Help with researching the history of agricultural labourers/servants

[toni*]

the tithe map/s of the area may help, these are at ESCRO which is at Lewes
also she may appear in the directories of that time, i only say may as she was not a tradesman of sorts but pig framer or something similar do sometimes appear
these are available on historicaldirectoies.org and genuki.

[oldcrone]

An update on this: I've found that Henry Stephens/Stevens (Elizabeth's second husband and father of her last child, Eli) was a 'farmer and cowkeeper' on the 1861 census (I can't quite read the rest).  He's listed as being aged 60 and unmarried - his son, Eli, who's living with Elizabeth in the same village, is by then aged 6.

This probably explains how, by 1881, Elizabeth, after Henry's death in 1875 (I'm fairly sure), got to end up herself as a 'farmer of 3 acres' - presumably, having a small herd of cows on a 3-acre plot wouldn't involve a load of labourers.  I suppose I've assumed that it would have been 3 acres of arable land.

What I need to do is get some more Ancestry credits and shell out for some BMD certificates.  The information is out there!

 

[renard]

Hi,
   She may have had some casual help but three acres would not have provided an income for her never mind employing someone
Three acres is a very small farm maybe a few chickens and a milk cow and calf . An acre is 70yards x 70 yards.

Renard

[wheeldon]

Hi, I've found your thread so insteresting.

My 3 x G Grandmother was widowed twice.  She then took up farming, with no live in laborers or servants.  In the last two census she had increased her acres of land and was farming 20 acres at the age of 77.  She died 9 years later, so I'm unsure how long she continued to farm.

I suspect that it was a tied farm.  I have been to see the farm and it is now a an out building used for storage, linked to a much a bigger newer farm but you can tell it was once a very small old farm house.

I've found very little on the net about independent women farmers.

Good luck with your search.

Fiona