Is he really a "Turner"?

[Timbottawa]

Dear All, I'd appreciate confirmation or re-interpretation of my reading of this profession from the 1841 census.  The middle profession, between the 2 mechanics, is "Turner", right?  The apparent dot just after the middle of the word makes me wonder - it seems too bold to be a mere speckle - even bolder than the two definite dots in the "Mechanic" words.  But the initial letter is definitely a T - see the adjacent Tailor and Shoe M from elsewhere on the same page.

Thanks for your thoughts

[forthefamily]

It sure looks like turner and that was an occupation.

Turner : a person who turns wood on a lathe into spindles

Do you have the reference for the census....a bit of a look around might give a clue as to what kind of industry was happening in the neighbourhood.

mab

[Timbottawa]

Thanks mab ... the reference is HO107; Piece 1347; Book: 8; Civil Parish: Leeds Town; County: Yorkshire; Enumeration District: 40; Folio: 27; Page: 17

Being in the middle of Leeds, there are lots of flax spinners, cloth dyers, etc., but also many mechanics and so forth.  Ten years later my fellow was a "mechanic" himself, which seems a bit of a jump from a turner - this also made me wonder if I was mis-reading the word.

Cheers
Tim

[forthefamily]

Yes certainly lots of cloth dyers and mechanics and people in the flax industry. Did a google about flax and it was a very complicated business. That would explain why true linen was so expensive.

Maybe he was a turner in the sense that he was making parts for the machines that wove the flax and after 10 years had served an apprenticeship and was then a mechanic looking after the machinery.

I'm sure there is someone on this site that can tell you and me all about it 

mab

p.s. My family had a textile store and a customer asked for some Irish linen. So I went to Toronto to this very little office that represented the Irish Linen trade thingy expecting to see bolts of linen. They brought out a sample book that was about 4 inches by 4 inches  I was expected to make my purchase from that  ...and that was in 1965  It was expensive stuff 

[Timbottawa]

Well, my fellow, William Noble, ended up being a manager of a flax mill, though not in Leeds.  In the meantime he spent some time in Norway, where he was recorded as being a rope-maker!  He seems to have been a bit of a jack-of-all-trades!  He died in 1912, aged 97, so he had a long and varied life!

[forthefamily]

Flax....rope....it's all fibers. The fact that he went to Norway is cool. I wonder why he did that...maybe they had a new way of processing hemp  He was obviously an upwardly mobile kind of person...saw his opportunity and took it What is his relationship to you?

mab

[Timbottawa]

He's my gt-gt-grandfather.  Yes, it is interesting that he went to Norway ... the fact that he became a mill manager when he came back made me wonder if he was sent over there to learn some new techniques, or something, but the profession of "rope maker" on his son's overseas birth certificate from Norway doesn't seem to support that hypothesis!  Or perhaps I'm interpreting "rope maker" too narrowly, and it doesn't mean that he himself twisted the fibre into rope, but was in the rope-making trade!
Tim

[forthefamily]

I have a rope maker or two in my OH's family and it was an established profession. A skilled labourer. Very important in the day because of the shipping trade etc.

mab

p.s. How the heck did you find that he went to Norway  Maybe that's where my lost lot went 

[Timbottawa]

The 1871 census includes son Robert, aged 9, birthplace Norway.  It turns out that daughter Mary Jane, who was born in Leeds in 1857, also has an overseas birth certificate, issued in Christiania (now Oslo) in 1860.  So I hypothesize that the family set sail for Norway with a new-born daughter for whom they had not had time (or bothered) to register the birth.  Then, perhaps when it came to return home, they realized that they needed to register the birth.

Interestingly, this Mary Jane and her older sister, Sarah, eventualy married a pair of brothers, one of whom was my great-grandfather!
Tim