How Much Money Did Cobblers Make In Colonial Times

The Smuggler's Gambit is set in 1765 and deals with aircraft and smuggling, and so one of the key trades inthatline of work was coopering. In fact, when Adam Fletcher begins his apprenticeship with a local aircraft merchant, the area in which he begins his training is equally a cooper.

Coopers in Colonial America were standard fixtures on ships, equally well as on plantations, breweries, wineries, distilleries and any other industry that required containers for the commodities they produced.

To put it in modernistic terms: You know those big shipping containers that bring stuff to your local Wal-Mart? Or how about those beautiful dark-brown boxes that come to your door from Amazon.com? Well, in the 1700s, all of those containers would've been fabricated of wood, and they would've been shaped similar barrels — made by coopers.

I had ancestors in the 1700s who were coopers, and while I take their manor records naming all of the tools they endemic, until contempo months, I had limited understanding of how they were all put into exercise.

While I knew that casks (or barrels, as we might commonly call them today) were used to store near everything in colonial times: dried grains, salted meats (pork, beefiness, fish), wine, rum, tobacco, naval stores (pitch, tar), gun powder, various merchandise, etc.., I wasn't sure what the typical process would be if one wanted to learn the cooper's trade.

In my research, I have establish a whole wealth of data on the cask-making process, so I thought I'd share some of it here.

One of the commencement things I learned is that not all things that look 'barrel'-shaped are actually barrels. There are also tuns, pipes, puncheons, hogsheads, and so forth, all named depending on their size and purpose.

I as well learned that in that location is a difference between wet coopering and dry coopering. As yous might gauge, wet coopering involved making containers that would hold liquids, while dry coopering produced containers that held dry substances such equally tobacco or gun powder.

This website does a thorough job of discussing the trade, as well every bit the cask-making procedure.

This video shows some of the tools of the trade in activity, as well equally demonstrates some of the processes:

Even after watching the video, and reading several websites about coopers and barrel-making, I nevertheless had questions. Fortunately, I knew where I could turn for answers.

Colonial Williamsburg to the Rescue

Colonial Williamsburg is one of my favorite places to get in the 1700s mood. Just walking through the celebrated district makes me experience as if I've traveled dorsum through time to when America's founders were busily crafting the Proclamation of Independence and a Revolution was brewing. At that place are many costumed reenactors walking the grounds, and the (almost complete) absence of cars and modern conveniences allows one to really soak in what life in the colonies might take felt like in the catamenia.

The official website for Colonial Williamsburg offers a smashing wealth of data, but I've plant that if I need to know something that goes a little bit deeper than what they take available on their public site, there is most always someone willing to provide me with more details, or point me in the direction of where I can observe them.

Jonathan A. Hallman, a Journeyman Cooper with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF), was i such person. A few weeks ago, he was gracious plenty to answer several questions for me in great detail.

Please keep in mind, while there were many commonalities amidst coopers everywhere, these answers are particularly relevant to the plantation club in the vicinity of the James River and Colonial Williamsburg, so there may be differences depending on where a cooper lived, or what industry employed him. For instance, some of the answers provided might not exist applicable to a ship'due south cooper.

Questions and Answers with Journeyman Cooper Jonathan A. Hallman

If a cooper'south shop knew they needed to produce a sure quantity of casks by a sure date, how might they organize their tasks to assure they get it done on time? Would they shape all of their staves first, then move through the steps for all of the barrels in sequence, or would they just move forward making i barrel at a time?

In nearly circumstances, individual coopers worked on a single container from outset to cease. Since they were normally paid piecework, they wouldn't desire to become whatsoever length of time without actually producing finished pieces. In add-on, because the work is all done visually (no patterns or calculations), the cheque is to see the pieces go together. If you shaped staves for a agglomeration of casks earlier assembling them, it would be easy to showtime to drift slightly from the right shape, and then y'all'd end up with a lot of extra work to do afterwards. The central would be to ensure you had sufficient staff to achieve the necessary production. Having said that, almost coopers making barrels were working on site for a specific industry (at a brewery, for instance), and were constantly producing casks, so that the finished containers could merely be drawn from stock whenever needed.

Was everyone in a cooper's shop typically doing the same kind of work? I mean, if there were a few men, would they all be shaping staves at the aforementioned time, or might it be that each would be handling a different part of the butt-making procedure?

Over again, the usual method would be "one person, one butt" so in a given shop you could accept individuals at different stages of the procedure depending on how efficiently each person worked. An exception to this rule could exist institute on plantations with slave coopers, who were sometimes employed in gangs where tasks were divided upwardly. This tended to work merely in the case of the manufacture of containers like tobacco hogsheads which didn't take to be terribly well made in the first place.

Regarding the heating and bending of staves — would it be likely that a cooper's store might have multiple chimneys for this purpose, or would they exist done 1 at a time?

A large working cooperage would typically take what was referred to as a "chimney corner" that was substantially a fireplace big plenty for several people to walk into and truss (heat and bend) a couple casks at a fourth dimension.
How long does the heating procedure have for the kinds of barrels/casks/hogsheads that would've held tobacco, rum, molasses, etc?

The burn down used to oestrus a cask through is sized in relation to the cask being aptitude, so the heating fourth dimension tends to exist roughly the same regardless of the size of the cask. Information technology should take about 20 minutes or and so to heat the woods to the point where it is pliable enough to curve.

I've heard there were sizing hoops, then final hoops were fabricated on site. I'm bold the sizing hoops were made of iron. From what materials were the last hoops typically made? (Non for gunpowder, but for commodities as mentioned above.) If they were fe, would that mean a cooper's shop would typically have a blacksmith on staff, or would they contract those items from some other tradesman?

The final hoops could exist made either of metal (usually atomic number 26, merely copper or contumely in the case of gunpowder), or of wood. In either example, making those hoops was function of the cooper's work. In the case of iron hoops, the textile was produced and sold as coopers hoop iron past mills (the same ones that produced smash rod for smiths, etc.) and purchased by the cooper. The angle and riveting to form that material into the hoops is done cold. In the example of wooden hoops, which were very common on tobacco hogsheads and casks for other dry goods exported from the colonies, they were made primarily from saplings divide in half and bent while dark-green, and notched at either end in order to hold the ends together. Y'all might want to bank check out the albums "Riveting" and "Wooden Hoop Making" on the Facebook page to become a little more feel for these.

If someone were brought into a cooper's store every bit an amateur, what would exist some of the start tasks he'd be trained in? Or would he exist expected to just swoop right in for whatever kind of work was being washed at the time?

Usually an amateur would be put to work fairly quickly, as the thought was to railroad train the amateur as quickly as possible and then to brand money off of his (or her) labor for as long as possible within the overall timeframe of the apprenticeship. Developing the skills meant building i skill on meridian of another, so the amateur would normally exist giving 1 particular job to start with – hollowing staves, for example. One time that skill was well developed, another – backing staves – would be added. Ane by one, skills were added until ultimately the apprentice had all the skills necessary to produce the finished production. While this learning process was going on, the tradesman teaching the apprentice would be watching over the piece of work, and stepping in whenever necessary to ensure that the material wasn't wasted and the finished product was still sellable.

How many containers could likely be made in a day in a cooper'south shop with four coopers and an amateur?

Information technology depends on the blazon of container, and it depends on the 24-hour interval. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1800 that he expected the coopers at his grist factory to turn out an average of 5 flour barrels a day each. He did not specify the length of the work day, all the same, and his comments suggest (though they don't clearly state) that other slaves were doing some rough shaping of the stock before information technology was given over to the coopers to finish the casks. Rum could be shipped in seven different size casks ranging in chapters from as little as 16 gallons to as much every bit 252 gallons – obviously there'southward a substantial difference in production times. The time of yr and the atmospheric condition profoundly affect the length of the workday, equally there are more hours of workable daylight in the summer and fewer in the winter. There are also more than hours of workable daylight on a clear, sunny day than on a cloudy, rainy one. Depending on where the apprentice was in the grade of the apprenticeship, he could either impose a substantial impediment to productivity in the early on stages as his learning drew from the product time of one of the skilled workers, or he could be equally productive as whatsoever of the other four coopers if he was towards the terminate of the apprenticeship. If there's a particular type of cask you have in mind, I could probably exist a little more than specific about production times. Keep in mind that the casks were unremarkably fabricated where the product going inside was produced – beer barrels at the brewery, gunpowder kegs at the powder mill, flour barrels at the grist factory, and so on. Information technology would exist very unusual to observe coopers producing much variety.

One other affair, were the barrel heads fabricated on site, or did they come from a 3rd-party?

Making the heads is part of the process of making the cask.

Mr. Hallman also sent me a couple of Word documents that were produced for utilize there at the Cooperage. I did not seek permission to republish those documents here, but I would imagine that if you lot had specific questions about how CWF goes nearly training their apprentices in the merchandise, they would probably be happy to send them to you.

What well-nigh a transport's cooper?

Every bit I mentioned to a higher place, Mr. Hallman's answers to the questions about the cooper's trade related more than specifically to the local manufacture as information technology existed along the James River in the colonial era. There were coopers that worked in other industries, as well, for whom their craft was sometimes used, or approached, in a different capacity.

A transport's cooper is a prime example. So far, the best resource I accept found for the function and craft of a ship'due south cooper was on the Scholastic website. It was most John Alden, who served equally cooper aboard the Mayflower (1620).

While the page on the Scholastic site features several questions and answers (written every bit though John Alden, himself, was answering them), I have chosen a few hither that are specifically related to the cooper's trade as practiced on board a ship.

Why have y'all decided to leave England?

I've decided to leave England considering I was paid to exist a cooper on the Mayflower. All merchant ships need coopers to wait after their merchandise. The money is very good in the merchant service. I make 21 shillings a month.

What was your job in England?

I was a cooper on state. I couldn't earn as much money equally I could earn sailing on merchant's ship. On state, I only make a smaller portion of twenty shillings. I've just been free of my master for two years, and the coin I would make as a new journeyman on land would be far less than I could earn on this transport.

What is your job as cooper of the Mayflower?

The Mayflower is a large ship, and I'm responsible for safekeeping all merchandise. In conditions in that location can be damage from the appurtenances rolling into each other. If anything is damaged, I volition apply my woodworking to repair it.

Why is the job of cooper on board a ship so of import?

Most of the supplies that a ship carries are stored in casks and barrels. Coopers like myself are on board to repair the ones that get damaged during rough atmospheric condition. In storms, such equally we have had this voyage, in that location is much pitching and rolling — the stores can get greatly knocked about and hobbling. Being only fabricated of wood, although stout English oak, the staves can crack or hoops can loosen. When this happens, the stores within the cask get damaged, either by water leaking in or the stores themselves leaking out. I am kept aboard to prevent this from happening.

Accept y'all had to repair barrels of water and things?

Yeah, although we take piffling enough water aboard. Water spoils apace. On long voyages such as this, nosotros carry some for cooking and for the livestock. Most of the casks contain beer for drinking, biscuits, stores of grain, salt beef and fish, stale peas, and such like. There are also barrels belongings cloth, iron tools, gunpowder, fishing equipment, and other stores the passengers will need for the new settlement.

How difficult will information technology exist to set up a shop as a cooper once you lot get to the New World?

In Virginia, I expect in that location will be a phone call for my services. The colonists hope to get much profit by the fishing there, and those fish volition demand to be dried, salted, and packed in barrels before being shipped back. I'thousand armed with my training and tools, but I'll need good timber, cut and stale, before I can begin my trade of coopering. Seasoning the wood will accept several months at to the lowest degree.

Still have questions?

If in that location is anything this article didn't cover that y'all'd similar to know, feel gratis to submit a question in the annotate box. I'll practise my best to answer them from the whole folder of research information I gathered on this topic.

Source: https://www.adamfletcherseries.com/coopers-in-colonial-america-everything-you-wanted-to-know/

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