A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Raking and cocking was ttd. to 7^. Reaping corn was worth %d. a day 

 with food or \zd. without. Labourers earned daily in the winter \d. or 

 5^.'' But this rate seems to have been commonly exceeded.'" Thus it 

 will be seen that there was a rise from \d. to id. in the pay for most kinds 

 of harvest work since i59i. The prescribed rate of wages for the rest of 

 the year was less changed. 



We have a table of wages for the year 1 677 which is unfortunately less 

 detailed, but it nevertheless indicates a change in the manner of hiring. It 

 shows that labourers' pay was given by the week or year instead of the 

 former payment by the day. Ploughmen had 5J. to bs. a week and shepherds 

 had 3^. \d. a week or ^^3 ioj. a year to 4^. a week or ^^ a year, more than 

 double the rate of 1632. Labourers at large had from ^4 to ^^5 a year or 

 from i\d. to ^\d. a day." There is thus a great rise in the yearly wages since 

 1632. This may mean a rise since the Civil War, or that farm servants even 

 when hired for a year lived out and provided their own food. The last 

 interpretation seems the more probable. During the i8th century wages 

 rose, but the state of the labourers was not as much improved as might be 

 expected. The increased mobility of labour told against them. The ease 

 of travel round London allowed labourers from other counties to come for 

 the harvest, which was the most profitable time for them. At the end ot 

 the I 8th century these outsiders harvested most of the crops in the south of 

 the county. The pay for the harvest month was two guineas a week with 

 food and lodging,*' or if by the piece 5J. to js. for reaping an acre of wheat, 

 or 8^. to I J. for mowing an acre of oats and barley. A quarter of barley 

 or oats or a load of corn was threshed for u. or 18^." Harvest work was 

 better paid than in 1677, in spite of the increased supply of labour. 



The ordinary work of the farm was done chiefly by the farm servants, 

 so that the married labourer living in his cottage was hard pressed for a 

 living. The rise was greater in the yearly wage than in that of the day 

 labourer. Carters and ploughmen had from 6 to 9 guineas, the thresher 6 

 or 7 guineas. Day labourers employed throughout the year by the same 

 farmer had ']s. a week and small beer except for the harvest month, when 

 they had 9J. a week. There was a rise here above the rates of 1677, though 

 not so large as in the other case. Seven shillings was probably about the 

 average rate, for in 1796—7 it was the wage of the roundsmen at Hinxworth 

 and the average at Redbourn.'" A good labourer could sometimes get work 

 on an agreement for some weeks at a time for \os. or lis. a week, but this 

 could not be kept up. The father's earnings could rarely be above \os. a 

 week for the winter half-year." The rest of the family might earn a little. 

 In the 17th century the clothier or draper might still make his rounds to 

 the cottages for yarn. Even in 1795 the cottagers' wives spun i lb. of wool 

 at prices from bd. to <^d. according to the quality. But as a source of income 

 the spinning was negligible, as the women rarely spun more than i lb. a 

 week in winter.** About 1785 the place of spinning was being taken in 

 the northern part of the county towards Dunstable by straw-plaiting." This 



3' A. E. Gibbs, op. cit. 287. *« Sm. R. (Herts. Co. Rec), i, 233, 130. " Ibid. 292. 



« D. Walker, op. cit. « ibid. 



*^ Eden, State of Poor, iii, 34.2 ; ii, 275 et seq. ''^ Ibid. 



** Ibid, iii, 342. *' D. Walker, op. cit. 



228 



