Hi Judy,
Explained ? Not really... The theory is fine - a farrier did this, a vet did
that - yes, of course, but in practise... The rellie I mentioned apparently
had no formal training whatsoever so describing himself as a "veterinary
surgeon" was pushing it a bit - but the local vicar baptising his kids solemnly wrote
it down as "father's occupation". He presumably knew who he was dealing
with,
they were a local family.
I would imagine calling himself a butcher meant he was killing oher people's
beasts and possibly dealing in meat, not just on his own farm.
The point is that in fact these apparent job changes can be a bit misleading
- overlapping activities reduced to one "occupation" which may have been the
main source of income at the time or just sounded good. The difference between
ag lab and farmer in the Vale can be just an acre or two...
It still happens - I'm a tourist guide, legal translator and interpreter,
author - and I teach a bit now and then. Last time I was asked I said one of
these, can't remember which one...
Looking at the 19th century, it may be a big mistake to suppose that a job
now considered as high-status necessarily implied formal training and exams.
There was no legislation for some professions until the late1920s. My own
grandfather left Bristol on foot at the age of 14 to look for work in the Rhondda. He
worked for a chemist, washing bottles, then started pulling teeth in the back
room at the age of 16 or 17. He retired in the 1970s, the last dentist in the
UK to have been included on the national register without any qualifications
at all - not so much as an 11+. If I didn't know this I might have some
difficulty putting two and two together - a 15-year old bottle-washer and a 25-year
old dentist in two census returns...
Best regards,
Peter