Wool Names
Anyone who knows me knows that
two of my pet obsessions are the wool trade; and names.
This essay will endeavour to
cover both my interests, since no trade has influenced the surnames of England
like the cloth trade.
I will also show that the names
derived from this trade are also to some extent regionally determined, by the
specific terms generic to each region of cloth production. I will concentrate on the woollen trade but
will also mention the native linen production, which added its own names to the
general stock.
Wool has many processes in its
production. First of all it must be
grown on sheep, tended by a shepherd; then sheared. However though someone surnamed Shepherd or Sheep had doubtless that task in his background, someone surnamed
‘Shearer’ did not shear the sheep, but was a person who sheared the nap. But I get ahead of myself.
Once the fleece was ready it was
spun; which might be done in the grease, or from a washed fleece. This was usually done by the women. A women worker has a surname suffixed –ster
not –er, and so we get the word ‘spinster’ as well for an unwed woman who eked
out the family economy by spinning. Male
spinners gave the name Spinner; but
might equally have spun linen thread, another miserable job as it had to be
done in the dark and damp.
Spun wool might go next to
weaving or be ‘dyed in the wool’.
Certain colours like blue, from woad, were always traditionally dyed in
the wool Hence one has the Dyers and Listers. Lister is the more
recent name being derivative of a Middle English word. Dyer has old English
roots. There exist as names Dyers, Dyerson, Dyster though
in this case not necessarily from a female dyer. [English isn’t always consistent, is it?]
Next, the weaving. A Weaver
might also be a Webber, a Webb[e] or a Webster who might well have been a woman in the
trade. This was a highly skilled trade,
and determined a lot about the use of the cloth afterwards. Not all wool woven would go on to become
woollen cloth; some would have the hard wearing worsted weave. However, wool that WAS to go on to be woollen
cloth, the most expensive and prestigious export of the late Middle Ages, would then be fulled by a Fuller or Walker or Tucker
Walker may be an ambiguous name
as it also refers to the job of walking the wet flax to turn it into linen
fibres, and though a fulling Walker had a skilled job, walking the flax made it
to Tony Robinson’s ‘Worst Jobs in History’. Tucker derives from folding and
torturing the cloth; the act of fulling is to wash and shrink the cloth to
bring the fibres closer together and make it more weather resistant as well as
thicker. After being fulled it would be
re-stretched in the tenter’s yard, giving us the phrase ‘to be on tenter-hooks’. I have been unable to track down Tenter as a
surname however; I suspect it was assumed in the fuller’s art. Fulling has also given us the name for a type
of kaolin clay, fuller’s earth, which was used to rub into the wool to absorb
and remove the lanolin and greases from both the fleece and from the earlier
processes. Fuller’s Weed is also the
country name for soapwort which was used in the washing process.
Next, the cloth must be napped
and sheared, often many times. This
meant raising a nap with teasels – no man-made substitute for this plant has
ever improved on nature. The slight hook
on the end of the spines lifted the nap very successfully. This gives us the names Tesler, Tazelaar, Teasel, Taycell. The name Napper
does not, however exist. The very
skilled job of cutting the raised nap to a level surface was a Shearer and was also derivative of Sharman,
Shearman and Sherman especially in the East. ‘Shere’ and its variants however derive from
shearsmith, one who kept shears sharp, and though a related industry in some
respects is not directly derived from the woollen industry.
Some slightly related names are Flaxman, a man involved in the growing
or handling of flax for linen, Sower
and some Sewers, those who sewed, Souster for a woman; Mercer,
a seller of luxury fabrics. Also Fleming since the statutes of Edward III
that wool might not be exported unwoven meant that there were insufficient
weavers in England, and certain foreign experts were invited to settle. Nowhere did this make more impact than in Norfolk,
whose cloth was justly famed long after the woollen industry was on the decline
elsewhere in Britain,
surviving to produce the magnificent Norfolk Shawls in imitation of the
costly imported Cashmere
shawls indispensable fashion wear to the Regency miss.
So down to the business of location.
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Walker
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Widespread, largely midlands
and north
|
|
Tucker
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South-west, as far east as
Hants and Wilts
|
|
Fuller
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East and South East, mostly in Sussex,
Kent and Anglia
but as far west as Bucks and Oxfordshire.
|
|
Dyer
|
Mostly south-west, Somerset,
Devon and Cornwall,
but also Suffolk [owing to the Suffolk
woads and saffron and other dye weeds]
|
|
Lister
|
Mostly Cambs and West Riding of
Yorkshire, also Lincs and Norfolk
|
|
Weaver
|
Largely Worcestershire,
Gloucestershire and Somerset
|
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Webber
|
Largely Somerset
and Devonshire
|
|
Webb[e]
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South of a line from the Wash
to the Dee except in those places where Webber or
Weaver are more common
|
|
Webster
|
North of the line from Wash
to Dee where the name was taken by men, and where
women wove.
|
|
Shearer
|
General, wherever woollen cloth
was produced
|
|
Sharman etc
|
Largely East and south, as far
north as Lincs and as far west as Bucks
|
Some counties have a high
proportion of names related to one form of the woollen trade or another which I
include for interest.
Cambridgeshire: Lister
Devon:
Tucker, Webber, Dyer
Derby:
Walkers, Webster
Durham:
Walker
Lancashire:
Webster
Norfolk:
Fuller
Notts: Walker
Somerset:
Tucker, Webb, Webber, Weaver, Dyer
Stafford: Walker
Suffolk:
Webb, Dyer
Sussex:
Fuller
Wilts: Tucker, Webb
Worcester:
Weaver
Yorkshire:
Walker, Webster, Lister
Bibliography
Guppy, Henry Brougham; homes of
family names in Great Britain,
[1890], Bibliolife
Reaney, P.H, & Wilson,
R. M; A dictionary of English Surnames, 1997, Oford University Press
Robinson, Tony, The Worst Jobs In
History, 2004, Pan
