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prinnyroyalz
09-07-2009, 7:38 AM
My great grandfather Harry Dewhirst (b.1875) started work as a young boy as a pit driver, he later worked for Calder Navigation at Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, Yorkshire. In the census 1901 he was described as a teamer and in 1911 as a horse merien, can anyone tell me what these jobs were exactly?

Geoffers
09-07-2009, 7:59 AM
A teamer, or teamster, or team-man is someone who drives a team of horses (pulling a cart, or some sort of haulage which would be common in a navigation company).

Offhand, I cannot find the word 'merien' or variants in any dictionary. It may be a local or mis-spelt word but I'll keep looking unless someone can come up with an explanation. If he was with the same company in both census returns, I would imagine he was carrying out similiar work at each census.

Peter Goodey
09-07-2009, 9:02 AM
horse merien

I don't believe there's any such thing. Can you show us the relevant part of the image?

Could it possibly be Horse Marine? This term is sometimes found meaning a horse driver or rider along the canals.

gasser
09-07-2009, 9:45 AM
Could it possibly be Horse Marine? This term is sometimes found meaning a horse driver or rider along the canals.

It would seem Peter Goodey could be correct with his interpretation as can be seen from this..........

Horse Marines - A term used in Yorkshire for the horse haulage contractors that towed the keels on the canals.

prinnyroyalz
09-07-2009, 10:07 AM
It is clearly written as merien in the census, maybe it was a spelling mistake. I have come across the term Horse Marine- which seems to fit the job he did on the canal.

Geoffers
09-07-2009, 10:47 AM
It is clearly written as merien in the census, maybe it was a spelling mistake.

Good idea of Peter to come up with Horse Marine, which convinces me. Consider the Yorkshire accent and standards of spelling at the time and it becomes fairly obvious.

prinnyroyalz
09-07-2009, 3:15 PM
I agree with you-I've a broad Yorkshire accent and lots of people have difficulty understanding me-I've lived in Geordieland for 35years and my accent hasn't changed!

Peter Goodey
09-07-2009, 3:35 PM
I'm not sure that it's anything to do with accent. I would look on merien simply as an imaginative spelling of marine.

Geoffers
09-07-2009, 5:54 PM
I'm not sure that it's anything to do with accent.

I'm thinking along the lines of someone who does not know how to spell a word, might pronounce it to themself as they write it down.

In doing so, the way the word is pronounced (including a broad accent) would have some effect on the way the word is then written. There is likely to be some reason for imaginative spelling and local dialect/accent is as good as any.