What is the most interesting occupation in your family tree? (#1: locked)

[stonechat]

I was researching my Clarke line - without success, but came across an unrelated Clarke who was a

Roughstuffman


You didn't want to mess with him!

Bob

[mc8]

I was researching my Clarke line - without success, but came across an unrelated Clarke who was a

Roughstuffman


You didn't want to mess with him!

Bob

something to do with barges?

[Christopher]

I would agree it was probably something to do with ships.
The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue defined ROUGH as -

  To lie rough; to lie all night in one's clothes:
  called also roughing it. Likewise to sleep on the bare
  deck of a ship, when the person is commonly advised to
  chuse the softest plank.

I imagine only the wealthy wore pyjamas in those days.

[JAP]

Bob,

Do you have any more info about this chap?  What was he in earlier or later censuses?

I suspect that rough stuff could have many meanings.

Perhaps a particular kind of (woollen?) cloth (stuff)?

Or what about this from:
http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/images/ronstadt/jan/ss31/ss31pt3.html
"...  Rough stuff is a filler which has a consistency of heavy cream and dries hard. When the rough stuff had dried, it was polished with fine sandpaper down to the white lead coats before the flat color coats and varnish coats were applied.  ..."

And here's a reference to 'rough stuff' in 1727 at:
http://www.campus.ncl.ac.uk/databases/history/latham/years/la27.html

Googling finds other references.

Regards,

JAP

[RedFox]

JAP - fascinating information from the U of Ariz.  I could have spent hours reading about and looking at the pictures of the wagons built in the West and to know that also occured in the East with the Conestoga and other wagons and carriages.  I found F. Ronstadt a gentleman worth knowing more about.  Wonder if he could be related to a well known singer of today.  Just as interesting was the spelling of the words in the list from the account.   You've found the stories behind the facts and that's what I would like to do.  RedFox 

[Berlin-Bob]

As this thread is getting so long, I have now split it (at 400 replies) and locked this part.

You can still add your entries to the continuation thread
What is the most interesting occupation in your family tree? (#2)
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,107779.0.html

Bob