Need help reading occupations on 1841 Census for Shobrooke, Devon

+3 votes
214 views

Hello all!

Just finishing up with a transcription of the 1841 Census for Shobrooke, a small farming village in Devon. I've managed to figure out most of the tricky letters and words but there's a couple of occupations I'm still struggling with. 

I'm having trouble adding the images and record links to this post, so I've pasted them in a Google Doc. Link here.

First, the occupation of Abraham Norman, 49. It looks to me like 'basket & [?] maker'. 

On the 1851 Census, he appears again as a basket maker, so I think that part is certain, but I can't make out the second bit.

Second, the occupation of William Hele, 65. I've had a good stare but still not sure. 

On the 1851 Census, his occupation was 'Proprietor of leasehold house and orchard', if that helps.

Thank you :D

in Genealogy Help by Oscar Evans G2G6 Mach 1 (10.5k points)
Is there any way to sharpen the image?
I will see what I can do
Just cropped and enlarged the images. Has that helped?

A little - but whoever wrote that went to the same school as most of the doctors I've ever had.  cheeky

Maybe I can put the photos onto Google Drive and then link to them directly. The original image quality on FMP isn't amazing but that may help with allowing people to zoom. It has been suggested that it may be easier to post on the England Project Discord (which I usually do, but wanted to try a new avenue of help), so I'm going to do that and will hopefully get results.

1 Answer

+6 votes
 
Best answer

Hello again all!

Some lovely people on the English Project Discord server have helped me crack these.

For the first one, Abraham Norman, the occupation is 'basket & osier maker', osier being the material baskets were made out of.

Secondly, William Hele is an 'Independent'. It seems obvious now but I was stumped at first because throughout the rest of the census the abbreviation 'Ind' is used and I wasn't expecting the full word.

Thanks everyone for your contributions! laugh

by Oscar Evans G2G6 Mach 1 (10.5k points)
Great work!

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