Big Book - F

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Faber Workman or Artisan

Factor 1) Agent transacting business for merchants 2) Sold goods on commission 3) (Scottish) Steward collecting land rents

Fagetter Firewood seller - made bundles of faggots

Faker Photographer's assistant - added hand colouring to monochrome photographs before colour film was invented

Family group sheet a family group sheet is a form which presents genealogical information about a nuclear family -- a husband, a wife, and their children. A family group sheet usually includes birth dates and places, death dates and places, and marriage dates and places. Family Tree Maker for Windows can help you create family group sheets for your family.

Family pedigrees in general, family pedigrees refer to family group sheets that are linked in a computer system. When you access an individual's family group sheet in a linked pedigree, you also access all of the records that are linked to that individual.

Family histories/genealogies family histories and genealogies are books which detail the basic genealogical facts about one or more generations of a particular family.

FamilySearch you can find FamilySearch computers at the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or at one of the branch Family History Centers. The FamilySearch computer contains several databases of information: the Social Security Death Index, the Military Index, the Ancestral File, and the International Genealogical Index. You can use these resources to search for information about your family members right on the computer. You can also use the FamilySearch computer to look up items in the Family History Library Catalog. Because of the popularity of the FamilySearch computer, many Family History Centers require you to sign up for a time slot in advance. FamilySearch is also now available on the Internet through the Web site of the LDS Church.

Fancy Man A pimp

Fancy Woman A prostitute

Fancy-pearl Worker Made items, such as buttons, from mother-of-pearl

Fanner Grain winnower

Fanwright Made or repaired fans or winnowing baskets

Farandman Travelling merchant

Farm Bailiff Made sure a tenant farmer ran the farm properly and was paying the rent on time. If not the bailiff had the authority to evict.

Farrier 1) A blacksmith who shoes horses 2) Horse Doctor 3) Cavalry NCO responsible for horses

Fawkner/ Faulkner Falconer

Fealty The fidelity owed to a Feudal Lord

Fear-Nought Maker Made thick woollen material called fear-nought for protective clothing and lining insides the powder magazines of warships

Feather Beater/Driver/Dresser Cleaned feathers for sale

Feather Wife Woman who cleaned feathers for sale

Featherman

Fee simple an inheritance having no limitations or conditions in its use.

Feeder Herdsman

Feller Woodcutter

Fellmonger 1) Dealer in hides and skins , also recycled inedible animal parts for glue, fertiliser, offal, horn, bone, gut etc. Basically, he ran the "knacker's yard". 2) Tree cutter / woodsman

Fellowship Porter A kind of uniformed bonded messenger, vetted for honesty etc before admission to the Guild of Fellowship Porters, to whom they were accountable. You could trust your valuables to them for transport from your London office to another warehouse, shop or office

Felter Worked with felt - normally in the hat trade

Feme female, woman, or wife.

Feme sole unmarried woman or a married woman with property independent of her husband.

Fender Smith Made and maintained fenders surrounding fires

Fent Dealer Dealer in "Fents" - cloth remnants, ends of bolts of cloth etc.

Feroner Ironmonger

Ferreter Made or dealt in "ferret" - silk tape

Ferur / Ferator Blacksmith / Farrier

Festitian Physician

Fettler 1) Cleaned mill machinery, removing accumulations of fibres, grease etc. and sharpened fustian cutters' knives 2) Needle maker who filed the points

Feu (Scotland) perpetual lease at fixed rent.

Feudalmediaeval system of government based on relatio of vassal to superior.

Fewster Made wooden saddle trees – the “chassis” upon which a leather saddle is constructed

Fewterer Looked after the hounds used in hunting or hare coursing

Feydur (Feather) Beater Feather beater

FHS Family History Society

FFHS Federation of Family History Societies

FIBIS Families in British India Society

Fiddler Used a fiddle (small knife) to remove the flashing from cast clay forms such as bowls, creamers, cups or pitchers.

Field Master 1) Inspected hedges and fences of a parish and also impounded stray animals 2) Tended fields set aside to produce hay. Also Hayward

File Cutter Made files by cutting rows of sharp teeth into a metal blank

Filler Filled bobbins in textile mills

Fine Drawer Invisible mender (clothing)

Fireworker 18c. Maker of fireworks. A very dangerous occupation - they often actually smoked when working with gunpowder!

Fire Beater Tended factory boilers

First Hand Silk weaver who owned his own loom. Early silk weaving was largely done in the home

Fiscere Fisherman - Anglo-Saxon term

Fish Fag Female fish seller

Fitter 1) Coal broker 2) Early term for a Joiner 3) From 19c. a skilled mechanic

Flagger Lays paving stones etc. also called a Paver or Paviour

Flagger & Tiler Laid roofing tiles and the rectangular stone flags used in some parts of the country for roofing

Flasher Specialist worker in glass making

Flatman / Floatman Boatman on a flat bottom boat (a flat) used in shallow waters (mainly rivers and canals) for transport. The term also came to refer to shallow-draft coastal sailing vessels. More Info.

Flauner Confectioner

Flax Dresser Person who breaks and swingles flax, or prepares it for the spinner.

Flesher / Fleshmonger 1) Tannery worker 2) Butcher

Fleshewer Butcher

Fletcher Made arrows - from French, flèche

Floater Vagrant

Flowering Muslin Embroidery

Flusherman Cleaned out water pipes

Fly Coachman / Flyman Fly Proprietor 1) Drove a "fly" a one horse two wheeled light carriage 2) Flyman also a term for a theatre stage hand 3) A Fly Proprietor employed fly drivers and usually owned the flys.

Flying Stationer Street broadsheet (newspaper) seller

FMP Findmypast

Fogger / Pettifogger 1) Peddler. 2) Middleman in the nail and chain trade 3) Agricultural labourer who fed cattle 4) Low class lawyer or "Pettifogger"

Foister / Foisterer / Fuyster Joiner

Foot Maiden Female servant

Footman Male servant

Footpad Thief (mugger)

Foot-Post Mail carrier (on foot)

Foot Straightener Made watch and clock dials

Forester Looked after woods, normally on gentleman's estate, or major local forest

Forgeman / Forger 1) Blacksmith or his assistant 2) In 18c Derbyshire - Coachsmith

Forkner Falconer (phonetic)

Form Fitter Fitted "forms" for building. ie formwork for arch building.

Fortnight two weeks.

Fossetmaker Made (wooden) taps for ale casks

Founder Foundryman - casts metal i.e. iron, brass

Fower Sweeper, street cleaner

Foyboatman A shore-based seaman who worked a "foy" to give assistance to vessels entering port - running lines from the ship to shore, towing small vessels etc. Foy is a corruption of fee, which was what the boatman charged

Frame Spinner Tended a machine for spinning cotton threads - a Spinning Frame - More Info

Framer Constructed the wooden frames of buildings, also in chair making

Frame Work Knitter (FWK) Operated a hosiery making loom (Abbreviated FWK in census returns)

Frankpledge Anglo Saxon system in which 10 households or tithings were grouped together and became responsible for each others behaviour or conduct.

Freebench The right of the widow of a copyhold tenant to hold his tenure of the property for life or until she remarried. (Similar to dower in respect of freehold properties)

Freedman A freed slave

Freeholder Land owner

Freeman Held the full rights of citizenship, such as voting and engaging in business, free of feudal service - a man who had served his apprenticeship and who could then work at his trade in his own right

Freemason Stone mason

Frieser Made rough plaster known as friese

Freshwaterman Sailed on inland or coastal waters

Fringemaker Made ornamental borders or fringes in cloth making

Fripperer Bought and sold old clothes and fripperies

Friseur Hairdresser

Frobisher / Furbisher Cleaned and polished metal – i.e. armour

Fruitestere Female fruit seller

FTF Family Tree Forum

FS Female servant

Fulker Pawnbroker

Fuller / Tucker / Walker One who "fulls" cloth; the process of cleaning (removing the natural oils and lanolin) wool in preparation for spinning and weaving, using fuller's earth. In medieval times, this involved treading the cloth in stale urine for some 8 hours.

Fumigator During the great plague, Fumigators were employed to disinfect houses by burning sulphur, saltpetre and urine. Presumably the smell would kill the germs!

Funambulist Tightrope walker

Furner Baker

Furrier Fur dealer - as today

Fustian Cutter / Weaver A person who lifted and cut the threads in the making of Fustian, formerly a kind of coarse cloth made of cotton and flax. Now a thick, twilled cotton cloth with a short pile or nap, a kind of cotton velvet. A long thin knife was inserted into the loops and the threads cut as it was pulled through, stretched between rollers. The cloth was then brushed to raise the pile.

Fustian is the old name for corduroy / A weaver of Fustian

Fustian Loom Jobber Otherwise known as a Tackler, he serviced and maintained the Fustian looms

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