When did they stop working? Gold- and silversmiths in early-modern Frisia
An earlier contribution to this blog dealt with the retirement of surgeons in eighteenth-century Amsterdam: on average they stopped working 6,7 years before they passed away. As retirees they were entitled to financial support by the surgeons’ craft guild. For the surgeons of Amsterdam there was a life after the working days were over.
One question remained: at what age did the surgeons retire? A recent dissertation about gold- and silversmiths by Peter Schoen, Tussen hamer en aambeeld: edelsmeden in Friesland in de Gouden eeuw, provides an opportunity to address the question of the early-moder age at retirement. Schoen’s book contains short biographies of almost 80 members of the craft guilds of the gold-and silversmiths of Bolsward, a town in Friesland in the North of the Dutch Republic. His data cover the seventeenth and eighteent centuries, and include year of birth, entrance in the craft guild’s ledger, and death.
Of about half of the gold- and silversmiths in Schoen’s population we have useful data: age at birth and death is generally unavailable around 1600, and entrance in the craft guild ledger around 1800. Of 37 artisans we know the age at death: 61 years on average which accords quite nicely with data coming from other sources. A number even lived to be in their eighties or even nineties, such as one Gerrit van Velsen. One of the reasons why we are unaware of the longevity of only about half of all artisans, is mobility: quite understandably Schoen was unable to trace down all individuals that moved away to try their luck outside of Bolsward.
Of 38 craft guild members we do not only know when they passed away, but also when they were no longer metioned in the ledgers because of outmigration or retirement. The master craftsman was succeeded by a son or a journeyman, and stopped working himself. The average age at which artisans were no longer mentioned in the craft guilds administration, was 51 years; of 34 master craftsmen we know they continued to live for another ten years on average.
It is of course difficult to distinguish between guild members that retired, and those that moved away to continue their carreer elsewhere. For instance, Fonger Foppes Inthema was registered as a journeyman aged 14, in 1648. Ten years later, at the age of 24, he was for the first time mentioned as master craftsman. Then he disappears from the Bolsward sources, this in spite of the fact he continued to live until 1665. Fonger probably left Bolsward as a master craftsman, looking for opportunities elsewhere; he did not retire at the age of 24.
To distinguish those that 'stayed' in Bolsward until retirement from those that 'left' the town to set up shop elsewhere, the table below gives data of all individuals that worked as master craftsmen in Bolsward for at least ten years. Their profile shows an average age at retirement of 55 years, length of retirement of 11,3 years, and longevity of 65,6 years (to compare: the second table shows the data of the entire population).
Earlier contributions discussed several explanations for retirement in one's fifties: there is evidence early-modern people aged relatively fast and coped with physical and mental deficiencies at an earlier age than today. In their profession gold- and silversmiths depended on fine motor skills, which may have meant that many of them faced reduced labour capacity in their fifties. And of course as relatively well-earning professionals, gold- and silversmiths may have been in a position to decide to retire at that point.
Data entire population
