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Boarding and lodging practices in early twentieth-century Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

JEFF MEEK
JEFF MEEK*
Affiliation:
Economic and Social History, University of Glasgow.
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

The social and economic position of lodgers in Europe and North America has attracted considerable scholarship, yet the financial and interpersonal relationships between lodgers and boarders and their hosts in working-class homes is somewhat underdeveloped. This article examines patterns of lodging and boarding in working-class homes in Scotland between 1861 and 1911, focusing upon multiple layers of connection between paying guests and householders. This article demonstrates that connections had national and ethnic roots, and that taking in lodgers and boarders was of prime cultural and economic importance for many. The ability to offer space played a crucial role in the social and economic status of single, separated and widowed women, and this article offers an insight into the sometimes troubled relationships between landladies and their tenants.

Pensionnaires et locataires: les pratiques en écosse au début du xxe siècle

La situation économique et sociale des locataires en Europe et en Amérique du Nord a déjà fait l'objet de travaux érudits, mais on a encore peu abordé la question des relations financières et interpersonnelles qu'entretiennent locataires et pensionnaires avec ceux qui les hébergent au sein de foyers appartenant aux classes populaires. Cet article examine les divers modèles d'hébergement de pensionnaires et locataires dans les ménages ouvriers d'Ecosse, entre 1861 et 1911, mettant l'accent sur les interconnexions multiples entre ces hôtes payants et les chefs de ménage qui les reçoivent chez eux. L’étude montre d'une part que ces connexions reposaient sur des bases nationales et ethniques et que d'autre part prendre pensionnaires et locataires étaient d'une importance culturelle et économique majeure pour beaucoup. Pour les femmes célibataires, séparées ou veuves, la possibilité d'avoir un espace d'accueil à proposer jouait un rôle crucial dans leur situation sociale et économique, et l'article offre un aperçu des relations parfois conflictuelles entre logeuses et locataires.

Kostgänger und untermieter in schottland im frühen 20. jahrhundert

Trotz beachtlicher Forschungen zur sozialen und ökonomischen Position von Untermietern in Europa und Nordamerika ist die Frage der finanziellen und persönlichen Beziehungen zwischen Untermietern und Kostgängern und ihren Hauswirten in Arbeiterhaushalten ziemlich unterbelichtet. Dieser Beitrag untersucht Verpflegungs- und Unterbringungsmuster im Arbeiterhaushalten in Schottland zwischen 1861 und 1911 und fragt insbesondere nach den vielfachen Beziehungsschichten zwischen zahlenden Gästen und Haushaltsvorständen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass diese Verbindungen nationale und ethnische Wurzeln hatten und die Aufnahme von Kostgängern und Untermietern für viele Arbeiterhaushalte von wesentlicher kultureller und ökonomischer Bedeutung war. Die Möglichkeit der Raumvergabe spielte eine entscheidende Rolle für den sozialen und ökonomischen Status von ledigen, geschiedenen und verwitweten Frauen, und dieser Beitrag vermittelt Einsichten in die zuweilen schwierigen Beziehungen zwischen Vermieterinnen und ihren Untermietern.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 31 , Issue 1: Lodgers in Rural and Urban Europe in the Past , May 2016 , pp. 79 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

ENDNOTES

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7 For the purposes of this paper, householders relate to the head of household, but more broadly, adult (16 years and over) family members, as connections between home occupiers may be wider than simply to a head of household.

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9 Census of Scotland 1861, Population Tables and Reports, Vol. II (Edinburgh, 1864), lix.

10 Irish-born population of Govan, derived from the Censuses of Scotland, 1861.

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29 Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, vol. 7 (Glasgow, 1871) 248–9.

30 Morris, ‘Urbanisation and Scotland’, 83.

31 ‘Fever in Govan’, Glasgow Herald, 1 July 1863, 6.

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37 Glasgow Parish Council, Collection of Prints: T.PAR 1.14, 15 May 1910.

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39 Davidoff, Worlds between, 151–79.

40 Holmes, ‘Accommodating the lodger’.

41 The New Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. VI, Lanark (Edinburgh and London, 1845), 696–8.

42 Dalglish, Driscoll, Maver, Shead and Shearer, Historic Govan, 80.

43 Census of Scotland, 1911. Report on the twelfth decennial census of Scotland, vol. II (Edinburgh, 1913), p. c.

44 Percentage of working-class homes with boarders, derived from the Censuses of Scotland, 1861 to 1911.

45 Census of Scotland 1891, Tenth decennial census of the population of Scotland taken 5th April 1891, with report, vol. II, part I (Edinburgh, 1892), 311.

46 Census of Scotland 1901, Eleventh decennial census of the population of Scotland taken 31st March 1901, with report, vol. I (Edinburgh, 1902), 361.

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48 White, West European city, 47.

49 Census of Scotland 1901, Eleventh decennial census of the population of Scotland, vol. II, lxv.

50 Geraldine Vaughan, The ‘local’ Irish in the west of Scotland (Basingstoke, 2013), 20.

51 Anderson, Family structure, 155–7.

52 Modell and Hareven, ‘Urbanization and the malleable household’, 472–3.

53 Peel, ‘On the margins’, 823–9.

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55 Census of Scotland 1901, Eleventh decennial census of the population of Scotland, vol. II, xxviii.

56 Census of Scotland 1901, Eleventh decennial census of the population of Scotland, vol. II, 829.

57 Including those identified as ‘Russian Poles’.

58 Laura Anker, ‘Family, work, and community: southern and eastern European immigrant women speak from the Connecticut Federal Writers’ Project’, in Dorothy O. Helly and Susan Reverby eds., Gendered domains: rethinking public and private in women's history (New York, 1992), 312.

59 Kenneth Collins, Ephraim Borowski and Leah Granat, Scotland's Jews: a guide to the history, community of the Jews in Scotland (Glasgow, 2008), 20.

60 ‘The Jew in Scotland’, Aberdeen Daily Journal, 30 June 1906, 6.

61 Linda Fleming, ‘Jewish women in Glasgow c.1880–1950: gender, ethnicity and the immigrant experience’ (unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2005), 195–9.

62 Ibid., 199.

63 Individuals aged 16 years or over who were not living with parents in lodgings.

64 Eleanor Gordon and Gwyneth Nair, Public lives: women, family and society in Victorian Britain (New Haven and London, 2003), 44–5.

65 Ancestry.com, 1901 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Parish: Govan; ED: 20; Page: 16; Line: 4; Roll: CSSCT1901_327 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2007).

66 Ancestry.com, 1901 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Parish: Glasgow St Mark; ED: 7; Page: 26; Line: 22; Roll: CSSCT1901_304 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2007).

67 Peel, ‘On the margins’, 816.

68 Humphries, ‘Female-headed households’, 39.

69 Ibid., 31–2.

70 Moring, ‘Women, work and survival strategies’, 64.

71 Davidoff, Worlds between, 151–79.

72 His Majesty's Stationery Office, Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress: report on Scotland (London, 1909), 102.

73 Ibid., 103

74 Ibid.

75 The author of the letter was originally writing to criticise the campaign for prohibition in Scotland.

76 ‘The evils of lodgings’, Glasgow Herald, 6 November 1893, 11.

77 Ibid.

78 Smyth, ‘Lodging houses’, 14.

79 ‘Death dormitory: 39 lodgers lost at Glasgow’, Hull Daily Mail, 20 November 1905, 4.

80 ‘Truth’, ‘Truth and the landlady’, Dundee Evening Post, 14 August 1902, 2.

81 ‘A Victim’, ‘Truth and the landlady’, Dundee Evening Post, 15 August 1902, 2.

82 Ibid.

83 ‘Fair Play’, ‘Truth and the landlady’, Dundee Evening Post, 16 August 1902, 2.

84 ‘Divinity’, ‘Truth and the Landlady’, Dundee Evening Post, 16 August 1902, 2.

85 ‘One of Them’, Truth and the landlady’, Dundee Evening Post, 15 August 1902, 2.

86 ‘Lodger’, ‘Truth and the landlady’, Dundee Evening Post, 16 August 1902, 2.

87 ‘Landlady’, ‘Truth and the landlady’, Dundee Evening Post, 16 August 1902, 2.

88 For example, see: Modell and Hareven, ‘Urbanization and the malleable household'.

89 Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. Report on Scotland, 1909 (London, 1900), 18.