This is a list of what can only be called "different"
occupations. Not all of them were available as work in Rishton, but it is an
interesting list to read through. The Occupations which have been completed for
Rishton are HIGHLIGHTED in YELLOW.
Enjoy!
- ABLE SEAMAN - A seaman who reached a standard of
skill above that of Ordinary Seaman.
-
ACADEMICIAN - A scholar belonging to a place of learning.
- ACATER - supplied food provisions, e.g. a ships
chandler
- ACCIPITRARY - falconer
- ACCOMPTANT - accountant
- ACCOUCHEUR / ACCOUCHEUS - one who assisted women
in childbirth
- ACCOUTREMENT MAKER / ACCOUTRE - supplier of
military accessories
- ACKERMAN / ACREMAN - ploughman, an oxherder
- ACTUARY - kept public accounts of business
- ADMINISTRATOR - directed the affairs of another
- ADVERTISEMENT CONVEYANCER - sandwich board man
- ADVOCATE DEPUTE - Scottish law officer who could
act a public prosecutor
- ADVOWEE - normally a nobleman, who had the right
to present a clergyman to a benefice
- AERONAUT - balloonist or a trapeze artist in the
circus or music halls
- AFFEEROR - official in the manorial courts who
assessed the monetary penalty and also collected taxes and dues and were also
called Assessor
- AGISTER - official of the Royal Forests or in the
New Forest it is the title for the one in charge of the ponies
- ALABASTERER - worked with alabaster
- ALBLASTERE - crossbow man
- ALCHEMIST - medieval chemist who claimed to be
able to turn base metals into gold
- ALDERMAN - senior councillor one position down
from Mayor in the local council
- ALE-CONNER / ALE FOUNDER - official who tested
quality and measure of ale served in public houses
- ALE DRAPER - seller of ale
- ALE TASTER - tested ale and beer for quality
first recorded in 1377 in London. Appointed by the Manor and forerunner of the
Inspector for Weights & Measures
- ALE TUNNER - employed by the brewery to fill ale
casks (tuns} with ale
- ALEWIFE - woman who keeps an alehouse or tavern
- ALL SPICE - name for a grocer
- ALMONER - gave out alms or charity to the poor on
behalf of the parish
- ALMSMAN - received alms
- ALNAGER - official who examined the quality of
woolen goods and stamped them with the town seal of approval
- AMANUENSIS - secretary or stenographer
- AMBER CUTTER - cut ambergris
- AMBER & JET CUTTER - cut and polished amber for
jewellery
- AMBLER - officer of the Royal Stable who broke in
horses
- AMEN MAN - parish clerk
- ANCHOR SMITH - made anchors
- ANCHORESS - female hermit or religious recluse
- ANCHORITE - male hermit or religious recluse
- ANILEPMAN - smallholder (tenant of the manor)
- ANGLE IRON SMITH - made angle iron i.e. flat iron
bars bent at right angles lengthways
- ANKLE BEATER - young person who helped to drive
the cattle to market
- ANNATTO MAKER - worked in the manufacture of dyes
for paint or printing
- ANTIGROPELOS MAKER - made waterproof leggings
- ANVIL SMITH - made anvils and hammers for
blacksmiths
- APIARIAN - beekeeper
- APOTHECARY - prepared and sold medicines or
drugs; pharmacist
- APPARITOR - official who summoned witnesses in
the ecclesiastical courts
- APPRENTICE - was bound to a skilled worker for a
specified time to learn a trade
- APRONEER - term used in London for a shopkeeper
- APRONMAN - mechanic
- AQUARIUS (EWAR) - waterman
- AQUAVITA SELLER - sold alcohol
- ARCHIATOR - physician
- ARCHIL MAKER - made a violet dye from lichens,
used in the textile industry
- ARKWRIGHT - skilled craftsman who produced "arks"
(wooden chests or coffers)
- ARMIGER - squire who carried the armour of a
knight
- ARMOURER - made suits of armour or plates of
armour for buildings or ships etc.
- ARTIFICER - highly respected skilled or artistic
worker or craftsman or one that makes or contrives
- ASHMAN - dustman
- ASSAYER - determined the proportions of metal in
ore
- ASSAY MASTER - determined the amount of gold or
silver to go in coins
- AUGER MAKER - made the carpenters augers (used
for boring holes in wood)
- AULNAGER - see Alnager
- AURIFABER - goldsmith
- AVENATOR (PLANTIFENE) - hay and forage merchant
- AVOWRY - term for the lord of the manor
- AXEL TREE MAKER / AXEL TREE TURNER - made axels
for coaches and wagons
- BACKMAKER - made "backs", vats, tubs, a Cooper
- BACKMANN / BACKSTER / BAXTER / BECK / BECKER -
baker
- BACK'US BOY - kitchen servant (from "back of the
house")
- BACK WASHER - employed to clean the wool in the
worsted manufacturing industry
- BADGER - licensed pauper who wore a badge with
the letter P on it and could only work in a defined area (the term "Badgering
comes from this"). A corn miller or dealer or an itinerant food trader
- BADGY FIDDLER - boy trumpeter in the military
- BAGMAN - travelling salesman
- BAGNIOKEEPER - n charge of a bath house or
brothel
- BAILIFF / BAILIE / BAILLIE / BAILLEE - officer of
the sheriff, a land steward acting on behalf of the Landowner or Landlord and in
Scotland a magistrate of the burgh, also looked after the fishing rights on
certain rivers
- BAIRMAN / BAREMAN - pauper or beggar
- BALER - bales hay and in the mills one who bailed
wool or cotton goods
- BALISTER - archer most commonly a crossbowman
- BALLAST HEAVER - loaded ballast into the hold of
empty ships
- BALLARD MASTER - in charge of loading the ballast
into the hold of empty ships
- BALLER / BALLER UP - assisted the potter by
measuring out the balls of clay
- BAL MAIDEN - female mine worker who worked on the
surface (also a Pit Brow Lass)
- BAND FILER - metal worker in the gun making
industry
- BANDSTER - bound the wheat sheaves after harvest
- BANG BEGGAR - officer of the parish who
controlled the length of stay of any stranger to the parish
- BANKER - dug trenches and ditches to allow
drainage of the land, placing the surplus earth in banks around the edge
- BANKSMAN - employed in the mining industry being
in charge of the cages at the pit head (sometimes known as a bank manager)
- BARBER / BARBER SURGEON - a barber also also a
surgeon (an Act was passed that limited Barbers to hair-cutting, shaving,
dentistry and blood letting in the 18th century)
- BARD - poet or minstral
- BAREMAN - beggar or pauper
- BARGEE / BARGEMAN - worked on or owned and
operated a barge
- BARGE MATE - Naval officer
- BARILLA MANUFACTURER - made barilla, a substance
obtained from burning saltworts, the resulting mixture of sodium salts being used
in the glass and ceramics industry
- BARKEEPER - another name for a tollkeeper
- BARKER - tanner
- BAUER - farmer
- BAXTER - baker
- BELHOSTE - tavern keeper.
- BARTONER - in charge of the monastic farm, also
known as a barton
- BASIL WORKER - worked with sheep and goat skins
- BASKETMAN - made baskets and furniture from
wicker, and also employed to empty the basket of coal being offloaded from the
colliers into the barges
- BASS / BAST DRESSER - employed in dressing fibre
or matting
- BATHING MACHINE PROPRIETOR - owned and hired the
changing huts used at the seaside in the by bathers
- BATMAN - officers servant in the army
- BATT MAKER - made the wadding used in quilt and
mattress making
- BATTER OUT - sliced a short cylinder of clay (a
bat) from a "pug" and threw it onto a mold shaped for the face of a ceramic plate
- BATTLEDORE MAKER - made the beaters used on
clothes carpets etc to remove the dust (later made the paddles used in washing
machines)
- BAYWEAVER - who wove bay (a fine woollen fabric
also known as baize)
- BEADLE / BEDEL / BEDELL - officer of the parish
whose principle duty was to keep order, also was the town crier
- BEADMAN / BEADSMAN / BEDESMAN - employed to pray
for his employer, inhabitant of an almshouse / poorhouse / hospital or tenant
employed by the manor for a specific service
- BEAD PIERCER - employed to drill the holes in
beads
- BEAMER - winds the warp on the roller before
putting it on the loom in the textile industry
-
BEARER - worked underground
carrying the coal to the bottom of the pit shaft and placed it in the containers
for uplifting to the surface
- BEATER - cleansed and thickened the cloth by
treading it underwater with fullers earth (aka Fuller)
- BEAVER - made felt used in hat making
- BEDMAN - See sexton
-
BEDRAL - in Scotland a minor church official
- BEDWEVERE - made the webbing for bed frames and
also a one who wove quilts
- BEESKEPMAKER - made beehives
- BEETLER - operated a beetling machine, used in
the textile trade for embossing fabric
- BELLEYETERE - bellfounder
- BELLFOUNDER / BELTER / BILLITER - made bells
- BELL HANGER - installed bells in churches
- BELLMAN - employed as a watchman or town crier or
who worked for the post office and collected letters for the mail coach by walking
the streets and ringing a bell
- BELLOWFARMER - responsible for the care and
maintenance of the church organ
- BELLOWS MAKER - made bellows used for organs or
blacksmiths fires
- BELLY BUILDER - built and fitted the interiors of
pianos
- BENDER - cut leather
- BESSWARDEN - appointed by the parish to look
after its animals
- BESOM MAKER - made brooms
- BEVER - beverage maker
- BIDDY - female servant usually of Irish stock
- BILLIER / BILLYMAN - operated a Billy Roller, a
machine used in the cotton industry to prepare the cotton for spinning
- BILL POSTER - put up notices, signs and
advertisements
- BINDER - bound items, e.g., books, hats etc .
- BIRD BOY - employed to scare away birds from
crops
- BIRD CATCHER - caught birds for selling
- BIRDS NEST SELLER - sold bird nests collected
from the wild complete with eggs which were then hatched by domestic birds and
sold as pets
- BLACK TRAY MAKER - made Japanned trays
- BLACKING MAKER - made polish for shoes
- BLACK BORDERER - made black edged stationery for
funerals
- BLADESMITH - sword maker or knife maker
- BLAXTER / BLEACHER - bleached cloth or paper pulp
- BLEMMERE - plumber
- BLENTONIST - water diviner
- BLINDSMAN - employed by the Post Office to deal
with incorrectly addressed letters and parcels
- BLOCKCUTTER / BLOCKER - made wooden blocks used
in the hat trade or laid down the blocks on which a ships keel was laid; a
blockcutter was also a person who made and cut the patterns into wooden blocks for
textile printing
- BLOCK MAKER - engraved the blocks used in the
printing
- BLOCK PRINTER - printer who used wooden blocks
for printing
- BLOODMAN / BLOODLETTER - used leeches for letting
blood, this was thought to be a cure for many ailments
- BLOOMER - produced iron from ore, a bloom smithy
- BLOWER - glass blower, one who operated a
"blowing machine" used to clean and separate fibres in the textile trade, one who
operated the bellows at a blacksmiths
- BLOWFEEDER - fed the fibres into a "blowing
machine"
- BLUESTOCKING - female writer
- BLUFFER - innkeeper or landlord of a pub
- BOARDING OFFICER - inspected ships before
entering port
- BOARDMAN - truant officer who checked school
attendance. a tenant of manorial land who paid rent by maintaining the manor's
table
- BOARDWRIGHT - made tables and chairs aka
carpenter
- BOATMAN - worked on a boat, predominately on
rivers and canals also the name given to a boat repairer
- BOATSWAIN - ship's officer in charge of riggings
& sails
- BOBBER - who polished metals one who helped to
unload fishing boats
- BOBBIN CARRIER - worked in spinning and weaving
sections of the mills
- BOBBIN TURNER - made the bobbins used in the
spinning and weaving industry
- BOBBY - policeman usually of constable rank
- BODEYS / BODY MAKER - made bodices for women's
garments
- BODGER - craftsman who made wooden chair legs and
the spars and usually worked in the actual woodland that they cut the timber in
- BOILERMAKER - worked with metal in any industrial
setting
- BOILER PLATER - made rolled iron plate used to
make boilers for steam engines etc
- BOLL - looked after power looms in the weaving
industry
- BOLTER - sifted meal
- BONDAGER - female worker on a farm who was bonded
- BONDMAN - bonded to a master for the purpose of
learning a skill or trade
- BONDSMAN - stood bond or surety for another where
a bond was required by law
- BONE BUTTON TURNER - made buttons using a lathe
- BONE LACE MAKER - made pillow lace
- BONE MOULD TURNER - made the moulds for button
manufacturers
- BONE PICKER - collected rags and bones. Rag and
Bone Man
- BONESETTER - set broken bones
- BONIFACE - keeper of an inn
- BOOK GILDER - decorated books with gold leaf
- BOOKHOLDER - prompter in the theater
- BOOK KEEPER - looked after the accounts for
businesses
- BOOKMAN - student
- BOONMASTER - surveyor of roads with the
responsibilities of maintaining and repairing the road
- BOOTBINDER - employed to operate the machines
which bound footware
- BOOT CATCHER - servant at inn who pulled off
traveler's boots
- BOOT CLOSER - worked in the shoe trade stitching
together all the parts of a shoe upper
- BOOTHMAN - corn merchant
- BORLER - who made cheap coarse clothing
- BORSHOLDER - regional name (Kent) for a constable
- BOTCHER - tailor or cobbler
- BOTTILER / BOTTLER - made leather containers for
holding liquids e.g. wine flasks or water bottles
- BOTTLE BOY - pharmacists assistant
- BOTTOM MAKER - moulded the bottoms for saggers in
the pottery industry
- BOTTOM KNOCKER - sagger makers assistant in the
pottery industry
- BOTTOMER - worked down the pits moving the ore
etc to the bottom of the shaft for removal
- BOWDLER - worked with iron ore
- BOWKER - bleached yarn. A local term in some
parts of Lancashire for a butcher
- BOWLER - made bowls and dishes and also a term
used for those who made the rounded part of spoons before casting
- BOWLMAN / BOWLWOMAN - dealer in crockery
- BOWLMINDER - in charge of the vats used for
washing raw wool before processing
- BOWYER / BOWER - made bows used in archery
- BOZZLER - parish constable
- BRABENER - weaver
- BRACHYGRAPHER - shorthand writer
- BRAIDER - made cord by twisting threads or strips
of leather
- BRAILLER - made girdles
- BRAKEMAN / BRAKESMAN - operated the winch at the
pit head or operated the braking mechanism on trains and trams
- BRASILER - dyer
- BRAZIER - worker with brass
- BREWSTER - female brewer or brewer
- BRIGHTSMITH - metal worker
- BROOM-DASHER - dealer in brooms
- BROOM SQUIRE - broom maker
- BROTHERER / BROWDERER / BRODERER / BROIDERER -
embroiderer
- BROW GIRL - female employed at the pit head
- BROWNSMITH - works with copper or brass
- BUCKLER / BUCKLESMITH - made buckles
- BUCKLE TONGUE MAKER - made the metal points that
go in the holes of a belt
- BUCKRAM MAKER - worked with buckram (used in
stiffening materials) e.g. belts, lapels and collars
- BUCK WASHER - laundress
- BUDDLEBOY - employed to use and maintain the vats
used in the lead and tin mines for washing the ore
- BUDDLER - women and children who washed the ore
at the copper mines in Allihies, Berehaven
- BUFFALO SOLDIER - soldier serving in a black
regiment in the US Army in the West
- BULLWHACKER - oxen driver
- BULLOCKY - one who attended to the daily needs of
cattle and may also have lent a hand with general farm duties, especially during
busy periods
- BUMBOAT MAN - met ships at anchor with goods for
passengers and crew to purchase
- BUMMER - army deserter
- BUMMAREE - middle man between the wholesaler and
the retailer at the fish markets
- BUNTER - female rag & bone collector
- BURGESS - represented a borough at official
levels
BURELER - made borel, a woollen cloth with a coarse feel
- BURGOMASTER - mayor
- BURLER - quality inspector for clothing
- BURMAIDEN - chambermaid or lady-in-waiting
- BURNEMAN - carrier of barm or water for brewers
- BURYE MAN - grave digger
- BUSHEL MAKER - cooper
- BUSHELER - tailor's helper
- BUSS MAKER - maker of guns
- BUSKER - hair dresser
- BUTNER - button maker
- BUTTER CARVER - made imprints in butter pats
- BUTTON BURNISHER - button polisher
- BUTTY - negotiated mining contracts and supplied
the labor
- CADDY BUTCHER - butcher that dealt in horse meat
- CADDIE - messenger or errand boy
- CADGER - beggar
- CAFENDER - carpenter
- CAFFLER - rag and bone collector
- CAINER - made walking sticks
- CAIRD - another term for a tinker
- CALCINER - burnt bones to make powdered lime
- CALENDER - one who listed documents
- CALENDERER / CALENDERMAN / CALENDER WORKER -
operated a machine which pressed using two large rollers (calender) used to press
and finish fabrics or paper
- CALICO PRINTER - dyed and colored calico
- CAMBRIC MAKER - made a fine linen or cotton
fabric called cambric
- CAMISTER - minister of the cloth
- CANDLE MAKER / CANDLER - who made and sold
candles
- CAMBIST - banker
- CAMERIST - lady's maid
- CAMLET MERCHANT - seller of camlet, cloth used to
make cloaks & petticoats
- CANDY MAN - traveling candy salesman and also
slang name for a bailiff
- CANCELLARIUS - chancellor
- CANER / CHAIR BOTTOMER - one who made the seats
for chairs out of woven cane
- CANNALLER - canal boat worker
- CANTER - religious speaker who uses cant
- CANTING CALLER - auctioneer
- CANVASER - one who made canvas
- CAPER - cap maker
- CAPILLAIRE MAKER - one who made orange flavored
syrup
- CAPITALIST - investor
- CAPPER / CAP MAKER - made caps usually worn by
the working class
- CAPTAIN - in charge of a ship or a group of
soldiers and also term for an overseer
- CARDROOMER - term for anyone who worked in the
carding room of the mills
- CARDER - cards wool
- CARDMAKER - maker of cards or instruments for
combing wool
- CARMAN / CHARMAN / CARTER / CARRIER - one who
drove a vehicle used to transport goods
- CARD NAILER / NAILORA - maintained the teeth
(nails) on the carding machine used for preparing wool and cotton for weaving
- CARETAKER - one who takes care of another's
property
- CARNIFEX - butcher
- CARPENTARIUS - carpenter
- CARRY-IN-BOY - took finished bottled (products)
to the tempering oven
- CARTER - one who carries or conveys in or as if
in a cart
- CART WHEELER - one who made cart wheels
- CARTOGRAPHER - map maker
- CARTOMANCER - fortune teller who used cards
- CARTWRIGHT - maker of carts & wagons
- CASHMARIE - one who sold fish usually at inland
markets
- CASTER / CASTORA - made small bottles used for
sprinkling salt, pepper, sugar etc
- CASTRATOR - who castrated farm animals a gelder
- CATAGMAN - cottager
- CATCHPOLE / CATCHPOLLA - sheriff's assistance or
bailiff
- CATECHISTA - teacher of religion
- CATTLE JOBBER - buys and sells cattle
- CAULKER - filled up cracks (in ships or windows)
or seams to make them watertight
- CEILER - puts up the ceilings in buildings
- CELLARMAN - looked after the beer, wines and
spirits in public houses or the warehouse
- CEMMER - hand combed the yarn before weaving
- CHAFF CUTTER - made chaff by cutting straw
- CHAFFERER - dealer in chaff
- CHAIR BODGER - traveling chair repairman
- CHAISE MAKER - made carts from wicker
- CHALONER - dealer in shalloon, a material made in
Chalons
- CHAMBERLAIN - steward to either royalty or
nobility, in charge of the household
- CHAMBERMAID - female servant attending to
bedrooms in houses or inns
- CHAMBER MASTER - shoemaker that worked from home
as an outworker or selling direct
- CHAUNTER - street entertainer who sung ballads
- CHEESE FACTOR / CHEESEMAN / CHEESE MONGER -
dealer in cheeses
- CHANDLER - candle seller, grocer, provisioner,
usually associated with provisioning ships
- CHANTY MAN - sailor that led the singing of
shanties on board ship
- CHAPELER - made and sold hats
- CHAPMAN / COPEMAN / PETTY CHAPMAN / CEAPMAN -
dealer or peddler of goods usually itinerant going from village to village.
- CHARCOAL BURNER - made charcoal usually in the
woods where the trees were cut
- CHARTMASTER - middleman that negotiated mining
contracts and supplied the labour
- CHARWOMAN - cleaning woman
- CHATELAINE - mistress of a castle or house
- CHIFFONIER - wig maker or ragpicker
- CHILDBED LINEN WAREHOUSE KEEPER / DEALER - hired
bedlinen for childbirth as most children were born at home
-
CHIMNEY SWEEP - chimney cleaner
- CHINGLOR - rooftiler who used wooden shingles
- CHIP - shipwright or carpenter
- CHIPPERS LABOURER - assistant to a shipwright or
ships carpenter
- CHIROPODIST - treats diseases of the feet & hands
- CHIRUGION or CHIRURGEON - apothecary or surgeon
(usually learned by apprenticeship)
- CHOWDER - fish monger
- CHRONOLOGIST - recorded official events of
historical importance
- CINDER WENCH - female who collected the cinders
from gas works and sold them door to door
- CLAKER - magician/astrologer
- CLAPMAN - town crier
- CLARK - clerk
- CLASSMAN - unemployed laborer
- CLAVIGER - servant
- CLAY CARRIER - assistant to the shot firer in the
pits
- CLAYMAN / CLEYMAN - worked in the clay pits
usually preparing the clay for making bricks and also one who coated the outside
of buildings with clay to make them water proof
- CLERICUS - clerk
- CLERK - clergyman or cleric
- CLICKER - worked in the shoe trade cutting out
the uppers made the shoelace holes and one in charge of the final stage of layout
before printing in printing industry
- CLIPPER / CLIPPER ON / CLIPPER OFF - attached the
coal carts to the wire or rope which was used to drag the carts to and from the
coal face
- CLOD HOPPER - plowman
-
CLOGGER - maker of wooden shoes
- CLOTH LAPPER - took the cloth from the carding
machine readied it for the next process
- CLOTH LINTER / CLOTH PICKER - removed unwanted
threads and lint from the finished material
- CLOTHIER / CLOTHESMAN / CLOTHMAN - who made or
sold clothes
- CLOUTER / CLOWER - made nails also another term
for a shoemaker for the former term
- COACHMAN / COACH DRIVER - drove any coach
- COAL BACKER - carried the sacks of coal from the
coal barge to the coal wagons
- COAL BURNER - made charcoal
- COAL DRAWER - worked in the mines pushing or
dragging the coal carts the the bottom of the pit
- COAL HEAVER - unloaded coal COALMAN / COAL
MERCHANT / COAL HIGGLER - sold coal usually from a horse and cart, house to house.
- COALMETER - measured the coal
- COAL RUNNER - attended the coal carts underground
- COAL WHIPPER - unloaded coal from ships using
baskets attached to a simple form of crane
- COAST SURVEYOR / WAITER - customs officer who
watched over the offloading of goods on the coast
- COBBLER - shoemaker
- COBLEMAN - used a flat bottomed boat for fishing
- COCUS - cook
- COD PLACER - put fire proof containers which held
the pottery for firing into the kiln
- COHEN - a priest
- COINER - worked at the mint stamping out coins
- COLLAR MAKER - made horse collars and one who
made shirt collars
- COLLIER - coal miner, a coal merchant or one who
worked on the coal barges
- COLONUS - Latin for farmer or husbandman
- COLPORTEUR - travelling Bible or religious book
salesman
- COLOURATOR / COLORATORA - worked with dyes
- COLOUR MAN - mixed the dyes in the textile trade
and also assistant to a house painter
- COMBER or COMBERE - combs wool
- COMB MAKER - made combs either for the textile
industry for combing wool etc. or the maker of hair combs
- COMPOSITOR - set the type ready for printing
- CONDER / CONNER - gave steering instructions to
the steersman and also gave directions to inshore fisherman of fish movements on
shoals (usually from the top of cliffs or rocks)
- CONEY CATCHER - rabbit catcher
- CONFECTIONER - candy maker
- CONNER - inspector or tester
- COOPER or CUPER - maker of barrels
- COPEMAN / COPER - dealer in goods and also
dishonest dealer in horses in the latter case
- COPPERBEATER / COPPERBETER - coppersmith
- COPPERSMITH - worked with copper
- CORACLE MAKER - made coracles, a small round boat
used for fishing
- CORDINER / CORDWAINER / CORVINER / CORVISOR -
originally term used for one who worked with Cordovan (a special leather from
Spain) but later term used for shoemaker
- COSTERMONGER - fruit seller
- COSTER WIFE - female fruit seller
- COTILER - cutler
- COUPER - one who buys & sells
- COURANTEER - journalist
- COWHERD - cow tender
- COWKEEPER - one who kept one or more cows (a
common source of livelihood in cities) when a cow was kept in the back yard of a
house, providing milk which was sold at the front door or window, forerunner of
the local dairy
- COXWAIN - ship or boat helmsman
- CRATCH MAKER - made cratches (mangers, cribs, or
frames) for hay
- CRIER - law court officer, auctioneer, town
announcer
- CRIMPER - member of navy press gang
- CROCKER - potter
- CROFTER - tenant of a small piece of land
- CROPPER - tenant who is paid with a share of the
crop
-
- CROSIER / CROZIER - bearer of the pastoral staff
of a bishop or the bearer of the cross before the archbishop in the church
- CROWNER - coroner
- CUHREUR (CUNREUR) - currier
- CURER - cures tobacco
- CURRETTER - broker
- CURRIER - cures or tans hides
- CUSTOMER - customs tax collector
- CUTLER - knife seller or sharpener
- DAGUERREOTYPE ARTIST - early name for a
photographer (from the Daguerreotype method)
- DAIRYMAN - worker or owner of a dairy farm or
seller of dairy products
- DAMSTER - builder of dams for logging purposes
- DANTER - female overseer in the winding rooms of
a silk mill
- DATELER / DAY MAN / DAYTALEMAN - casual worker,
usually employed by the day
- DEATHSMAN - executioner
- DECIMER / DOZENER - elected by the householders
in a street to act as their representative at the borough's Court Leet
- DECOYMAN - employed to decoy the wild fowl,
animals etc into a trap or within shooting range
- DECRETIST - knowledgeable in decrees, decretals
- DEEMER / DEEMSTER / DEMSTER / DEMPSTER - judge,
usually in the Channel Isles or Isle of Man
- DELVER - dug ditches
- DEPATER - precious metal refiner
- DEPUTY - safety officer for the pit crew in the
mining industry
- DERRICKMAN - worked on an oil well handling the
tubes and rods used in drilling
- DEVIL - printer's errand boy
- DEVILLER - operated the devil, a machine that
tore rags used in the textile industry
- DEXTER - dyer
- DEY WIFE - female dairy worker
- DEXTER - dyer
- DIKEMAN / DYKEMAN - hedger or ditcher
- DIPPER - who worked in the pottery trade and was
responsible for the glazing of items
- DISHER / DISH THROWER - who made bowls and dishes
- DISH TURNER - who made wooden bowls or dishes
- DISTILLER - maker of alcoholic beverages
- DISTRIBUTOR - parish official attached to the
workhouse / poorhouse who looked after the secular needs of the poor
- DOCKER / DOCK WALLOPER - dock worker,
longshoreman
- DOCK MASTER - in charge of a dockyard
-
DOCTOR -
Distributes Medicines and diagnoses illnesses in people.
-
DOG LEECH - veterinarian
- DOG-WHIPPER - one who drove dogs away in a
village
- DOMESMAN - judge
- DOMESTIC - household servant
- DONKEY BOY / DONKEY MAN - driver of a carriage
for passengers
- DOOR KEEPER - guard, janitor, or porter
- DOUBLER - who operated a machine used to twist
together strands of fibre (cotton, wool etc)
- DOWSER / DIVINER - water finder
- DRAGMAN - fisher man who fished by dragging a net
along the bottom of the water
- DRAGOMAN - who acted as interpreter or guide in
Turkish or Arabic
- DRAGSMAN - driver of a small stage coach or
carriage used for public transport or private hire
- DRAGOON - mounted infantryman
- DRAINER - who made drains
- DRAPER - dealer in fabrics and sewing needs
- DRAWBOY - weavers assistant in the shawl making
mills , they sat atop the looms and lifted the heavy warps.
- DRAYMAN - cart driver
- DREDGERMAN - one who in a boat to collect the
bits and pieces that had fallen overboard from other vessels which then were sold
(London occupation)
- DRESSER - one who dresses another, surgeon's
assistant and also one who operated a machine which prepared threads in the
textile industry
- DRESSING MACHINE MAKER - who made sewing machines
- DRIPPING MAN - dealer in dripping (the fat
collected during the cooking of meats)
- DRIVER - slave overseer
- DROVER - sheep or cattle driver
- DRUGGER - pharmacist
- DRUMMER - travelling salesman
- DRY SALTER - dealer in pickles, dried meats, and
sauces or a dealer in dyes and colours used in the dying trade
- DUBBERE - cloth dubber, i.e., one who raises the
nap of cloth
- DUFFER - peddler of cheap goods
- DUSTMAN / DUSTBIN MAN - collected domestic refuse
- DRY STONE WALLER (DRY STANE DYKER in Scottish) -
built stone walls usually using the stones removed from the fields as building
materials. The art was in not using any cement or mortar and generally not cutting
the stone, but being able to see where various stones would fit together
- DYER - employed in the textile mills to colour
fabric prior to weaving
- DYKER - Scottish term for a stonemason
- EALDORMAN - n official of the shire courts who
acted as the King's deputy taking payment from the profits of the court
- EBONITE TURNER - one who worked with ebonite or
vulcanite, making combs or ornaments etc
- EARER - plowwman
- EARTH STOPPER - one who plugs up animal holes
- EGG FACTOR / EGGLER - egg or poultry dealer
- ELEPHANTS TEETH DEALER - who dealt in ivory
ornaments etc
- ELLERMAN / ELLIMAN - who sold oil used for lamps
and known as an oilman
- ELYMAKER - oilmaker
- EMBOSSER - who moulded or carved designs that
were raised above the surface of the material
- EMPRESARIO - land broker, settlement scheme
promoter, showman
- ENGINEMAN - employed at a mine to be in charge of
the machinery used to crush the ore
- ENGINE TENTER - who operated the machine which
stretched the cloth whilst drying in a woollen mill
- ENSIGN - commissioned officer in the navy
- ENUMERATOR - who collected the information for
the census from the householder and recorded it
- EQUERRY - officer of the royal household usually
responsible for the royal horses
- EREMITE - hermit
- ERITE - heretic
- ESQUIRE - one who attended a knight, which later
became a title for a man of standing in society
- ESTAFETTE - mounted courier
- EWE HERD - shepherd
- EXCHEQUER - revenue collector
- EXCISEMAN - excise tax collector
- EXPRESSMAN - person employed in the express
business
- EYER - one who made eyes in needles used for
sewing. Sometimes called a Holer
- FABER - artisan or workman
- FABRICATOR - maker
- FACTOR - an agent employed by merchants to
transact business of buying and selling and a Scottish term for the steward of an
estate responsible for collection of land rents
- FAGETTER - made up faggots into bundles, seller
of firewood
- FAKER - photographic assistant who added colour
to photographs by hand before colour film was available
- FALCONER - breeds, trains, or hunts with hawks
- FANCY-PEARL WORKER - worked in mother-of-pearl
making buttons or fancy goods
- FANCY MAN - pimp
- FANCY WOMAN - prostitute
- FANNER - grain winnower
- FANWRIGHT - maker and repairer of fans or
winnowing baskets
- FARANDMAN - traveling merchant
- FARMER - often descendant of the gentry and,
ultimately, noble classes; usually having servants and farm workers, e.g.,
husbandmen, groomsmen, etc
- FARRIER / FERROUR - horse shoer or blacksmith
- FAWKNER - trainer of falcons
- FEAR-NOTHING MAKER - weaver of special kind of
thick woollen cloth known as fear-nought, used for protective clothing and lining
portholes, walls, and doors of powder magazines on board ships.
- FEATHER BEATER / FEATHER DRIVER - cleanser of
feathers
- FEATHER-DRESSER - who cleaned and prepared
feathers for sale
- FEATHERMAN - dealer in feathers and plumes
- FEATHER-WIFE - woman who prepared feathers for
use
- FEEDER - herdsman
- FELLER - woodcutter
- FELL MONGER - remover of hair or wool from hides
in leather making
- FELTER - worker in the hatting industry
- FERONER - ironmonger
- FERRETER - dealer in or manufacturer of ferret,
i.e. silk tape
- FETTLER - cleaned the machinery in woollen mills,
removing accumulated fibres, grease, etc., sharpened the fustian cutters knives or
needle maker who filed the needle to a point
- FEVER - blacksmith
- FEWSTER - maker of saddletrees
- FEWTERER - keeper of hounds, for hunting or
coursing
- FIDDLER - used a fiddle (small knife) to remove
the flashing from cast clay forms such as bowl, creamers, cups or pitchers
- FILE CUTTER - a maker of files, involved the
cutting of grooves on the file surface
- FILIBUSTER - American mercenaries in South
America, gun runners
- FILLER - who filled bobbins in mills
- FINE DRAWER - employed in tailoring to repair
tears in the cloth (invisible mending)
- FINISHER - operated machine giving final touches
to a manufactured article in various trades
- FIREBEATER - tended the boilers that powered the
machinery in a cotton mill
- FIREMAN - inspected for, and removed explosive
gasses underground in mining or stoked the boilers on ships and locomotives
- FIRST HAND - silk weaver who had his own loom (an
outworker)
- FISCERE - fisherman
- FISHER (FISHDRYVER) - victualler
- FISH FAG - female fish monger
- FITTER - coal broker
- FLAUNER - confectioner
- FLASHER - specialist process worker in the glass
industry
- FLATMAN / FLOATMAN - navigated a flat, a broad
flat-bottomed boat used for transport, especially in shallow waters
- FLAXDRESSER - prepared flax prior to spinning
- FLESHMONGER / FLESHER - butcher or one who worked
in a tannery
- FLESHEWER - butcher
- FLETCHER - arrowsmith (from French fleche).
- FLOATER - vagrant or one who regulated the
year-round workings of the watermeadows in winter by adjusting the hatches on the
channels to flood or float the meadows with a shallow covering of water to protect
them from frost and encourage the early growth of new grass mainly for early feed
for sheep and other animals. The sheep were pastured on the new grass by day and
driven up on to the downs to be folded by night to provide the manure needed for
the coming season's grain crops
- FLUSHERMAN - who cleaned out water mains
- FLYCOACHMAN - driver of one-horse carriage hired
by the day
- FLYING STATIONER - street broadsheet seller
- FLYMAN - driver of a light vehicle hired out for
carriage of passenger or Theatre stage hand
- FOGGER - peddler or low class lawyer
- FOISTER / FOISTERER - joiner
- FOOT MAIDEN - female servant
- FOOT MAN - servant who ran errands
- FOOT PAD - robber
- FOOT-POST - letter carrier or messenger who
travelled on foot
- FOOT STRAIGHTENER - one who assembled watch and
clock dials in watchmaking
- FORESTER - game warden or forest ranger
- FORGEMAN - blacksmith or assistant (coachsmith
18th century Derbyshire)
- FORGER - blacksmith, worker at a forge
- FOSSETMAKER - who made faucets for ale-casks, etc
- FOWER - street cleaner, sweeper
- FOWLER / FOGLER / FUGLER / VOWLER / VOGELER /
VOGLER / VAGELER / VOGELAAR / VOGLER - keeper or catcher of birds
- FRAME SPINNER - worker on a loom
- FRAMER - one who frames houses
- FRAMEWORKER KNITTER - operator of machine which
made hosiery
- FREEDMAN - one released from slavery
- FREEMASON - stonecutter
- FRESER - maker of frieze, a rough plaster
- FRESHWATER MAN - sailed boat on fresh water only
or in the coastal trade
- FRIPPERER - buyer & seller of old clothes
- FRISEUR - hair dresser
- FROBISHER / FURBISHER - remover of rust, a
polisher of metal, eg. armour
- FRUITERER - fruit seller
- FRUITESTERE - female fruit seller
- FULKER - pawnbroker
- FULLER - cloth worker who shrinks, beats and
presses the cloth
- FUNAMBULIST - tightrope walker
- FURBISHER - armor polisher
- FURNER - baker
- FURRIER - seller or maker of furs
- FUSTIAN WEAVER - maker of corduroy
- GABELER - tax collector
- GAFFER - foreman of a work crew or in glass
factory, one who smoothed, reheated the neck of and formed lip on a bottle
- GAFFMAN - a bailiff
- GAGER - tax collector of liquor taxes
- GALVANISER - iron worker who handled process of
coating metal with zinc, to inhibit formation of rust
- GAMESTER - gambler or prostitute
- GANGER - overseer or foreman from 1850 onwards
- GANGSMAN - foreman
- GANNEKER - tavern keeper
- GAOLER - jailer
- GARTHMAN - owner or worker of a fish trap
- GAS MANAGER - forman position in charge of
checking for poisonous gas in coal mine shafts
- GATER - watchman
- GATHERER - glassworker who inserted the blow iron
into the molten glass ready for the blower
- GATHERERS BOY - held a shovel to shield the
gatherer's face from the heat
- GATWARD - goat keeper
- GAUGER - customs official who measured the
capacity of imported barrels of liquor in order to calculate the customs duty
- GAUNTER - glover
- GAVELLER - userer and in the Forest of Dean, an
officer fo the Crown who granted gales or the right to work a mine and in Suffolk
a harvest worker, usually female
- GELDER - castrator of animals, especially horses
- GEOMETER - skilled in geometry
- GERUND GRINDER - Latin instructor
- GILDER - applies gold leaf
- GIMLER - machinist involved in making a gimp, a
kind of card
- GINOUR - engineer
- GIRDLER - leather worker who made girdles and
belts, chiefly for the Army
- GLASS COACHMAN - driver of two-horse carriage
hired out for the day
- GLAZIER - glass cutter or window classman
- GLIMMER MAN - in Dublin, the man who would turn
out (or down) the gas street-lights and also warn people turn out lights in their
houses to ensure blackouts during bombing raids at War time
- GLOVER - one that makes or sells gloves
- GOAT CARRIAGE MAN - driver of small passenger
carriage
- GOLDSMITH - maker of gold articles, banker
- GOOSE HERD - tends geese
- GORZEMAN - seller of gorse or broom
- GRACE WIFE - midwife
- GRAFFER - notary or scrivener
- GRAINER - painted wood to make it look like great
and exotic woods
- GRANGER - farmer
- GRAVER - carver or sculptor, engraver of images
or dockside worker who cleaned ship bottoms by burning and tarring
- GRAZIER - pastures and raises cattle
- GREAVE / GRIEVE - bailiff, foreman, sheriff
- GREEN GROCER - fruit and vegetable seller
- GREENSMITH - worker in copper or latten
- GRIMBRIBBER - lawyer
- GROOVER - miner
- GROUNDSEL & CHICKWEED SELLER - streetseller of
common weeds, used to feed pet songbirds
- GUINEA PIG - an unattached, or roving person
whose fee was usually a guinea
- GUMMER - one who improved old saws by deepening
the cuts
- GYP - college servant especially one attending
undergraduates
- HABERDASHER - seller of men's clothing
- HACKER - maker of hoes
- HACKLER / HACKMAN / HECKLER - one who separated
the coarse part of flax or hemp with a hackle, an instrument with teeth in linen
industry
- HACKNEY MAN - renter of horses & carriages
- HAIR SEATING & CURLED HAIR MERCHANT - dealer in
horse-hair stuffing used in upholstery
- HAIRWEAVER / HAIRMAN - weaver of cloth composed
wholly or partly of horsehair
- HALBERT CARRIER - soldier or halberdier, armed
with a halberd, a combination spear and battleaxe (a ceremonial officer)
- HAMMERMAN - hammerer, a smith
- HANDLE STICKER - put handles on cast ceramic
cups, pitchers, etc
- HANDSELLER - street vendor
- HANDWOMAN - midwife or female attendant
- HANKYMAN - a travelling magician in
Victorian/Edwardian England
- HARLOT - vagabond, beggar, rogue, 14th century
male servant, attendant or menial, and 15th century, loose woman
- HARMER BECK - constable
- HARPER - performer on the harp
- HATCHLER - combed out or carded flax
- HATTER - maker of or dealer in hats
- HAWKER / HUCKSTER - peddler
- HAYMONGER - dealer in hay
- HAYWARD - fence viewer
- HEADSMAN - executioner
- HEADSWOMAN - midwife
- HEALD KNITTER - operator of a machine which
produced a jersey type of fabric as opposed to woven fabric
- HECK MAKER - maker of a part of a spinning
machine by which the yarn is guided to the reels
- HEDGE LOOKER - supervised good repair of fence
and enclosures
- HEDGER - hedge trimmer
- HEELMAKER - made shoe heels
- HELLIER / HILLIER - tiler or slater
- HELPER-UP - young boy employed in Durham pits to
help other workers
- HEMPHECKLER - flax worker
- HENCHMAN / HENSMAN - horseman or groom
- HENTER - thief
- HEWER - miner who cut coal, stone, etc., a face
worker in a mine
- HIGGLER - one who haggles or bargains or
itinerant dealer, similar to a cadger
- HIGHWAYMAN - robber who preys on public roads
- HILLIER - roof tiler
- HIND - farm laborer
- HIRED MAN - gardener, farmhand, or stableman
- HOBBLER - boat tower on a river or canal
- HODSMAN - mason's assistant
- HOGGARD - pig drover
- HOLSTER - groom who took care of horses
- HONEY DIPPER - extracted raw sewage from catch
basins and out-houses
- HOOFER - dancer
- HOOKER - 16th century reaper, 19th century worker
in textile industry who operated a machine which laid fabric flat in uniform folds
of any required length
- HOOPER - makes hoops for casks (not a cooper)
- HORNER - worker in horn making spoons, combs, or
musical horns
- HORSE COURSER - owner of race horses
- HORSE KNAVE - groom
- HORSE LEECH - veterinarian, farrier
- HORSE MARINE - man-handled barges on canals when
horses could not be used
- HORSE-CAPPER - dealer in worthless horses
- HORSE-HAIR CURLER - dressed horse hair which was
used extensively in the upholstery trade
- HOSIER - retailer of stockings, socks, gloves,
nightcaps
- HOSTELLER - innkeeper
- HOSTLER / OSTLER - cares for horses, stableman,
groom, repairer or railway engines
- HOUSE JOINER - house framer
- HOUSE WRIGHT - house builder
- HOTPRESSER - worker in paper or textile
industries where product was pressed between glazed boards and hot metal plates to
obtain a smooth and shiny surface
- HOYMAN - one who carries goods and passengers by
water (Hoy - small coastal vessel or sloop)
- HOWDY WIFE - midwife
- HUCKSTER - sells small wares
- HUISSHER - usher or door attendant
- HURDLEMAN / HURDLER - hedge-maker, of wattled
framework fencing
- HURRIERS - term applied to the girls aged 5-18
who were employed as coal-drawers in the coal industry
- HUSBANDMAN - tenant farmer
- HUSH SHOP KEEPER - brewed and sold beer without a
license (usually as a side line)
- ICEMAN - seller or deliverer of ice
- IDLEMAN - gentleman of leisure
- INFIRMARIAN - in charge of an infirmary
- INTELLIGENCER - spy
- INTENDENT - director of a public or government
business
- INTERFACTOR - murderer
- IRON FOUNDER - one who founds or iron
- IRON MONGER - dealer in hardware made of iron
(also known as a feroner)
- IRON MASTER - owner or manager of a foundry
- IVORY WORKERS - included makers of combs, boxes,
billiard balls, buttons, and keys for pianofortes
- JACK - young male assistant, sailor, or
lumberjack
- JACK-FRAME TENTER - cotton industry worker who
operated a jack-frame, used for giving a twist to the thread
- JACK-SMITH - maker of lifting machinery and
contrivances
- JAGGER - carrier, carter, pedlar or hawker of
fish; 19th century, young boy in charge of 'jags'or train of trucks in coal mine;
man in charge of pack horse carrying iron ore to be smelted
- JAKES-FARMER - one who emptied cesspools
- JAPANNER - one who covers with a hard brilliant
coat of any of several varnishes
- JERQUER - custom house officer who searched ships
- JERSEY COMBER - worker in woollen manufacture
(Jersey - wool which has been combed but not spun into yarn)
- JIGGERMAN - operated a spinning wheel (Jigger) to
form the foot (back side) of a ceramic plate
- JOBBER - a buyer in quantity to sell to others, a
pieceworker
- JOBLING GARDENER - one employed on a casual basis
- JOBMASTER - supplied carriages, horses and
drivers for hire
- JOYNER or JOINER - skilled carpenter
- JONGLEUR - traveling minstrel
- JOURNEYMAN - one who served his apprenticeship
and mastered his craft; properly, one who no longer is bound to serve for years
but is hired day to day
- JOUSTER - fish monger
- KEDGER - fisherman
- KEEKER - colliery official who checked quantity
and quality of coal output or weighman
- KEELER / KEELMAN - bargeman (from keel, a flat
bottomed boat)
- KEEPER - controlled the quantities of ore and
fuel, regulated the blast and tapped the molten metal from the furnace
- KEMPSTER - wool comber
- KIDDIER - skinner or dealer in young goats
- KILNER - limeburner, in charge of a kiln
- KISSER - made cuishes and high armour
- KNACKER - harness maker, buyer of old horses and
dead animals
- KNAPPERS - dressed and shaped flints into
required shape and size
- KNELLER / KNULLER - chimmney sweep who solicited
custom by knocking on doors
- KNOCKER-UP - man paid to wake up northern mill
and factory workers on early shifts
- KNOCKKNOBBLER - dog catcher
- KNOLLER - toller of bells
- LACE-DRAWER - child employed in lace work,
drawing out threads
- LACEMAN - dealer in lace, who collected it from
the makers, usually only those who had bought his thread, and sold it in the lace
markets
- LACE-MASTER / MISTRESS - employed workers in
factories or in their homes for the production of lace
- LACE-RUNNER - young worker who embroidered
patterns on lace
- LACEWOMAN - lady's maid
- LAGGER - sailor
- LAGRAETMAN - local constable (Law-Rightman)
- LARDNER - keeper of the cupboard
- LASTER - shoe maker
- LATTENER - brass worker
- LANDWAITER - customs officer whose duty was to
wait or attend on landed goods
- LAUNDERER - washer
- LAVENDER - washer woman
- LAYER - worker in paper mill responsible for a
particular stage in paper-making process
- LEAVELOOKER - examined food on sale at market
- LEECH or SAWBONES - physician
- LEGERDEMAINIST - magician
- LEGGER - canal boatman
- LEIGHTONWARD - gardener (leighton - a garden)
- LIGHTERMAN - worker on a flat-bottomed boat
- LIMNER - illuminator of books, painter or drawer
- LINENER - linen draper, shirtmaker
- LINER / LYNER - flax dresser
- LINKERBOY / MAN - one who carried a link or torch
to guide people through city streets at night for a small fee (had to be licensed
to trade in early 19th century had and term later sometimes applied to general
manservant )
- LISTER / LITSTER - dyer
- LITTERMAN - groom (of horses)
- LOADSMAN - ship's pilot
- LOBLOLLY BOY - ship's doctor's assistant or
errand boy
- LOCK KEEPER - overseer of canal locks
- LONGSHOREMAN - stevedore
- LONG SONG SELLER - street seller who sold popular
songsheets printed on paper
- LORIMER - maker of horse gear
- LOTSELLER - street seller
- LOTTER - one who bought odd lots of wool and
consolidated them for sale
- LUMPER - dock laborer who discharged cargo of
timber employed by a master lumper (not the Dock Company) or fine-grain saltmaker,
from practice of moulding salt into lumps
- LUM SWOOPER - chimney sweep
- LUNGS - alchemist's servant whose duty was to fan
the fire
- LUTHIER - maker and repairer of stringed musical
instruments
- MADERER - gathered and sold garlic
- MAID - female domestic servant
- MAIL GUARD - armed guard, frequently an
ex-soldier, employed on the mail coach service
- MAISE MAKER - one who made measures for weighing
herring catch
- MALEMAKER - maker of 'Males' or travelling bags
- MALENDER - farmer
- MALSTER - brewer, maker or seller of malts
- MANCIPLE - steward
- MANGLER - works a mangle
- MANGLE KEEPER - woman who offered use of the
mangle for a fee
- MANGO - slave dealer
- MANTUAMAKER - dressmaker
- MARBLER - one who stained paper or other
material, veined in imitation of marble
- MARSHALL - horse doctor of shoesmith
- MARSHMAN - paid by various landowners to look
after marshlands and tend the animals put to graze there for the season
- MASHMAKER - maker of the mash-vats or mashels
used for mixing malt
- MASON - stonecutter
- MASTER - one of three grades of skill recognised
by the Guild of Crafts
- MASTER LUMPER - contractor of laborers at cheap
rate of pay
- MASTER MARINER - ship's captain
- MATCHET FORGER - knifemaker
- MAWER - mower
- MEALMAN - dealer in meal or flour
- MELDER - corn miller
- MERCATOR - merchant
- MERCER - cloth seller
- METERER - poet
- MIDWIFE - experience woman who assists in child
birth
- MILESMAN / LENGTHSMAN - railway worker who had a
length of railway track to keep in good order
- MILLER - corn miller, cloth miller, saw miller
- MILLERESS - miller's wife
- MILLERS CARMAN - drove carrier to deliver the
flour or seed to the customers
- MILLPECK - sharpener of mill stones
- MILLNER - maker of womens' hats
- MILLWRIGHT - designer & builder of mills or mill
machinery
- MILSTONE INSPECTOR - vagrant, a gentleman of the
road
- MINTMAKER or MINTMASTER - issuer of local
currency
- MIXER - bartender
- MOCADO WEAVER - weaver of woollen cloth used for
making clothes 16-17th century
- MOLD BOY -closed and held mold for glassblower,
also weighed the bottles
- MOLITOR - miller
- MONDAYMAN - one who worked for landowner on
Mondays in lieu of rent
- MONGER - (i.e., fish) - dealer
- MOULDER - maker of molds or castings, brickmaker
- MOUNTEBANK - seller if ineffectual patent
medicines
- MUDLARK - sewer cleaner, riverbank scavenger
- MUFFIN MAKER - maker who made muffins
- MUFFIN MAN - itinerant seller of muffins
- MUGGLER - pigman
- MUGSELLER - seller of cups, mugs
- MULE MINDER - minded the spinning mules in the
cotton mills
- MULESKINNER - teamster
- MULETEER - mule driver
- MULTURER - miller
- MUSICKER - musician
- MUSTARDER / MUSTARDMAN - made and dealt in
mustard
- NAGSMAN - a person who schools horses, usually
for his employer
- NAPERER - royal servant in charge of table linen
- NAPIER - naperer
- NARROW WEAVER - weaver of ribbons, tapes, etc
- NAVIGATOR - laborer building canals or railways
- NEATHERD - cowherder
- NECKER - worker responsible for the feeding of
cardboard into the machine the makes boxes
- NEDELLER - needle maker
- NECESSARY WOMAN - servant responsible for
emptying and cleaning chamber pots
- NETTER - net maker
- NIGHT SOILMAN / NIGHTMAN - one who emptied
cesspits, ashpits and backyard toilets
- NIGHTWALKER - watchman or bellman
-
NIMGIMMER - doctor
- NIPPER - lorry boy, a young person employed by
the carter or wagoner to assist with the collection and delivery of goods
- NOB THATCHER - wig maker
- NOON TENDER - guarded the goods on the quay while
the officers were a lunch
- NOTERER - notary
- OCCUPIER - tradesman
- OILMAN - sold the oil for lamps
- OLITOR - kitchen gardener (from Olitory-a kitchen
garden)
- ORDERLY - soldier who functioned as a servant for
an officer
- ORDINARY KEEPER - innkeeper
- ORRERY MAKER - made a mechanical apparatus for
showing the movements of the planets (named after the Earl of Orrery the inventor)
- ORRICE WEAVER - designer of lace patterns to be
woven with silk thread and silk
- OSIER PEELER - removed bark from willow rods or
osiers which were used in basket weaving, usually women and children (also known
as withy peelers)
- OSTIARY - monastery door keeper
- OSTLER - originally applied to an
innkeeper/taverner or one who received guests especially in an monastery (13th
century) but later on it came to mean stableboy or a person who looked after
horses, coming from the old French 'hostelier'
- OUT CRIER - auctioneer
- OUTWORKER - worker who carried on their
occupation at home, e.g., cotton or woollen weavers but it applies to many
occupations
- OVERLOOKER - superintendent or overseer,
especially in the textile mills
- OVERMAN - supervisor in a colliery who checked
the miners work and the quality of the mined coal
- OWLER - sheep or wool smuggler
- OYSTER DREDGER - member of the crew on board an
oyster fishing boat
- PACKER - packs goods such as pickles or herring
- PACKMAN - travelled around carrying goods for
sale in a pack
- PACK THREAD SPINNER - operator of the machine
which made thread or twine
- PAD MAKER - made small baskets used for measuring
- PAGE - youth being trained for the medieval rank
of knight and in the personal service of a knight or attendant upon someone of
rank in the medieval period
- PAINTRESS - woman employed in the pottery
industry to hand paint the finished articles
- PAPER-STAINER - one who made wallpaper
- PALING MAN - seller of eels
- PALISTER - one who ensured the parks were safe
and well kept
- PALMER - one who had been, or pretended to have
been, to the Holy Land
- PANNIER MAN - fish monger
- PANNIFEX - somebody who worked in the cloth trade
- PANTER - keeper of the pantry
- PANTLER - butler
- PAPERER - inserted the needles into the paper
ready for sale in the needlemaking trade
- PARDONER - seller of indulgences
- PARFUMIER / PERFUMER - manufacturer and purveyor
of scents such as perfumes, colognes and even incense
- PARGETER - applied ornamental plaster to
buildings
- PARITOR - church officer who attended the
magistrates and justices at court for the purpose of executing their orders
- PARKER - park caretaker
- PASSAGE KEEPER - kept passages and alleys clean
- PASTELER - pastry chef
- PASTOR - shepherd
- PATTEN MAKER - clog maker or the person who made
wooden soles (pattens) to fit under normal shoes to protect from wet and muddy
ground
- PAVER / PAVIOUR - laid paving stones
- PAVYLER - put up pavilions or tents etc
- PEDASCULE - schoolmaster
- PEELER - policeman, constable, bobby (from Sir
Robert Peel founder of the police force)
- PELTERER - one who worked with animal skins
- PERAMBULATOR - surveyor
- PERCHEMEAR - one who made parchment
- PEREGRINATOR - itinerant wanderer
- PERUKER - wigmaker
- PESSONER - fish monger
- PETERMAN - fisherman
- PETTIFOGGER - shyster lawyer
- PETTY CHAPMAN - itinerant dealer in small goods,
a pedlar
- PEWTERER - made pewter utensils (using any of
various alloys having tin as chief component especially a dull alloy with lead)
- PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER - one who made
scientific instruments
- PHRENOLOGIST - diviner of a person's character
based on the bumps on a person's head
- PICKER - one who cast the shuttle on a loom
- PIECENER / PIECER - one who worked in a spinning
mill, employed to piece together any threads which broke (usually a child or
woman)
- PIGMAN - one who sold crockery or bred or looked
after pigs on the farm
- PIKELET MAKER - baker who specialised in making
pikelets (a small pancake or crumpet)
- PIKEMAN - miller's assistant
- PIKER - tramp or vagrant
- PILLER - robber
- PILOT - ship steersman
- PINDER - dog catcher
- PINER - laborer
- PINNER - pin make
- PINNER UP - dressmakers assistant or one who sold
broadsheets or ballards in the streets
- PINSETTER - one who manually set up bowling pins
before the advent of automated pinsetting machines
- PIPER - innkeeper
- PIRN WINDER - wound the yarn onto large wheel
like bobbins which were then ready to feed the looms in a cotton mill
- PISTOR - baker
- PIT BROW LASS - female worker who worked on the
surface of the mines
- PITMAN - coal miner
- PLAITER - maker of straw plaits used in making
hats etc
- PLAYDERER - one who made plaid
- PLAIN WORKER - performed plain sewing or
needlework as opposed to an embroiderer
- PLANKER - one who planks or kneads the body of
the hat during felting
- PLATELAYER - men who laid and maintained the
railway tracks in Britain and the word actually predates railways being derived
from the very old "plateways" which existed hundreds of years ago, mainly for
moving coal
- PLEACHER / PLAICHER / PLATCHER / PLASHER - hedge
layer
- PLOWMAN - farmer
- PLOWWRIGHT - maker or repairer of plows
- PLUMASSIER / PLUMER - made or sold plumes,
ornamental feathers
- PLUMBUM WORKER - plumber
- POINTER - sharpened needles or pins or lace maker
- POINTMAKER / POINTMAN - made the tips of laces
- POINTSMAN - railway worker who operated the
points, used to change the line on which the train was travelling
- POLDAVE WORKER - made poldave, a coarse fabric
- POLEMAN - surveyor's assistant
- POLENTIER - poulterer
- POLLER / POWLER - barber
- PONDERATOR - inspector of weights and measures
- PORTABLE SOUP MAKER - converted soup into a dry
form for transporting from place to place
- PORTER - door or gatekeeper
- POSTILLION - attacher of extra horses to wagons &
coaches to help them up hills
- POST BOY - carried mail from town to town, guard
who travelled on the mail coach or outrider who travelled with the stagecoach as a
postillion
- POSTER - one who worked in the quarries breaking
rocks
- POTATO BADGER - seller of potatoes
- POT BOY / MAN - one who worked in public houses
washing and removing dirty pots also did other menial tasks
- POTTER - maker or seller of pottery
- POTTER CARRIER - chemist or pharmacist
- POTTER THROWER - potter who used a wheel and
therefore had to throw the clay
- POULTER - seller of poultry
- POWER LOOM TUNER - one who maintained the loom in
mills
- PRENTIS - apprentice
- PRECEPTRESS - school mistress
- PRICKER - witch hunter, pattern maker or a
horseman
- PRICK LOUISE - tailor
- PRICKER - used a type of wire brush to make small
holes inside ceramic sewer pipe to prevent spalling during firing
- PRIG NAPPER - horse thief
- PROCTOR - official of a university
- PROP BOBBY - worked in mines checking the pit
props
- PROTHONARY - law clerk
- PUBLICAN - innkeeper
- PUDDLER - worked clay into puddle, worked with
puddle to make things water tight e.g. canal walls or worked in puddling iron
- PUGGARD - thief
- PUGGER - produce clay paste by treading like
grapes, usually women and children in brick manufacturing
- PUG MILL OPERATOR - operated a machine for mixing
clay and water, which then exuded a "pug" (a cylinder of clay of any diameter and
indefinite length)
- PUNKY - chimney sweep
- PUREFINDER - old women and young girls who went
about the streets gathering dog droppings which were used for tanning leather
- PURSER - ship's officer in charge of provisions &
accounts
- PUTTER IN - put things in to some form of
mechanised process
- QUARREL PICKER - glazier
- QUARRIER / QUARRYMAN - quarry worker
- QUILLER - one who operated a machine that wound
yarn onto spools
- QUILTER / QUILTRESS - one who quilted material
- QUISTER - one who bleached things
- QWYLWRYGHTE - wheelwright
- RACK MAIDEN - girl employed in the tin mines of
Cornwall to dress the ore
- RAFFMAN - one who dealt in raff (saleable
rubbish)
- RAFF MERCHANT - seller of fibre used to make
raffia bags etc
- RAG CUTTER - one who cut up rags into small
pieces to be used for making paper etc
- RAG GATHERERS - employed to clear the rags from
the machinery in the mills (usually children)
-
RAG MAN - one who went from street to
street collecting and selling old clothes and rags
-
RAG AND BONE MAN - one who went from
street to street with a cart and collected any old rubbish, usually in exchange
for a small item, e.g. a block of soapstone
(known as a Donkey Stone)
-
RAG PICKER - sorted through the left over rags to
find re usable ones
- RAKER - street sanitation worker
- RATONER - rat catcher
- RATTLEWATCH - town watchman
- RECTIFIER - one who distilled alcoholic spirits
- REDAR - interpreter of dreams
- REDSMITH - goldsmith
- REEDER - worked with reeds for hedging or
thatching
- REEDMAKER - made the pipe for a musical
instrument or made a weavers implement (a reed) or reed cloth or the comb used in
tapestry
- REELER - operated the machine that wound the yarn
onto the bobbin
- REEVE - church warden
- REEVER - shriever
- REGISTRAR - official who registers events such as
land purchases or births
- RENOVATOR - one who repaired clothing
- REVENUER - taxman who enforces tax laws on liquor
- RICKMASTER - Captain of Horse
- RIDDLER - wool stapler
- RIFTERE - reaper
- RIGGER - hoist tackle worker; works on a ship's
rigging
- RIPPER / RIPPIER - one who sold fresh water fish
at the markets or maker and seller of baskets
- RIVERMAN - worker on a river boat
- ROCKMAN - worked in a quarry usually placing the
charges on the rockface
- ROCKGETTER - rocksalt miner
- ROLLER COVERER - one who covered the rollers for
the spinning process
- ROLLEYWAY MAN - maintained the underground road
in the mines
- ROLL TURNER - carder of wool, cotton etc into
rolls prior to spinning
- ROMAN CEMENTER / PLASTERER - one who worked with
roman cement used in stuccoing
- ROPER - maker of rope or nets
- ROVER - archer or operator of a machine used in
cotton mills which prepared the carded fibre into rolls
- RODMAN - surveyor's assistant
- RUBBISHER / RUBBLER - sorted the small stones in
the quarries
- RUGMAN - dealer in rugs
- RUNNER - smuggler, messenger and ironically one
who worked for the magistrate best remembered as Bow Street Runners
- RUSTLER - cattle thief
- SADDLER - one who made saddles, harnesses, horse
collars, bridles
- SADDLE TREE MAKER - one who made the frames for
saddles that the saddler used
- SAGGAR (also SAGGER) MAKER - one who made the
fireclay containers in which the stoneware was placed ready for firing
- SAGGAR (also SAGGER) MAKER'S BOTTOM KNOCKER- was
the saggar maker's assistant who tapped the bottom of the pots
- SALT BOILER - one who obtained salt by boiling
water
- SALTER / DRYSALTER / SAUCER - one who made or
dealt in salt
- SARCINET WEAVER - silk weaver
- SALOONIST - saloon keeper
- SANDESMAN - ambassador or messenger
- SAND HOG - those who dug the tunnel under the
river
- SANDWICHMAN - wears a sandwich billboard for
advertising
- SAW DOCTOR - made, repaired, maintained and
sharpened a wide range of cutting tools and saw blades and also maintained and
aligned mechanical parts of a range of production machines
- SAWYER - saws timber to boards
- SAY WEAVER - one who made Say, material used for
table cloths or bedding
- SCAGIOLA MAKER - one who made imitation marble
- SCALERAKER / SCAVENGER - employed by the parish
to clean the streets
- SCAPPLER - one who roughly shaped the stone prior
to being finished by the stonemason
- SCAVELMAN - employed to keep the waterways and
ditches clear
- SCHRIMPSCHONGER - artisan who carves in bone,
ivory, or wood
-
SCHUMACKER - shoemaker
- SCOTCH DRAPER / SCOTCHMAN - sold goods door to
door with payment to be made by installments
- SCREENER - screened the ore at the mines surface
- SCRIBE - clerk
- SCRIBLER - a minor or worthless author
- SCRIMER - fencing master
- SCRIVENER - clerk, notary
- SCRIBBLER - employed in a scibbling mill where
the wool was roughly carded before spinning
- SCRIBER - employed at the docks to mark the
cotton bales with the approximate weight ready for selling by the brokers
- SCRIPTURE READER - employed by the local clergy
to go from house to house reading parts of the bible to try and encourage people
to attend church, also read scriptures during some services
- SCRIVENER - wrote out legal documents etc
- SCRUTINEER - election judge
- SCUTCHER - beat the flax to soften the straw in
the bundles
- SCULLERY MAID - female servant who performed all
the menial tasks
- SCULLION - male servant who performed all the
menial tasks
- SEAL PRESSER - employed in the glass industry to
seal the bath against air intake which could spoil the finished surface
- SEARCHER - customs man
- SECRET SPRINGER - one made watch springs
- SEEDSMAN - sower of seeds
- SEDGEMAN - skilled workman who applied sedge
(type of grass) which was used as an early roofing material
- SELF ACTING MINDER - one in charge of the
automatic spinning mule in the mills
- SEMI LORER - maker of leather thongs
- SEMPSTER - seamstress
- SENESCHAL - A senior steward at the Manor
- SEWER HUNTER - scavenger who concentrated on the
sewers trying to find valuable objects
- SEWER RAT - bricklayer who specialised in making
and repairing sewers and tunnels
- SEWING CLERK - collector of clothing piecework
- SEWSTER - seamstress
- SEXTON - employee or officer of a church who
cared and upkept church property and sometimes rang bells and dug graves
- SHAGREEN CASE MAKER - one who worked with
shagreen leather
- SHANTY MAN - lumberman
- SHARECROPPER - tenant farmer who would be paid
with part of the crop
- SHEARER - removed the fleece from sheep
- SHEARGRINDER - sharpened shears, scissors
- SHEARMAN or SHERMAN - shearer of cloth, metal
- SHEATH MAKER - one who made scabbards for swords
- SHEEPMAN - sheep herder
- SHEPSTER - dressmaker
- SHINGLER - A roof tiler who used wooden tiles
(shingles)
- SHIP HUSBAND - repairer of ships while in harbor
- SHIP MASTER - owner or captain of a ship
- SHIPWRIGHT - constructor or repairer or ships
- SHOE FINDER - seller of shoe maker's tools
- SHOESMITH - cobbler, one who shoed horses
- SHOE WIPER - servant who polished shoes
- SHOT FIRER - one in charge of blasting in mines
or quarries
- SHRAGER - one who trimmed and pruned trees
- SHRIEVE - sheriff
- SHUFFLER - yardman on the farms
- SHUNTER - one who moved rolling stock around the
railway yards
- SHUSTER - shoe maker
- SHUTTLE MAKER - made the shuttles for the weaving
mills
- SICKLEMAN - reaper
- SIDESMAN - one who assisted the churchwarden
- SILK ENGINE TURNER - turned the wheel on
automatic silk weaving looms
- SILK THROWER - worker in the silk industry
- SILKER - sewed the ends of the fabric to prevent
the layers from separating
- SILK DRESSER - prepared the silk for weaving
- SILK MERCER - sold silk cloth and items made from
silk
- SILK TWISTER - silk spinner
- SIMPLER - agriculturist that we would call
herbalist today
- SILVERSMITH - worked with silver
- SISSOR or CISSOR - tailor
- SIZER - applied the size to cloth or worked in a
paper mill
- SKEINER MAKER - made wheels used in spinning
industry upon which yarn was wound
- SKEPPER / SKELPER - one who made and sold
beehives
- SKINKER - tapster in an ale house
- SKINNER - dealer in hides, mule driver
- SKIPMAKER - one who made the skips used in mining
and quarrying for moving men or materials to the surface
- SKIPPER - master of a ship
- SLAPPER / SLAPER - one who worked in a pottery
preparing the clay for the potter
- SLATER - roofer
- SLAYMAKER - apparently an Old English name
meaning maker of slay's--wooden pegs used in weaving
- SLOPSELLER - seller of readymade clothes in a
slop shop
- SLUBBER - operated the machine used to prepare
cotton for spinning
- SLUBBER DOFFER - removed the bobbins from the
spindles in the mills
- SMACKMAN - worked on a sailing ship (as a sloop
or cutter) used chiefly in coasting and fishing
- SMALLWARE MAKER - who made smallware, e.g. tapes,
braids etc
- SMELTER - worker in a metal smelter, smelt
fisherman
- SMIDDY - smith
- SMITH - metal worker
- SMUGSMITH - smuggler
- SNAPPER - worker in glass factory who placed
molded bottle (by neck) into furnace hole
- SNOBSCAT - one who repair shoes
- SNUFFER MAKER - made the candle snuffer
- SOAP BOILER (SOPER) - soap maker
- SOJOURNER CLOTHIER - travelling clothes salesman
- SOLICITOR - lawyer
- SORTOR - tailor
- SOUTER - shoe maker
- SPALLIER - tin worker who performs chiefly menial
tasks
- SPERVITER - keeper of sparrows
- SPICER - grocer or dealer in spices
- SPINNER - spins yarn
- SPLITTER - operated a splitting machine or one
who split things by hand, e.g. stone, timber etc
- SPOONER - made spoons
- SPURRER or SPURRIER - maker of spurs
- SQUIRE - (esquire) practitioner of a profession,
a gentleman
- SUPERCARGO - officer on merchant ship in charge
of cargo
- SUTLER - followed soldiers to encampments, set up
tents to sell supplies, foodstuffs and dry goods
- STABLER - ostler
- STALLMAN - keeper of a market stall
- STAMPMAN - worker of an ore crushing machine
- STATIONER - bookseller, seller of paper & writing
implements
- STATIST - politician
- STAY MAKER - corset maker
- STEEPLE JACKER - painted flag poles etc.
- STEERSMAN - ship's helmsman
- STENTERER - operated the cloth finishing machine
- STEP BOY - employed to help passengers to enter
or leave the coach
- STEVEDORE - laborer who unloads and loads ships'
cargoes
- STEWARD - manager of property, purveyor of
supplies or someone who attended passengers on conveyance
- STICHER - one who does decorative stitching
- STOCKINGER - knitter, weaver, or dealer in
stockings
- STOKER - tends the fire of an engine boiler
- STONEMAN / STONEWARDEN - a surveyor of highways
- STONE PICKER - employed to remove the stones from
the farmers fields before planting
- STONE WORKERS - worked with stone e.g. masons,
quarriers etc
- STOREMAN - one responsible for stored goods
- STOWYER - one who stowed the nets away on fishing
boats
- STRAVAIGER - vagrant
- STRAW JOINER - one who thatched roofs
- STRAW PLAITER - one who made straw braids for the
hat industry
- STREAKER - one who prepared the body for burial
- STREET ORDERLY / BOY - street cleaner
- STRIKER - blacksmiths helper or harpooned the
whale
- STRIPPER - employed in the woollen trade to
remove the rubbish from the carding machines
- STRINGER - made the strings for bows
- STUFF GOWSMAN - junior barrister
- STUFF WEAVER - wove stuff (the coarse part of
flax)
- SUCKSMITH - one who made ploughshares
- SUMNER - summoner or apparitor
- SUMPTER - porter
- SUTLER - merchant or peddler in an army camp
- SWAILER - miller or dealer in grain
- SWAIN - herdsman
-
SWEEP - chimneysweep
- SWELL MAKER - one who made shallow baskets
- SWINEYARD / SWINEHERDER - pig keeper
- SWINGLER - one who beats flax to remove woody
parts
- SWORD CUTLER - sword maker
- TABLER - boarding house operator
- TACKLER - an overlooker of power loom weavers
- TACKSMAN - middleman who leased a large piece of
land from the owner and sublet it in small lots
- TAILOR - one who made or repaired clothes
- TALLOW CHANDLER - made or sold candles
- TALLY CLERK - kept count of goods arriving or
departing from warehouses, docks etc
- TALLYMAN / TALLYFELLOW - one who sold goods that
were paid for in installments
- TAN BARK STRIPPER - collected the bark that was
used in the tanning process
- TANNER - leather maker
- TAPER WEAVER - one who made the wicks for candles
- TAPITER / TAPICER - one who wove worsted cloth
- TAPLEY - One who puts the tap in an ale cask
- TAPPIOLOGIST - someone who taps the wheels of
trains to check for cracks and flaws
- TAPSTER - bartender or barmaid
- TAR BOY - applied tar (as antiseptic) to sheep
when they were nicked by shearers
- TASKER - reaper
- TASSELER - one who made tassels used in
furnishings or nobleman
- TAVERNER - innkeeper
- TAWER / TAWYER - white leather maker
- TEAMER / TEAMER MAN / TEAMSTER - person in charge
of a team of horses
- TEASER - one who opens up matted wool for carding
- TEEMER - person who emptied grain from the cart
or who poured the molten steel into the moulds
- TENTER / TENTERER - one who stretched the cloth
on a machine while it was drying or looked after and maintained the machine used
in the process
- TEXTOR - weaver
- THACKER - thatcher
- THATCHER - one who covered roofs with straw or
reeds
- THIRDBOROUGH - an underconstable
- THRESHER - one who separated the grain from the
husks and straw
- THROWSTER - one in the textile trade who twisted
the strands of fibre together into yarn
-
- TICKET WRITER - person (usually female) who hand
wrote or painted the price tickets on goods displayed for sale and painted the
signs that go up to make a window display
- TICKNEY MAN / WOMAN - sold earthenware from town
to town
- TIDE GAUGER / SURVEYOR - monitored the state of
the tide
- TIDESMAN / TIDE WAITER - customs official
- TIEMAKER - one who made wooden railway ties
- TIGER - small groom or pageboy in livery
- TILER - one who put tiles in place either on the
roof or floor
- TILLER - farmer
- TILLMAN - plowman
- TIMES IRONER - servant responsible for ironing
the daily newspaper
- TINCTOR - dyer
- TINKER - traveling repairman
- TINMAN - a tinsmith or tinker
- TINNER - tin miner, tinsmith
- TINTER OR TEINTER - artists who performs tinting
- TIPPER - one who put the metal tips on arrows etc
- TIPPLER - kept an ale house
- TIPSTAFF - policeman
- TIREWOMAN - female dresser, especially in the
theater
- TIXTOR - weaver
- TOBACCO SPINNER - maker of cigars
- TODHUNTER - employed by the parish to hunt foxes
- TOE RAG - who worked at the docks as a corn
porter
- TOILINET MANUFACTURER - made toilinet (a kind of
quilting)
- TOLLER / TOLLGATE KEEPER / TOLLIE / TOLMAN /
TURNPIKE KEEPER - worked at the toll gate to collect fees for use of the road
- TONSOR - Latin for barber
- TOOL HELVER - made tool handles
- TOPMAN - sailor who works in the ship's rigging
- TOP SAWYER - upper man in a saw pit
- TOPSMAN - head cattle drover
- TOUCH HOLER - one who worked in the gun
manufacturing industry
- TOW CARD MAKER - one who made tow cards, used in
the textile industry
- TOWN CHABERLAIN - one who looked after the towns
affairs
- TOWN CRIER - one who made public announcements in
the streets
- TOWN HUSBAND - employed by the parish to collect
the money from the fathers of
illegitimate children for their upkeep
- TOWNSWAITER - customs man
- TOZER - worked in the wool mills employed to tose
or tease the cloth
- TRAMMER - young person who worked in the mines
- TRAMPLER - lawyer
- TRANQUETER - person who made hoops
- TRANTER - peddler
- TRAPPER - employed in the mines to open and shut
the doors for the miners
- TRAVERS - toll bridge collection
- TREEN MAKER - made domestic articles from wood
- TREENAIL MAKER - one who made the long wooden
pins used in shipbuilding
- TRENCHERMAKER - made wooden boards or platters
for serving food from or cutting and slicing food on
- TRENCHERMAN - cook
- TREPANGER - one who used a circular saw to cut
timber
- TRIMMER - trims a ship by re-arranging its cargo
- TROACHER - pedlar
- TRONER - weighing official at the markets
- TROTTER / TROTMAN / TROTT - messenger
- TROUCHMAN / TRUCHMAN - interpreter
- TROVER - smuggler
- TRUGGER - one who made long shallow baskets
- TUBBER - one who made tubs and barrels i.e. a
cooper
- TUBMAN - English barrister
- TUCKER - cleaner of cloth goods
- TUCKER IN - maid who attended the bedroom and
"tucked in the bedclothes"
- TURNER - gymnast, lathe worker
- TURNKEY - prison warder or jail keeper
- TURNSPIT - one who operated the spit handle
- TWEENIE / TWEENY - maid who worked "between the
stairs" she assisted the cooks and the housemaids
- TWISTER / TWISTERER - one who operated the
machine used for twisting yarns and threads together
- TWIST HAND - one who operated a lace machine
- ULNAGER - one appointed to examine the quality of
woollen goods to be sold
- UPHOLDER - upholsterer and also a seller of
secondhand goods
- UPRIGHT WORKER - chimney sweep
- VALET - male servant that attended a nobleman or
gentleman
- VALUATOR - who valued objects
- VENATOR (VENUR) - huntsman
- VASSAL - servant of the lowest order
- VATMAN - one who put the paper pulp into the
moulds in paper-making industry or worked with vats e.g. in beer and wine making
- VERDERER - official in charge of the royal forest
- VERGER - one who worked with the priest in the
running the church
- VERGE MAKER - one who made the spindles used in
clocks and watches
- VERRIER - glazier
- VESTMENTMAKER - one who made the gowns worn by
priests
- VICTUALER - seller of food/drink
- VIEWER - one who worked at the mines in a
managerial capacity
- VILLEIN - one who paid dues to the lord of the
manor in return for use of the land
- VINTAGER / VINEROON - grape farmer, wine maker
- VINTNER / VINTER - wine merchant
- VIRGINAL PLAYER - player of a musical instrument
similar to a harpsichord
- VULCAN - blacksmith
- WABSTER - weaver
- WADSETTER - under Scottish law a creditor to whom
a wadset is made; a wadset is a right, by which lands, or other heritable
subjects, are impignorated by the proprietor to his creditor in security of his
debt
- WAGONER - wagon or cart driver
- WAILER - one employed in the mines to remove the
impurities from the coal
- WAINWRIGHT - builder or repairer of wagons
- WAIT / WAKEMAN - night watchman
- WALKER / WAULKMILLER - cloth worker
- WALLER - one who built walls either brick or dry
stone, also a person who worked making coarse salt
- WANTER / WANTCATCHER - mole catcher
- WARDER -in charge of prisoners
- WAREHOUSEMAN - in charge of or employee in a
warehouse
- WARPER - set the warp thread on the looms or
employed to move boats by hauling on the warps (the ropes attached to the boats)
- WARRENER - in charge of a portion of land used
for breeding rabbits and other small game
- WASHMAN - tin coater
- WASTEMAN - checked the old workings for gas and
maintaining them in the mines or employed to remove waste
- WATCH FINISHER - assembled watches and clocks
- WATCHMAN - town official who guarded the streets
at night
- WATER BAILIFF - official in charge of the fishing
rights on a stretch of water
- WATER CARRIER - carted and sold fresh water
- WATER GILDER - trapped water fowl
- WATER LEADER / LEDER / LODER - transported and
sold fresh drinking water
- WATERMAN - worked with or on boats usually on
rivers
- WATTLE HURDLE MAKER - made a type of fence from
wattle to keep the sheep in
- WAY-MAKER - employed to make roads
- WAY MAN - surveyor of roads
- WEATHERSPY - astrologer
- WEBSTER / WEBBER - weaver (originally a female
weaver)
- WEIGHER - worked on the docks to weigh the cargo
as it was unloaded
- WELLMASTER - one in charge of the local well with
the responsibility of ensuring clean water for the village
- WELL SINKER - dug wells
- WELL WRIGHT - made the winding equipment used to
raise the bucket in the well
- WET GLOVER - made leather gloves
- WET NURSE - woman employed to suckle the child of
another (common practice with the rich)
- WETTER - dampened paper during the printing
process or in the glass industry who detached the glass by wetting
- WHARFINGER - owner of a wharf
- WHEEL TAPPER - railway worker who checked for
cracked wheels by striking them with a long handled hammer and listening for a
clear ring
- WHEELER - wheel maker, attended to the spinning
wheel in the textile industry and one who led the pit ponies that pulled the tubs
underground in the mines
- WHACKER - horse or oxen team driver
- WHEELWRIGHT / WRIGHT - maker or repairer of wagon
wheels
- WHEERYMAN - in charge of a wheery (a small light
rowing boat)
- WHIG - horse driver (Scottish term)
- WHIPCORD MAKER / WHIPMAKER - made whips
- WHIPPERIN - managed the hounds in a hunt
- WHITEAR - hide cleaner
- WHITE LIMER - plastered walls using lime and
water plaster
- WHITE SMITH - tin smith
- WHITENING ROLL MAKER - made the whitening used in
whitening walls of cottages
- WHITTAWER - one who made saddles and harness
- WHITENER / WHITESTER / WHITSTER - one who
bleached cloth
- WHITEWING - streetsweeper
- WHITSTER - bleacher of cloth
- WHITTAWER - preparer of white leather
- WILLOW PLAITER / WEAVER - one who made baskets
etc
- WINDSTER - silk winder
- WOODBREAKER - one who made wooden water casks
- WOODRANGER / WOOD REEVE / WOODWARD - in charge of
the forest or woods
- WOOLCOMBER - operated machines that separate the
fibres ready for spinning in woolen industry
- WOOL DRIVER - one who brought the wool to market
- WOOL FACTOR - wool merchants agent
- WOOLEN BILLY PIECER - worked in the woolen mills
to piece together the broken yarns
- WOOL MAN /WOOL SORTER / STAPLER - one who sorted
the wool into different grades
- WOOLSTED MAN - a seller of woollen cloth (from
worsted man)
- WOOL WINDER - one who made up balls of wool for
selling
- WORSTED MANUFACTURER / SHEARMAN - one who made
worsted
- WRIGHT - builder or repairer
- WYRTH - laborer
- XYLOGRAPHER - one who used and made wooden blocks
used in printing illustrations
-
YARDMAN - rail
road yard worker
- YATMAN - gate keeper
- YEARMAN - one contracted to work for a year
- YEOMAN - farmer who owns his own land
- ZINCOGRAPHER - designer who etched in relief a
pattern on zinc plates used for printing
- ZITHERIST - player of a simple, flat
many-stringed instrument
- ZOETROPE MAKER - craftsman who made zoetropes, an
optical toy in the form of a cylinder with a series of pictures painted on the
inner surface which gave the impression of continuous motion when viewed through
slits in the rotating cylinder
- ZOOGRAPHER - described and classified
References