From Tallow Chandler, to Confectioner, to Excise Officer to 'General Merchant'?

[Jansh]

Dear Matt62
I have just come across this post because I was doing a search for my 3 x great grandfather, Michael Welch. So I have registered with this forum to make contact, albeit 3 years down the line! His son Thomas Fawell Welch is my 2 x great grandfather.

My information seems much like yours except I do not know about his occupations prior to coming to Scotland. Like you I cannot make out the occupation on the 1841 Census.

What I can tell you though, if you do not know already, is that he is buried in Aberlady (East Lothian) Churchyard and I have visited it and taken a photograph of his headstone. I also have a newspaper advert re his shop and his death notice from the local paper.   His son, Henry, and family are also buried there.  If you want  to see the photo and newspaper stuff just let me know. I've also been (this morning) searching the Sasine registers because Michael's son Henry seems to have bought a few properties in Aberlady, where they both had shops. Happy to share what I have if you think it would be useful. 

[cat1968]

My 5th great grandfather Michael Welch (1800-1876) seems to have changed profession three times throughout his life. According to his son's marriage certificate of 1855 he was a 'Tallow Chandler' like his parents William and Ann. Yet according to an 1839 directory of Leeds, he is described as a 'Confectioner and earthenware dealer'. He was living at 141 Woodouse Lane with his wife Isabella Fawell and six children. I cannot read his profession in the 1841 census, where he is still living at the same address, yet it doesn't look to me like a 'confectioner'. I'll attach it to my next post in case anyone can help me read it.

Michael then crops up in Edinburgh in the 1851 census (a widow living with his six children) and is described as an 'Excise Officer'. On his son Thomas' death certificate in 1887 he is described likewise as an 'Excise Officer' yet on his own death certificate for 1876 in Aberlady, East Lothian his occupation is 'General Merchant'.

I'm not sure he ever was a Tallow Chandler like his parents, although his son seemed to think so. If he was, I assume it must have been before he became a confectioner.

My questions are:

1. Was it common to change job so often?
2. Is moving from being a confectioner in Leeds to an Excise Officer in Edinburgh not quite a dramatic career change considering that he was by then middle aged? Was this common?
3. What exactly was an Excise Officer's duties (I think it is like a civil servant dealing with customs and goods)?
4. Where might I find records relating to an Edinburgh based Excise Officer?
5. Could he perhaps have become one while still in England or might his move from Leeds to Edinburgh have been due to this new career?
6. Why does his death certificate call him a "General Merchant"? Could he have changed profession yet again?

Hi Matt62

Just came across your post whilst I was searching online Michael Welch+ Isabella Fawell.
Thomas Fawell Welch+Alison Smith are my gg grandparents and further up the tree we have Michael Welch+Isabella Fawell,then William Welch+ Ann Giffin.

I come in via Rebecca Alison Walker Welch, she is my great grandmother.

Would be great to swap notes, and anyone else on here that are related to the Welch family

[Skoosh]

Robert Burns, farmer, poet & exciseman! somebody pulled a few strings to get him the latter.  (Scot', a gauger!)

Skoosh.