Big Book - F
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
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
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
Framework 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
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
FWK abb. Frame work Knitter
