Periwiggmaker

Someone who weaves wigs for those in need of something more on the topside.

"Comes Chapman, the periwigg-maker, and upon my liking it, without more ado I went up, and there he cut off my haire, which went a little to my heart at present to part with it; but it being over and my perigwigg on, I paid him 3 pounds for it, and away went he with my owne haire to make up another of, and I by and by, after I had caused all my maids to look upon it; and they conclude it do become me, though Jane was mightily troubled for my parting of my own haire, and so was Besse. I went abroad to the coffee house, and coming back went to Sir Wm. Pen and there sat with him till late at night. Sir Wm. Pen observed mightily and discoursed much upon my cutting off my haire, as he do of every thing that concerns me, but it is over, and so I perceive after a day or two it will be no great matter."

Samuel Pepys, Diary (November 3, 1663).

Upton Sinclair on Lobbyists

Someone paid to petition the government on someone else’s behalf.

“I know that we began in a competitive world, and I have no quarrel with the past. I am looking toward the future; and I say that when men compete with one another for wealth they produce poverty for themselves. They duplicate plants, they over-produce, they adulterate goods, they lie about their products, they spy upon one another, they buy special favors from government officials, they subsidize lobbyists and politicians, and build up political machines, and ultimately undermine the practice of Democracy. For all such forms of waste the consumer pays.”

Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked (1934).

Twain on Keelboatmen

"The river's earliest commerce was in great barges--keelboats, broadhorns. They floated and sailed from the upper rivers to New Orleans, changed cargoes there, and were tediously warped and poled back by hand. A voyage down and back sometimes occupied nine months. In time this commerce increased until it gave employment to hordes of rough and hardy men; rude, uneducated, brave, suffering terrific hardships with sailor-like stoicism; heavy drinkers, coarse frolickers in moral sties like the Natchez-under-the-hill of that day, heavy fighters, reckless fellows, every one, elephantinely jolly, foul-witted, profane, prodigal of their money, bankrupt at the end of the trip, fond of barbaric finery, prodigious braggarts; yet, in the main, honest, trustworthy, faithful to promises and duty, and often picturesquely magnanimous. By and by the steamboat intruded. Then, for fifteen or twenty years, these men continued to run their keelboats down-stream, and the steamers did all of the up-stream business, the keelboatmen selling their boats in New Orleans, and returning home as deck-passengers in the steamers. But after a while the steamboats so increased in number and in speed that they were able to absorb the entire commerce; and then keelboating died a permanent death."

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883).

Smelter

Someone whose work is to extract metal from ore by melting it.

"The most important were the metal trades, which showed the greater degree of division of labour and specialisation. In Rome itself, we hear of pattern-makers (figuratores), smelters (fusores), turners (tritores), metal-chasers (crustarii), gilders (auratores), and among the jewellers there were specialist silversmiths and goldsmiths. Armour was manufactured at Rome, but also in Mantua, Brundisium, Tarentum, and Capua. The fabri aerarii, or bronze-workers, made table-ware with relief decoration, pots, jugs, chafing-dishes, tripods, beds, lamps, weights, scales and so on. There were also a large number of fabri ferrarii or iron-workers in Rome, Minturnae, Rhegium and Syracuse."

Claude Mossé, The Ancient World of Work (1969)

[Translated by Janet Lloyd].

Pastryman

A baker who specializes in such confections.

"The Pastryman, commonly known by the Name of the Colly-Molly-Puff."

Joseph Addison, The Spectator (1711).

Compiler

Someone who produces books by compiling information, often as distinct from an original author.

"The authorship or compilership of a dictionary is, indeed, a question like that of the identity of the darned and redarned stockings with the original pair."

The Spectator (1867).

Fewterer

Someone who keeps greyhounds. A dog-keeper.

"A dry nurse to his coughs,

a fewterer to such a nasty fellow."

John Fletcher, The Woman's Prize (1625).