Colonial Occupations

Thanks to Sam Behling for sharing her list.

Our early American colonists did not have quite the same employment opportunities as we do today. There were no TV producers, car salesmen, rocket scientists, and certainly no computer programmers. The first emigrants to America had occupations concerned primarily with simple, basic survival in the New World. They were, for the most part, skilled laborers, who could make things most of us now only dabble in as hobbies.

Some occupational names were self-explanatory such as a blacksmith, locksmith, and gunsmith. Of course there were also occupations with names that are recognizable today - coroner, bookkeeper, barber, cabinet-maker, weaver, baker, brick-layer, accountant, printer and musician.

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Other occupations (many now obsolete) included:

ACATER: supplied food provisions, such as a ships chandler
ACCIPITRARY a falconer or keeper and tamer of hawks
ACCOMPANT: an accountant
ACCOUCHEUR / ACCOUCHEUS: one who assisted women in childbirth
ACCOUTREMENT MAKER / ACCOUTRE: a supplier of military accessories
ACRE-MAN / ACKERMAN: a man who ploughed or cultivated the land
ACTUARY: a statistician who computes insurance risks and premiums
AGENT: a person who acted on behalf of a company or another person
AGRICULTURIST: a person involved with land cultivation or animal husbandry
ALABASTERER: one who worked with alabaster
ALCHEMIST: a medieval chemist who claimed to be able to turn base metals into gold
ALE DRAPER: an ale-house keeper
ALE TASTER: an English officer appointed in every court leet, and worn to inspect ale beer, and bread, and examine the quality and quantity within his precints
ALE TUNNER: a person employed by the brewery to fill ale casks called "tuns" with ale
ALEWIFE a woman who keeps an alehouse or tavern
ALL SPICE: grocer
ALMONER: an officer who distributes charity or alms; by ancient law every monastery was to disperse a tenth of its income in alms to the poor, and all bishops were obliged to keep an almoner
ALMSMAN: a person supported by charity or one who lived on alms
ALNAGER: official who examined the quality of woolen goods and stamped them with the town seal of approval
AMANUENIS: one who is employed to take dictation or to copy manuscript
AMBER CUTTER: a person who cut ambergris
ANCHOR SMITH: one who made anchors
ANCHORESS: a female hermit or religious recluse
ANCHORITE: a person who has retired into seclusion for religious reasons
ANKLE BEATER: a young person who helped to drive the cattle to market
ANNATTO MAKER: a person who worked in the manufacture of dyes for paint or printing
ANTIGROPELOS MAKER: a person who made waterproof leggings
ANVIL SMITH: a person who made anvils and hammers for blacksmiths
APIARIANA: beekeeper
APOTHECARY: a druggist
APPRENTICE: one who was bound to a skilled worker for a specified time to learn a trade
APRONMAN: a laboring man; a mechanic
AQUAVITA SELLER: liquor seller
ARBITER: a witness or judge
ARCHER: a person skilled in using a bow and arrow
ARCHIATOR: a physician
ARCHIVIST: one who keeps historical records
ARGOLET: a mounted bowman
ARKWRIGHT: a skilled craftsman who produced "arks" (wooden chests or coffers)
ARMIGER: one entitled to bear arms, such as knight or esquire
ARMOURER: one who made suits of armour or plates of armour for buildings or ships
ARPENTEUR: a land-surveyor
ARTIFICER: a blacksmith; one who makes fuses, grenades, shells, etc.
ARTISAN: a skilled tradesman
ASHMAN: a dustman [from the chimney]
ASSAY MASTER: a person who determined the amount of gold or silver to go in coins
ASSAYER: one who examines characteristics (weight, measure or quality) to determine a value
AUGER MAKER: one who made the carpenters augers for boring holes in wood
AULNAGERr: See Alnager
AURIFABER / AURIFEX: a goldsmith
AVENATOR: a hay and forage merchant
AVOWRY: term for the lord of the manor
AXEL TREE MAKER / AXEL TREE TURNER: one who made axels for coaches and waggons