Most of the references to work in the letters concern people getting (or not) jobs of one sort or another.  We see this process in train up and down the social spectrum. 

At the bottom, we get some insight into the hiring and firing practice of Henry Slade senior.  Will Strange leaves the employ of the Slades one Saturday.  He worked as an under-carter at Thorpe Farm.  All of a sudden, he demands the princely sum of twelve shillings a week.  They agree to differ and he leaves.  Charlotte guesses that tales of exorbitant wages offered on Swan River have whipped up young Strange.  In reality, he probably found the rather sudden addition of a wife and family more financially taxing than he estimated.  Old Cy the shepherd also had ideas for higher salary.  Henry asked Old Cy’s price and, upon hearing it, declined the luxury of his employment.  Old Cy had decided to go for an increase over last year when Henry had considered a decrease.  The encounter seems to have gone without rancour: Old Cy took up his hat and said ‘Good night, Sir’ and off he went.  Henry had little difficulty in filling the post, hiring Gearing, a Blewbury shepherd.

Higher up the scale, job filling involves more complex maneouvres.  Most of these examples follow the career of Dr Workman.  He held one of the medical posts at the Wallingford Union.  Just recently, it seems, the medical posts came up for renewal.  So strong were the merits of continuing to employ the incumbents that no attempt occurred to advertise these posts to the public at large.  Mr Ladgrove, upon discovering this, called them all a set of smugglers.  The Chairman of the Union took offence at this criticism and plans to call upon Ladgrove for an apology.  After a while, the good Doctor’s ambitions and expenditure patterns make him decide to sell his practice in the village to the other Doctor, John Breach.  Originally he planned to go to Heckfield, but presently we learn that he has postponed doing so in order to nurse his sick father in Reading.  Once his father has recovered, he accompanies the new parson, Mr Crowdy, on a visit to that gentleman’s mother, a wealthy widow.  She has occasion to visit her son at his place of work, arriving in a carriage and pair, complete with coachman and liveried footman.  Her involvement in the development of the Doctor’s career was seen as a good thing for us.  In the event, the Workmans move to Cricklade.  Perhaps Mrs Crowdy did indeed help with this appointment, for they take lunch at her house in Highworth en route to Cricklade.  The actual recommendation came from the local Rector, a Mr Gauntlet, although it seems that the Doctor does not go to a specific post, but rather the hope of an opening. Eventually, the Doctor’s brother, Skeete, takes him in hand.  Perhaps not understanding the irony involved, he writes and tells his brother of an opening advertised in the Wokingham Union.  He makes his brother an offer: if you get the Union job, you can become a partner in my Reading practice.  Skeete also knew of a Henley doctor in search of a practice.  He introduces him to his brother, his brother gets the Union post, the Henley doctor buys the Cricklade practice and the Workmans duly transfer to Reading, moving into the house next door.

This account of the good Doctor’s progress perhaps represents well how people acquired jobs: through patronage.  Early on in the letters, we learn about the Misses White, for whom Mr Gillot has arranged positions as dressmakers and milliners in London.  The exact nature of Mr Gillot’s business never becomes clear, but his appearances in the letters make him out as a type of agent, probably in London.  The reference to the White sisters seems to place them in the same social strata as the Slades, although the parish records have little to help here.  Henry Slade senior decides at one point that his youngest daughter will go as an apprentice dairymaid to a Wiltshire farm, presumably through connections of some kind.  A less positive version of this family patronage relates to the unfortunate Edward Bryan.  He had fallen in with bad company at Bath, a racy place.  His mother writes to ask whether the Slades know of a local farmer that might have a position for Edward, well away from Bath.  Sadly this came to nothing, for when we next (and finally) hear of Edward he has absconded, again in debt, this time pursued by his debtors.