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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Topic started by: NigelBurch on Friday 29 June 07 01:24 BST (UK)
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I have a relative (and have seen other women) listed in the 1861 census as a 'chairwoman'.
Do they mean charwoman i.e. cleaner or is this some bizarre profession of chair-mending?
Please advise. Thanks
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I would think that it is most likely charwoman
Stan
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Hello Nigel :)
As Stan says, it is most likely Charwoman but would it be possible for you to give us the full census reference or put up a small snippet of the entry so that we could have a look at how the word was written, please?
Gadget
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Thanks
If you put in 'Ann Burch' birthyear '1825' birthplace 'Walberton' into 1861 England census
then it will come up.
Regards
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Well, it is definitely written 'chairwoman' and, as you say, there are women on the previous page also with this written under occupation. They are all in 'ordinary' working households - i.e. the head or son is an ag. lab.
I'm sure it is really charwoman but maybe it could have been pronounced 'chair' in Arundel and spelt phonetically.
Gadget
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I hadn't thought of the phonetic pronunciation and casting my mind back to how my Grandfather spoke, it is plausible that the Sussex lilt turned char into chair.
I couldn't envisage hoards of women in 19th century Sussex going round fixing chairs but just wanted a second opinion.
Thanks
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Putting chairwoman as an occupation in the 1881 census gives 2,033 people, and a check on some of the original images shows that that is how it was written. Under Charwoman in the OED is 1774 Westm. Mag. II. 550 As a Chairwoman was cleaning out an uninhabited house in Blaney's Court.. So it appears that chairwoman was used as a variation of charwoman.
Stan
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From Google Book Search.
'Conversations on Nature and Art' 1839;
"...and charwoman, commonly written chairwoman"
'General Rules for the Pronunciation of the English Language' 1792;
"Charwoman, not chairwoman as it is usually called; being from char, menial busines etc."
Stan
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thanks Stan - that's good enough for me
Regards
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Hi Don't be too sure - women worked at chair-caning ie putting the seats/backs on chairs as out-workers. Some of my Surrey & Sussex ancestors did it
Maggott
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An occupation of “chair woman” may be found in several census pages of England and Wales, and it usually confuses people into looking for strange occupations involving a chair. It is actually a version of “charwoman”, previously “chare woman” (related to “chore woman”) which was pronounced as “chair [Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chare : accessed 9 Jun 2017), s.v. “Chare”.]