https://daily.jstor.org/who-and-what-was-a-knocker-upper/ Skip to content [j_dailylogo_header_184x60] from JSTOR, a nonprofit library for the intellectually curious * Newsletters * * * [ ] * About JSTOR Daily * Support JSTOR Daily * Teaching with Reveal Digital's American Prison Newspapers Collection * Newsletters * Arts & Culture + Art & Art History + Film & Media + Language & Literature + Performing Arts * Business & Economics + Business + Economics * Politics & History + Politics & Government + U.S. History + World History + Social History + Quirky History * Science & Technology + Health + Natural Science + Plants & Animals + Sustainability & The Environment + Technology * Education & Society + Education + Lifestyle + Religion + Social Sciences * Reading Lists * Syllabi * Columns * Shared Collections on JSTOR * Contact The Editors Once Upon a Workplace Who and What Was a Knocker-Upper? Pour one out for the people paid to rouse the workers of industrial Britain. Charles Nelson of Hoxton in East London has been working as a 'knocker-up' for 25 years. He wakes up early morning workers such as doctors, market traders and drivers. Charles Nelson of Hoxton in East London has been working as a 'knocker-up' for 25 years. He wakes up early morning workers such as doctors, market traders and drivers. 1929 Getty Share Copy link Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Reddit WhatsApp Email By: Akanksha Singh September 5, 2023 September 13, 2023 5 minutes The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR. Time has always been important to humans. Across cultures and civilizations, notes David Landes in Daedalus, "[people] have concerned themselves with time, if only to give cues and set bounds to social and religious activity ... they have relied principally on repetitive natural phenomena." Yet when we transitioned from relying on the sun (or sand in hourglasses, or the Athenian water-clock), time and timekeeping became a luxury; the poor lacked clocks or servants to wake them. The alarm clock became a popular symbol for the way social organizations such as the workplace imposed their discipline on the population," notes Shaul Katzir in The Journal of Modern History. JSTOR Daily Membership Ad In Britain and Ireland, the Industrial Revolution ushered in a new need for timekeeping as society moved from agriculture to mass-scale factory work. With urbanization, fewer people woke with the crow of the rooster or dinging of church bells. Instead, they relied on other people--"knocker uppers" or "knockers up"--to wake them; with destitution one shift away, many laborers could not afford to lose work at any cost. They relied on human alarm clocks who used fishing rod-like sticks, soft hammers, rattles, and peashooters to rouse the sleeping by rapping on their windows. The profession sounds absurd, but we've encountered the term "knocked up' in this sense before. For one, Charles Dickens references the act of being "knocked up"' in Great Expectations. In Chapter Six, Pip surmises that "Mr. Wopsle, being knocked up, was in such a very bad temper." In an article aptly titled "'Knocked Up' in England and the United States," Anne Lohrli notes that Dickens once published an article on 'The Knocking-up Business.' Published in Household Words, a journal Dickens himself edited, he describes his confusion at happening on a sign in a window that reads: "knocking up done here at 2d. a week." Dickens, on establishing the profession wasn't "'getting up' of some portion of a lady's dress" labeled it a "novel branch of the manufacturing industry." These people--knockers-up or knocker-ups (both plurals are used in various articles)--were an integral part of the societies they served. So much so, that in a 1917 article about Homeric hymns, author T. L. Agar makes a passing comparison to knocker-uppers when writing about employment amongst the Greeks: "It is well known that in our manufacturing towns the work-people regularly employ a knocker-up who goes round betimes to waken them every morning." Agar goes on to conclude that a knocker-upper is a "superannuated workman," presumably because the working class is entirely dependent on them. Alarm Clock Rouses Oldest Knocker -Up, The introduction of cheap alarm clocks threatened Mr William Crompton of Bolton. He is the oldest of the knocker-ups who wake factory workers every morning. Alarm clocks put most of the knocker-ups out of business but Mr Crompton, now seventy two, survived the challenge, and still carries on after fifty three years. Strangely enough Mr Crompton is himself awakened by an alarm clock. He rises at 3:45 am and charges from fourpence to sixpence a week, according to time he calls his customers. - Mr Crompton, the oldest knocker-up, at work in Bolton, Bolton. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)Mr William Crompton of Bolton, the oldest of the knocker-ups who wake factory workers every morning. Alarm clocks put most of the knocker-ups out of business but Mr Crompton, seventy two, survived the challenge, Strangely enough Mr Crompton is himself awakened by an alarm clock. He rose at 3:45 am and charged from fourpence to sixpence a week. Getty Similarly, in an article that summarizes a history of Ireland's County Louth, published in Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, James Garry acknowledges the role of the "'knocker-up' woman," cautioning, "let us not forget [her]." Garry notes that the knocker-up in Louth was one Betty McEntee, "who lived in Toberboice Lane in the last decades of the nineteenth century" and that each household paid "three old pennies per week" for this service. This rate was higher in places like London, where the the knocker-upper had to contend with cost of living and commuting. One well-known knocker-upper, Mary Smith, earned sixpence a week in the 1930s. In fact, such was the prominence of Mary Smith that in 2003 Andrea U'Ren wrote a children's book about her, with educators dubbing her a "strong female character." But while both men and women were engaged as knocker-uppers, the job afforded women a significant degree of financial independence. An 1878 Canadian newspaper article documents this, highlighting the tale of one Mrs. Waters. A knocker-upper from a northern English town, Waters afforded her only son's education and "maintained" an invalid husband. Waking as early as 2:30 AM, "in all weathers," she sustained a roster of at least eighty clients through her thirty-year career, earning thruppence (3p) from the majority of her clients but sometimes as much as half-a-crown (30 old pence). Yet, not everyone viewed this profession as the key cog it was in industrial Britain--including celebrated social reformer Helen Dendy. Dendy referred to this class of people brought to the forefront during the Industrial Revolution as "the Residuum," and grouped knocker-uppers with "the girl who cleans steps [and] the old woman who minds babies." Her view of this class was entirely negative. To Dendy, they were unworthy of charitable aid, since they were people "who suffer[ed] from an exaggerated abhorrence of that regular work," compared to "true industrialists," who worked in factories and mills. Weekly Newsletter Get your fix of JSTOR Daily's best stories in your inbox each Thursday. [ ][Subscribe] Privacy Policy Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] D[ ] Eventually, knocker-uppers gave way to alarm clocks, which many believe were first invented in 1787. It took decades for alarm clocks to become mainstream, such that in 1914, The Guardian ran a story lamenting "the cheap American clock...killing the industry" in London. As late as 1960, there were still a few knocker-uppers earning their keep in smaller towns. The Buckingham Post ran a story headlined "Human Alarm Clock Finally Retires," about an unnamed 84-year-old knocker-upper. When asked what he'd do in his retirement, the knocker-upper replied, "Lie in bed every morning until 6 am." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Support JSTOR Daily! Join our new membership program on Patreon today. Have a correction or comment about this article? Please contact us. jobstimeAmerican SpeechDaedalusGreece & Rome Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society The Economic JournalThe Journal of Modern HistoryYC Young Children JSTOR logo Resources JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. Clocks & the Wealth of Nations By: David S. Landes Daedalus, Vol. 132, No. 2, On Time (Spring, 2003), pp. 20-26 The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences A Schedule of Boundaries: An Exploration, Launched from the Water-Clock, of Athenian Time By: Danielle Allen Greece & Rome, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Oct., 1996), pp. 157-168 Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association Time Standards for the Twentieth Century By: Shaul Katzir The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 89, No. 1 (March 2017), pp. 119-150 The University of Chicago Press 'Knocked up' in England and the United States By: Anne Lohrli American Speech, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Feb., 1960), pp. 24-28 Duke University Press Townland Survey of County Louth: Mell (Continued) By: James Garry Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 22, No. 2 (1990), pp. 150-165 County Louth Archaeological and History Society Young Girls Discovering Their Voice with Literacy and Readers Theater By: Debby Zambo YC Young Children, Vol. 66, No. 2 (March 2011), pp. 28-35 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) The Industrial Residuum By: Helen Dendy The Economic Journal, Vol. 3, No. 12 (Dec., 1893), pp. 600-616 Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Economic Society Join Our Newsletter Get your fix of JSTOR Daily's best stories in your inbox each Thursday. 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