I am completing my doctoral thesis on Martin Butler (1857?-1915) a New
Brunswick (Canada) working-class poet, journalist,and co-founder of the
Fredericton Socialist League. While here in New Brunswick on a Fulbright
from the States I have located much material but want to investigate the
possibility that this working-class intellectual, whose grandfather
emigrated from Hull (England) in 1817, might have had a maternal link to
the earlier "making" of the working class in England.....his grandfather,
Thomas White, was a shoemaker, and emigrated with his family and the
family of Frances Best, another shoemaker. Since I am a newcomer to the
Net, am wondering: does anyone have any ideas as to archival sources that
would be available in Hull pertaining to trades/unions membership/activity
on the part of shoemakers for this period? (DStiles@UNB.CA)