What is a horse follower carrying coals?

[Brock]

I have a copy of the bond & allegation for when an ancestor re-married in 1769 which states what his occupation was & it says that he worked as a horse follower carrying coals. From the time of his second marriage he & his wife had a very large family with all of the offspring being baptised in Wednesbury, Staffordshire making it seem that the family were permanently based there. Could anyone tell me about his work as a horse follower carrying coals please? When I first read this I assumed that it was the horse pulling a barge carrying coals & so I thought that he may have been from a barge family but he seems to have had a home in Wednesbury where he always lived which doesn’t fit in with the pattern that I would have expected to see for a barge family. Could his job actually be something else that I do not know of perhaps which would be carried out by men who were not barge folk? Any thoughts or help & advice would be most welcome please.
Thank you.

[Colin Rowledge]

Just a thought and probably off-base, but often men followed horse drawn wagons to remove from the roadway the animal droppings.

Colin

[bamagirl]

Hi, Brock.

My thoughts are mostly conjecture, backed by a little internet searching.
- the canals through Wednesbury were still under construction in 1769
- the coal had to get from the mines to the canals or elsewhere by some method
- coal mines all over the world use[d] carts pulled by donkeys or small horses/ponies to transport the coal out of the mine

My guess (and that's all it is and probably worth what you pay for it) is that a cart loaded with coal, especially one down in the mine, might need someone to follow behind and pick up product that falls out along the way.

I will say the "horse follower carrying coals" is an awkward wording for a job title. Internet searches mostly return blog posts that reflect how many followers the site has. One result was a horse racing site where a horse was named "Follower."

I defer to any of the folks here with more knowledge about ancient occupations. I'm interested to see what the wise souls here think.

Regards,
-Barb

[Brock]

Thank you for your thoughts, it's much appreciated.