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Note: In the 1881 Census 45 year old George Seymour was resident in Hambleton near Selby in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He lived at No. 11 Duke of York Street along with his wife Ellen (aged 40) and children George(15), Walter(11), Mary Ellen(6) and the infant John.
GS married on October 15th 1866 and was described as a widower. His new wife, Ellen Milner , was born in Thorpe Willoughby just a mile or two from Hambleton.
G.S. was described as being an Agricultural Labourer and was born in Otford in Kent about 1836 well over 200 miles south of where he was living.
One is left to wonder how and why he came to have migrated such a distance from his place of birth. Although his individual circumstances are unknown it is likely that he followed a trail well worn by others of his background.
For most agricultural labourers life was as it had been for centuries and usually followed a slow and inevitable decline into poverty. The farmworker usually began his `career` between the ages of 13 and 15, working as a farm servant. This noirmallt entailled leaving his parents` house to baosrd with his employers. However, when the ag lab married he may well have taken a cottage on the employers estate which was sometimes provided free, but more often rented out to him, albeit at a subsidised rate. Veprived of the bed and board provided by his master, the ag lab was forced to rely on his pitiful wages, while he also lost his wife`s earnings. On her marriage she was obliged to give up full time work although she may have taken in weaving or engaged in casual or seasonal agricultural labour. The ag labs fortunes were likely to have fallen below the poverty line with the birth of his first child and continued to decline with each new arrival.
The social reformer and writer Charles Kingsley highlighted the cycle of rural poverty in his 1848 novel Yeast. Here two characters - Lancelot and the prejudicial Tregartha - discussed the lot of the ag lab when the former asked `Do you mean to say that they actually have not as much to eat after they marry?`
`Indeed I do sir`, replied his companion, ` they get no more wages afterwards round here and have four or five to clothe and feed off the same money that used to keep one; and that sum won`t take long to work out, I think.`
`But do they not, in some places pay the married men higher wages than the unmarried?`
`That`s a worse trick still, sir, for it tempts the poor thoughtless boys to go and marry the first girl they can get hold of ; and it don`t want much persuasion to make them do that at any time.
In 1795 the ill-fated Speehamland System was introduced and aimed at topping up the wages with parish charity. As a result, farmers simply kept wages as low as possible and expected the parish to supplement them. Almost a century later, a Central Agricultural Wages Committee was established and a number of District Wages Committees were added in 1917 to regulate workers pay, eventually fixing a minimum wage of 22 shillings (�1.10p) per week.
Before the introduction of` Wage Committees`, labourers had to rely on natural fluctuations in the local economy to increase their wages. A shortage of agricultural workers pushed wages up, while a glut pushed them down. The existence of other forms of work nearby had a positive effect on wages. For example, the proximity of manufacturing and mining enterprises in the Northern Counties was seen to add 37% to the wages of the agricultural workers as compared to those of the south.
Some 19th century economists believed that migration from areas where agricultural pay was low, to areas where it was higher would raise average wage levels throughout the country. However, many labourers were discouraged from moving to another parish because, without a `settlement certificate` stating they were native to the region, they would be inelligible for charity from the parish and might even be removed from it altogether. It was, therefore, usually the younger, single men that were likely to move. In the main they would be stronger and fitter, have no family encumbrences and so be easier to accomodate, thus increasing the prospects of finding at least seasonal employment.
George Seymour died in Selby on the 12th September 1895 aged 75. His death - from a siezure - was reported by a Mr. Gibson who was master of the Selby Union workhouse. It would seem that GS had never managed to rise far from the state of penury described above.
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