Old Occupations

1. The occupations found recorded in documents
Acater - ship's chandler, one who supplies food provisions to a ship
Accipitrary - falconer
Accomptant - accountant
Accoucheur - one who assists women in childbirth; midwife
Accoutre / Accoutrement maker - one who outfitted or supplied military clothing or equipment
Ackerman, Acreman - ploughman, ox herder
Actuary - accountant
Aeronaut - balloonist or trapeze artist
Affeeror - official in the manorial courts responsible for assessing the monetary penalty and
collecting taxes and dues, assessor
Alblastere - old Scottish term for a crossbow man
Albergatore - inn keeper (Italian)
Alchemist - medieval chemist who claimed to be able to turn metal into gold
Alderman - an elected member of a municipal council; a noble serving the king as chief officer of a
district
Ale conner - official who tested the quality and measure of ale served in public houses
Ale-draper, Ale draper - a tapster or seller of ale
Ale-tunner, Ale tunner - one who worked among or was employed to fill "tuns," great hogshead
barrels or casks used to store ale in medieval times
All spice - grocer
Ale-wife, Alewife - landlady of an ale house, or ale stand
Almoner - one who distributes alms, provides for the needy; in Britain may also refer to a hospital
social worker
Amanuensis - stenographer, one who takes dictation
Ambler - one who worked in a stable to help break in horses
Amen man - parish clerk
Anchor smith - one who made anchors
Ankle beater - young person who helped drive cattle to market
Annatto maker - one who made annatto dye for paint and printing trades, derived from the seeds of
the achiote tree
Annealer - one who processed metal or glass by heating it in a furnace and then slowly cooling it via
chemicals or other means
Antigropelos maker - one who made waterproof leg coverings meant to protect trousers from
splashing and dirt
Apiarian - beekeeper
Apiculteur - beekeeper (French)
Apparitor - official who summoned witnesses for the ecclesiastical courts
Apothecary - One that prepares and sells drugs and medicines, a pharmacist
Aquarius - waterman
Aratore - plowman

2. Arbalist - a crossbow man
Arbiter - a person who judged disputes
Archiator - doctor, physician
Archil maker - one who made a reddish-purple dye called archil for use in dying textiles; the dye was
made by bruising lichens and then moistening it with urine or spirits mixed with lime
Argenter - silver plater
Arkwright - A skilled craftsman who produced wooden chests or coffers (arks)
Armiger - squire who carried the armor of a knight
Armourer - one who made suits of armor, or plates of armor for ships
Arpenteur - land surveyor (French)
Arrimeur - stevedore, one who is employed in the loading and unloading of ships (French)
Artificer - a skilled craftsman or artisan; an enlisted military man responsible for upkeep of weapons
and small arms; or an inventor
Ashman - one who collected ashes and garbage
Aubergiste - inn keeper (French)
Augermaker - one who made augers for boring holes in wood
Aurifaber - a goldsmith, or one who works with gold
Avenator - merchant of hay and forage
Avvocato - lawyer or soliciter
Axel tree turner - one who made axles for coaches and wagons
Bailie - bailiff
Barker - tanner
Baxter - baker
Blacksmith - one who shoes horses
Bluestocking - female writer
Boniface - inn keeper
Brasiler - dyer
Brazier - one who works with brass
Brewster - beer or ale manufacturer
Brightsmith - metal worker
Brownsmith - copper or brass smith
Burgonmaster - mayor
Burnisher - metal polisher
Carnifex - butcher
Caulker - one who makes things watertight by packing seams in windows, ships, etc., with a
waterproof material, such as oakum or pitch
Chaisemaker - carriage maker
Chandler - dealer or trader; one who makes or sells candles; grocer
Chiffonnier - wig maker
Clark - clerk
Clerk - clergyman; cleric
Cohen - priest
Collier - coal miner
Colporteur - book peddler
Cooper - maker or repairer of wooden barrels, casks, and tubs
Cordwainer - shoemaker (originally any leather worker using Cordovan leather, from Cordova,
Spain)

3. Costermonger - peddler of fruits and vegetables
Crocker - potter
Crowner - coroner
Currier - tanner of leather; one who curries horses
Dareman - dairyman
Daunsel - gentleman in waiting; groom; squire
Dexter - dyer
Diviner - one who finds water under the ground using dowsing rods or witching stick
Docker - stevedor; dock worker who loads and unloads cargo
Dowser - one who finds water under the ground using dowsing rods or witching stick
Draper - dealer in cloth and dry goods
Drayman - driver of a dray, a long strong cart without fixed sides for carrying heavy loads
Dresser - surgeon's assistant in a hospital
Drover - driver of animals to market; dealer in cattle
Drummer - traveling salesman
Dubbere - cloth dubber, one who raises the nap of cloth
Duffer - peddler
Dyer - one who dyes cloth
Elymaker - oilmaker
Endholdernn - inn keeper
Enumerator - census taker
Executrix - female executor
Faber - smith
Falkner - keeper/trainer of falcons
Farmer - tax-collector or bailiff
Farrier - horse doctor, one in charge of horses
Fell Monger - one who removes hair or wool from hides in preparation for leather making
Felter - cleaner and thickener of cloth
Fence Viewer - one who inspects farmer's fences
Feroner - a dealer in hardware made of iron. Also known as an Ironmonger.
Flauner - confectioner
Flax Dresser - one who works with flax fibers
Fleshewer - butcher
Fletcher - maker of bows and arrows; arrowmaker
Forestarius - forester
Framar - farmer
Frereman - servant of the Friars
Fuller - fuller of cloth, one who shrunk and thickened woolen cloth by washing, heating and pressing
Furber / Furbour - furbisher of armour
Furner - baker
Gaoler - jailer
Garlekmonger - garlicmonger; dealer in garlic
Gatward - goatkeeper
Gelder - a castrator of animals, especially horses
Ginerr - joiner
Glassewryght - glasswright; maker and mender of glassware
Glazier - glazier; repairer of windows
Glover - dealer or maker of gloves
Gobar - jobber
Grecher - grocer
Guilderer - maker of gold or silver coins
Gynour - engineer

4. Hacker - hoe maker
Hansard - weapon maker or seller
Harper - musician
Hatcheler - one who combed out flax
Hawker - peddler
Haymonger - dealer in hay
Hayward - keeper of fences
Headborough - constable
Hedger - one who trims and tends hedgerows
Hetheleder - provider of heather for fuel
Higgler - itinerant peddler
Hillard / Hillier - tiler one who covers houses with slate
Hind - farm laborer
Hooker - reaper
Hooper - maker of hoops for casks, barrels, tubs etc.
Horsler - stableman or groom; horse servant at an inn
Hosteler - innkeeper
Huckster - seller of small articles/wares
Indentured servant - one who was committed to working for someone for a fixed number of years
(usually 4 to 7), in exchange for passage to a new country or some other financial consideration.
Ironmonger - a dealer in hardware made of iron. Also known as a Feroner.
Intelligencer - a spy
Husbandman - a farmer; animal husbandry; tenant farmer
Jagger - A peddler or hawker of fish
Journeyman - craftsman who had served his apprentice, a master craftsman
Joyner / Joiner - joiner; skilled carpenter
Jouster - A female hawker of fish; a fish monger
Kedger - a fisherman
Keeler - bargeman
Keller - salt keeper
Kellogg - slaughter man
Kempster - wool comber
Kepegest - innkeeper
Kneller / Knuller - a chimney sweep who solicited jobs door-to-door
Lagger - a sailor
Lapidary - one who cuts, polishes, or engraves precious stones; a jeweler
Lattener - one skilled in working with latten, a mixed metal resembling brass
Lavender - washer woman; from French laver, meaning "to wash."
Lederer - leather maker
Leech / Leach - doctor, physician
Limeburner - maker of lime
Limner - draughtsman or artist
Loblolly boy - 1) an errand boy; 2) surgeon's assistant on board ship
Lokeer - locksmith
Longshoreman - stevedor
Lorimer - bridlemaker
Malender - farmer
Malster - brewer of malted beverages (beer)
Manciple - steward
Marescallus - marshall
Marshall - horse servant, or groom
Mason - stone carver

5. Mayer - physician
Medicus - doctor, physician
Mercator - merchant
Millow - miller
Millwright - one who designs or builds mills
Mintmaster - an issuer of local currency
Monger - seller of goods
Muleskinner - teamster
Neatherder - cow herd
Nedder - needle-maker
Nettir - knitter
Ordinary - an innkeeper; keeper of a fixed price inn
Osler - bird-catcher
Osnard - herder of oxen
Outrider - mounted attendant riding before or behind a carriage
Packman - a peddler; a person who traveled around carrying goods for sale in his pack
Page - a young mail servant
Palmer - a pilgrim; one who had been, or pretended to have been, to the Holy Land. Paneler -
saddler; one who makes, repairs or sells saddles, harnesses, horse collars, bridles, etc. for horses. A
panel or pannel was a short saddle raised on both ends for small burdens carried on horseback.
Pannarius - A Latin name for a clothier or draper, also known as a haberdasher, or a merchant who
sells clothing.
Pannifex - seller of woolen cloth, or sometimes a generic occupational term for someone who worked
in the cloth trade
Pantographer - someone who operated a pantograph, a device used in the engraving process to
draw a replica of an image by tracing.
Pardoner - originally someone who collected money on behalf of a religious foundation, a pardoner
came to be synonymous with an individual who sold pardons, or "indulgences," which implied that
time in purgatory would be "pardoned" if one prayed for the souls there and made a donation to the
church through the "pardoner."
Parochus - rector, pastor
Patten maker, Pattener - one who made "pattens" to fit under normal shoes for use in wet or muddy
conditions.
Pavyler - someone who erected tents and pavilions.
Peever - a seller of pepper
Pelterer - skinner; one who worked with animal skins
Perambulator - a surveyor or someone who made inspection of property on foot.
Peregrinator - an itinerant wanderer, from the Latin peregrīnātus, meaning "to travel abroad."
Peruker or peruke maker - a maker of gentlemans' wigs in the 18th and 19th century
Pessoner - a fishmonger, or seller of fish; from the French poisson, meaning "fish."
Petardier - A person in charge of a petard, a 16th century bomb used to breach fortifications during
sieges.
Pettifogger - a shyster lawyer; especially one who deals with petty cases and raised petty, annoying
objections

6. Pictor - painter
Pigmaker - someone who poured molten metal to make "pigs" for distribution of raw metals.
Alternatively, a pigmaker could be a crockery or pottery maker.
Pigman - crockery dealer or a pig herder
Pilcher - a maker of pilches, a type of outer garment made of skin or fur, and later of leather or wool.
Pinder - An officer appointed by a parish to impound stray beasts, or a keeper of the pound
Piscarius - fishmonger
Pistor - miller or baker
Pitman / Pit man - a coal miner
Plaitor - someone who makes straw plaits for hat making
Plowman - a farmer
Ploughwright - one who makes or repairs plows
Plumber - one who worked with lead; eventually came to apply to a tradesman who installed or
repaired (lead) pipes and drains
Porcher - pig-keeper
Porter - gate-keeper or door-keeper
Potato Badger - merchant who peddled potatoes
Pot Man - a street merchant selling pots of stout and porter
Poulterer - dealer in poultry; poultry merchant
Prothonotary - principal clerk of a court
Puddler - wrought iron worker
Pynner/Pinner - a maker of pins and needles; sometimes other wire articles such as baskets and
bird cages
Quarrier - quarry worker
Quarryman - stonecutter
Quiller - one who used a machine to wind yarn onto spools
Quister - a person who bleached things
Raffia man - maker of straw or grass goods
Rag cutter - worker in a textile (cloth) or paper factory
Raker - street cleaner; one employed to rake street rubbish into piles
Revenuer - an official who enforced tax laws on liquor, working against illegal manufacturing of
whisky
Rigger - hoist tackler worker, working on a ship's rigging
Ripper - fish monger; seller of fish
Rodman - a surveyor's assistant
Roper - a maker of rope or nets
Rotarius - wheelwright
Saddler - maker and repairer of saddles and bridles
Saddle Tree Maker - one who creates the wooden frame for a horse saddle
Salter - one who makes or deals in salt
Sandler - sandle maker
Savant - servant
Sawbones - physician
Sawyer - sawer of wood; carpenter

7. Scabbler - person who uses a scabbler (pick) to trim the sides of a tunnel
Scappler - responsible for rough-shaping stone before final dressing by a stonemason
Schumacker - shoemaker or cobbler
Scribler / Scribbler - minor or worthless author
Scrivener - scribe or clerk; professional or public copyist or writer; notary public
Scrutiner - election judge
Scutcher / Skutcher - one who beat flax to extract linen fibers from flax stems
Seinter - girdle maker
Servitor - a clerk or secretary
Sewer rat - a bricklayer who specialized in making and repairing sewers and tunnels
Sexton - a church caretaker, sometimes responsible for digging graves
Sharecropper - a tenant farmer who is allowed to farm (and sometimes live on) another's land in
return for a percentage share of the crops produced on their portion of land
Shearer - sheared wool from sheep
Shearman - one who raised the surface of woolen cloth and then sheared it to a smooth
surface; cutter of woolen cloth; sometimes a cutter of metal
Shepster - dressmaker or sheep shearer
Ship chandler - a dealer in supplies and equipment for ships and boats, known as "ship stores"
Shrieve / Shriever - sheriff
Shunter - railway worker responsible for coupling train cars and carriages; also known as a switcher
Sickleman - a reaper
Silk drawer - one who "drew" silk from silk waste for spinning
Skepper / Skelper - beehive maker or seller
Skinner - a flayer of animal hides for leather
Slagger - a worker in a steel mill responsible for removing slag from a furnace during the smelting
process.
Slater / Slatter - roofer; tiler
Slopseller - seller of ready-made clothes in a slop shop
Slubber - a worker in a cotton or textile mill, responsible for removing the "slubs" or imperfections in
the yarn prior to weaving
Sluicer - one who tended the sluice in a mine (often a gold or silver mine)
Smith - a metal worker, usually a blacksmith.
Snobscat / Snob - shoe repairer; cobbler
Sojourner - a traveler or traveling merchant; sometimes used to refer to a temporary (non-
permanent) resident of a parish
Soper - soapmaker
Sorter - tailor
Sperviter - a keeper of sparrow hawks
Spicer - a grocer or dealer in spices
Spinster - unmarried woman; spinner (female)
Spit boy - a kitchen worker responsible for turning spits in the fireplace so food would cook evenly

8. Spittleman - hospital attendant
Spurrer / Spurrier - maker of spurs
Squire - country gentleman; farm owner; justice of peace
Staymaker - a maker of bone stays for corsets
Stevedore - a dock worker or laborer who loads and unloads ship's cargos.
Stoddard - a breeder or keeper of horses
Stone cutter - possibly a stone mason, but often a carver of tombstones
Stoner - mason
Stuff Gown / Stuff Gownsman - junior barrister
Surveyor - one who estimates or measures areas of land
Switcher - railway worker responsible for coupling train cars and carriages; also known as a shunter
Tanner - one who tans (cures) animal hide into leather
Taper - candlewick maker or seller
Tapley - one who puts the tap in an ale cask
Tapster - a barman; a person employed to serve beer
Tasker - reaper
Tawer - one who taws (makes hide into leather without the use of tanning)
Teamster - one who drives a team (horses or oxen) for hauling
Textor - weaver
Thatcher - roofer; specifically thatch roofs
Tide waiter - customs inspector
Tinker - an itinerant mender and seller of kettles, tin pots and pans
Tipstaff - policeman
Travers - toll bridge collector
Tucker - cleaner of cloth goods
Turner - one who turns wood on a lathe into spindles
Ulnager - a person appointed to examine woolen goods for quality
Upholder - 1) upholsterer; 2) an auctioneer's assistant
Upright worker - chimney sweep
Vaginarius - maker of sheaths and scabbards
Vassal - a servant of the lowest order
Venator / Venur - huntsman
Victualer - a seller of food and drink; tavern keeper
Vintner - wine merchant
Vulcan - a blacksmith; iron worker
Wabster - weaver
Wadding maker - maker of wadding (usually made of old rags or cotton) for stuffing upholstered
furniture
Wafer maker - maker of church communion wafers
Wagoner / Waggoner - teamster not for hire; see also the
Wailer - Mine worker who removed impure rocks in a coal mine
Wain house proprietor - owner of a building where wagons could be parked for a fee
Wainius - ploughman
Wainwright - wagon maker
Waiter - customs officer or tide waiter; one who waited on the tide to collect duty on goods brought in

9. Waitman - Night watchman who guarded the gates of a city, usually marking the hours with the
ringing of a small bell
Waker - A person whose job was to wake workers in time for early morning work
Walker / Waulker - fuller; cloth trampler or cleaner
Waller - 1) Specialist in building walls; 2) salt maker
Wardcorn - Watchman armed with a horn for sounding the alarm on the event of intruders or trouble.
Common during medieval times.
Warker - Specialist at building walls, embattlements, and embankments
Warper / Warp Beamer - a textile worker who arranged the individual yarns which created the "warp"
of the fabric upon a large cylinder called a beam.
Water bailiff - 1) A custom's officer who searched ships as they came into port; 2) one employed to
protect fisheries from poachers
Water carter / Water carrier - Someone who sold fresh water from a traveling cart
Waterguard - customs officer
Wattle hurdle maker - one who made a special type of fence from wattle to contain sheep
Weatherspy - astrologer
Webber / Webster - weaver; operator of looms
Wet nurse - A women who feeds the children of others with her own breast milk (usually for a fee)
Wetter - either one who dampened paper during the printing process, or one in the glass industry
who detached glass by wetting
Wharfinger - a person who owned or was in charge of a wharf
Wheel tapper - a railway worker who checked for cracked wheels by striking them with a long
handled hammer and listening to their ring
Wheelwright - builder and repairer of wagon wheels, carriages etc.
Wheeryman - one in charge of a wheery (light row boat)
Whey cutter - a worker in the cheese industry
Whiffler - an officer who went before an army or procession to clear the way by blowing a horn or
trumpet
Whipcorder - a maker of whips
Whipperin - in charge of managing the hounds in a hunt
Whisket weaver - basket maker
White cooper - one who makes barrels from tin or other light metals
White limer - one who painted walls and fences with white lime
Whitesmith - tinsmith; worker of tin who finishes or polishes the work
Whitewing - street sweeper
Whitster - bleacher of cloth
Willow plaiter - one who made baskets
Wing coverer - a worker who covered airplane wings with linen fabric
Wonkey scooper - person who operated a scoop-type contraption from a horse
Woolcomber - one who operated machines that separate fibers for spinning in the woolen industry
Woolen billy piercer - worked in a woolen mill to piece together broken yarns

10. Wool man / Wool sorter - one who sorted wool into different grades
Wright - a skilled worker in various trades
Xylographer - a person who made wooden printing blocks
Xylopola - wood merchant
Yagger - peddler
Yardman - 1) a rail worker; 2) a farmer
Yatman - doorkeeper or gatekeeper
Year man - one who hired himself out for a year's work at a time, usually agricultural
Yeoman - 1) a farmer who owned his own land; 2) a ship's storeman
Yowler - assistant to a thatcher who held the yowles of straw
Zigarius - Gypsy
Zincographer - One who used zinc plates, known as 'zincos,' for engraving or printing
Zitherist - one who plays a zither, one of a class of simple stringed instruments
Zoographer - one who classifies species of animals
Zythepsarist - brewer