A prominent cowkeeper?

Having just found out about the historical directories website from a recent
posting by Stan Mapstone, I was browsing and found an intriguing entry.

My family history tells me that, in 1855, my great-great-grandfather's
sister married a Joseph Askey, shepherd in Great Coates, Lincolnshire (near
Grimsby). Lo and behold, the 1868 Post Office Directory showed a Joseph
Askew, cowkeeper. Askew is a common variant of Askey and I am pretty sure
this is the same man. (I've seen their gravestone in the local cemetery.)

Here's my question: why would a cowkeeper, or shepherd be listed in this
directory? Wouldn't only prominent people be listed? Or might a senior

andrew...

David -

I suspect, but do not know, that there is a distinction here between a
'cowkeeper' and a 'cow-man'. As a one-time cowman, paid to tend and milk
cows, I would suggest that a 'cowkeeper' may have owned the cows in his
own right. Whether they would have been milk, or 'dairy', cows, or
perhaps beef cattle being 'brought on' or fattened on grass or other
herbage I do not know.

If I remember correctly Great Coates is now part of Grimsby, but then
would have been a small village on the edge of the saltings or marsh
land. In all probability he tended cattle being raised along the Humber
estuary.

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon
You may depend upon it, all lives out of London are mistakes, more or
less grievous; - but mistakes. Rev. Sydney Smith 1771-1854, Canon of St.
Paul's.

"cowkeeper" have some local importance: some kind of foreman, perhaps?

Eve McLaughlin...

No - it is nothing to do with social importance. He was in business for
himself, even if he employed no man (though probably a boy or so).
Anyonw with a business is in. A man who is foreman over umpteen men is
not.

By the way, Great Coates had 206 people, of which 22 were listed in the
directory. Some villages listed a much smaller percentage of their
population. Maybe it's only that, by chance, this village listed even the
humblest?

Eve McLaughlin...

well, obiovusly not, or the number included would be around 100. Those
included were employers or masters or just owners of shops, businesses
etc, however humble. A cowkeeper (dairyman) grazes animals and or
supplies milk.

By the way, the 22 included 1 lord of the manor/landowner, 4 "esq"s, 1
curate, 7 farmers, 1 shopkeeper, 1 shoemaker, 1 blacksmith, 1
carpenter/wheelwright and 5 cowkeepers.

David Nicholson

David Marshall...

A cowkeeper was the local dairyman and was of equal importance to the local
butcher or baker. It is common to find them listed in city directories of
the time, although they may not have been so important in a rural community.

David Marshall