Work and Ambition
Exploring the work ethic and ambitions of our ancestors
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The evolution of attitudes to work
The Agrarian Revolution
Humans abandoned hunter-gatherer nomadic lifestyles to form fixed
farming communities (Donkin, Richard (2001), Blood,
Sweat and Tears: The Evolution of Work, Texere
Publishing).
By the Iron Age the structure of work, survival, and social organisation
was bound to corporate kin groups. In pre-Christian clans, work was not
an individualistic pursuit. Instead, the clan functioned as a single corporate
entity. Land, livestock, and tools were often owned communally by the lineage
rather than by individuals. Consequently, production, farming, and labour were
organised collectively to ensure the survival and status of the broader kin
group. Identity was firmly rooted in family networks.
The Augustinian Mission
When Augustine arrived in Kent to convert the Anglo-Saxons, he
encountered deeply entrenched pagan marriage customs designed to enhance the
growth of power of clan lineages. Augustine wrote a series of letters to Rome
asking for clarification on who was permitted to marry whom. In reply, the Libellus responsionum,
Pope Gregory I banned cousin marriage (ruling out first cousins and second
degrees of kinship). He also forbade marrying close in-laws (affinal kin, such
as a brother's widow or stepmother), banned child adoption, and prohibited
concubinage.
By enforcing these rules onto the newly converted Anglo-Saxons,
the Augustinian Mission cut off the cultural pathways
tribes had traditionally used to retain power, land, and wealth within the
family line.
The Church’s ban on cousin marriage fundamentally reshaped the
Western work ethic and dismantled kin-based work structures, shifting society
toward a framework of individual responsibility. In intensive
kinship systems, the clan acted as a built-in insurance policy, collectively
managing land, protecting members, and caring for the sick or elderly. When
cousin marriage bans fragmented clans into isolated nuclear families, this
safety net dissolved. Individuals could no longer rely on an extended web of
relatives for automatic economic survival. Individuals were forced to rely on
their own personal attributes, choices, and skills. Survival and success became
matters of personal responsibility.
Rather than working a family plot of land out of clan obligation,
people could choose their own professions, relocate to cities, and join
voluntary associations.
The Cistercians
What Max Weber termed the Protestant work ethic originated
as a Cistercian work ethic centuries before the Reformation.
In classical antiquity and traditional kin-based structures,
manual labour was often viewed as low-status work relegated to slaves or lower
classes. The Cistercians fundamentally changed this. Built on values of deep
piety, self-denial, and absolute self-sufficiency, they elevated hard work and
manual labour into a form of spiritual devotion and a moral duty. Under the
Cistercians, working efficiently and striving for productivity became a way to honour
God.
Cistercian abbeys like Rievaulx integrated
networks of mother and daughter houses across Europe. The
Cistercians became economic powerhouses, dominating the textile and wool trade.
They operated not like a traditional family farm, but as early corporate
enterprises, using standardised accounting, mechanisation, including water
powered mills, and disciplined labour schedules.
Joseph Heinrich used statistical data to argue that the higher the
density of historical Cistercian monasteries in a European region, the more
likely modern residents are to affirm that hard work and thrift are important
values, even in the twenty first century.
The Protestant Work Ethic
The Catholic Church had laid the groundwork by dismantling tribal
kinship networks, whilst Martin Luther’s Protestantism was the primary
accelerator of modern Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic
psychology. Martin Luther’s theological insistence on sola scriptura, by
scripture alone, made every individual personally responsible for their own
salvation. To make this possible, Protestant leaders promoted universal
literacy.
Fuelled by Protestant thrift and the fear of wasting God-given
time, English workers developed an clock-time mindset.
Labour became strictly quantified by the hour, and punctuality was elevated to
a moral virtue. In England, particularly under the influence of later Puritan
and Calvinist movements, hard work became decoupled from mere survival. Workers
began to view labour as intrinsically purifying, deriving personal identity and
moral worth from being hardworking and self-regulated. Protestant theology
boosted psychological traits like patience and self-control. English workers
and entrepreneurs became uniquely willing to defer immediate gratification,
reinvesting profits into future production and working long hours for abstract,
long-term rewards. Because kinship ties had already been dissolved, England's
highly literate, individualistic workforce was uniquely mobile. Individuals
could freely choose their own occupations based on personal skill rather than
family lineage, accelerating the evolution of specialised labour and technological
innovation.
(Henrich, Joseph (2021), The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became
Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous, Penguin)
The Protestant work ethic, which originated in sixteenth century
English Puritanism, framed idleness as a moral failing, creating a make-work
society where human value was distortedly tied directly to production. Donkin
argued that this historical concept remains a lingering cultural attitude. (Donkin, Richard (2001), Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Evolution
of Work, Texere Publishing).
Industrial Revolution
Centuries of cultural evolution prior to the eighteenth century
had already rewired Western minds, preparing them for the demands of industrial
work. The Industrial Revolution
shifted society from task-oriented, daylight-driven labour to rigid,
clock-oriented factory work. This transformation created a modern work ethic
defined by perpetual productivity and little time to relax.
The transition from a pre-industrial society to modern industrial
capitalism fundamentally altered how humans perceive, value, and experience
time. The concept of time
shifted from a natural, task-oriented rhythm into a rigid, synchronised
currency, a time is money approach, used by employers to enforce labour
discipline. (Thompson, E P (1967), Time, Work-Discipline, and
Industrial Capitalism).
Opportunity
Before the Industrial Revolution, our ancestors worked in a rural
world confined by immediate neighbourhood. Their horizons were naturally
limited. Journeys of even a few miles were difficult. Opportunities for work
were limited to the agricultural tasks of the neighbourhood. Those who did not
own or lease their own land, offered their services to those who did. Thus many of our ancestors appear in the census records as agricultural
labourers. Sometimes they were forced to take more desperate measures to
survive, such as poaching
in the fourteenth and fifteenth century, risking being fined, outlawed or even
excommunicated.
Yet even in the fourteenth century, our family looked south from
the valley of Farndale, and emigrated to Sheriff Hutton, York and Doncaster. Within a few
centuries of their serfdom in Farndale, three generations of Johannis de Farendale had found work as sadler,
and butcher and become freemen of the City of York from 1363. By 1355, William
Farndale (FAR00038)
had become chaplain of Doncaster Parish and by 1396 was its vicar.
Aspiration
John Christopher Farndale the Elder (FAR00244) was born
in Whitby probably to a family who knew life at sea. His mother claimed a
pension from the Royal Hospital Chelsea after his father had died, so his
father may have worked for the Royal Navy, possibly as a carpenter. John
Christopher would become a Master Mariner, an ambitious sea
captain commanding collier brigs along the coast, and two of his sons
would in time become Master Mariners themselves, and another son was a ship
broker’s clerk.
Emigration
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mass family
migration from England to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand was driven by a
desire to escape the rigid constraints of British society. For thousands of
families, moving to the colonies offered a path to upward social mobility, land
ownership, and economic independence that was virtually impossible to achieve
at home. In Victorian and Edwardian England, social status and family
background heavily dictated an individual’s future. The colonies provided a
meritocratic environment where hard work mattered more than heritage. This
egalitarian mindset of Britain’s colonies attracted ambitious, middle and workingclass families eager to build a reputation based on
personal achievement rather than inherited status.
The primary driver for most migrating families was the promise of
land and stable, independent livelihoods, widely publicised through imperial
marketing campaigns. The Canadian government, along with shipping
and railway companies, launched massive advertising campaigns in Britain,
offering free or highly affordable land grants. Because traveling
to the Southern Hemisphere was long and expensive, New Zealand and Australia targeted
British families by offering assisted or free shipping passages to approved
applicants. This enabled entire families, who otherwise would have been trapped
in declining rural economies or industrial factories, to establish their own
farms and businesses.
Victorian families were large, creating a logistical and financial
strain regarding inheritance. Under English traditions, eldest sons typically
inherited the family business, leaving younger siblings with fewer prospects.
Large families routinely encouraged one or two younger members to migrate to
places like Canada to carve out their own independent lives, which relieved
financial pressure at home and allowed them to send money back.
Determination
William Farndale (FAR00038)
was chaplain of Doncaster Parish by 1355. Doncaster was badly impacted by the
Black Death which hit the down in about 1347. William must have survived the
Black Death. Perhaps he was already a chaplain by the time of the Black Death and his pastoral skills would have been tested to
their limit. Perhaps having survived the Black Death, he was driven to his
future success.
Apprenticeship
Lark Rise, Flora
Thomson, Chapter II, A Hamlet Childhood: Edmund must be apprenticed to a good trade—a
carpenter's, perhaps—for if a man had a good trade in his hands
he was always sure of a living. Laura might become a school-teacher,
or, if that proved impossible, a children's nurse in a good family. But, first
and foremost, the family must move from Lark Rise to a house in the market town.
John Chistopher Farndale the Younger (FAR00308) became a
sea apprentice by the age of 15. As a teenager, it is perhaps not surprising
that he was not entirely focused on his future at that stage. The Hull Packet, 28 February
1845 reported: CAUTION TO
APPRENTICES. JUSTICE ROOM, WHITBY. FEB 19. Before Thos Fishburn, and John Chapman,
Esqrs. On Saturday four sea apprentices, named Matthew Walker, John Christopher
Farndale, Isaac Wilson, and Thomas Hill, where charged with absenting
themselves from the ship Great Britain, belonging to Mr Joseph Tindale, of
Whitby. The charge was clearly proved by the master, and the lads failing to
show any justifiable cause for their misconduct, were committed to
Northallerton for one month’s hard labour. We hope this punishment will bring the
young delinquents to a sense of their duty, and act as a warning to others. It
is notorious that the owners of vessels in Whitby harbour, particularly the
owner of the Great Britain, have suffered considerably by the incorrigible
conduct of their apprentices; and Mr Tynedale is, in our opinion, worthy of
praise for thus stepping forward to put a check on such proceedings. Yet
John clearly had ambition because in time, he would become a master mariner and
captained vessels trading across the Baltic and to Russia.
Achievement
Joseph Farndale (FAR00350B) was
born in 1842 in Whitby. His father was an agricultural labourer. By the age of
19, in 1861, Joseph was working as a drainer at Eskdaleside and like his
father, he began work in the fields. The Sheffield Independent, 15 March 1899 told the story of his path to become Chief Constable of
Birmingham City Police: … His cousin, who still resides and works in the
midst of those rural scenes of Yorkshire which the smart member of the
Farndale family quitted to earn fame and fortune, tells that young
Joseph Farndale was at work in the fields one day, at the tail of the dung cart,
when some word of blame brought his natural dislike of the occupation to a
head, and throwing down the fork, he explained, “I'll go for a
policeman!” No sooner said than done. He joined the force in a neighbouring
town that very day and soon became a particularly capable constable. From
Middlesbrough Farndale passed to Chesterfield, now well on the path of rapid
promotion. He was Chief Constable of Leicester for a few years,
and then obtained the valuable Birmingham appointment. He was
particularly respected from his rising ‘through the ranks’ to become head of
the Birmingham City Police. His nephew, also Joseph Farndale (FAR00463) similarly
joined the Halifax Police as a police constable in 1884 and spent nine years on
the beat, though rising quickly to sergeant and detective, before become Chief
Constable of Margate, York and then Bradford Police.
Jim
Farndale (FAR00607)
was the sixth born of a family of twelve to Martin, who farmed at Tidkinhow. He worked for local farmers, as a stockman,
and for a while as a miner, but opportunities were limited. In 1911, the year
before the Titanic sank on the same route, he crossed the Atlantic to follow
other members of his family to Alberta. He decided to move south into USA and
sought every opportunity to improve his education, finding a place at Valpraiso University (‘Valpro’)
in Indiana. He went to France in the army in 1917 and returned to find work as
a carpenter. He worked in an architect’s office for a while. Despite ill health
he worked hard and by the 1930s he was actively involved in the Boulder Dam
Project, fighting for the rights of those working on the project through the
Carpenter’s Union. By 1936 he was elected for the first of two terms on the
Nevada Assembly and from 1942 to 1946 he became state senator. In 1945 he wrote
to his brother: I enjoy this work very much as I have always very much
interested in political matters and matters concerning government. There is of course
quite a bit of honour in being a member of the Legislature. We don't meet every
year but once in two years, then only for 60 days. There is always a lot to do.
Any member can introduce bills and I always get more
done than average, because I work harder than most of them.