The housewright was obviously a builder - the more common term used being mason. And masons, at this time, did not work solely in stone. Bricks were much more their stock-in-trade.

14. The presence of a glazier in town shows that the use of glass in the windows of the wealthier members of local society was established, giving better draught-proofing of houses than wooden shutters - but often having the latter fixed externally to protect the glass and largely used overnight.

15. A joiner was a woodworker who carried out lighter tasks than those of the carpenter, often specialising in items of furniture.

16. A reeder would have cut reeds from around the margins of Lake Lothing for use as thatch. 

17. An alehouse keeper, at this time, was in a small way of business - using his home as the venue with his wife acting as brewer while he was probably following another occupation. 

18. The presence of a chimneysweep in town (recorded also in Table 2) shows that a substantial number of the Lowestoft houses belonging to the wealthier members of society had internal fire-places and flues. 

19. The fiddler - referred to in his parish register burial entry (25 October 1634) - was a musician residing in town, perhaps temporarily, who made a living by providing entertainment not just in Lowestoft itself but in the surrounding local area. 

20. The flag-graver was a digger of turf from around the edges of Lake Lothing - flags being another names for turves and grave being an alternative word for dig.

21. The firr-maker would have been a man who cut and tied up bundles of gorse from the various areas of heathland in Lowestoft (where this was allowed) to sell as fuel for bread ovens - firr being a variant of furze, an alternative word for gorse. He would have been a labourer of some kind, doing a variety of other jobs also.

22. The hair-weaver would have used human and animal hair to make all kinds of sieves and strainers.

A total of 560 occupations in all was collected from the sources referred to in Table 1, which was reduced to 471 after repetitions of the same person and other anomalies were allowed for. The most notable feature of this time-period (being the first half of the 17th century) is the noticeable decline in the sea-going element of the population and also that of land-based, maritime-related trades. At the same time, there was also a dramatic increase in the number of men involved in agriculture - both yeomen (larger scale farming) and husbandmen (smaller scale) - though it has also to be noted that the former name was sometimes also adopted by men to elevate their social status even if their contact with the land was minimal. And, in any case, the 16th and 17th centuries were a time of dual occupation, when men in towns and cities often had a secondary occupation of some kind in addition to their main one.

The dramatic rise in the number of people working the land was the result in no small measure of the decline of the fishing industry (particularly herring catching and curing), which underwent a pronounced time of difficulty due in part to Dutch dominance of the North Sea both in terms of fleet numbers and curing capacity. Added to this was the effect on the local population of the two disastrous plague outbreaks in 1603 and 1635, with the reduction of the numbers of men connected with maritime activity both at sea and on shore. So, it is perhaps no coincidence that the number of seafarers shows a marked fall from the previous period - with the consequent increase in the number of men working the soil suggesting that the Lowestoft community was “falling back onto the land”, as it might be described, to help tide it over during a period of demographic and economic stress. It is also noticeable that the number of merchants with maritime interests dropped from seventeen to six. 

Perhaps the most obvious of all the falls in number of a particular occupation is that of servant, with part of the reason for his being that there were fewer merchants (many of whom owned fishing vessels and were involved in curing red herrings) and substantial mariners to give them employment. Another clue to their apparent decline may perhaps lie in the attitude of the ministers and parish clerks of the time when it came to recording them in the registration process, since there is only one reference to be found in the registers as opposed to forty-six for the previous period. Or perhaps servants began to become more itinerant in their movements, spending less time with one particular employer in a given place and therefore having less time to make an impact on parish registers. It is a known fact that, from the 17th to the 19th century, three-quarters of all servants worked only the first contractual year before moving on to new employment.

4. Occupations, 1651-1700

Explanations

1. Boatman and ferryman are probably synonymous terms for someone who worked on the ferryboats used to move cargo to and from the shoreline.

2. Fisherman and Mariner/Seaman. These terms were beginning to undergo differentiation as the Lowestoft sailing craft became less dual-purpose in nature and involved solely in either fishing or maritime trade.

3. Pilot is an occupation which begins to feature in the parish registers as a result of Lowestoft being granted port status in 1679. Trinity House then began to license local men (usually ex-fishermen) as pilots to help incoming and outgoing vessels not familiar with the inshore roads to negotiate the Stanford Channel.

4. Service in the Royal Navy becomes known through certain of the town’s mariners attaining high rank, such as Captain and Rear Admiral. 

5. A blockmaker would have made the pulley-blocks used in ships’ rigging.

6. Lighthouse keeper was an appointment made by Trinity House after its master, Samuel Pepys, had authorised construction of a lighthouse during 1676 - built on the site still in use.

7. Waiter and searcher was a customs officer who supervised the loading and of goods to be shipped into or out of Lowestoft - this, again being a post created by the granting of port status in 1679.

8. The term park keeper may well be one used of a man who tended a large garden space somewhere in town - there being no park, as such, in Lowestoft at this time. Alternatively, the person in question may have been someone from elsewhere who had died in town (the reference being a burial entry of 25 December 1676) and whose occupation was known by some means or other.

9. Woollen draper shows a retailer who dealt in woollen goods only.

10. Maltster, as a trade in its own right, is first referred to in a will of 1673. Given that brewing had been one of the town’s staple industries for two or three centuries, this may seem strange. Lack of any previous mention may just be the result of the inconsistencies of documentation or perhaps the malting process was carried out by the brewers themselves.

11. Oatmeal maker is a burial reference to one particular yeoman-farmer, whose will shows that he had what is described as an oatmeal mill. The product was probably used to make pottages and bread.

12. A corviser was (mainly speaking) a shoemaker, with the word deriving from Old French courveis meaning “leather”. Sometimes it was applied to other kinds of leather-worker.

13. Bricklayer is interesting to note (as opposed to mason) as it shows the increasing use of bricks to build houses during the second half of the 17th century. The mainly timber-framed single-cell house (one room deep) was gradually being replaced by the double-cell model with much less of the main structure needing timber support.

14. A dauber was a plasterer - the name probably deriving from the use of wattle-and-daub in timber-framed houses’s walls, followed by the application of lime plaster to seal and face off.

15. The presence of a painter probably also shows the changes taking place in housebuilding, with the treatment and finishing of the wood used becoming a specialist trade. 

16. A plumber was a tradesman who worked with lead (the name deriving from the Latin word plumbum) and is again connected with housebuilding - not for the internal supply of water which was universally drawn from wells at this time, but for guttering, downpipes and roof flashings.

17. The word apothecary derived from the Latin apotheca, meaning “storehouse” or “wine-cellar” and was originally (in Late Medieval times) someone who traded in wine, spices and herbs. By the Early Modern period, the occupation had taken on a mainly medicinal function with the supple of ingredients (including spices and herbs) to make medicines. A forerunner of a pharmacist, therefore.

18. The term doctor was originally used of a teacher (the word deriving from the Latin verb docere) and then came to mean a learned man in academic terms. Towards the end of the Late Medieval period it also became applied to men skilled in medicinal practice - eventually becoming the main use of the word. The named presence of both a doctor and apothecary in Lowestoft during the second half of the 17th century shows the town developing in the range of services available to its inhabitants. 

19. The term registrar is one adopted by two men who kept the parish registers for short periods during 1656 and 1668 and signed their names as such, stepping in to fill a gap before a new parish clerk was appointed. Both of them were possibly connected with the legal profession in some way. 

20. A tapster was a man who worked at an inn, drawing beer for customers and doing cellar work also.

21. An esquire was originally an armed knight’s shield-bearer, but eventually came to mean a man who was a member of an arms-bearing family and who might eventually attain the title of “Sir”.

A total of 480 references was collected from the sources referred to in Table 1, which was reduced to 427 after name repetitions and other anomalies were factored in. As can be seen, there was a considerable fall in the number of parish register references available because little occupational detail was recorded during the 1680s and 90s - a shortcoming down to the clerk(s) not continuing the tradition established by so many of the previous holders of the post. However, this did not affect the weighting of individual categories because the lack of information was spread across the whole range of the town’s male population. Table 4 presents the data and, as was the case with its predecessor, it shows marked changes in the town’s socio-economic circumstances.

The most noticeable feature is the great increase in the number of seafarers compared with the previous fifty-year period and the marked decline in the number of men involved in agriculture. Thus was partly the result of fifty fishermen being named in the end-of-century parish tithe accounts and forty-one seamen being similarly identified in a surviving woollen burials register. But there are economic factors to be considered, too. The fishing industry underwent a marked recovery during the second half of the 17th century and the town’s maritime life was aided further by being freed from the domination of the coastal head-port of Great Yarmouth in being granted port status of its own in 1679 (with specified rights of export and import). The steady revival of the town’s maritime prosperity thereafter proceeded to manifest itself in as marked a fashion as the period of decline had done earlier, with men returning to seafaring in appreciable numbers.

5. Occupations, 1701-1750

Explanations

1. Fisherman/mariner were terms which had largely undergone full differentiation by the first half of the 18th century, as completion of the process noted in the previous time-period.

2. A keelman was someone who would have worked on board a keel - this being a shallow-draught freshwater vessel (predecessor of the wherry) used for local river trade.

3. Sailor/seaman is a generalised term probably referring to men involved in maritime trade rather than fishing.

4. An excise gager was a customs officer who inspected merchandise (especially alcoholic beverages) to ensure payment of the duty imposed.

5. Sailmakers would almost certainly have been present in town during earlier periods, but the trade is first mentioned in 1702 (probate material) and 1723 (burial record). 

6. A gardener would probably have made his living by tending the terraced gardens on the cliff-face - these having progressively developed over the years and becoming a notable feature of the building-plots occupied by the town’s merchants and wealthier retailers.

7. The presence of a haberdasher, dealing in pins, needles, threads and buttons, shows the development and growing importance of the clothing trade.

8. The presence of a millwright suggests that the two or three corn mills standing in town were sufficient to make a suitable base from which to operate in the wider local area. The occupation included the construction and maintenance of the mills themselves, as well as the re-grooving of millstones once they had worn down and no longer ground corn effectively.

9. The collar maker recorded would have made work-collars for the draught horses engaged in both agriculture and the carting trade.

10. The trade of glover is one noted in all four periods, with two likely areas of production: work-gloves made from cow leather and finer ones for “best wear” made of pig-skin and other animal hides and pelts.

11. The knitter is likely to have been a man (rather than a woman) who might well have have been mainly engaged in producing woollen stockings of one kind or another, both as workwear and finer clothing. 

12. A woolcomber would have raked through fleeces to remove tangles and other obstacles (such as bits of dried vegetation) prior to the wool being spun into yarn. The reference suggests that the manufacture of woollen cloth might still have been a trade continuing in the town in a small way of operation - though no references to weavers were found. 

13. Brickman/brickstriker are possibly synonymous terms - though the former could well have been the owner of a brickyard. A brickstriker was definitely a journeyman who made bricks, with the term strike referring to the act of removing surplus clay from the top of the mould prior to the brick(s) being laid to dry before firing in the kiln took place. Both terms, as well as that of bricklayer (at least two of whom are also found referred to as mason) show the increase in house-building activity as the town grew in size. 

14. The floor mender would probably have been involved in both repair work to existing floors, as well as the upgrading of earlier ones and perhaps the creation of new ones. As such, he is likely to have used both timber planking and brick pamments in his trade. 

15. The presence of a locksmith indicates not only a specialist metal trade, but one that also suggests the increasing use of all kinds of locks as the town expanded both in size and increasing commercial activity of different kinds.

16. An arrerer was a man who set the level of fines payable in court for offences committed. Lowestoft was granted the right to hold legal quarter sessions and petty sessions in 1748, but this reference was found in a settlement certificate record of 1726 - so, it did not relate to those. The man in question came from Great Yarmouth (possibly with some kind of legal experience) and possibly set the level of fines imposed for minor offences in the manorial courts. 

17. An attorney was a man with legal training and expertise, who worked broadly in the manner of what later became known as solicitor. The reference was found in a burial entry of September 1738 and shows that the growth of the town both socially and commercially required an increase in the provision of legal services. 

18. A civil law reader would have dealt with cases involving people’s relationships with each other, personal disputes, property ownership and business activity.

19. The term midwife might suggest a woman with some kind of medical training in the matter of childbirth, but could also possibly refer to the traditional neighbourhood “wise woman”.

20. Again, as with the previous occupation, the word “nurse” could well have meant a woman with some kind of training, as well as one who fulfilled the traditional role of bringing people into the world at birth and laying them out for burial at death.

21. The presence of a school dame shows that some kind of elementary education was being given to young boys and girls in basic literacy and numeracy, as well as in domestic tasks such as knitting and sewing. This would have been aimed at the offspring of the town’s less affluent members and may have cost as little as 1d per day.

22. Surgeon is an occupation previously recorded in the 1561-1600 and 1601-1650 time-periods, but not in that for 1651-1700. It would have been a role performed by someone or other throughout the whole two century span.

23. The presence of a town clerk (who, in this case, was also the master of what is described as a “writing school”) shows that civic business was on the increase at this time and needed the services of someone who could handle the paperwork.

24. Carter is an occupation recorded in two of the previous time-periods (1561-1600 and 1651-1700), but not for that of 1601-1650 - though it would have undoubtedly been present as part of the town’s commercial activity. What distinguishes it here is is the notable increase in numbers of men bearing the title (from four and one, up to nine) - which is, again, suggestive of the Lowestoft’s increase in commercial activity of different kinds. Just as the absence of any reference for 1601-1650 might also have some possible connection with town’s period of demographic and economic difficulty, as previously referred to.

25. There is reference to the occupation of fiddler in Table 3 (1601-1650), but it is worth mentioning here as the person named can be identified as the member of a long-established family mainly connected with maritime activity (particularly fishing).

26. The warrener would have been responsible for supervision of the Denes, both in terms of the rough grazing which took place there and also the management of its rabbit population (which was the property of the manor). Not only were the animals of value as a source of food, their skins were converted into the felt largely used in making hats. 

27. The recorded presence of a wheelwright may perhaps be paired with the increase in the number of carters - but the occupation would have been present in town during the earlier time-spans also (see Table 3) and just not recorded (for whatever reason) in the various sources available to be used. Throughout the whole process of collecting occupational data, there is always the element of off-chance in whether or not a particular trade or calling is found. 

Altogether, 774 references were collected for last fifty-year period - a number reduced to 592 after previously outlined adjustments had been made. As in the previous period, seafarers are seen to dominate the reckoning, with the parish tithe accounts once again contributing the names of large numbers of fishermen and the parish registers doing the same for mariners involved in coastal and overseas trade. The most interesting feature to emerge from the documentation this time, however, was something beginning to manifest itself more and more towards the end of the previous time-span: less of an overlap between the two occupations. About 70% of the fishermen recorded were not classified elsewhere as mariners and about 60% of the mariners were not similarly identified as fishermen. This shows that fishing and maritime trade had become more separated in nature, with less dual use of vessels and more specific shipbuilding for the task required. Further evidence of the upturn in maritime fortunes may be seen in the fact that eighteen of the twenty-two merchants listed had an interest in sea-related activity, while the increased presence of customs officers reflects growth in the amount of inward and outward trade.

Against this background of maritime expansion, the clothing and textile trades had diminished even further than had been the case during the previous time-span - to the point where they had little significance in the town’s pattern of employment. One contributory factor in the diminishing number of people involved in the making and selling of clothes is that the activity had probably become less individual than was once the case, with single small-scale operations giving way to larger businesses owned by one person who employed the people making the goods - either in a workshop setting or under their own roofs as before. One very noticeable increase in commercial enterprise is to be seen in the shoe- and boot-making trades, with the number of craftsmen involved going up from seven for the 1651-1700 time-span to twenty-four. Thus was undoubtedly partly due to Lowestoft’s population increase from around 1,800 to 2,000 between 1700 and 1750 - but there must also have been an increased demand for work-boots in various sectors of employment, both at sea and on shore, as well as for smart wear among the more affluent levels of society. A less dramatic increase in the building trades is also discernible, with the category suggesting that the production of bricks was on the increase in order to meet the demand for new houses or for remodelled facades in the cause of keeping up with current fashions. 

The last change worthy of comment is the increase in the variety of what may be termed professional people living in the town, who provided specific services in legal affairs, in basic education (this in addition to the town’s long-established free grammar school for forty local boys) and in medical matters - the last of which probably included the two barbers mentioned. The three midwives and single nurse referred to (the former in their burial registrations and the latter in a manor court entry) were certainly not of the neighbourhood “wise woman” variety of practitioner. They were women from substantial families, who were performing necessary relieving work during their respective widowhoods and who may also have done this while their husbands were alive. 

6. Occupations, 1561-1750

Table 6 is the summative statement of this investigation of Lowestoft’s occupational structure from the mid-16th century to the mid-18th: 125 occupations from a total of 2005 documentary sources used in the work. The most notable feature of the whole occupational structure is the overall dominance of maritime activity, especially after the town was granted individual port status in 1679. The third quarter of the 17th century seems to have been a watershed, marking the point at which fishing and seaborne trade began to assume increasing importance and the production of food, textiles, clothing and even metalware began to have less significance. It is not suggested that the growth of one sphere had an adverse effect on certain types of manufacturing activity, because it might be argued that increased maritime prosperity would have served to stimulate growth in the production of food and drink - if only to provision the increased number of vessels in operation. 

What it probably reveals is that Lowestoft, after about the middle of the 17th century began to develop increasing maritime specialisation and functioned less as a provider of goods and services for its neighbourhood - though the weekly Wednesday market would still have drawn people in from the villages of Lothingland and Mutford half-hundreds within convenient walking distance of the town. The demise of the local textile industry is particularly evident, and it may have been the result of events which occurred some distance from the town. The city of Norwich experienced an economic boom during the 17th century, especially in the matter of woollen cloths (the so-called new draperies), and it is possible that some of Lowestoft’s craftsmen were drawn there. It was, after all, less than thirty miles away.

Another factor to be considered with regard to the manufacture of clothing, and also to food and drink production, is that the overall decline may not have been as marked as the figures suggest. Scrutiny of a whole range of records suggests that, instead of there being considerable numbers of tailors, bakers, brewers and butchers in operation on their own, the businesses became concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of men who acted as employers of suitably skilled operatives. Little probate material for bakers has survived, but the wills and inventories which exist for brewers show that, by the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th, some of them were very substantial men indeed. And some of the butchers were also enjoying a degree of affluence. Tailors are more difficult to assess and it is likely (as referred to in the penultimate paragraph of the previous section) that they too became employees of a master-tailor rather than operating individually.

Given the emphasis on maritime activities of one kind or another, it is not perhaps surprising that, in terms of the basic structure of occupational groupings, Lowestoft does not conform to accepted patterns of Early Modern period urban identification. It has been said that about 75% of the workforce in pre-industrial towns was employed in textiles, clothing, leather crafts, metalworking, housebuilding and food and drink production. During none of the four time-spans reviewed did these particular occupations constitute more than 38% (and this at a time of maritime depression) - and, taken over the whole two-century spread, they stand at 26%. Another view is that, in large and medium-sized towns (Lowestoft being the latter), food and drink production, the making of clothing and footwear, the building trades, the manufacture of household necessaries, and the resulting retailing and distribution, collectively involved 60-70% of all the people employed. Lowestoft went no higher than 37% in any of the four time-spans investigated - while, for the whole overall period the proportion was just under 30%.

Nor does the town fit with the opinion once expressed that, during the 16th and 17th centuries, the victualling, clothing and building trades employed anything between 23% and 40% of the available labour in urban communities. It went no higher than about 22% during the later parts of the 16th century down to as low as 13% by the end of the 17th. There is, however, evidence of the growth seen nationally in the production and consumption of household and luxury goods from about 1550 onwards. The presence of glovers, hatters, drapers and grocers, taken collectively, suggests a retail trade in operation at the higher end of the income levels present in the town - in terms of what was worn and what was eaten.

In spite of the comparatively low numbers of men in what are supposedly classic urban trades, Lowestoft still had s respectable number of craftsman among its working population. Using all the sources available, the proportion was one man in four between 1561-1600, one in three between 1601-1650, and one in six between 1651-1700 and 1701-1750. Again, the maritime factor can be seen as influential: the highest ratio of craftsmen is to be found during the first half of the 17th century, when fishing and ship-borne trade trade were in decline, and lowest during the two later time-spans when enterprises connected with the sea were flourishing. The close connection with a maritime environment probably identifies Lowestoft as a specialist type of community whose nature was determined by its coastal position. And one thing is certain with regard to the nature of towns during the Early Modern period - the fact that more work needs to be carried out on those communities located by the sea.

CREDIT:David Butcher