Brewing and beyond

If there's one thing that everyone notices about Howden in the 1379 poll tax it's the number of brewers - 22 in all. As was usual in the Middle Ages, brewing was predominantly a female occupation. 10 of the brewers were single women, and another 6 were married to men who had other occupations. 5 couples are listed where brewing is the only trade, and judging by the position of the description it was the woman who was the brewer.

This leaves us with one man who was described as a brewer. He was Robert Cecil, and was charged a tax of 2/-. This suggests he was perhaps running a bigger business than the others, as single women brewers are charged either 6d or 12d, and the only other 2/- brewers charges are for couples who both have a trade. Cecil was an uncommon surname, and the only other one is Stephen Cecil, franklin and hosteller. A hostelry would have needed a lot of beer, so it's probable that Stephen and Robert Cecil were related, and that Robert was brewing at least in part for Stephen. Stephen was one of the most important townspeople - in 1406 he was given the right to charge tolls to pay for paving Howden's streets.

The number of brewers is not so surprising when we look at some Howdenshire villages. Saltmarsh has 7 brewers in 82 households, and Cotness 7 in 40 households, and Blacktoft 7 from 88. So Howden's 22 from 284 taxable households looks well within the normal range.

No other occupations get into double figures, but there were 7 butchers, 7 fishermen and 7 shoemakers. There were also the other trades you would expect - weavers, tanners, bakers and so on - but in addition there were some less usual ones. For example there were 2 skinners and 4 glovers. Both of these crafts were making luxury goods - glover is self-evident, but a skinner was someone who made items from furs, such as collars or cuffs.

We can divide the occupations into 3 general groups :-

• Those associated with food and drink - Brewers, Bakers, Butchers, one Miller and one Spicer
• Those associated with clothing - Weavers, Tailors, Shoemakers, Tanners, Glovers, Skinners
• Those associated with manufacture - Masons, Smiths, Carpenters, Craftsmen and a Thatcher. One of the Craftsmen (the actual word used is Artificer was a woman - Alice Chandler. She was taxed at 2/-, more than any other person in this group.

There are 3 other occupations which range from the unusual to the unique. Firstly there was a Lorimer, who made spurs, stirrup-irons bridles, and so on. I think this shows how many travellers must have passed through the town for his services to be needed. Then we have a Schoolmaster - not the school at the church, as that had a cleric as the teacher, and they would not have been included in the tax lists. This would have been a private tutor, one of the very few in the country. Finally we have a Wimpilster - a lady called Christina, who made wimples. It seems this occupation is recorded nowhere else in the 1379 tax lists, although they were mentioned in both Coventry and London about 100 years earlier. Presumably they were usually made by tailors - perhaps Christina was a widow or daughter who had learnt the skill from her husband or father.