Almshouses rub shoulders with union workhouses, cuppers and bleeders are to be found in lists where surgeons abide . Philanthropic charitable institutions for health and education are to be found as the state increasingly made its presence felt. In fact, even the language in places harks back to an earlier epoch, accomptroller is frequently used for the more modern term accountant . Police and law courts appear with regularity in the later directories. The business of the law is well represented with attorneys, notaries, and proctors.
Many towns boast a gaol, lockup or bridewell.
The rural locations usually note magistrates and the visits of a circuit judge. Civic pride and the development of concern for welfare and the environment is recorded with the inclusion of town improvement commissions, inspectors of highways, bridges, factories inspectors and inspectors of weights and measures. Commercial forces created the directories and the directories reflect the concern for commerce, industry and retailing. The streets must have been crowded with shops and shoppers, and to a large extent been self sufficient in many of the articles necessary for daily life. Unless one really studied the directories very carefully, it would be difficult to establish the penetration of female commercial activity within communities.