1875 occupation "fish and game dealer" - ???

[Minnesotan]

This American is very much a greenhorn when it comes to Scottish culture. And I am once again confused.
Crieff valuation rolls state that my ancestor rented a shop and house in Crieff for 8 consecutive years and that he was a "game and fish dealer".

1. Where in Perthshire could someone who does not own land legally obtain game?

2. Were there public lands and bodies of water in Perthshire where anyone could hunt and fish?

Is this source a reasonable description of what my ancestor was doing i.e. he was a professional poacher and that it was swept under the rug? http://www.ayrshirehistory.org.uk/Poaching/poaching.htm

Thanks in advance for your insights.

[Skoosh]

Minnesotan,  earlier generations in the Highlands had better access to fish & game but by late Victorian times estates were let or sold for sporting purposes which employed an army of keepers to preserve the game & restrict public access when they could.  A game dealer would purchase his stock from estates as they still do now but no doubt the odd item came in the back door.    Poaching carried heavy penalties & the law favoured the landowners.

Bests,

Skoosh.

[Minnesotan]

Skoosh, thanks for your very helpful response.

So landowners and gamekeepers in their employ had hunting and tracking skills. Excess game from Perthshire estates such as the 24th Baroness Willoughby kept my ancestor in business along with some off-the-grid activity.

As a generalization could it be said that working class people did not have hunting skills or own hunting rifles because they had little to no opportunity for this activity?

[Guy Etchells]

Skoosh, thanks for your very helpful response.

So landowners and gamekeepers in their employ had hunting and tracking skills. Excess game from Perthshire estates such as the 24th Baroness Willoughby kept my ancestor in business along with some off-the-grid activity.

It was more complex than that.
Few landowners had hunting or tracking skills, they employed gamekeepers and villagers for that. The game was not in the main hunted for food but rather for sport. Though having said that what was killed was eaten.

As a generalization could it be said that working class people did not have hunting skills or own hunting rifles because they had little to no opportunity for this activity?

Many working class country people had hunting skills and used the regularly to catch game and as importantly avoid gamekeepers. A number would have shot guns rather than hunting rifles as firearms have been strictly controlled in the UK since the 18th and 19th centuries. (It was easier to licence a shotgun than a rifle)
As a result illegal hunting in the UK was often trapping rather than hunting with a gun though that did go on as well.

If a person was found guilty of poaching (1st offence) they could be jailed for 3 months with hard labour and on release had to put up a bond of £10 himself and find two sureties of £5 each.
If he could not find the sureties he would be jailed for a further 6 months for a second offence the sentences and sureties were doubled. (Night Poaching Act 1828).

Poaching even included taking rabbits, commonly thought of as vermin.

Cheers
Guy

[Skoosh]

Minnesotan,  I think your man would basically been a fishmonger dealing in fresh, dried & smoked sea fish, eggs, poultry, oysters etc' which presumably came up from Perth & that he also sold game in season, so not only would he have bought venison from this baroness he would also have provided her kippers. 

The invention of the refrigerated ship on the Clyde by Bell & Co around that time meant that lamb & mutton could be imported in bulk from Australia & New Zealand, not only the wool as formerly. The arrival of this cheap meat lead to a collapse in demand for Scottish lamb & landowners cleared  sheep & shepherds from wide areas, just as the people had been cleared themselves earlier in the century to make way for sheep & shepherds. Ironically much of this frozen meat was produced by the descendants of the folk cleared from the glens in the first place so some justice there.    This coincided with the boom in sporting estates with phoney castles springing up all over the shop, tweed-clad toffs pouring north every August & deer being encouraged in places where they were formerly absent, even being reared for release. We have too many deer in Scotland now & the bulk of what's shot is exported to Germany. My own g'g'g grandfather was fined £10 at Linlithgow for poaching, a lot of money then.
I'd rather have lamb chops myself.

Bests,
Skoosh.

[Minnesotan]

Skoosh and guy, Thanks for the additional information.

Game and fish dealer as an occupation and potential earnings is part of a bigger puzzle. My ancestor, his wife and 5 kids crossed the Atlantic in saloon class when they moved to the U.S. in 1883. According to an 1883 ad for their immigrant ship, the total price for their tickets was a minimum of £88.2. How difficult would it have been for this family to raise that amount of money if they had to rely solely on the head of household's game dealership business?

Other financial considerations for this family:
1. Their annual house rental from valuation rolls was £12 during their last 8 years in Scotland
2. Mary Fraser (1842-1912), the wife may have inherited money from her father merchant Daniel Fraser of Nairn when he died 1869.
3. Mary Fraser possibly had savings from her pre-marriage teaching career. She was a single school teacher for likely 13 years before this couple married in 1874. Mary was enumerated in 1861 and 1871 census and 1874 valuation roll as a teacher. OTOH she may have had zero savings because teacher pay reported for a few towns in 1883 Perthshire Gazeteer was only £20 per year.* And circa 1883 'worth of living' in Perthshire towns was reported between £250-350*

https://archive.org/stream/ordnancegazettee02groo#page/n5/mode/1up

[Skoosh]

Minnesotan,  maybe the sale of a house or the business, the fact is that they managed it, they were well off compared to the lot of emigrants crossing in steerage but whatever the story was they took it to America with them & you've as much chance of unearthing the details as you have in finding the knife which cut your umbilical cord! 

For an insight into life aboard an emigrant ship at the time see Robert Louis Stevenson's, "An Amateur Emigrant", his story of crossing from the Clyde to New York, you can get this online.

Bests,

Skoosh.

[Minnesotan]

Skoosh, Fair enough. Thanks again for your insights.