Author Topic: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??  (Read 19842 times)

Offline Bertsbees

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 59
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??
« Reply #9 on: Friday 15 February 19 23:17 GMT (UK) »
Hello,   one of my old relatives, George McArthur,  was also  a Journeyman shoe maker in the 1841 census.  He lived on Calder street in Lochwinnoch.  I wish I was able to find out where he worked, or if he worked for him self.I see there were two or three shoe stores on High Street, but he wasnt listed as a proprietor. 
       Bert
McKay, McArthur,Woodworth,Brown,Irving,Campbell

Offline shume

  • RootsChat Veteran
  • *****
  • Posts: 597
    • View Profile
Re: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??
« Reply #10 on: Saturday 16 February 19 01:52 GMT (UK) »
So Google tells us that a journey man was a skilled worker ( ie not an apprentice) who worked for someone else usually per day.
shume australia
HUME: Fermanagh, Donegal,Sligo,Australia
PASFIELD: Essex, London
SHAW/STANLEY: Co Waterford,Ireland, Australia

Offline Maiden Stone

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 7,226
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??
« Reply #11 on: Saturday 16 February 19 04:03 GMT (UK) »
The shoe-shops may have been shop & workshop combined. Shoes on display in front of shop and shoemakers working behind. A small establishment might have only a few workers. A successful master shoemaker with large premises in a big town might have as many as 20.
Shoemakers might also have been outworkers in their own homes, completing orders for a master-shoemaker.
Wives and daughters of shoemakers were sometimes employed as boot-closers.
Shoemaking was becoming industrialised in mid-19th century.
If you read the rest of the thread and read the link, you will see that a journeyman worked for an employer, not on his own account. He would not have been a proprietor. If he wanted to progress to being a master he was required to create his "masterpiece" to the specification and satisfaction of the local guild. A master-shoemaker also needed to be numerate and literate in order to take measurements and keep records of his customers.
 In order to set up on his own, he would have needed money to buy an initial supply of leather and any tools and equipment he didn't already have. Rent for premises might have to be found. He might need a loan for which he would have to provide surety.
Cowban

Offline IMBER

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,006
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??
« Reply #12 on: Saturday 16 February 19 09:44 GMT (UK) »

"to the best of my knowledge no one outside Bond Street in London has the knowledge to make boots or shoes."

Really?

https://www.apetogentleman.com/best-british-shoe-brands/

Imber
Skewis (Wales and Scotland), Ayers (Maidenhead, Berkshire), Hildreth (Berkshire)


Offline Forfarian

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 15,943
  • http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ruz/
    • View Profile
Re: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??
« Reply #13 on: Saturday 16 February 19 10:01 GMT (UK) »
No doubt someone else will explain all about "journeyman" and "de jour".

I see no-one else has, so here goes. The basic French word for 'day' is 'jour' but in the sense of duration it is 'journée'. A qualified tradesman working for a master was normally paid by the day, or 'journée'. Adjust the pronunciation to sound a bit like 'journey', and tack on '-man', and you have 'journeyman'.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives as one of the meanings of the word 'journey' "A day's work.
A day's labour; hence, a certain fixed amount of daily labour; a daily spell or turn of work . Obsolete exc. dialect. in journey, at work as a day-labourer (obsolete)".
and the earliest recorded use in this sense dates from 1393.

The more common modern usage of the word 'journey' to mean 'travel' is basically the same word, derived from its original sense of distance travelled during one day.

But while a journeyman could, and quite often did, travel around and hire himself out to masters elsewhere, the word journeyman itself does not imply or even hint at travelling.

Oxford English Dictionary again: "Journeyman: One who, having served his apprenticeship to a handicraft or trade, is qualified to work at it for days' wages; a mechanic who has served his apprenticeship or learned a trade or handicraft, and works at it not on his own account but as the servant or employee of another; a qualified mechanic or artisan who works for another. Distinguished on one side from apprentice, on the other from master."
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline Forfarian

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 15,943
  • http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ruz/
    • View Profile
Re: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??
« Reply #14 on: Saturday 16 February 19 10:05 GMT (UK) »
"to the best of my knowledge no one outside Bond Street in London has the knowledge to make boots or shoes."
Really?
https://www.apetogentleman.com/best-british-shoe-brands/
Imber
Good grief, Imber, where does that come from? Bertie Wooster?
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline Skoosh

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 5,736
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??
« Reply #15 on: Saturday 16 February 19 10:13 GMT (UK) »
Back in the day, the trade guilds would not permit a newly-qualified apprentice shoemaker (for example) to set himself up as a master-shoemaker & employ other men. He had to undertake his "Wanderjahre!" as a "Journeyman" & set off to gain experience by working for other masters! In some countries the wanderjahre could be as much as three years.

Skoosh.

Offline IMBER

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,006
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??
« Reply #16 on: Saturday 16 February 19 10:39 GMT (UK) »
"to the best of my knowledge no one outside Bond Street in London has the knowledge to make boots or shoes."
Really?
https://www.apetogentleman.com/best-british-shoe-brands/
Imber
Good grief, Imber, where does that come from? Bertie Wooster?

A real gentlemen should not have to pose such a question Forfarian but now I recall you are in fact  a lady I will humour you and merely comment that it's more James Bond than Bertie Wooster:

https://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/tags/shoes

Imber
Skewis (Wales and Scotland), Ayers (Maidenhead, Berkshire), Hildreth (Berkshire)

Offline Forfarian

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 15,943
  • http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ruz/
    • View Profile
Re: wat is a shoemaker journeyman??
« Reply #17 on: Saturday 16 February 19 13:27 GMT (UK) »
Thank you. I'm surprised they didn't have a ceremonial burning of that particular title in Northamptonshire.

I have never claimed to be a gentleman :)
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.