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Betty, I'd have thee know I neither care for thee, nor no woman in Sheffield


RichardB

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The Rev. E. Goodwin gave these as the wages current in Sheffield in 1764:

A common labourer, 1/- per week; a carpenter, 1/6. A journeyman cutler, he said, could earn 2/- a week; and in certain businesses good workmen sometimes made 20/-.

The following story may be taken as typical of the earnings of cutlers, when they "had a mind to work," at this period. Samuel

Dixon, a cutler in Westbar Green, while paying his addresses to the young woman whom he afterwards married, had some lover's " tiff." In the course of this he said:

"Betty, oi'd 'av thee kno 'at oi nother care for thee, nor nooa woman i' Shevveld. See thee, oi can addle me noine or ten shilling a week, onny week when oi 've a mind to work. Foind me another chap i' t' taan 'at can do it besoide messen."

When he had completed his apprenticeship, he still lived with his master, paying 2S. 6d. a week for board and lodging; but, provisions getting dearer, this was raised to 3s. A second advance to 3s. 6d. was attempted, but this he resisted, and it ended in his still lodging in the house, but finding his own victuals .

There were not, we must conclude, the extremes of riches and poverty seen in later times. The lines of division were less marked, all classes being much nearer to a common level. If there were many poor, there were few really wealthy. A very modest competence enabled a man to pass for rich in those days.

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Extract from http://www.omnesamici.co.uk/MemoriestRELeaderChapter01.html

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