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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: mike175 on Monday 06 April 15 21:36 BST (UK)
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Can anyone decipher the occupation of John Stutle of Ratcliff? It is from the 1659 baptism of his son, John.
The best I can do is "Cord'winder" but the letter spacing and the wayward apostrophe look wrong.
Mike
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cordwainer shoemaker originally using a Spanish leather
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It is Cordwinder (there is no apostrophe, that is just the tail of the d). This term was used interchangeably with cordwainer (a leather worker/shoemaker), rather than meaning a maker of cords or ropes, however it is difficult to be certain of what was meant here.
Alexander
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Not sure that this helps, but there is another of this profession listed on the same page as your John:
30 Oct 1659 Richard Moucke son of John Moucke
It is the last one on the page.
Sorry, I do not know how to do those screenshots!
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cordiner,cordwainer,corviner,corvisor.these were all terms for someone who worked with cordovan
a special leather from spain but later a term for shoemakers.
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It is Cordwinder (there is no apostrophe, that is just the tail of the d). This term was used interchangeably with cordwainer (a leather worker/shoemaker), rather than meaning a maker of cords or ropes, however it is difficult to be certain of what was meant here.
Alexander
Thanks. It is obviously the tail of the "d" now it's been pointed out :-[
I did wonder if he was something other than a shoemaker, being amongst so many Mariners and Shipwrights, etc but I suppose seamen need shoes as much as anyone else ::)
Mike.
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This term was used interchangeably with cordwainer (a leather worker/shoemaker), rather than meaning a maker of cords or ropes, however it is difficult to be certain of what was meant here.
It's worth bearing in mind that Ratcliff was the main centre for ropemaking on the north side of the river.
Oxford English Dictionary
cord-winder n. one who makes cords or ropes.
1707 London Gaz. No. 4362/4 Lancelot Bowler..Cordwinder.
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Rope making does seem the more likely, given that many of the early Stuttles appear to have been linked to boat/ship building or seafaring generally. Another I found in Ratcliff was a "saylemaker".
Thanks for all the contributions :)
Mike.
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Hi there
Are you still researching James Paston?
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I believe that cordwinder is a bastardisation of the French cordonnier. It means bootmaker. I can attest to that on the basis of census records of at least one individual at one point being referred to as cordwinder and at an another as a bootmaker.
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FWIW an ancestor from the Channel Islands was listed as Occupation "cordwainer" in the 1851 census and "cord winder" in the 1861 census.
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Well the Cord in Cordwainer is a corruption of Cordoba,or Cordovan as in Cordovan leather from Córdoba.
Cordonnier is also a shoemaker in French as verseaumoineau says.
So he could be a shoe maker .
But might be a cord winder as he is among mariners.
Viktoria.( modified to recognise Verseaumoineau’s post.)