The social categories in table 21 (overleaf) are taken from Colquhoun's tables of national income distribution for 1806, and to a lesser extent from Perkin's adaptation of the same tables. Colquhoun's categories were selected because they convey both occupational and social meanings and because they also provide income estimates. In order to use the occupations of musicians' relatives as an indication of musicians' social origins, the occupational names had to be interpreted with regard to social and economic level. In most cases it was not difficult to categorize the occupations, although there were some exceptions. For example, the description a “respectable cutlery manufacturer” suggests that the individual had both capital and employees, and so is listed with the manufacturers. Another, described simply as a “cutler,” is less clear, and was classified as an artisan/laborer. The following table shows how each occupational name encountered in the primary sources as a description of the relative of a professional musician has been allocated to one of the Colquhoun/Perkin social and occupational categories.