A census record that conveys the promise of a good career

Another document that Judy Lester of Kerrywood Research turned up for me was an 1891 census record for David Scott Ritchie, my great-grandfather. It shows him living in St Ann's Chambers in Blackfriars, City of London with his widowed mother and 9-year-old sister, Susan Elizabeth Ritchie. David Scott is 17 years old and working as a junior clerk.

This makes sense but is also surprising. His being a junior clerk is in keeping with his father William's occupation as a commercial clerk for an oil merchant. Evidently, David showed some acumen in mathematics and record-keeping which allowed him to find an entry-level office job. On the other hand, it is surprising because the following census, taken in 1901, lists him as a footman in Mayfair. His occupation on his marriage certificate a year later confirms the footman position. What brought about this change in fortune? Here is a riddle to puzzle over!

For today, though, I want to concentrate on circumstances as they were for David in 1891.

With his father gone and his older brother William chasing his own career, David and his mother must have found it hard to make ends meet. The census shows that Emma Eliza Ritchie worked as a tie maker. Between her earnings and the money David made from his bookkeeping job, there could hardly have been enough to pay the rent on their rooms and meet their basic needs.

As if struggling financially wasn't enough, David had another problem. His 9-year-old sister Susan wasn't well. She had, according to the census, suffered from epilepsy since birth. In those days, this would have been a serious and worrying complaint. Seizures were untreatable by medication and would have put young Susan in constant danger of hitting her head against a hard corner or falling into the fire.

Nevertheless, the City of London was where everything happened. Even if "junior clerk" only meant sitting at a desk and writing down names and addresses of job-seekers in a book, David was on his way to becoming a respectable office worker. Perhaps he dreamed, as he strode across Blackfriars Bridge, of one day owning a newspaper or running a transport business. Perhaps he gazed at beautiful women in passing carriages and pictured himself marrying into an aristocratic family. Despite the hardships at home, he was almost certainly ambitious and impatient to follow in his successful older brother's footsteps.

Photo credit: "A writer's friends" by Caseywest

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