N

 

nab. Found sometimes in Gaelic records as a tile for an abbot.

nai(c)k. Term used by the British in colonial India to describe a native soldier in the British army.

nail master. Supplier of raw materials to the nail-making trade. The nail master would then re-buy the finished products using goods or tokens. These tokens could only be used in the shops owned by the nail master, known as ‘Tommy shops’.

nailer. Same as card nailer. Rarely one who uses nails for construction.

nailor. Nail maker.

nailsmith. Same as nailor.

naked priest. A clergyman who for a fee would unlawfully allow a naked burial, ie. the burial of a corpse without the woollen shroud as once prescribed by the Woollen Acts, thus saving on both a certificate and a shroud.

nan(ny). Midwife (sometimes herbalist or ‘wise woman’). In Victorian times, a child minder.

napier. Servant in charge of linen. Also someone who manufactures table linen.

narrator. An early form of barrister.

narrow weaver. Weaver of tape, ribbons and cloth belts.

nativus. Villein (manual worker).

naupegus. Ship builder.

nauta. Common sailor.

navarchus. Ship’s captain.

nave maker. Specialist worker in a large wheelwright factory who only made the nave or central hub of the wheels.

navigator. Originally a boatman. In more modern times a general labourer digging ditches, building canals and later railways (navvy).

navis praefectus. Master mariner.

N.C.S. officer. Member of the Naval Control Service who planned the movement of ships across the seas during World War 2. All were medically unfit for sea service and were drawn from the Royal Naval Reserve and the Merchant Navy.

neatherd(er). Official appointed to stop cattle straying, later a cowherd.

necessary man/woman. Someone who emptied chamber-pots or dry toilets.

necker. Cardboard box factory worker.

necklace girl. Usually a young beggar girl who would sell home-made necklaces made from red berries, nuts etc strung on rough string, often put on dolls or children.

necrologist. Person once engaged after battles or disasters to supervise the counting and recording of the dead. Also a writer of obituary notices.

necrotomist. A 19th century pathologist or other person who dissected dead bodies.

nedder. Needle/pin maker.

needle felt worker. Process worker in the production of ‘needle-felt’ which is felt made from fibres other than wool.

needlemaker. Though found throughout Britain, the centre of the needle making industry in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries was in the English Midlands. Needles as we know them were first made in this country by an Indian immigrant in 1545. However, on his death, the process was lost for a short while before being re-discovered by Christopher Greening.

needlewoman. A woman who sews for a living.

negotiator. When in Latin it indicates an agent.

neif. Same as a villein.

neogagmist. A newly married person.

nethinim. Ancient term for a servant who had specific duties of gathering wood and drawing water.

nettle woman. Collector of wild nettle plants for the making of nettle beer.

newing maker. Maker and seller of yeast or barm.

news seller. Same as news vendor.

news vendor. Seller of newspapers in the street, each with their own distinct cry.

 

News vendor.

 

newsagent. Originally someone who passed on news. Later a newspaper seller.

nib piercer. Worker in a factory making writing pens.

nib separator. Process worker in the chocolate industry who separates the ‘nibs’ from the ‘germ’ and ‘husks’ of the cocoa bean.

niello craftsman. A jewellery maker using a special technique of melting precious metals or alloys into an engraved design.

night cabman. See under day cabman.

night walker. Prostitute.

night watchman. See under watchman.

Nightingale nurse. A nurse under Florence Nightingale’s scheme to make nursing ‘a respectable profession’ rather than its former status on a level with servants. The Nightingale School for Nurses was set up in 1860.

nightman. Watchman. Also a nightsoil man.

nightsoil man. Town or city worker who emptied dry toilets in the days before modern plumbing.

nipper. Delivery boy assistant on a horse-drawn wagon.

nipperkin maker. Often misinterpreted as a napkin maker. However, a nipperkin was a kind of small cup.

nippy. Coloquial title given to a waitress in a Lyons’ Corner House cafe¨.

nit nurse. A nurse who visited schools to inspect the children’s health by looking at their nails, tongue, and searching through the child’s hair for the eggs of head lice, known as ‘nits’.

Nitty Norah. One of many colloquial terms for a nit nurse.

noble. Person once hired to act as a guard for strike breakers in any industry.

noctograph salesman. Salesman who sold noctographs, „specialised writing frames for the blind, popular at the turn of the 19th century.

nogging builder. Builder of wooden partitions or walls, often filled with brick or rubble.

noiler/noily. Dealer in noils, new scrap wool offcuts.

noon tender. A daytime version of a night watchman.

norris(cus). Nurse (male only, when the term was in use).

norroy. One of the English kings-of-arms whose jurisdiction lay north of the river Trent. The term comes from nor-roy, meaning northern king.

nosologist. Scientist or medical work involved in the classification of diseases.

notar(ius). Notary or lawyer.

notary. Someone with legal power to sign or witness the signature of legal documents.

notcher. Someone in a tree-planting gang who makes notches with a mattock to indicate where the young trees are to be planted.

novice monk/nun. Entrants to monasteries had to pay a fee in either cash or land to train as a monk. Novices were on probation for a year and could not join a monastery under the age of 18.

noweller. Worker in a foundary who worked with moulds made of loam.

nuisances; Inspector of. Usually appointed by the Rural Sanitary Authority, they were given the often hazardous task of enforcing the numerous Public Health Acts arising from the Poor Law of 1834 e.g. Common Lodging Houses, Bath and Wash-houses, and others.

numacius. Toll collector.

nummularius. Banker.

nunchin house owner. 18th century victualler who specialised in supplying mid-day snacks, then known as nunchins.

nuncio. One of the Pope’s collectors of taxes against the clergy in the Middle Ages. These were generally Italian and caused great controversy in England leading after many years to the King, rather than the Pope, receiving the taxes.

nuncius. Originally this meant something akin to ‘sergeant’ but later came to mean beadle (see under beadle).

nung baler. Packer of goods into bales, particularly in the spice trade.

nuntius. Messenger.

nutrix. A general nurse or wetnurse.

nyctalops. Strictly, a medical term for someone who could not see in daylight but had excellent night vision. The term was also used in a military sense for someone with the condition who was employed to use their night vision for military purposes.

nymph. Colloquial name in factories for a young unskilled woman. Derived from a class of inferior young women divinities who guarded places where water flowed in mythology.