William Marklew: Making a New Life
William Marklew was born in Lichfield around 1765, but like many labouring men of his generation he did not spend his working life in one place. His settlement examination reveals a man who moved where employment could be found, working in places such as Longdon before eventually arriving in Armitage.
For men like William, moving to another parish in search of work was entirely normal. Under the Old Poor Law, however, moving for employment did not automatically bring the right to poor relief. If hardship struck, the parish first had to establish whether it was legally responsible for supporting the newcomer.
William Marklew’s story illustrates how that system worked in practice, but it also shows that a successful settlement could mark the beginning of a new life.
William was a brickmaker, a trade that was becoming increasingly important in Armitage during the early nineteenth century. Brickmaking, however, remained largely a seasonal occupation. Bricks were moulded, dried and fired during the warmer months, leaving many brickmakers to seek other work during the winter. Such insecurity meant that moving to a district where work was available was often the only realistic option.
The first record of the Marklew family in Armitage is the baptism of William and Sarah’s twin daughters, Mary and Anne, on 8 June 1800. Two years earlier, William had married Sarah Mills of Armitage at Lichfield. Sarah had been baptised in Armitage in 1776 and was the daughter of Samuel Mills, very probably the same “Old Sam” who later appears regularly in the parish road accounts. If so, William had married into a long-established Armitage family. Sarah may also have been the Sarah Mills who cared for the young Jane Waltho before she was apprenticed away by the parish, although that identification cannot be proved with certainty.
When William arrived in Armitage he came under the scrutiny of the parish authorities. Before they accepted responsibility for him and his family, they needed to establish whether he had a legal settlement elsewhere or whether Armitage would become responsible should he later need poor relief. His settlement examination recorded his background and employment, allowing the magistrates to decide where responsibility lay.
Unlike Hannah Greatrix, who was removed to Armitage because another parish successfully proved that responsibility rested here, William’s examination had a much happier outcome. Rather than being sent elsewhere, he was able to establish himself in the parish.
Whatever the outcome of the settlement examination, William remained in Armitage. The parish register records the baptism of another son, John, on Christmas Day 1802, showing that the family had not been removed to Lichfield. Why this was so is not recorded. It may be that William found sufficient work to avoid becoming chargeable to the parish, or that other circumstances changed before any removal became necessary.
Within a few years William was certainly established as a brickmaker. Contemporary wage records from Thomas Bond’s brickworks show him earning regular wages, often exceeding £3 a week. On one occasion, instead of cash, he received two pigs valued at £3 18s 6d. Another entry records him being paid at the rate of 5 shillings for every thousand bricks he produced, providing a rare glimpse into how at least some brickmakers were paid in the early nineteenth century.
Although William died in 1827 and was buried at Armitage the Marklew story did not end there.
By the time of the 1841 census his son, William, was thirty-five years old and living in Armitage with his wife Jane and their six children. He too worked as a brickmaker. Another son, Thomas, aged twenty-nine, had already established his own household nearby and followed the same trade. The younger generation had not only remained in the village but had become part of one of its developing industries.
As the nineteenth century progressed, brickmaking expanded alongside Armitage’s growing economy. Whether William’s sons worked for the Bond family or one of the other brickmaking businesses that soon appeared cannot now be determined, but the Marklew family had clearly become established members of the community.
William Marklew first appears in the records because the parish questioned whether he belonged in Armitage. Within a generation, that question no longer needed asking. His children and grandchildren were living, working and raising families in the parish, illustrating that the settlement system, though often restrictive, could sometimes provide the foundation for a lasting new beginning.