1851 Census - Edmund Charles Clark

A Journeyman was a skilled worker who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification in a building trade. They are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee. A journeyman earns their license through education, supervised experience, and examination.  Although a journeyman has completed a trade certificate and is able to work as an employee, they are not yet able to work as a self-employed master craftsman. The term journeyman was originally used in the medieval trade guilds.

 Journeymen were paid each day, and this is where the word ‘journey’ derived from- journée meaning ‘a day’ in French. Each individual guild generally recognized three ranks of workers; apprentices, journeymen, and masters. A journeyman, as a qualified tradesman could become a master, running their own business although most continued working as employees^.

 

The painting below gives us some indication of what it was like in Ramsgate in 1851, when Queen Victoria was on the thrown

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