Researching ancestral occupations: gamekeeper part 3

 

                                                                                         Image of a gamekeeper

My search for gamekeepers among the Maidments is proving a longer task than I anticipated. With the documents that I've accessed so far, it seems like my 3 x great grandfather Elias was the first in the family to become a gamekeeper and many of his sons took up the occupation too. He had quite a few sons, many of whom were born in different places. From the information I've seen so far, these sons also moved across England. I suppose that makes sense because gamekeepers were hired by large landed estates and there would only be so many of those around so any aspirants to the profession would have to go to where there were vacancies.

The son I've found the most varied information sources for so far is Jasper who was baptized in Enford, Wiltshire in 1814. When trawling through information on the National Archives, I came up with a catalogue entry of the Appointment of gamekeeper: Jasper Maidment held by the Nottinghamshire Archives. Strange, as none of the information I have on him so far has a connection to Nottinghamshire. Ancestry also pointed me towards his very informative gravestone which gives the date and location of death as well as naming his longtime employer, George Spofforth Lister. I hope to parlay that tidbit into more records about Jasper's employment. Fingers crossed for similar luck with my continued searches. I wonder what treasures I'll be able to discover about the other Maidments.

Sources:

Ancestry – Wiltshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1922 for Jasper Maidment

Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/135991997/jaspar-maidment

Images:

By Internet Archive Book Images -  https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14593150360/Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/withnatureandcam00kear/withnatureandcam00kear#page/n350/mode/1up, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43736289

Researching ancestral occupations: gamekeeper part 2

 

                                                These books about occupations are just the beginning of my research

Real life has cut into my research time lately, so I haven't gotten very far with researching the gamekeeping Maidments. The family's time in the game, so to speak, began with the patriarch Elias who lived from 1773 to 1825. I haven't yet found records that can confirm how early Elias took up the profession and it looks like he didn't keep up the work in his older years. As for his sons, I'm currently tracking the censuses in with they were listed as gamekeepers and the places they were living at the time.

Knowing that gamekeepers were employed by large estates, I'm also hunting for resources about large English estates. I'm should to be able to dedicate more time to this quest soon and hope my next blog post will be about the steady progress I've been able to make. A breakthrough would be nice but for now I'll keep following up possible sources. 

Researching ancestral occupations: gamekeeper

 

                                                                                        Image of a gamekeeper

I'm still looking into my Maidment family links and, as many of the men were gamekeepers, I'm looking into that occupation further. According to the information in the Heritage Production book on English Occupations, the gamekeeper was considered part of the village hierarchy giving him status. That makes me think of someone rather settled with a respected place in village life, a life that I used to believe changed little from decade to decade with little movement from place to place.

Only the Maidments moved from place to place, sometimes showing up as labourers and on many occasions their occupation was listed as gamekeeper. Could be the moves were to more lucrative posts or maybe the estates they were employed by no longer needed their services. Then too, it could be that their employers owned more than one estate so moved employees around. It could also be because the man acting as gamekeeper had worn out his welcome.

An extract of an article on Cambridge Core, painted a far different picture of the gamekeepers status. Not only could he bring the law down on poachers and the like, but his peers and those above him in the hierarchy didn't put much stock in his honesty. All this makes me wonder how the Maidments were perceived and if maybe that led to them moving time and time again.

My research is still ongoing and I hope to be able to find out more. According to the Heritage Production book, the Quarter Session records should have information about gamekeepers. Now I just have to consult various sources to find out when and where they lived to figure out which of those records I should delve into. 

Sources:

Christensen, Dr. Penny Researching English Occupations – Professions & Trades. Heritage Productions, Toronto, Ontario, 2003

Extract from The Gamekeeper and English Rural Society, 1660-1830  https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/abs/gamekeeper-and-english-rural-society-16601830/664EDA50F7F0A3F663233CEBD09D159B

Waters, Colin A Dictionary of Old Trades, Titles and Occupations. Countryside Books, Newbury, Berkshire, 2002

Images:

By Internet Archive Book Images - https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14593150360/Source book page:https://archive.org/stream/withnatureandcam00kear/withnatureandcam00kear#page/n350/mode/1up, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43736289 

 

Clues in the unsettled life of a gamekeeper?

 

                                                                   Books about old trades should come in handy

I've been doing genealogy research for a long time and have amassed a fair number of books on various subjects related to my research. My recent findings had me pulling two books about occupations off the shelves. It all had to do with my 3 x great grandfather who I've finally determined to be Elias Maidment. It took me a while and a few false trails before I was satisfied that he was the man; the target of my DNA search to determine who the father of my 2 x great grandmother, Mary Rideout nee Maidment, was. 

Once I settled on Elias, some of the questions I had about Mary began to make sense. I had often wondered why the censuses had given her birthplace as Gloucestershire when, from what I could determine, she had spent most of her life in Dorset. When I filled in Elias' children I noticed their birthplaces changed a lot, as though he had a profession that required him to move from place to place. Baptismal records didn't list his profession until 1814 when his son Jasper was christened in Enford, Wiltshire. That record showed that Elias was a gamekeeper. As he retained this profession when he later moved to Sixpenny Handley, Dorset it seems likely that his earlier moves might also have been due to his trade.

                                                      A list of the birthplaces of Elias Maidment's children

It looks like those books about occupations will come in handy as I find out more about gamekeepers. It must have been a worthy profession, some of his sons followed in his footsteps. I'm also wondering if the profession of woodman might be related in some way to that of gamekeeper as some of my Rideout clan were woodmen and the Rideout and Maidment lines came together with my 2 x great grandparents, Thomas Rideout and Mary Maidment. Let's see where this line of research takes me.