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Old Occupations


Vaginarius

Valet 

Valuator 

Vassal 

Vatman 



Venator (Venur) 

Verderer 

Verge Maker 

Verger 

Verrier 

Vestment
Maker

Victualer 

Viewer 

Villein 

Vintager 

Vintner

Virginal Player 

Vulcan 

Scabbard maker. 

A male servant that attended a nobleman or gentleman. 

A person who valued objects. 

A servant of the lowest order. 

[1] A person employed in the paper making industry to put the paper pulp into the
moulds. 
[2] A person who worked with vats e.g. in beer and wine making. 

A huntsman.. 

An official in charge of the royal forest. 

A person who made the spindles used in clocks and watches. 

A person who worked with the priest in the running the church. 

A glazier. 

A person who made the gowns worn by priests. 


A seller of food/drink. 

A person who worked at the mines in a managerial capacity. 

A person who paid dues to the lord of the manor in return for use of the land. 

A grape farmer, wine maker. 

Wine merchant. 

A person who played a musical instrument similar to a harpsichord. 

A blacksmith.


Wabster 

Waggoner

Wailer 

Wainwright 

Waitman Or
Wakeman

Walker (Same
As Fuller) 

Waller 


Wantcatcher,
Wanter

Warder 

Warehouseman

Warper 


Warrener 

Washman 

Wasteman 


Watch Finisher 

Watchman 

Water Bailiff 


Water Carrier 

Water Gilder 

Water Le(a)der
Or Loder

Waterman 

Wattle Hurdle Maker

Waulkmiller 

Waver 

Way Man 

Way-Maker 

Weatherspy 

Webber 

Webster 

Weeder

Weigher 

Well Sinker 

Well Wright 

Wellmaster 


Wet Glover 

Wet Nurse 

Wetter 


Whacker 

Wharfinger

Wheeler 


Wheelwright 

Wheeryman 

Whig 

Whipcord
Maker 

Whipmaker 

Whipperin 

Whit Cooper

White Limer

White Smith 

Whitear 

Whitener 

Whitening Roll
Maker 

Whitester 

Whitewing 

Whitster 

Whittawer 

Willeyer 




Willow Plaiter
Or Weaver 

Winder 


Windster 

Wire Drawer 


Woodbreaker 

Woodranger,
Woodreeve,
Woodward

Wool Driver 

Wool Factor 

Wool Grower 

Wool Man, Wool
Stapler 

Wool Winder 

Woolcomber 


Woolen Billy
Piecer

Woolsorter 

Woolsted Man

Worsted
Manufacturer,
Worsted
Shearman 

Wright 

Writer 

Wyrtha

A weaver. 

A person who drove a wagon, a carrier. 

A person employed in the mines to remove the impurities from the coal. 

A person who built or repaired wagons. 

A night watchman. 


A cloth worker who cleaned and thickened the cloth by wetting it then walking over it.


A person who built walls either with bricks or dry stone, also a person who worked
making coarse salt. 

A person employed to catch moles. 


A person in charge of prisoners. 

A person in charge of a warehouse or one employed in a warehouse. 

A person who set the warp thread on the looms, also a person employed to move boats
by hauling on the warps (the ropes attached to the boats) 

A person in charge of a portion of land used for breeding rabbits and other small game. 

A tin coater. 

A person employed in the mines to check the old workings for gas and maintaining them
in good order. A person employed to remove waste. 

A person employed to assemble watches and clocks. 

A town official who guarded the streets at night. 

An official in charge of the fishing rights on a stretch of water. A river policeman or i
coastal towns a customs official. 

A person who carted and sold fresh water. 

A person who trapped water fowl. 

A person who transported and sold fresh drinking water. 


A person who worked with or on boats usually on rivers. 

A person who made a type of fence from wattle to keep the sheep in. 


See WALKER. 

A weaver. 

A surveyor of roads. 

A person employed to make roads. 

An astrologer. 

A weaver. 

A weaver operating weaving looms (originally a female weaver).

A person employed to remove the weeds from the gardens of the rich. 

A person employed on the docks to weigh the cargo as it was unloaded. 

A person who dug wells. 

A person who made the winding equipment used to raise the bucket in the well. 

A person in charge of the local well with the responsibility of ensuring clean water for
the village. 

A person who made leather gloves. 

A woman employed to suckle the child of another (common practice with the rich). 

[1] A person employed to dampen paper during the printing process. 
[2] A person in the glass industry who detached the glass by wetting. 

A horse or oxen team driver. 

A person who owned or was in charge of a wharf. 

A wheel maker, a person in the textile industry that attended to the spinning wheel, a
person who led the pit ponies that pulled the tubs underground in the mines. 

A maker or repairer of wagon wheels 

A person in charge of a wheery, a small light rowing boat. 

A horse driver (Scottish term). 

A person who made whips. 


A person who made whips. 

A person who managed the hounds in a hunt. 

A person who made barrels etc from tin. 

A person who plastered walls using lime and water plaster. 

A tin smith. 

A person who cleaned hides. 

A person who bleached cloth. 

A person who made the whitening used in whitening walls of cottages. 


A person who bleached cloth. 

A streetsweeper. 

A person who bleached cloth. 

[1] A person who made saddles and harnesses.   [2] A preparer of white leather.

A person who throws handfulls of wool or hair, hemp or flax tow, etc., on to brattice or
other feed apparatus of willeying machine, which separates fibres, and breaks up their
natural matted state, and shakes out dirt and foreign matter therefrom, in preparation
for carding; sometimes also blends materials together in process of willeying. 

A person who made baskets, etc. 


In the textile industry, a person who transferred the yarn from bobbins onto cheeses or
into balls ready for weaving. In the mines a person who operated the pulley or winch. 

A silk winder. 

A person who made wire from metal by drawing the metal through various size holes in a
template. 

A person who made wooden water casks. 

A person in charge of the forest or woods. 



A person who brought the wool to market. 

A wool merchants agent. 

A sheep farmer. 

A person who sorted the wool into different grades. 


A person who made up balls of wool for selling. 

A person employed in the woollen mills to operate the machines that separate the fibres
ready for spinning. 

A person employed in the woollen mills to piece together the broken yarns. 


A person who sorted the wool into different grades. 

From worsted man, a seller of woollen cloth. 

A person who made worsted cloth. 




A skilled worker, builder or repairer in various trades. 

A person employed to write. A scribe. A clerk etc. 

A labourer.


Xylographer 

A person who used and made wooden blocks used in printing illustrations.


Yardman 

Yatman 

Yearman

Yeoman

[1] A rail road yard worker,     [2] A farm worker. 

A gate keeper. 

A person contracted to work for a year. 

[1] A freehold farmer, the next class down from gentry. 
[2] An assistant to an official. 
[3] A ships officer in charge of stores.


Zincographer

Zitherist

Zoetrope Maker



Zoographer

A designer who etched in relief a pattern on zinc plates used for printing. 

A player of a simple, flat many-stringed instrument. 

A 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. 

A person who describes and classifies animals.


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