Agricultural unskilled labourers who did not own land worked for a �farmer� and were the lowest class in rural English society. At that time, there was a huge emphasis on class distinction - you married within your "class".

The wealthy landowner had servants - the more they had, the more they gained status in society to display their wealth. It was common for farmers to have servant girls - they cost less and a male servant was taxed. However, a male servant gave one much more status. Besides the domestic servants, there were coachmen (who maintained and drove the carriage) the groom (who took care of the horses) gardeners and gamekeepers (to protect the game - rabbits, pheasants, etc. from poaching. A maid working from 6am to 11pm at night, received just �11 to �14 per year.

The principal land use was growing grain or raising sheep for wool - both required a lot of manual labour. Farming tools were common, but until machines were invented, animals were raised for food, but until ploughs were invented, not used extensively for cultivating the land. Rural life depended on good weather in the summer resulting in a good crop as a long winter meant hunger and discomfort. People rose with the sun and went to bed when darkness fell.

Farms were ploughed in the late autumn or winter and wheat (the most common and profitable crop) barley, and oats were planted - these grains were collectively referred to as �corn�. (Corn ie today's maize, did not exist in England.) Sheep were grazed throughout the field to fertilize the crops and after cultivation, the soil was �harrowed� to break it into smaller chunks. Wheat was cut with the sickle, or an old-fashioned cradle and then carried to the barn. A team of five men working all day would harvest about two acres using a small sickle at the beginning of the 1800's -a scythe was used in the second half of the century. (There were just three holidays: Good Friday, Shrove Tuesday, and Christmas Day) 

Wives of the harvesters were employed to rake the cut corn into rows ready to be tied into sheaves and numbers of women, boys, and girls worked at various tasks and were paid much less than adult males. They were allowed to glean the fields for grain for own use after a harvest - it was not until The Agricultural Children's Act of 1875 had prevented children under ten from working in the fields. In winter, the wheat was threshed by walking in a circle and beating the wheat with the �flail� until the grain separated from the chaff or straw. After �winnowing� (sifted to separate the grain from the chaff or straw) it was placed into bags and taken to the mill to be ground into flour for breadmaking.  (Threshing machines were not invented until at the beginning of the 1800's)

In 1826, William Benbow was likely born in his parent's tied cottage on Weston farm where they were working and he was baptised in nearby Burford. The Burford baptism registers are deposited at the Shropshire County Record Office, The Shirehall, Abbey Forgate, Shrewsbury and contain this faded baptism entry of William, son of James and Sarah Benbow, abode Burford,  labourer on 15th November, 1826. Ceremony performed by David Jones. Burford is right on the boundary with Worcestershire (Tenbury Wells) and close to Herefordshire. He grew up on the farm and by age 10 did jobs suitable for children such as scaring birds from crops advancing  to more skilled jobs as he grew older. 

1830 meant with increased mechanisation and the Industrial revolution, the introduction of the seed drill and threshing machines took away valuable work from the labourers, and worse still, replaced them and labourers left England or moved to the cities to find employment.

'Swing' riots broke out in the southern counties of England, areas most affected by enclosure. The rioters were demanding a minimum wage, the end of rural unemployment, and tithe and rent reductions. The riots took the form of machine breaking (the hated threshing machines), arson, meetings and general unrest. These riots were the first demonstration of agricultural unrest and this unrest continued particularly after the passing of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act.

William would have attended a hiring fair to find work. (Wikipedia: Prospective workers would gather in the street or market place, often sporting some sort of badge or tool to denote their speciality, shepherds held a crook or a tuft of wool, cowmen brought wisps of straw, dairymaids carried a milking stool or pail and housemaids held brooms or mops, this is why some hiring fairs were known as mop fairs. Employers would look them over and, if they were thought fit, hire them for the coming year, handing over a shilling to seal the arrangement. Both male and female agricultural servants would gather in order to bargain with prospective employers and, hopefully, secure a position. The yearly hiring included board and lodging for single employees for the whole year with wages being paid at the end of the year's service.  

1841 census; William is now aged 14 was hired as a farm servant by widow Eleanor Mason and her 2 sons at Tenbury for a period one year. This meant he 'lived in' on the farm and shared the family table at meal times. Other casual labourers from the neighbourhood would be hired to supplement their work in busy periods. Travelling to the hiring fair and from there to a farm, explains the sometimes surprising mobility of some ag-lab ancestors. Once at the farm a worker might meet and fall in love with a farm servant from another village and decide to get married. If married, farm servants were obliged to live out and had to find lodgings in the surrounding villages.

Before 1834 poor relief was dealt with at parish level. It had its basis in the early 17th century when it had been introduced as a way to alleviate distress and to ensure public order. It was up to poor law guardians to decide who was eligible for help, and as they often knew the recipients, it could be a fair system. Labourers could ask for 'outdoor' relief to supplement their loss of wages due to illness or unemployment. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 aimed to do away with outdoor relief and make the workhouse the only way of accessing help. It was hoped that this would act as a deterrent and make sure that only the genuinely destitute would apply.

Bad harvests and wet summers in the 1840�s and in 1850's reduced a worker's earnings in some cases to six shillings a week - one described his daily diet as follows: "After attending the horses, ate a breakfast consisting of flour and butter with water poured over it, worked in the fields until midday then ate a piece of bread and occasionally cheese. Supper consisted of bread or potatoes and water, sometimes a little bacon (a luxury for many). At harvest time his master gave him an allowance of beer. (source "English Life in the Nineteenth Century"}

A FAMILY BUDGET reported in 1843 gave an example of a weekly family budget:

Name..........Age/Earnings Robert Crick..42..9s.0d Wife...............40 .....9d Boy................12..2s.0d Boy................11..1s.0d Boy..................8..1s.0d Girl...................6....Nil Boy..................4....Nil Food: Bread...............9s.0d Potatoes.........1s.0d Rent.................1s.2d Tea........................2d Sugar...................3d Soap.....................3d Blue...................1/2d Thread etc..........2d Candles...............3d Salt....................1/2d Coal/Wood.........9d Butter..................5d Cheese...............3d Total Earnings:13s.9d Total Expenditure:     13s.9d

Payment to the Hay gatherers

The romantic family story that William found work as a head gardener at Ludlow Castle where he met Mary Postem and eloped is highly unlikely but very romantic! Never-the-less, on September 3rd, 10th and 17th 1848 the Banns for the marriage of William and Mary Postens were called at St Mary's Church, Burford where the marriage took place on November 20th 1848   The couple were described as "Full age' which was the usual description used if both parties were over 21 when they were married. Witness to marriage - James Benbow (William's brother) and Mary Hill. All signed with a X. The Marriage Registers for Burford St Marys were still in the custody of the Vicar of the Burford Rectory, Tenbury Wells, Worcester in 1980.

After marriage William and Mary were able to rent a tied cottage next door to parents James and Sarah. Here their family - Ann 1849, John 1851, James 1854, Sarah 1855, Elizabeth 1859 and William in 1861, were born.

1851 Census: (Incorrect Spelling "Benbham") Reg. district: Tenbury; Household Members:
Household schedule number: 8; Piece: 2040 Folio: 45, Page Number: 8
William Benham 34; Mary Benham 24 ; Ann Benham 2; John Benham 2 Months; Ann Colley 26