One truism of research is that individual members of the working class rarely leave much of a mark on the pages of history; and the farther back in time, the less possible it becomes to flesh out such lives. A small number left behind diaries or, more rarely, autobiographies, some of which have survived into the modern era. For the past four hundred years most, though by no means all, were registered at the date of baptism, marriage, baptisms of children, and burial. And, since 1841, the vast majority have been chronicled in the decadal censuses. Such entries in civil and ecclesiastical records freeze a few moments in time and space for posterity, but the minutiae of daytoday existence remain largely undocumented.

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