Five shillings for 20 dozen sparrows??

[Clive Blackaby]

I'm intrigued!

The above is just one example of regular entries in the Overseers' Disbursements records for the parish of Essendon, Herts. 1815 - 1828.

In today's terms, that's about £15.

Almost every month there would be several such entries of payments to "Various boys", "Mr Wacketts's boy", etc, for quantities of "birds" or more commonly "sparrows" up to 20 dozen in a single month, at 3d (1.25 "new" pence) per dozen

In 1815, the price was 6d per dozen, but it dropped in about 1818.

I really must know, WHAT DID THEY DO WITH THEM???

Were they dead or alive? Food for humans in the poor house, or for the lord of the manor, or for his falcons perhap?

I've not found any payments to "Mr Blackaby's boy", but there are another 7 years of records to go at. And if my ancester did earn his pocket money trapping sparrows, I'll be dead chuffed.

(The other entertaining entry, 5s for gin to the woman who laid out a deceased local pauper, is, in the above context, hardly surprising.)

[AnnB]

I think, for the most part, sparrows were killed because they caused so much damage to crops. Being seed eaters, and being so common, they could do a trmendous amount of damage to a precious field of corn. So, the best form of 'pest control' was to pay people to kill them by the dozen.

Some ended up in Victorian dioramas - glass cases fill of stuffed birds and animals - and maybe some were eaten, although I think the Middel Ages was more the time of eating small birds, when they were stuck on a skewer and eaten, I suppose, a bit like kebabs :cool:

Nowadays, the poor sparrow is almost an endangered species :(

Best wishes
Ann

[Clive Blackaby]

I think, for the most part, sparrows were killed because they caused so much damage to crops. Being seed eaters, and being so common, they could do a trmendous amount of damage to a precious field of corn. So, the best form of 'pest control' was to pay people to kill them by the dozen.

Nowadays, the poor sparrow is almost an endangered species :(

Best wishes
AnnThanks for the info Ann - this was one of the suggestions from a friend at the LDS library when I found it.

Pleased to report that here at least the sparrow is thriving - I frequently have a couple of dozen of them in the garden at a time (that's more than they had in Hyde Park a couple of years back, when the sparrow did have a bit of a decline)

Did the sparrows have to be dead? Or did they do the old rat catchers' trick of catching them alive, and then releasing them so they could catch 'em again the next day!!

p.s. Wonder if we could pay today's urchins to collect ferral pigeons - they'd even make a better meal than sparrows!

[AnnB]

Hello Clive

Just something to show how hazardous it was, trying to keep down the bird population in 1850, taken from the North Devon Journal dated May 30th 1850

In the week of last Christmas a, young man in the name of Hartnoll, was shooting small birds in his father’s orchard, at the back of the house, got over the hedge, and in trying to get the gun over, it exploded and he having hold of it by the muzzle, it blew away the heel of his hand and lodged its contents in the fleshy part of his arm. Mr Lane. Surgeon, promptly attended and has had him under his care ever since. Three weeks ago, he extracted a large piece of splintered bone and on the 22nd instant in the presence of many respectable persons, to their satisfaction and astonishment, he placed him under the influence of chloroform and extracted 39 shots from his arm, the patient at the time being unconscious of the operation. He is now doing well and there is no doubt he will have the use of his arm restored.

And all without the aid of modern medicine ;)

Best wishes
Ann