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