Yearly Income per Head 1688 England (Part 1)

Understanding social class is an important task during the tree climbing experience. Often it will help the genealogist place a family in the context of the culture being explored. This is especially true for those coming from the big island called Albion.

The yearly income for the head of family is given for the year 1688 England. It is recorded in pounds sterling. One usually stars at the top of the social latter, so I will start at the bottom!

Beggars 2
Vagrants; as Gypsies and Thieves 3
Common Soldiers 7
Cottagers and Paupers 2
Labouring People and Out Servants 4
Common Seaman 7
Military Officers 15
Naval Officers 20
Artisans and Handicrafts 9
Shopkeepers and Tradesman 10
Persons in Liberal Arts and Science 12
Farmers 8
Freeholders of the lesser sort 10
Freeholders of the better sort 13

...to be continued.

A comment on society outside the church is shown by the list above.

The information is abstracted from The World We Have Lost: England Before the Industrial Age, 2nd Ed., by Peter Laslett, pp. 36-37.

BWP(30): Count Your Pennies

Understanding how money was counted and utilized during certain periods in history is often helpful in genealogical research. For instance, if you find in a will that the family had personal belongings that were valued at a certain amount, you could judge approximately the social rank or status of the family. For those of us who share an "English" background, the silver penny is the foundation.

A post titled: "The Silver Penny" outlines this topic:

http://thejonesgenealogist.blogspot.com/2011/01/silver-penny.html

A text titled: "The World We Have Lost, England Before the Industrial Age", by Peter Laslett, gives a number of tables which help define social class during the period prior to 1700. A very valuable reference.