Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 35.djvu/836

810 succession, come the Cooksons, the Cokesons, the Coksons, and, one scholar suggests, the Cocks and the Cocksons—the last two, however, appearing to be far-fetched. As drink was to our fore-fathers quite as indispensable as meat, it also gave rise to family names, being manufactured by Brewers, Maltsters, and Vintners or Wintners, remaining as Winters, and dispensed by Tapsters and Drawers. Nor should it be forgotten that receptacles for the liquors were from the hands of the Barilers, Hoopers, Coopers, and Cowpers; nor that the contents of the casks were carefully ascertained by the Gangers and Measurers. Bowlers and Bowlings, with Cuppers, made the drinking-vessels in use among the common people. Horns and Horners those of a better class—all of whom, with verbal changes, remain to attest the former popularity of their respective callings.

Workers in wood have left their record among our proper names to such an extent as to justify the conclusion, even if it were not to be reached from other sources of information, that this branch of industry was important during the ages when men were assuming family names. Caring for the raw material in its growing state gave us the Forrests and the Forresters, the Woods, Wooders, Woodsons, and Woodmans. Cutting the timber into proper lengths was the business of the Sawyers, perhaps also of the Hewers, while dressing the lumber originated the Carpenters. The Carvers did the ornamental work, so, according to Lowe, did the Cutters and Cuttings, though about these names there is a difference of opinion, some assigning them to the leather trade and others to the stone-cutting.

Akin to the lumber business is the Houser, who, according to one authority, is of the same family as the Bilders and Bildermans, which names, it is supposed, originated with master-workmen who undertook the general contract of setting up a house. Nearly related also are the Thatchers, the Thackers, the Thackerers, and the Thackerays, who, always in the country, and frequently in town, covered the house after it was erected. But houses in Great Britain were more generally constructed of stone or brick than of wood, and artisans in these materials must have been numerous, as is evidenced by Stone, Stoner, Stonebreaker, and Stoneman, the Masons, the Carvers, and, as already mentioned, the Cutters also. The Tylers made and placed in position the tiles used for roofing, while the Painters, Paynters, and Penters made both exterior and interior of the building presentable.

The Tylers just mentioned were workers in clay, which suggests another branch of industry, from which numerous family names have sprung. Not to speak of Clay, Claye, Clayer, and Clayman—the preparers of or dealers in the material—there are Pott, Potts, Potter, Pottman, Crock, Crocker, Crockman, Jarman,