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Old Occupations


Machine
Breaker

Macun

Maderer 

Maid 


Mail Guard 


Maise Maker 

Maker-Up 



Malemaker 


Malender 

Maler 

Malster 

Manchester
Man 


Manciple 

Mangle Keeper 

Mango 

Mantle
Forewoman 

Mantua Maker 

Marbler 

Marescallus

Marine Store Dealer 



Mariner 


Marshall 

Marshman 


Mashmaker 

Mason

Master 


Master Lumper 


Master Mariner 

Matchet Forger 

Mather 

Mawer 

Mealman 

Mechanic 




Medicus

Melder 

Mercator 

Mercer 

Metalman 

Meterer 

Midwife 

Miller 


Milleress 

Milliner 


Millpeck 

Millwright 

Milstone
Inspector 

Miner 

Mintmaker Or Mintmaster 

Mixer 

Mocado
Weaver 

Molendinarius
(Muner),
Molitor 

Mondayman 

Monger 

Monthly Nurse 

Moulder 

Moulder
Runner 

Mountebank 

Mudlark 

Muffin Maker 



Muffin Man 

Muggler 

Mugseller 

Muleskinner 

Muleteer 

Multurer 

Musicker 

Mustarder, 
Mustardman

Members of the English labouring class who in the early 19th century revolted and
broke threshing machines, spinning machines, and other forms of mechanisation.

Mason. 

A person who gathered and sold garlic. 

A female domestic servant. Class included Scullery, Kitchen, House, General, Parlour,
Nurse, Laundry, Lady's etc. 

An armed guard, frequently an ex-soldier, employed on the mail coach service,
inaugurated in 1784. Later Post Office guards were officially appointed. 

A person who made measures for weighing herring catch. 

[1] Garment assembler, A person who prepared or 'made up' material to customers
requirements. 
[2] Chemist or druggist.    [3] Agent for paraffin. 

A maker of 'Males' or travelling bags. Term was adopted by the Royal Mail from the
bags in which the letters were carried. 

A Farmer. 

See Malemaker. 

A person who prepared malt for the brewing industry. 

also Shrewsbury, Sheffield, etc. Late 18c. A wholesale travelling merchant trading
between factory and shopkeeper with goods on packhorses. Sometimes independent,
sometimes employed by the manufacturer. 

Steward. 

A woman who hired the use of the mangle to others for a fee. 

A slave dealer. 

A highly skilled dressmaker. 


A Dressmaker. (Mantua = a woman's loose gown). 

A person who stained paper or other material, veined in imitation of marble.

Marshall. 

A licensed broker (N. England and Scotland) (i) buys and sells used cordgae, bunting,
rags, timber, metal and other general waste materials; usually sorts waste, when
purchased, by kind, grade, etc; repairs and mends sacks, etc., or employs workers for
these purposes; (ii) in Scotland, a Ship Candler. 

A person who obtained a living on the sea in whatever rank, equivalent to the R.N. rank
of Able Seaman. 

A horse doctor or shoesmith. 

A man employed by various landowners to look after marshlands and tend the animals
put to graze there for the season. 

A maker of the mash-vats or mashels used for mixing malt. 

A stonecutter or stone-dresser. 

One of three grades of skill recognised by the Guild of Crafts. A skilled workman or one
in business on his own. 

A contractor of labourers at cheap rate of pay. Generally a publican who only hired and
paid customers who frequented their public houses. 

A Sea Captain. 

A knifemaker (Machete = heavy axe-like knife used as a chopping tool). 

See MAWER. 

A mower. 

A dealer in meal or flour. 

[1] Manual labourer, working at a trade. 
[2] Operator of a machine (less skilled than an engineer). 
[3] A person who uses machinery to produce goods, e.g. frame-work knitter, spinner,
weaver, etc.

Leech, Doctor. 

A corn miller. 

A merchant.

A cloth seller, chiefly silks and velvets. See DRAPER. 

A worker in metals. 

A poet. 

An experience woman who assists in child birth. 

A person who converted materials into another form, e.g. Corn miller, cloth miller, saw
miller. 

A miller's wife. 

[1] Seller of fancy wares and articles of apparel. 
[2] Maker of ladies hats, bonnets, etc. 

A sharpener of mill stones. 

A person who designed or built mills and mill machinery. 

A vagrant, a gentleman of the road. 


A worker in a mine, digging for coal, ironstone, lead, tin miner, etc. 

An issuer of local currency. 


A bartender. 

A weaver of woollen cloth used for making clothes 16-17c. Sometimes called mock
velvet.

A Miller. 



See Cottager. A person who worked for landowner on Mondays in lieu of rent. 

A dealer in goods (i.e., fishmonger, ironmonger). 

A nurse attending women in the first month after confinement. 

A maker of moulds or castings, a brickmaker. 

A pottery moulder's assistant, a young boy who ran between master and drying oven,
carrying full moulds and returning with empty ones. 

A seller of ineffectual patent medicines. 

A sewer cleaner, riverbank scavenger. 

A baker who made muffins, round flat cakes of dough which were toasted before eating. 
[2] Pottery worker who made a specific type of plate, i.e. a seven inch tea plate known
as a muffin. 

An itinerant seller of muffins. 

See PIGMAN. 

A seller of cups, mugs. 

A teamster. 

A mule driver. 

A miller. 

A musician. 

Grower and grinder of mustard, a dealer in mustard.



Nailor 

Naperer 

Napier 

Narrow Weaver 

Navigator 


Navigor 

Neatherd(er) 

Necessary
Woman 

Necker

Nedder/
Nedeller 

Needle Pointer 


Netter 

Night Soilman, Nightman 

Nightwalker 

Nimgimmer 

Nipper 


Nob Thatcher 

Noon Tender 

Notary, Noterer

See CARD NAILER. 

A Royal servant in charge of the table linen. 

A person in charge of the table linen in the Manor House. See NAPERER. 

A weaver of ribbons, tapes, etc. 

[1] A sailor in charge of navigating. 
[2] A labourer who dug canals and later worked on the railways. The origin of navvy. 

See NAVIGATOR. 

A cowherder. 

A servant responsible for emptying and cleaning chamber pots. 


A worker responsible for the feeding of cardboard into the machine the makes boxes. 

A needle maker.


[1] In needlemaking a filer or fettler. 
[2] A person engaged in the craft of needlepoint. 

A net maker. 

A person employed to empty cesspits, ashpits and backyard toilets. 


A watchman or bellman. 

A doctor. 

A lorry boy, a young person employed by the carter or wagoner to assist with the
collection and delivery of goods. 

A wig maker. 

A person who guarded the goods on the quay while the officers were a lunch. 

A person officially authorised to draw up or attest to contracts, wills, deeds, or similar
documents, to protest bills of exchange.


Occupier 

Oilman 

Olitor 

Orderly 

Ordinary
Keeper 

Orrery Maker 


Orrice Weaver 

Osier Peeler 


Ostiary 

Ostler 

Out Crier 

Outworker 


Overlooker 


Overman 


Owler 

Oyster Dredger

A tradesman. 

A person who sold the oil for lamps. 

A kitchen gardener. From Olitory (a kitchen garden). 

A soldier who functioned as a servant for an officer. 

An innkeeper. 


A person who made a mechanical apparatus for showing the movements of the planets.
Named after the Earl of Orrery the inventor. 

A designer of lace patterns to be woven with silk thread and silk. 

A person who removed bark from willow rods or osiers which were used in basket
weaving, usually women and children. Also known as withy peelers. 

A monastery door keeper. 

see HOSTLER. 

An auctioneer. 

A worker who carried on their occupation at home, e.g., cotton or woollen weavers but it
applies to many occupations. 

A superintendent or overseer, especially in the textile mills. Often an hereditary
position. 

A supervisor in a colliery who checked the miners work and the quality of the mined
coal. 

A person associated with smuggling particularly a sheep or wool smuggler. 

A member of the crew on board an oyster fishing boat.


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