But there was less social mobility than in the
previous century and many landed families were consolidating their
position. They expected their oldest son to take and preserve the
family estate. Industrialists who had made a fortune for example
in steel, cotton, coal mining, porcelain, and merchants who wanted
to turn themselves into landed gentlemen found it very difficult
to buy such estates. Old dissenter families, Quakers in
particular, who were highly esteemed as businessmen, as
industrialists, and as model employers were excluded from the
Anglican landowning society. Rich tradesmen, artists, actors, and
writers found it difficult to buy substantial houses in the small
market towns and countryside because of an entrenched hierarchical
atmosphere there that didn't exist in London. The only gentlemen
who were in household service were librarians, tutors, or
chaplains. They ate with the family and did not consider
themselves servants. Servants were kept more at a distance. By the
1750s the servant class was clearly defined. Their quarters were
moved to the basement of the house and they ate together in the
kitchen. But some householders still had special occasions when
everyone would eat together in the dining room, with the servants
at one end of the table. In 1767 about one tenth of the population
in London had servants. Even bricklayers and milk sellers had a
servant.
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