Coach Maker & Coach Smith

[pipkim]

I have just received a marriage certificate for my GGreat Grandfather, who I already knew was a Coach Maker. He married a lady who's father was a Coach Smith.

Can someone tell me the difference between the occupations if any?

Did he marry the bosses daughter!

Pipkim 

[genjen]

The only definition of coachsmith which I have seen gives it as a maker or mender of horse drawn carriages, so the same as a coach maker. It may be that the father of the bride thought it sounded a grander sort of title than coach maker but possibly quite simply that they used different terms to describe the same job.
A census entry might  tell you whether the father-in-law was also the boss.

Jen

[stanmapstone]

A coachsmith was a smith who forged by hand or under a power hammer the iron work used in the building of railway or tramway coaches, carts etc.' repaired, cleaned and tempered coach springs etc.

A coach maker, aka body builder, body maker, built up by hand the wooden parts,e.g. framework, lining, floors, mouldings, of the bodies of coaches, carriages, railway carriages, tramcars etc.

Stan

[pipkim]

Hi Jen,
Joseph Whitall the Coach Smith, was the same in the 1851 census but there was no reference to self-employment.

Hi Stan,
Your post makes sense, metal working alongside the wood. Maybe they worked for the same business or at least community.
Charles Hooker b.1839, who was my GGreat Grandfather and the Coach Maker, learnt his skills from his father (also Charles Hooker b.1811), who did have a business in Basingstoke in 1851 and employing 3 men. He then moved to St Georges Hanover Square, still as a Coachbody maker but I am unsure about whether he had a business still.

Thanks for the help.

Pipkim

[Jean McGurn]

A coachsmith was a smith who forged by hand or under a power hammer the iron work used in the building of railway or tramway coaches, carts etc.' repaired, cleaned and tempered coach springs etc.

A coach maker, aka body builder, body maker, built up by hand the wooden parts,e.g. framework, lining, floors, mouldings, of the bodies of coaches, carriages, railway carriages, tramcars etc.

Stan

My g.g.grandfather (1846-1903) was originally a wheelwright then coachbuilder, would he have done both jobs then? He lived all his life in Liverpool.

Jean

[stanmapstone]

Hi Jean,
Coach Builder was a general term for workers engaged in building carriages or coaches

A Wheelwright was a man who made wheels and wheeled vehicles.

A wheelwright assembled the wooden parts of carts, vans etc. prepared by a sawyer, or by a woodworking machinist, and fitted these parts together to make complete vehicles, he often also did the work of a wheel builder, or wheel maker.

Stan

[Jean McGurn]

So they would in essence be two different trades?

 Wonder if he started out as an apprentice wheelwright but transferred to coach building instead.

Jean

[charlotteCH]

 Is there any apprenticeship register for those in 19th C who became coach related tradesmen? How does one chase this down?

I have several HUMPHRIES from Nunney nr Frome in Somerset who emigrated to Ontario as young adults and were coachbuilders, wheelwrights and so on and I wonder where they did their apprenticeships.

charlotte

[stanmapstone]

So they would in essence be two different trades?

 Wonder if he started out as an apprentice wheelwright but transferred to coach building instead.

Jean

As I understand it a wheelright could make both the wheels and the vehicles, and was a more skilled trade than just a wheel builder


Stan