8i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the patten, a sort of clog much worn during the twelfth, thirteenth, 

 and fourteenth centuries. Taylor finds Bark and Barker in the 

 old writs of that period, and suggests that the occupation of the 

 first owners of these names was to provide the tanners with the 

 material for converting the hides into leather. This may or may 

 not be the case, but it is reasonably certain, according to the best 

 authorities, that our Butlers were once the Botelers, bottles in that 

 day being frequently made of leather, and the name being applied 

 first to him who made the bottles and, after a time, to him who 

 looked after them and their contents. 



Rope-making is not distantly related to the leather trade, and 

 of the manufacture of ropes relics are still seen in Roper, Corder, 

 Stringer, and Twyner. 



One of the most curious pages of philological history is that 

 written by Bardsley in recounting the proper names which grew 

 out of the wool trade. For ages wool was the staple of England, 

 and thousands of busy operatives were employed in the various 

 processes necessary before the wool could be transferred from the 

 back of the sheep to the back of the man ; before the raw product 

 could be converted into the finished manufacture. At every step, 

 proper names indicative of the calling of those who bore them 

 sprang up, so that, were we ignorant of the fact that the Saxons 

 dealt in wool and made cloth, we might draw perfectly correct 

 and legitimate conclusions as to the business, its extent and vari- 

 ous departments, from the family names still surviving. To fol- 

 low Bardsley in this quaint pilgrimage through the woolen-facto- 

 ries of Old England : the sheep were cared for by the Shepherd or 

 Sheepherd, a name which with variations of spelling is extremely 

 common. Shearing was the first operation requiring either deli- 

 cacy or skill, and Shearer, Shearman, Shurman, and similar names 

 bespeak their own ancestry. The wool was then placed in bags, 

 made by the Sackers or Canvassers, and was ready for the mer- 

 chant, an individual often known as Stapler, Wool, Wooler, 

 Woolman, or Woolsey, or in French as Lanier or Lanyer. He 

 consigned it to the care of persons who transported it from place 

 to place on the backs of pack-horses or in vehicles, and were thus 

 known as the Packers, the Carters, or the Carriers. The wool 

 was then handed over to the Carders and Combers, or Kempers 

 and Kempsters, as they were variously called, and passed from 

 their hands to those of the Spinners, who used implements made 

 by the Spindlers and Slayers, afterward going on to the "Weavers, 

 Weevers, Webbs, Webbers, or feminine Websters. The cloth 

 was next " teased " to bring out the nap, a process done by the 

 Teasers, Tosers, Tousers, Teazelers, or Taylors, when it was fin- 

 ished and ready for the Dyer, Litter, or Lister, or the Norman 

 Taintor or Taintur. Woad, the common dye-stuff, was provided 



