If you are able to access The Times Digital Newspaper Archive, either online or via your local library, there are some interesting exchanges in 1853 with Somerset Clergymen vying to establish who had encountered the lowest rate of pay for good ablebodied day-labourers with families: 'only 6s.a-week and three pints of wretched drink (beer or cider) a-day, or 7s. without any drink?' [Letters to the Editor, Oct 27, 1853; pg 7; Issue 21570; col B Agricultural Wages.]
Four sons of an Ag lab in Combe St Nicolas, an adjacent parish to Ilminster, migrated to Wales in the 1850s - presumably attracted by the wages of the coal and iron industries. Only one returned to the home parish some 20-odd years later.
If the majority of the local population were living on the breadline, there would not be a great demand for the services of tailors. However, the armed forces had a great need for uniforms so your tailor might have been recruited for the skills of his trade or have been tempted by prospective earnings and the opportunity to travel the world. At the age of 21 he would have completed his long apprenticeship so he might have wanted to shake the dust of Ilminster off his feet. What had been a bustling market town in the 'golden era' of coaching began its decline after the rail link reached Exeter in 1844. Not all coaches were taken off the road immediately, but the wind of change was starting to blow through the West Country, with easier access to Plymouth and the Metropolis. Might the attractions of the scarlet coat have outweighed those of the local wenches? Who knows?
