1841 census handwriting test!

[Aulus]

Can anyone decipher Ph(o)ebe Wild's occupation on the following extract please?

I was wondering if it was supposed to say shopkeeper?

According to Ancestry.co.uk, the full reference is Class: HO107; Piece 503; Book: 8; Civil Parish: Blackburn; County: Lancashire; Enumeration District: 4; Folio: 31; Page: 10; Line: 11; GSU roll: 306892.

The "township" is Over Darwen.

[patrish]

I think it could be Dress Maker, its got the characteristic  s that written like a p at the end.

Looking at the other Pheobe Wilds, they all seem to be involved with clothing.

[Tephra]

I think I'd go with shop keeper.  If you look at the last letter p?  it looks a  lot like the P in Phoebe.


Barbara

[daviesa]

I'd go with Shopkeeper too
I thought Slaysmaker at first but looking at the P
in Pheobe as Tephra says..

Alison.

[Mike Thw]

That's got to be shopkeeper.

Pity "Pheby" has no occupation in 1851 - perhaps she lost the shop!

[Aulus]

Thanks everyone.

Does anyone have access to (or can point me to a web resource) for a trade directory for Darwen in 1841 that might show what the shop was?

My next step is to work out if her husband Henry was dead by 1841, or just somewhere else.

I suspect he must have died - wives in the Wild family seem not to worked outside the home.  The men were almost all plasterers, painters and decorators: the painting & decorating trade went right down in the family into the 20th century (and for all I know there may still be some Wilds in the Darwen area painting and decorating)