« Reply #9 on: Tuesday 11 April 17 13:53 BST (UK) »
As amateur family historians we know that different accents/dialects can be misunderstood.
We don't know the original nationality of the witness and your man could well have worked in the timber business. The only occupation I know i that industry is a "sawyer"who saws timber and a "pollarder" who cuts young shoots from living trees.
What if the witness was an American who called everyone "buddy" (friend/pal) and answered that the dea man was a"sawyer, buddy" and not "sawbody".
This idea came to me when I saw this online advert:-
"The Saw Buddy, A Power Tool Invention That Helps Sharpen Saws".
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie: Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke
