|
Old Name |
New Name or Meaning |
| Faber |
Workman or Artisan |
| Factor |
1) Agent transacting business for merchants 2) Sold goods on commission 3) (Scottish) Steward collecting land rents |
| Fagetter |
Firewood seller - made bundles of faggots |
| Faker |
Photographer's assistant - added hand colouring to monochrome photographs before colour film was invented |
| Fakir / Faker |
Street salesman, seller, hawker, vendor or peddler |
| Fancy Man |
A pimp |
| Fancy Woman |
A prostitute |
| Fancy-pearl Worker |
Made items, such as buttons, from mother-of-pearl |
| Fanner |
Grain winnower |
| Fanwright |
Made or repaired fans or winnowing baskets |
| Farandman |
Travelling merchant |
| Farm Bailiff |
Made sure a tenant farmer ran the farm properly and was paying the rent on time. If not the bailiff had the authority to evict. |
| Farrier |
1) A blacksmith who shoes horses 2) Horse Doctor 3) Cavalry NCO responsible for horses |
| Fawkner/ Faulkner |
Falconer |
| Faunist |
Naturalist |
| Fear-Nought Maker |
Made thick woollen material called fear-nought for protective clothing and lining insides the powder magazines of warships |
| Feather Beater/Driver/Dresser |
Cleaned feathers for sale |
| Feather Mason |
Split stone using curved metal 'feathers' with wedges hammered between them. |
| Feather Wife |
Woman who cleaned feathers for sale |
| Featherman |
Dealer in feathers |
| Feeder |
Herdsman |
| Feller |
Woodcutter |
| Fellmonger |
1) Dealer in hides and skins , also recycled inedible animal parts for glue, fertiliser, offal, horn, bone, gut etc. Basically, he ran the "knacker's yard". More Info. 2) Tree cutter / woodsman |
| Fellowship Porter |
A kind of uniformed bonded messenger, vetted for honesty etc before admission to the Guild of Fellowship Porters, to whom they were accountable. You could trust your valuables to them for transport from your London office to another warehouse, shop or office |
| Felter |
Worked with felt - normally in the hat trade |
| Fender Smith |
Made and maintained fenders surrounding fires |
| Fent Dealer |
Dealer in "Fents" - cloth remnants, ends of bolts of cloth etc. |
| Feroner |
Ironmonger |
| Ferreter |
Made or dealt in "ferret" - silk tape |
| Ferur / Ferator |
Blacksmith / Farrier |
| Festitian |
Physician |
| Fettler |
1) Cleaned mill machinery, removing accumulations of fibres, grease etc. and sharpened fustian cutters' knives 2) Needle maker who filed the points |
| Fever |
Blacksmith |
| Fewster |
Made wooden saddle trees – the “chassis” upon which a leather saddle is constructed |
| Fewterer |
Looked after the hounds used in hunting or hare coursing |
| Feydur (Feather) Beater |
Feather beater |
| Fictor |
Modeller |
| Fiddler |
Used a fiddle (small knife) to remove the flashing from cast clay forms such as bowls, creamers, cups or pitchers. |
| Field Master |
1) Inspected hedges and fences of a parish and also impounded stray animals 2) Tended fields set aside to produce hay. Also Hayward |
| File Cutter |
Made files by cutting rows of sharp teeth into a metal blank |
| Filler |
Filled bobbins in textile mills |
| Fine Drawer |
Invisible mender (clothing) |
| Firemen (Salt Industry) |
The men responsible for stoking the furnaces so as to maintain the brine at the correct temperature during the salt making period, which might be a few hours at high temperature for fine salt or several days at lower temperatures for the coarser types. Highly skilled work. |
| Fireworker |
18c. Maker of fireworks. A very dangerous occupation - they often actually smoked when working with gunpowder! |
| Fire Beater |
Tended factory boilers |
| Firkenman |
Handled casks - 'Firkins'of ale , but not supervising the content |
| First Hand |
Silk weaver who owned his own loom. Early silk weaving was largely done in the home |
| Fiscere |
Fisherman - Anglo-Saxon term |
| Fish Bobber |
Landed the fish from trawlers to the quay side |
| Fish Fag |
Female fish seller |
| Fitter |
1) Coal broker 2) Early term for a Joiner 3) From 19c. a skilled mechanic |
| Flagger |
Lays paving stones etc. also called a Paver or Paviour |
| Flagger & Tiler |
Laid roofing tiles and the rectangular stone flags used in some parts of the country for roofing |
| Flasher |
Specialist worker in glass making |
| Flatman / Floatman |
Boatman on a flat bottom boat (a flat) used in shallow waters (mainly rivers and canals) for transport. The term also came to refer to shallow-draft coastal sailing vessels. More Info. |
| Flauner |
Confectioner |
| Flax Dresser |
Person who
breaks and swingles flax, or prepares it for the spinner. |
| Flax Scutcher |
Sepatared the husk from the flax fibres by holding it against rotating paddles |
| Flesher / Fleshmonger |
1) Tannery worker 2) Butcher |
| Fleshewer |
Butcher |
| Fletcher |
Made arrows - from French, flèche |
| Floater |
Vagrant |
| Flowering Muslin |
Embroidery |
| Flusherman |
Cleaned out water pipes |
Fly Coachman / Flyman
Fly Proprietor/Master |
1) Drove a "fly" a one horse two wheeled light carriage 2) Flyman also a term for a theatre stage hand 3) A Fly Proprietor/Master employed fly drivers for hire and usually owned the flys. |
| Fly Forger / Maker |
A drop forger who stamped out parts of 'flyers' for textile spinning machinery. More Info. |
| Flying Stationer |
Street broadsheet (newspaper) seller |
| Fogger / Pettifogger |
1) Peddler. 2) Middleman in the nail and chain trade 3) Agricultural labourer who fed cattle 4) Low class lawyer or "Pettifogger" |
| Foister / Foisterer / Fuyster |
Joiner |
| Foot Maiden |
Female servant |
| Footman |
Male servant |
| Footpad |
Thief (mugger) |
| Foot-Post |
Mail carrier (on foot) |
| Foot Straightener |
Made watch and clock dials |
| Forester |
Looked after woods, normally on gentleman's estate, or major local forest |
| Forgeman / Forger |
1) Blacksmith or his assistant 2) In 18c Derbyshire - Coachsmith |
| Forkner |
Falconer (phonetic) |
| Form Fitter |
Fitted "forms" for building. ie formwork for arch building. |
| Fossetmaker |
Made (wooden) taps for ale casks |
| Founder |
Foundryman - casts metal i.e. iron, brass |
| Fower |
Sweeper, street cleaner |
| Foyboatman |
A shore-based seaman who worked a "foy" to give assistance to vessels entering port - running lines from the ship to shore, towing small vessels etc. Foy is a corruption of fee, which was what the boatman charged |
| Frame Spinner |
Tended a machine for spinning cotton threads - a Spinning Frame - More Info. |
| Framer |
Constructed the wooden frames of buildings, also in chair making |
Framework Knitter
(FWK) |
Operated a hosiery making loom (Abbreviated FWK in census returns) More Info. |
| Freedman |
A freed slave |
| Freeholder |
Land owner |
| Freeman |
Held the full rights of citizenship, such as voting and engaging in business, free of feudal service - a man who had served his apprenticeship and who could then work at his trade in his own right |
| Freemason |
Stone mason |
| Freshwaterman |
Sailed on inland or coastal waters |
| Friezer |
Friezed cloth (i.e. embroidery with silver or gold) |
| Frieser |
Made rough plaster known as friese, also any strip pattern which repeats itself in some way and used in castings such as are used in decorative gates, railings etc. |
| Fringemaker |
Made ornamental borders or fringes in cloth making |
| Fripperer |
Bought and sold old clothes and fripperies |
| Friseur |
Hairdresser |
| Frobisher / Furbisher |
Cleaned and polished metal – i.e. armour |
| Fruitestere |
Female fruit seller |
| Fulker |
Pawnbroker |
| Fuller / Tucker / Walker |
One who "fulls" cloth; the process of cleaning (removing the natural oils and lanolin) wool in preparation for spinning and weaving, using fuller's earth. In medieval times, this involved treading the cloth in stale urine for some 8 hours. More Info. |
| Fulling Miller |
Milled Fullers Earth for Fulling woolen cloth (above) |
| Fumigator |
During the great plague, Fumigators were employed to disinfect houses by burning sulphur, saltpetre and urine. Presumably the smell would kill the germs! |
| Funambulist |
Tightrope walker |
| Furner |
Baker |
| Furrier |
Fur dealer - as today |
| Fustian Cutter / Weaver |
A person who lifted and cut the threads in the making of Fustian, formerly a kind of coarse cloth made of cotton and flax. Now a thick, twilled cotton cloth with a short pile or nap, a kind of cotton velvet. A long thin knife was inserted into the loops and the threads cut as it was pulled through, stretched between rollers. The cloth was then brushed to raise the pile. Fustian is the old name for corduroy / A weaver of Fustian |
| Fustian Loom Jobber |
Otherwise known as a Tackler, he serviced and maintained the Fustian looms |
