A foot soldier. An attendant or foot-servant. In early use, a runner in attendance upon a rider of rank. And, later, a servant who ran before his master's carriage, called more fully a 'running-footman' (OED).
"After dinner I went by water to Whitehall to the Privy Seal, and that done with Mr. Moore and Creed to Hide Park by coach, and saw a fine foot-race three times round the Park between an Irishman and Crow, that was once my Lord Claypoole's footman. Crow beat the other by above two miles."
Samuel Pepys, Diary (August 10, 1660). 
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