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Old Occupations


Pack Thread Spinner

Packer 

Packman 

Pad Maker 

Painter 

Paintress 

Palingman 

Palister 

Palmer 

Paneler

Pannarius

Pannebeter

Pannier Man

Pannifex 

Pansmith 

Panter 

Pantler 

Papaya Man

Paper Maker

Paperer 


Paperhanger 

Paper Stainer 

Parcheminer

Pardoner

Pargeter 

Paritor 


Parker 

Parmentor

Passage Keeper 

Pasteler 

Pastor 

Patten Maker 


Paver, Paviour 

Pavyler 

Pawnbroker 

Pedascule 

Pedlar 


Peeler 

Peever 

Pelliparius,
Peltarius,
Pelterer

Perambulator

Perchemear 

Peregrinator 

Perfumer 

Periwig Maker, 
Peruke Maker,
Peruker 

Pessoner 

Peter Man 

Pettifogger 

Petty Chapman 

Pew Opener 

Philosophical
Instrument
Maker

Phrenologist 

Picker 

Pictor

Piece Broker 

Piece Worker 




Piecemaster 

Piecener 

Piecer 


Pigmaker 

Pigman 


Pikelet Maker 

Pikeman 


Piker 

Pill Box
Bottomer

Pill Box Lidder 

Piller 

Pilot 

Pinder 


Piner 

Pinner 

Pinner Up 

Piper 

Piscarius

Piscator

Pistor

Pit Brow Lass 

Pitman 

Plain Worker 

Plaisterer 

Plaiter 

Planker 

Plantifene

Plasterer 

Playderer 

Pleacher/
Plaicher/
Platcher/
Plasher 

Plomer

Plowman 

Plowwright 

Plumassier 

Plumber 



Plumer 

Podiatrist 

Pointer 

Pointmaker,
Pointman

Pointsman 


Poldave Worker 

Pole Lathe
Turner 

Poleman 

Polentier 

Poller 

Ponderator 

Pony Driver 


Portable Soup
Maker

Porter 


Portmanteau
Maker

Post Boy 


Poster 

Postillion 



Postman 

Pot Boy Or Man


Pot Burner 

Potato Badger 

Potter 

Potter Carrier 

Potter Presser 

Potter Thrower 

Pouch Maker 

Poulter(er)

Power Loom
Tuner

Powler 

Poynter 

Preceptress 

Prentis 

Prick Louise 

Pricker 

Prig Napper 

Printer 

Proctor 

Prop Bobby 

Prothonary 

Publican 

Puddler 



Puggard 

Pugger 


Pulley Maker

Pumbum Worker

Pump Maker 

Punky 

Pure Gatherer
Or Picker 

Purser 

Putter 

Putter In 

Pynner

The operator of the machine which made thread or twine. 


A person who packs goods such as pickles or herring. 

A pedlar, a person who travelled around carrying goods for sale in a pack. 

A person who made small baskets used for measuring. 

A person who painted things e.g. houses wooden goods, etc or an Artist. 

A woman employed in the pottery industry to hand paint the finished articles. 

A seller of eels, a fishmonger. 

A Park Keeper, a person who ensured the parks were safe and well kept. 

A person who had been, or pretended to have been, to the Holy Land.

Saddler. 

Clothier and Draper. 

Pan-hammerer, or perhaps clothdriver. 

A fishmonger. 

Somebody who worked in the cloth trade.

A person who made pans i.e. a metal worker. 

The keeper of the pantry. 

A butler. 

A person who was involved in trade with New Guinea, from Papua New Guinea. 

See Vatman, Coucher, Layer, Sizer. 

A person employed in the needlemaking trade to insert the needles into the paper ready
for sale. 

An interior decorator who put up wallpaper. 

General term for workers engaged in colouring paper by hand or machine. 

Parchment maker. 

One licensed to sell Papal Indulgences. 

The person who applied ornamental plaster to buildings. 

A church officer who attended the magistrates and justices at court for the purpose of
executing their orders. 

The person in charge of a park usually a hunting or game park.

Probably a parchment maker, or tailor. 

A person who kept passages and alleys clean. 

A pastry chef. 

A shepherd. 

A clog maker or the person who made wooden soles (pattens) to fit under normal shoes
to protect from wet and muddy ground.

A person paid to maintain pavements. A person who laid paving stones. 

A person who put up pavilions or tents etc. 

A person who loaned money with interest against items of value left for security. 

A schoolmaster. 

A person who sold things house to house or on the road. A person who bought and sold
goods for cash. 

A policeman, constable, bobby. From Sir Robert Peel founder of the police force. 

A pepper seller.

A person who worked with animal skins.



A surveyor. 

A person who made parchment. 

Itinerant wanderer or worker. 

A maker or seller of perfumes. 

A person who made wigs. 



A fishmonger. 

A fisherman. 

A low class lawyer. 

An itinerant dealer in small goods, a pedlar. See CHAPMAN. 

A person hired to open the doors to private pews in church. 

A craftsman who made scientific instruments. 



A diviner of a person's character based on the bumps on a person's head. 

A person who cast the shuttle on a loom.

Painter.

A person who sold material remnants. 

A worker who was paid for the number or pieces produced rather than by the hour.
People who worked from home were usually pieceworkers. However in more recent
times sewing machine operators employed to make part of the garment and still worked
in the mill were paid for piecework. 

The middleman between employer and employee who passed out the piecework. 

See PIECER. 

A person usually a child, who worked in a spinning mill, employed to piece together any
threads which broke. 

A person who made pig or cast iron, also a pottery worker. 

[1] A person who sold crockery. 
[2] A person who bred or looked after pigs on the farm. 

A baker who specialised in making pikelets (a small pancake or crumpet). 

[1] A millers assistant.    [2] A person who worked at the turnpike. 
[3] In olden days a soldier who carried a pike. 

A tramp or vagrant. 

A person responsible for making the bottoms of pill boxes in the pottery trade. 


A person responsible for making the lids of pill boxes in the pottery trade. 

A robber. 

A ship steersman. 

[1] A dog catcher and pound keeper. 
[2] A person in charge of the pinfold or pound.

A labourer. 

A pin maker. 

A dressmakers assistant. A person who sold broadsheets or ballads in the streets. 

An innkeeper.

Fishmonger. 

Fisherman. 

Miller or Baker. 

A female worker who worked on the surface of the mines. 

A coal miner. 

A person who performed plain sewing or needlework as opposed to an embroiderer. 

A plasterer. 

A maker of straw plaits used in making hats etc. 

A person who planks or kneads the body of the hat during felting.

See Avernator

A person who worked with roman cement used in stuccoing. 

A person who made plaid. 

A hedge layer.




Plumber. 

A farmer. 

A maker or repairer of ploughs. 

A person who made or sold plumes, ornamental feathers. 

A person who worked with lead. However as lead was the main metal used in pipes for
water, gas, etc, it became the term used for a tradesman who installed or repaired pipes
and drains of all types. 

See PLUMASSIER. 

A Chiropodist. 

A person who sharpened needles or pins, etc. 

A person who made the tips of laces. 


A railway worker who operated the points to change the line (track) on which the train
was travelling. 

A person who made poldave, a coarse fabric. 

A craftsman in woodwork. 


A surveyor's assistant. 

A poulterer. 

A barber. 

An inspector of weights and measures. 

A person (usually a child) in charge of the pit pony which pulled the coal tubs
underground. 

A person who converted soup into a dry form for transporting from place to place. 


A person employed to carry baggage or attend to doors in public places. A door or
gatekeeper.

A maker of leather trunks for clothes, etc., opening into two equal parts. 


A person who carried mail from town to town. A guard who travelled on the mail coach.
An outrider who travelled with the stagecoach as a postillion. 

A person who worked in the quarries breaking rocks. 

[1] A person who attached extra horses to wagons & coaches to help pull them up hills 
[2] A person who worked on long distance coaches and who's duty it was to change the
horses at the stops. 

A letter carrier. 

A person who worked in public houses washing and removing dirty pots also did other
menial tasks. 

A person who placed the pot in a furnace to be fired. 

A seller of potatoes. 

A maker or seller of pottery. 

A chemist or pharmacist. 

A potter who used a mould. 

A potter who used a wheel and therefore had to "throw" the clay. 

A person who made pouches or purses. 

A dealer who bought and sold poultry. 

A person who maintained the loom in mills. 


A barber. 

A lace maker. 

A school mistress. 

An apprentice. 

A tailor. 

[1] A pattern maker.    [2] A horseman.    [3] A witch hunter. 

A horse thief. 

A person who prints. 

The official of a university. 

A person who worked in mines checking the pit props. 

A law clerk. 

An innkeeper. 

[1] A person who worked clay into puddle. 
[2] A person who worked with puddle to make things water tight e.g. canal walls. 
[3] A person who worked in puddling iron. 

A thief. 

A person employed by brick manufacturers to produce clay paste by treading like
grapes, usually women and children. 
 
A person who made pulleys for hoists. 

A plumber. 

A person who made mechanical pumps. 

A chimney sweep. 

A person, usually an old woman or child, who roamed the streets especially in London,
gathering dog faeces. These were used in the tanning industry for processing hides. 

A ship's officer in charge of provisions & accounts. 

A person employed in the coal mine to haul the mine tubs. 

A person who was employed to put things in to some form of mechanised process.

Pin-maker.


Quarrel Picker

Quarrier 

Quarryman 

Quiller 

Quilter(ess)

Quister 

Qwylwryghte 

A glazier. 

A person who worked in a quarry, a quarryman. 

A quarry worker. 

A person who operated a machine that wound yarn onto spools. 

A person who quilted material. 

A person who bleached things. 

A wheelwright.


Rack Maiden 

Raff Merchant

Raffman 

Rag And Bone Man

Rag Cutter 

Rag Gatherers

Rag Man 

Rag Picker 

Raker 

Ratoner

Rattlewatch 

Redar 

Redsmith 

Reeder 

Reedmaker 


Reeler 

Reeve 


Reever 

Registrar 

Relieving Officer

Renovator 

Revenuer 

Rickmaster 

Riddler 

Riftere 

Rigger 

Ripper Or Rippier

Riverman 

Rockgetter 

Rockman 

Rodman 

Roll Turner 

Roller Coverer

Rolleyway Man

Roman Cementer

Roper 

Rotarius

Rover 


Rubbisher 

Rubbler 

Rugman 

Runner 


Rustler


A girl employed in the tin mines of Cornwall to dress the ore. 

A seller of fibre used to make raffia bags etc. 

A person who dealt in raff (saleable rubbish). 

A person 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. 

A person who cut up rags into small pieces to be used for making paper etc. 

A person (usually children) employed to clear the rags from the machinery in the mills. 

A person who went from street to street collecting and selling old clothes and rags. 

A person who sorted through the left over rags to find reusable ones. 

A street sanitation worker. 

A rat catcher. 

A town watchman. 

An interpreter of dreams. 

A goldsmith. 

A person who worked with reeds for hedging or thatching. 

A person who made the pipe for a musical instrument. A person who made a weavers
implement (a reed) or reed cloth or the comb used in tapestry. 

A person employed to operate the machine that wound the yarn onto the bobbin. 

A royal official, or a manor official appointed by the lord or elected by the peasants. A
church warden. 

A shriever. 

An official who registers events such as land purchases or births, marriages or deaths. 

An official who took charge of poor or insane persons not otherwise cared for. 


A person who repaired clothing. 

A taxman who enforces tax laws on liquor. 

A Captain of Horse. 

A wool stapler. 

A reaper. 

A hoist tackle worker; works on a ship's rigging. 

A person who sold fresh water fish at the markets. A maker and seller of baskets. 


A worker on a river boat. 

A rocksalt miner. 

A person who worked in a quarry usually placing the charges on the rockface. 

A surveyor's assistant. See POLEMAN. 

A carder of wool, cotton etc into rolls prior to spinning. 

A person who covered the rollers for the spinning process. 


The person who maintained the underground road in the mines. 


A person who worked with roman cement used in stuccoing. 


A maker of ropes or nets.

Wheelwright. 

[1] An archer.    [2]An operator of a machine used in the cotton mills in Lancashire,
which prepared the carded fibre into rolls. 

A person who sorted the small stones in the quarries. 

A person who sorted the small stones in the quarries. 

A dealer in rugs. 

[1] A person who worked for the magistrate best remembered as Bow Street Runners. 
[2] A nickname for a smuggler.    [3] A messenger. 

A cattle thief.


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