A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



was ()s. 3^. per bushel ; in 1 8 1 1 it had become 9J. bd. ; in 1 8 1 3 the average 

 had risen to ioj. ()%d. ; in 18 17 the average for the previous twenty-one 

 years was gs. lo^d. ; in 18 18 the average of the previous fifteen years was 

 IOJ. i\d., and the average for the previous ten years ioj. i i%d. The effect 

 that the change of price had on the amount of tithe can be seen from one or 

 two instances. A fresh award could be asked for whenever the average was 

 3^. or more higher than when the last award was made. In 18 17 the tithe 

 rent payable to the Vicar of Henlow was raised from £1^2 to ^^329. In 

 18 1 8 the tithe rent at Shelton was raised from ^lOT, to ^^206, and at Blun- 



ham from £2°^ '° £>S^7- 



Some interesting tables, compiled by Mr. Batchelor, covering the 

 greater part of the i8th century and a few years of the 19th, give the fol- 

 lowing prices of wheat in Bedfordshire, which, he says, differed from the 

 averages of England and Wales by no more than about a penny a bushel : — 

 From 1730 to 1750 wheat made an average price of ^i 8j. zd. per quarter, 

 from 1750 to 1760 £1 13J. 2d., and from 1802 to 1807 ^3 lOj. id. 

 Entries in the tithe accounts of Milton Bryant for nineteen years — 1742 to 

 1760 — give an average of i8j. 10^. per quarter, the lowest price being I2j. 

 in 1743-4, and the highest £z in 1756. Prices at Bedford, taken from the 

 'Corn Register' during the years 1770-1800, range from ^i is. in 1779 to 

 £^ I3J. id. in 1800. In most of these years the price was between £2 and 

 £t^, but in 1795-6 and 1799 it rose above £2- During the same period 

 barley ranged at Bedford from i8j. 2d. per quarter in 1780— i to £2 igs. 2d. 

 in 1800; in all these years except the last and three others it was between ^i 

 and >C2. Oats during the same period varied from 131. gd. in 1780 to 

 £1 1 8 J. 5^. in 1800, rising to £1 and over in only eight of the years. 

 From some of Mr. Batchelor's notes on diet in the beginning of the 19th 

 century, we learn that the usual price of ale was is. per gallon, of small beer 

 2d. ; fresh pork Sd. per lb., salted iid. ; cheese gd., sugar gd., tea 8j., butter 

 13^^'. Day labourers received in winter from 6s. to 8j-. in 1790, and from 

 9J. to loj. in 1803 ; in summer the corresponding wages were from gs. to 

 IOJ., and from lis. to i2j. Carpenters had from u. 6d. to 2J. 6d. per day 

 in 1790, and from 2j. to 3J. in 1803 ; corresponding wages for masons were 

 from I J. 6d. to is. lod. and from 2J. to 2J. %d. Among the agricultural 

 labourers were those who were called ' roundsmen,' that is those who ' go 

 the rounds.' The practice was for a labourer out of work to go to the actino- 

 overseer, who sent him round to the different farmers in the parish, each of 

 whom in turn employed him for as many days as there were ^20 in the 

 farmer's rent. The ' roundsman's ' allowance was 2d. a day below the pay of 

 other labourers. Boys ' on the rounds ' received from /[d. to 6d. per day. 

 The boy's pay and half the men's pay was generally returned to the farmers 

 by the overseer. It was estimated that in 1803 12 per cent, of the popula- 

 tion received parish relief to the average amount of 2J. per week each ; one 

 per cent, were in the workhouses, at an average cost of 4J. g%d. per week 

 each. For twenty-seven years there had been a considerable increase in the 

 poor-rate, which was supposed to be partly accounted for by the rise in the 

 price of wheat, partly by the increase of the population and the consequent 

 deficiency of employment, and partly by the consoHdation of farms. It was 

 calculated that for every three farms, however small, that were annihilated, 



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