Milne, -  

London and Lancaster, Lancs.; upholsterer (fl.1840-46)

Milne was an upholsterer working in London who moved to Lancaster for a period in 1840. The Letter Book of Ferguson & Redmayne & Co contains a letter addressed to him: ‘London, 11 July, 1840, Sir, We duly received your 28th ult, and are much surprised at its tenor. The arrangements we have fixed on as regards your wages &c. is as follows, to pay you whilst you are working in our shop at Lancaster the same wages as if you were in London & when you are out in the country after the same rate as is customary in such cases. We are astonished that you should think of asking for an allowance for board whilst you are living in a place where everything is very much cheaper than in London, and you are receiving as you must be aware very much higher wages than paid there to workmen of your class. As regards your not making overtime we expect that in this as in other things you will look to our convenience as well as to your advantage. We can have nothing to do with you keeping lodgings in London whilst you are in the country - but expect you will conform to the terms above stated'. Milne must have agreed to these terms since a few years later, in August 1846, Gillow & Co. employed him and other workmen at Claughton Hall as an upholsterer to cut and make sofa covers and do other work for four days; he was paid 7s per day.

Source: Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London (2008), II, p. 264.