Dictionary of Old Occupations
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Paperer: inserted newly made needles into paper for storage. Needles were sold in paper.
Parchmenter: turned animal skins into vellum for use as parchment.
Pardoner: raised money for the church by selling Papal indulgences (selling forgiveness for sins).
Pargeter: a craftsman. Pargeting is a decorative plaster applied to building walls, and also refers to the inner lining of smoke flues.
Parian Maker: worked in the pottery industry making parian, a substitute for marble which was fashionable in Victorian England.
Paritor: an abbreviation of Apparitor, a civil servant or church attendant.
Parker: an official in charge of the hunting parks of nobles.
Parochus: Latin term for a rector or pastor of a Parish.
Passage Keeper: swept and cleaned walkways.
Pasteler: made and sold crisp pastries with savoury fillings.
Pastor: the ordained leader of a Christian congregation.
Paternosterer: produced and sold rosary beads.
Patler: horse groom.
Patten Maker: made protective overshoes. Early pattens were made of wood, the later ones were metal, and were a kind of protective shoe sole. They were worn by the working class to protect their shoes from mud and dung in unpaved streets. They were worn from the Middle Ages through to the start of the twentieth century.
Pattener: alternative name for a Patten Maker, who created pattens which protected shoes.
Pattern Card Maker: made cards for programming weaving looms.
Pattern Maker: made patterns, which were replicas of objects to be cast from molten metal.
Pauper: destitute person who received support under the Poor Law.
Paver: laid paving stones.
Pavyler: erected pavilions and the like.
Copyright: Jane Hewitt. This dictionary is authorised for use on www.familyresearcher.co.uk only.
Pawnbroker: loaned money secured against items of personal property. If the loan was not repaid then the collateral could be sold by the pawnbroker.
Pedascule: schoolmaster.
Peddler: a travelling merchant (American English spelling).
Pedestrian: a competitive walker. Pedestrianism was a spectator sport in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Pedlar: a travelling merchant. (English spelling)
Pee-dee: a boy working on a keelboat transporting goods on the canal system.
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Britain's War: Into Battle, 1937-1941 by Daniel Todman
The most terrible emergency in Britain's history, the Second World War required an unprecedented national effort. An exhausted country had to fight an unexpectedly long war and found itself much diminished amongst the victors. Yet the outcome of the war was nonetheless a triumph, not least for a political system that proved well adapted to the demands of a total conflict and for a population who had to make many sacrifices but who were spared most of the horrors experienced in the rest of Europe.
Britain's War is a narrative of these epic events, an analysis of the myriad factors that shaped military success and failure, and an explanation of what the war tells us about the history of modern Britain. As compelling on the major military events as he is on the experience of ordinary people living through exceptional times, Todman suffuses his extraordinary book with a vivid sense of a struggle which left nobody unchanged - and explores why, despite terror, separation and deprivation, Britons were overwhelmingly willing to pay the price of victory.
This volume begins with the coronation of George VI and ends with the disasters in the Far East in December 1941. A second volume will tell the story from 1942 to Indian independence in 1947.
