I've come across someone who was a 21 year old servant on the 1871 census, with the stated occupation of Postman in a very large country house belonging to a banker. I've looked this up on old occupations, a Post Boy would be a postillion, would this be the same? Alternatively, could he have been responsible for the mail for the house, maybe lots of mail related to share prices?
Sorry for not posting for a long while, the whole of last year has been dedicated to planning and carrying out an international move. I'm now back in Blighty, hurrah!
Results 1 to 10 of 10
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10-02-2018, 7:37 PM #1JackieCGuest
What would a Postman be in a large house?
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10-02-2018, 8:27 PM #2
Was there any relationship between him and the household?
Maybe he was the godson of them?
As to the position of postman, never heard of one in a household.Neil
www.claycross.org.uk
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10-02-2018, 8:34 PM #3JackieCGuest
No, he was definitely a servant; I'm puzzled by it too and the handwriting is clear enough on the census, that's definitely what it says. He was from a poor background and from the size of the house this banker who owned it was as rich as Croesus. He's well down the bottom of the list, after the governess, lady's maids, housekeeper and butler, in amongst the grooms, parlour maids and scullery maids.
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10-02-2018, 8:44 PM #4
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Not doubting what you say about the clarity of the word but the enumerator might have mistakenly written 'postman'.
Could it be potman - someone who's job it was to wash the dishes and utensils, working in the scullery?
Peter
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10-02-2018, 8:48 PM #5
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11-02-2018, 4:11 AM #6
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I was about to suggest that if you lived in a large country house down a long driveway maybe you would employ someone to go and collect your post from the local post office, possibly more than once a day, but I guess that wouldn't really be a full-time job.
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11-02-2018, 9:12 AM #7JackieCGuest
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11-02-2018, 2:38 PM #8
can you give us the references for that page of the census and let us all go and look.
It sometimes was usual for lower servants to have specific duties and it could be that he was a "boot boy" and also went to the post office to collect and take mail. At that time there could be up to six deliveries a day and even more in the citiesSadly, our dear friend Ann (alias Ladkyis) passed away on Thursday, 26th. December, 2019.
Footprints on the sands of time
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11-02-2018, 2:44 PM #9
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11-02-2018, 2:47 PM #10
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I do wish that if people are to going to refer to a census entry they provided the census reference or some means of allowing us to look for ourselves.
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