Itinerant and Vagrant Workers

Have a look at the farm of Dalgig, and there is a family there of basket makers.  This is really interesting, in that there were lots of uses for different types of baskets in agricultural life.  The most immediate, would be the Tattie Swale..

From Woven Communities website

Please tell us of the uses you have seen for them - not just at tattie gathering, but as washing baskets and cribs?

Link To a website showing some fascinating baskets probably made by those people found at Dalgig in 1861!

Quite often in trawling through farm census records we come across paupers and vagrants listed as being resident.  They seem to pass largely below the radar of other forms of record, perhaps with no place of birth listed, or sketchy ages - even names may be suspect, but what is certain is that in rural life, they knew exactly which farms where they were made welcome, and which to avoid.
My grandmother could recall 'aul' Nick Henderson' who frequented their farm in the early 20th century. He would do odd jobs in return for food and shelter - although hospitality did not extend to him being allowed in the house! He was much too fragrant a vagrant for Granny to permit him over the threshold. This was not philanthropy, he would help with many necessary jobs that needed doing on the farm.
He was given an outhouse to sleep in much like the bothy in the photograph below, and hot meals, in exchange for fixing a henhut or clearing out a calf pen. 

Now used as a storage shed, you can still see the fireplace on the long gone first floor. (photo from Elaine Corbett).  This was probably 'high end' residential for a casual farm worker.

The History of Old Cumnock by John Warrick M.A. (1899)

pp329/330

'It is only about fifty years ago since the custom died out, by which cripple beggars were carried about in handbarrows. As they were so disabled that they could not move about themselves, they secured a handbarrow, similar to those builders use for carrying large stones, the only difference being that the centre portion was a box. In this humble carriage the mendicant was placed, and then borne by sturdy hands from one farmhouse to another, or from one door in town to the next. If he appeared in the morning at a farm, usually the farmer transferred him to a neighbouring house before nightfall; but if he arrived toward evening, it was necessary to keep him till next day. Certain farmhouses were famed for the hospitable treatment of these visitors. Craigens and Glengyron enjoyed this reputation. In such houses beggars' blankets were kept'.

The census was taken early in the year, so we won't find the 'tattie howkers' etc. that would undoubtedly swell the ranks of farm workers on a seasonal basis.  These will be the ones who did the real hard graft of unblocking drains and fixing dykes and ditches, 
These are some of the names we have found so far: Unsung heroes!

At Cairn, Old Cumnock 1851
Henry McIntyre 55, Agnes 55, And twin sons Henry and Patrick 11.  The family were from Ireland

At Glenside Auchinleck 1851
John Curance 46, with Catren 40, John 12, Ann 4, and Cattren 1.  John Curance was from Ireland, but the rest of the family has no place of birth registered.

At Cairn, Old Cumnock in 1881

James Brown 32 born in Irvine, Ayr

Chipperlaggan Ochiltree in a cottage on the farm

Divine, John M 31 Mendicant  Ayrshire  occupation crossed out   Divine, Agness F 31 Mendicant  Ayrshire  occupation crossed out   Divine, John M 9 Mendicant  Ayrshire  occupation crossed out   Divine, Jennet F 7 Mendicant  Ayrshire  occupation crossed out   Divine, Margaret F 6 Mendicant  Ayrshire  occupation crossed out     

Monthraw, New Cumnock  

1861 James White, hawker lodging with the Thorburn family.

Muirdyke 

Ellen Robertson Vagrant Widow Female 56 1815 Vagrant Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland

1871 Charles Hunter Vagrant Married Male 60  Vagrant Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland

Guelt 

1881 Peter Russell a vagrant tinsmith age 55 from Dumfries

At Chipperlagan

1891 William  78 & Mary Bowman 56 - farmer, with farm servants William Smith 18, and Martha Ballington 14.  They also have two tramps staying.  They are Thomas Linton 58, and Ann Hodge 60.(both from Ayrshire)

At Hannahston

1841 John Knox 50, farmer with Cathren 40, Agnes 20, John 18, Elizabeth 17, Cathren 15, Mary 13, William 3, Adam Pettigrew 15, ag lab., and Janet Clark 55 from Ireland, a travelling begger.

Wellhill, New Cumnock

The 1851 census shows David Arthur 70 farming in partnership with his son William 41 120 acres employing 2 labourers, David’s wife Jane 71,John Kerr 24, ploughman, James Meikle 16, labourer, Margaret Nisbet 21 house maid, Janet Galt, 28, dairymaid, Margaret McClatchie 12, house servant, and four lodgers, Janet Strathern age 84 a pauper, Neil Elliot 30, peddler, Elisabeth Millar 48, beggar, and William Bowman 8, beggar.

Benston, New Cumnock

1861 census Alexander Arthur 44, Farmer Of 285 Acres Employing 3 Men And 1 Boy, wife Elspeth 47 and new children, John 8, David 6, and Alexander 3.  Servants are Margaret Boyle 18, Isabella Capsticks 16, Elizabeth Kerr 27, dairymaid, James McCall 45, Alexander McCall 15, John McWhirr 14, cow herd, and two vagrants from Ireland Thomas K McInnes 57 and his wife 60 (not named) 

1861 census for Stonebriggs, Auchinleck shows Andrew Dixton widower 72 and Sarah Dixton wife as strangers sleeping overnight.

1871 census for Thirdpart Byre shows Andrew Dixton 87 an ex-soldier now a vagrant (born Gibraltar) and his wife Sarah Dixton 84 (born Gargunnock, Stirlingshire) there.

These people were almost certainly escaping hardship but could make a valuable contribution to the running of the farm as we still see today in the reliance we place on migrant workers coming to harvest our crops.

                                                    13/11/1903 Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald