Occupations of Early Massachusetts Settlers
More Than 100 Types of Work Given for Colonial Immigrants
Jul 28, 2008
Roughly 6,000 Colonial settlers are listed in Charles H. Pope’s 1900 book, Pioneers of Massachusetts, and occupations are given for about 1,725 of them.
More Ministers Than Doctors
The top 10 are planters, farmers and husbandmen (323), carpenters, joiners and housewrights (168), tailors (115), merchants and mercers (103), ministers (91), shoemakers and cordwainers (81), mariners and sea captains (75), weavers, say-makers and websters (62), coopers (54), and ship carpenters and shipwrights (52),
Next on the list are tanners and curriers (41), blacksmiths (39), fishermen (34), innholders, vintners and ordinary keepers (30), millers (28), bricklayers and brickmakers (23), physicians and surgeons/chirurgeons (21), clothiers (20), bakers (19), sawyers (18), whyeelwrights (16), schoolmasters (15), glovers (15), butchers (14), millwrights (13), boatmen, ferrymen or lightermen (13), sailors (12), rope or cord makers (11), masons and plasterers (11) and drapers (10).
Bakers and Candle Makers
The following occupations belonged to at least more than two of these early immigrants: malsters, gunsmiths, hatters, wool-carders, barbers, turners, brewers, chandlers, haberdashers, ironmongers, glaziers, lawyers, cutlers, scriveners, salters, pewterers, apothecaries, soap-boilers, locksmiths, starchmakers, armourers, glassmen, fishmongers, sail makers, skinners and painters.
There were two each for the following occupations: saddlers, notaries, tray makers, nailers (nail makers), potters, slaters, flaxmen, felmongers, pipe-stave makers, fullers, grocers and printers.
Where Are the Butchers?
For the immigrants listed by Banks there was only one each for these occupations: parchment maker, calinder, bookseller, beehive maker, plow-wright, stationer, dyer, farrier, girdler, sieve maker, oatmeal maker, ostler, goldsmith, confectioner, pin maker, bookbinder, artist (probably a surveyor), cannonier, upholsterer, thacker, distiller, fineryman, limeburner, cow-leech, chimney sweeper, clapboard ryver, collier and collar-maker.
An interesting aside is that Pope gives social class designations for 379 of the people listed in his book. They are: gentlemen, ladies, esquires and knights (117), yeomen (122) and servants and laborers (140).
Farmers Versus Planters
It would appear that Pope’s list is somewhat skewed, especially in the top categories. It would have been common for early ship passengers who were merchants, professionals or tradesmen to be listed with their occupations, but trades or occupations would not have been given for most of these passengers and, indeed, we do not have them for more than 4,000 other passengers listed by Pope. One can assume that many of them were farmers, or people who disembarked in Boston not knowing what work they would find.
It is also important to note the difference between planters and farmers. A large number of the “gentlemen” listed by Pope would have been planters. They came with enough money to purchase huge tracts of land, hoping that would establish them and their descendants as people of prominence and power.
Changing Occupations
The source for assigning many of these occupations was that given on ship passenger lists. Naturally, many occupations found in England towns and cities in the early 1600s couldn't be practiced in America until larger communities developed. Many of these colonial immigrants must have switched occupations after their arrival. Boston, however, did quickly emerge as as a sizeable city by the mid to late 1600s, part of the period covered in Pope's
