810 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



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 Gaugers and Measurers. Bowlers and Bow- 

 lings, with Cuppers, made the drinking- vessels in use among the 

 common people, Horns and Homers those of a better class — all of 

 whom, with verbal changes, remain to attest the former popular- 

 ity 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 differ- 

 ence of opinion, some assigning them to the leather trade and oth- 

 ers 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 Bilder- 

 mans, which names, it is supposed, originated with master- work- 

 men who undertook the general contract of setting up a house. 

 Nearly related also are the Thatchers, the Thackers, the Thacker- 

 ers, and the Thackerays, who, always in the country, and fre- 

 quently 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 men- 

 tioned, the Cutters also. The Tylers made and placed in position 

 the tiles used for roofing, while the Painters, Paynters, and Pen- 

 ters made both exterior and interior of the building presentable. 



The Tylers just mentioned were workers in clay, which sug- 

 gests 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, 



