Dictionary of Old Occupations

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Definitions of jobs Poulter - Printfield Worker

Poulter: alternate form of Poulterer, a merchant who dealt in poultry and poultry products.

Poulterer: merchant who dealt in poultry and poultry products.

Poultryman: synonym for Poulterer.

Powder Monkey: part of a warship's crew. Powder Monkeys were employed to carry gunpowder from the ship's powder magazine to the gun crews when needed. This occupation was usually performed by boys, and dates back to the late 17th / early 18th century.

Power Loom Tuner: maintained weaving looms in the textile industry.

Powler: alternative term for a Poller, usually referring to a barber.

Poynter: numerous online sources define this as a lacemaker. Needs confirmation, may be an alternate spelling of Pointer.

Practical Brewer: worked in a brewery, in charge of the brewing process for ales and beers.

Preceptor: a monk in charge of music inside a monastery.

Preceptress : a female teacher or female school principal.

Prentice: an abbreviation of the word Apprentice.

Press Emptier: Worked in the pottery industry, removed flattened clay from bags of canvas. Was based in the sliphouse.

Press Maker: either a misinterpretation of Dressmaker (quite common due to the quality of handwriting in historical documents), or a person who manufactured printing presses. This may also have included mangle manufacturers.

Press Man: worked in the publishing industry, operated a printing press.

Presser: worked in the textile industry, operating sewing / knitting machines.

Prick Louise: charming term for a tailor.

Pricker: a Pattern Maker, or (far less common) a witch hunter, based upon the 16th / 17th century idea of pricking witches to prove their guilt based upon the notion that the witch would have a numb spot on their body which would not bleed or cause pain if stabbed with a pin or needle.

Prig Napper: in the mid 17th to mid 18th centuries this term was used to describe a horse thief. From the late 17th to early 19th centuries it also referred to a thief taker.

Copyright: Jane Hewitt. This dictionary is authorised for use on www.familyresearcher.co.uk only.

Prigger: a thief.

Primate: regional Head of the Church.

Print Cutter: a textile worker who cut printed silk, or a worker in a printing house who cut printed paper to the required size.

Printer: operated a press to produce printed materials, e.g. newspapers, typeset manuscripts, even early books.

Printer Compositor: a typesetting in a printing house.

Printer's Boy: a young lad who assisted a printer.

Printer's Devil: an apprentice who fetched types and mixed inks in a printing house. The occupation title may trace its roots back to a man called 'Deville' who was an assistant to early book publisher William Caxton.

Printfield Worker: worked in a mill, producing cloth printed with inks and dyes.

This dictionary is my own work, and copyright Jane Hewitt. I sometimes find unauthorised (i.e. stolen) copies of my website content appearing on other people's websites. If you should read a group of identical glossary definitions elsewhere on the web, consider whether such sites are reputable or not.

The Gutenberg Revolution by John Man

In 1450, all Europe's books were handcopied and amounted to only a few thousand. By 1500 they were printed, and numbered in their millions. The invention of one man - Johann Gutenberg - had caused a revolution. Printing by movable type was a discovery waiting to happen.

Born in 1400 in Mainz, Germany, Gutenberg struggled against a background of plague and religious upheaval to bring his remarkable invention to light. His story is full of paradox: his ambition was to reunite all Christendom, but his invention shattered it; he aimed to make a fortune, but was cruelly denied the fruits of his life's work. Yet history remembers him as a visionary; his discovery marks the beginning of the modern world.