Victorian era -- occupation and inheritance?

Question

If a man who is a clerk (I'm assuming that this is a lower middle class occupation) inherits an estate, does he become a landowner?

And also, can you clear this up for me? What class would a clerk belong to? Would he be considered a gentleman?


Would Clerks be allowed to join parties and balls? (hosted by middle classed people)

Answer 1

There are bound to be differing opinions on your Questions. "Class" is a touchy subject for many people, and emotions / biases can tinge answers. For what they are worth, here are my opinions: -

[1] In Victorian times, a person's occupation was not the primary factor in designating the "Class" of that person. An individual's "Class" designation originated in birth. People were considered to be Upper, Middle, Lower (etc.) Class based upon their parents' status. But there was ample scope for upward / downward mobility between Classes. Someone born low could, by endeavor or good fortune, raise himself to higher status; and vice versa. Class mobility worked slowly and usually required a generation to pass before the transformation was effected.

[2] The occupation of "Clerk" would also carry an assumption of Class: definitely above deep Lower Class, but not as elevated as Middle Class in the sense of business owner, etc.
For this reason, to obtain a job as a Clerk would be considered a step up by someone of Lower Class birth. But taking the same job would be considered a step down for someone of Upper Middle or Upper Class origin.

[3] If a Clerk of Lower Middle Class origin inherited an estate, he would indeed become a "landowner", because he would then own land. Owning land was perhaps the main key to a family's gradual acceptance into a higher social Class, because it began to associate that family with the old aristocracy, whose wealth and status usually derived from owning land.

[4] But only rarely would the newly-landowning Clerk in [3] become regarded as a Gentleman by those who knew his origins. Despite owning land, his social origins in a lower Class would usually reduce people's perception of his Class throughout his life. His children, however, could come to be rated as Upper (or Upper Middle) Class, thanks to their father's wealth --- especially if he sent them away to a private school for their education. At a private school, the children would rub shoulders with children from higher Class families, and take on their style and manners via osmosis. This was one of the reasons for the vast expansion of private schooling in Victorian times. The other was the need for large numbers of educated / indoctrinated young men to administer the Empire.

[5] While private schools offered a medium for wealthy but lowborn families to polish and elevate the Class of their offspring, it is paradoxical that the schools were simultaneously a significant factor in reducing Class mobility. Up until the Victorian Era, an Englishman's Class could not be detected from his accent: there was no such thing as an Upper Class accent; everyone spoke with a regional accent. But pupils at private schools were taught to adjust their way of speaking to a new "received" English (originally from the Home Counties). By the end of the Victorian Era, the English could detect one another's social Class based on the way that they spoke.

[6] Would Clerks be allowed to join parties and balls, etc? Clerks would almost certainly never be invited to such affairs: a humble Clerk had nothing to offer to the persons throwing the party. But a former Clerk who became a landowner via inheritance almost certainly would be invited, provided that enough real wealth came along as part of that inheritance. Parties and balls were the mixing pot in which marriage alliances could be initiated between families who had (high) Class but little money; and families who had ample money, but little Class. By these means the old gentry exchanged a pedigree for money with the newly-rich upstarts.

Answer 2

Can I suggest you read 'The Diary of a Nobody' by George and Weedon Grossmith. This is a fictional, humorous, diary of just the kind of clerk you refer to. Being written in 19th century England, it answers many of the points you raise. And, yes, a clerk would become a landowner if he inherited a large estate.