labourers Wainfleet

[searchr]

Hi,
My ancestor was a labourer in Wainfleet All Saints from 1847 to 1858 (and again in July 1861). He was born in Wainfleet All Saints, Lincolnshire (maybe Northolme or Wainfleet St. Nicholas at that stage) possibly somewhere between 1806 & 1811 (Thomas Markwell son of Bartholomew Markwell, tailor, & Sarah Jeffreys) (see e.g. http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,320939.0.html ). His older siblings had been born in Horncastle. He was a boatman before that and a drover from at least 1860 to April 1861. I'm wondering if he did indeed change occupations or if it could have been his other occupations by a different name. If it was agricultural labouring, it sounds pretty rough. In a book edited by Margaret Llewelyn Davies “Life as We Have Known It” there are appendices: extracts from Guildswomen’s Letters. The first one is “A Childhood in the Fens about 1850 – 1860” by the Late Mrs. Burrows. It talks about young children working hard in the Fens, supervised by someone with a whip. She was in Croyland, Lincs. Could anyone shed more light on this please? What sort of labouring might it have been? He certainly wasn't a child then. Might he have been labouring on the railways that replaced the boats?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[KGarrad]

The term "labourer" would have been used to describe any unspecific manual work.
He probably just did whatever work was available, on a daily basis?

[searchr]

Thanks. That sounds pretty right. I don't think it's possible to get any more exact really.

[Eilleen]

Is this one of yours    I see in the British newspapers that surname and area mentioned quiet a bit.

Stamford Mercury - Friday 06 December 1833.

[searchr]

Yes definitely thanks. That's great! I don't know what happened to her after that. I'm going to make another thread about tailor families.