Jobs Medieval Europe

Although not (by any means) an exhaustive list of occupations and jobs from the medieval thru colonial times. This list should give you lots of ideas for populating a living village/town/city/metropolis. This list is created not as an authoritative list but as an idea resource for MV Scenario creation and story writing.

Please be aware that there are probably lots of duplicates and overlapping with MV Character Classes. This document is entirely stolen from online web resources! If you want a more detailed description of one of these trades, just google the trade name with the word ‘renaissance’ in front of it.

• Acater (a food provisioner)
• Administrators (business managers of estates, towns and small territories [i.e. shires] – something like a chief bailiff)
• Alewife (a female alehouse keeper)
• Almoners (ensured the poor received alms)
• Apothecary (a preparer and merchant for herbal remedies, drugs and medicines)
• Atilliator (skilled castle worker who makes crossbows)
• Bailiff (makes arrests and executions. Bailiff was not primarily used for the office of policeman. Etymologically, bailiffs were those in charge of the bailey – in effect, manager of the craftsmen and servants in a castle or manor house; in charge of allotting jobs to the peasants, building repair, and repair of tools used by the peasants)
• Baker (turns flour to bread)
• Banker (duh)
• Barber (someone who cut hair. Also served as dentists, surgeons and blood-letters)
• Bee Keeper (harvests honey & wax)
• Beer seller (duh)
• Blacksmith (forged and sharpened tools and weapons, beat out dents in armor, made hinges for doors, horse shoes, nails, hinges, armor, swords, plows, knives, locks & window grills. Also referred to as Smiths/Smythe)
• Boothman (one who sells grains)
• Bottler (in charge of the buttery or bottlery)
• Butler (cared for the cellar and was in charge of large butts and little butts [bottles] of wine and beer. Under him a staff of people might consist of brewers, tapsters, cellarers, dispensers, cupbearers and dapifer)
• Carder (someone who brushed wool/cotton fibers during manufacture of cloth)
• Carpenter (built flooring, roofing, siege engines, furniture, panelling for rooms, and scaffolding for building)
• Carters (workmen who brought wood and stone to the site of a castle under construction)
• Castellan (resident owner or person in charge of a castle [custodian])
• Catchpole (literally ‘poultry catcher’, one who finds and brings in debtors)
• Chamberlain (responsible for the great chamber and for the personal finances of the castellan)
• Chancellor (a secretary to a noble or royal)
• Chaplain (provided spiritual welfare for laborers and the castle garrison. The duties might also include supervising building operations, clerk, and keeping accounts. He also tended to the chapel)
• Chapman (travelling merchant)
• Clerk (a person who tracks material costs, wages, and kept accounts)
• Cobbler (makes & repairs shoes)
• Collier (one who makes or sells charcoal or later coal)
• Colporteur (seller of religious books)
• Constable (the warden of a town or castle who took care [the governor or warden] of a castle in the absence of the owner. This was sometimes bestowed upon a great baron as an honor and some royal castles had hereditary constables)
• Cook (prepares roasted, broiled, and baked food in the fireplaces and ovens)
• Cooper (makes or repairs wooden barrels and tubs)
• Costermonger (fruit seller)
• Cottars (lowest of the peasantry. Worked as swine-herds, prison guards, and did odd jobs)
• Diplomat (the person who negotiates with foreign nations, a politician)
• Ditcher (worker who dug moats, vaults, foundations and mines)
• Drover (one who drives sheep or cattle to market)
• Dyer (someone who dyed cloth in huge heated vats during its manufacture)
• Eggler (an egg-merchant)
• Ewerer (worker who brought and heated water for the nobles)
• Exchequer (the man responsible for the king’s revenue)
• Falconer (highly skilled expert responsible for the care and training of hawks for the sport of falconry)
• Farmer (raises corn, wheat, carrots, beets, cabbage, etc)
• Fishmonger (fish seller)
• Fruiterer (a seller of fresh fruit)
• Fruitier (fruitseller)
• Fueller (one who sells charcoal, wood, or other fuels)
• Fuller (worker who shrinks & thickens cloth fibers through wetting & beating the material)
• Glass seller (flat/sheet/colored glass)
• Glaziers (a person who cut and shapes sheet glass)
• Gong Farmer (a latrine pit emptier)
• Greengrocer (seller of vegetables and fruits)
• Grocier (duh)
• Harberdasher (seller of men’s clothing)
• Hay merchant (duh)
• Hayward (an officer in charge of [tends] fences and hedges)
• Herald (knights assistant in charge of making pronouncements and proclamations, and one who is an expert in the field of heraldry)
• Hetheleder (one who sells heather as fuel)
• Hunter (meat & furs from badger, deer, fish, lion, foul, beaver, etc)
• Innkeeper (also called a Taverner)
• Ironmonger (one who sells things made of iron)
• Jailer (responsible for a jail, keeps the criminals from getting out)
• Judge (responsible for deciding questions brought to court)
• Keeper of the Wardrobe (in charge of the tailors and laundress)
• Knight (a professional soldier. This was achieved only after long and arduous training which began in infancy)
• Laird (minor baron or small landlord)
• Lighterman (one who ferries goods from ship to shore on a small boat)
• Lime Burner (Using a lime kiln to heating of chalk – or, near the coast, oyster shells – to eventually make a key component of mortar for the master masons)
• Linen-draper (one who deals in linens, calicos, etc.)
• Liner (an officer in charge of tracing property boundaries in the city)
• Marshal (officer in charge of a household’s horses, carts, wagons, and containers. His staff included farriers, grooms, carters, smiths and clerks. He also oversees the transporting of goods)
• Master Mason (responsible for design and oversight of the building of stone structures)
• Master of the Revels (official in charge of court entertainment, and later of the theaters [note: the first Master of the Revels was not appointed until Henry VII in the 15th century])
• Mercer (a dealer in expensive clothing [silk, etc.])
• Messengers (servants of the lord who carried receipts, letters, and commodities)
• Milkmaid (a female servant who milks cows)
• Miller (grinds grain into flour)
• Milliner (makes, trims, designs, & sells hats)
• Miner (skilled professional who dug tunnels for the purpose of undermining a castle)
• Minstrels (part of the castle staff who provided entertainment in the form of singing and playing musical instruments)
• Oil merchant (lamp oil seller)
• Old-clothes dealer (duh)
• Oynter (an oil-merchant)
• Papermaker (processes fibers into paper for documents, maps, packaging, wrapping, etc.)
• Peddler (sells anything)
• Pie seller (Makes and sells pies)
• Plumer (a dealer in feathers NOT a plumber)
• Porter (took care of the doors [janitor], particularly the main entrance. Responsible for the guardrooms. The person also insured that no one entered or left the castle withour permission. Also known as the door-ward.)
• Poulter (seller of poultry)
• Poultner (turns wood into pole arms)
• Pursuivant (officer of arms, ranks below herald, similar duties)
• Reeve (supervised the work on the lord’s property. He checked that everyone began and stopped work on time, and insured nothing was stolen. Senior officer of a borough. Sometimes known as the Church Warden)
• Sapper (an unskilled person who dug a mine or approach tunnel)
• Scullions (responsible for washing and cleaning in the kitchen/scullery)
• Shearmen (a person who trimmed the cloth during its manufacture)
• Shepherd/Dairy Farmer (cares for livestock)
• Shoemaker (a craftsman who made shoes. Known also as Cordwainers [high-end shoes] or Cobblers [shoes for the common folk])
• Shrimper (one who catches shrimp)
• Skinner (a dealer in furs and skins [essentially, the same thing as a furrier])
• Spice merchant (travelling gatherer, seller, trader and mixer of spices)
• Spicer (grocer or dealer in spices)
• Spinster (a name given to a woman who earns her living spinning fibers into yarn)
• Squire (attained at the age of 14 while training as a knight. He would be assigned to a knight to carry and care for the weapons and horse)
• Stable master (Cares for the riding stock)
• Stationer (seller of books, etc.; also, a copyist)
• Steward (took care of the estate and domestic administration. Supervised the household and events in the great hall. Also referred to as a Seneschal [French?])
• Stonemason (cut stone, bricks, etc)
• Summoner (officer of the court who serves subpoenas [see also religious version])
• Tanner (cures and tans hides to make leather)
• Taverner (innkeeper)
• Thresher (one who thrashes grain, separating it from the chaff/straw)
• Unguentary (one who sells unguents [a salve for soothing or healing; an ointment])
• Walker (Assisted in the ‘fixing’ of cloth so it would be soft and still hold it’s shape)
• Waferer (confectioner [a dealer in ‘wafers’, a kind of cake])
• Watchmen (an official at the castle responsible for security. Assisted by lookouts [the garrison])
• Waterseller (Sells drinking water)
• Weaver (someone who cleaned and compacted cloth, in association with the Walker and Fuller)
• Weirkeeper (a keeper of fish traps)
• Wine seller (duh)
• Wood seller / Woodmonger (a seller of fuel wood)
• Woodsman (Guardian/keeper of a forest. Has intimate knowledge of Flora & Fauna. Also called a woodward)
• Woodworkers (also called Board-hewers who worked in the forest, producing joists and beams)
• Wool stapler (one who buys and sells wool wholesale)

Other medieval jobs included:

soap makers, cask makers, cloth makers, candle makers (chandlers), gold and silver smiths, laundresses, grooms, pages, huntsmen, doctors, painters, plasterers, potters, brick and tile makers, glass makers, shipwrights, sailors, butchers, herdsmen, millers, the clergy, parish priests, members of the monastic orders, roadmenders, slingers.

Other Domestic jobs inside the castle or manor:

Personal attendants- ladies-in-waiting, chamber maids, doctor. The myriad of people involved in the preparation and serving of meals- brewers, poulterer, fruiterers, slaughterers, dispensers, cooks and the cup-bearers (who had the dubious privilege of tasting drinks for impurities!)

Others From the Arts

Most of these stay alive and make their money by not staying in one place too long.

• Bard (traveling minstrel)
• Barker (one who advertises at the entrance to a show)
• Bear-ward (the owner of a performing bear)
• Geiger/Fiddler (a player of bowed and stringed instruments)
• Fool (Jester)
• Fresco painter (?)
• Glasspainter (?)
• Harper (Plays the harp)
• Limner (illuminator of books)
• Lutenist (a lute player)
• Minnesinger (a minstrel who specializes in love songs)
• Mummer (actor, specifically the predecessors to mimes)
• Musician (plays one or more instruments)
• Nakerer (a player of the ‘naker’ a small kettle drum)
• Painter (portraits and landscapes)
• Piper (?)
• Player (?)
• Playwright (?)
• Poet (?)
• Sculptor (Carves images in stone)
• Singer (?)
• Troubadour (a minstrel who specializes in romances)
• Tumbler (Acrobatics)
• Writer (?)

And then there’s the Criminal Element!

• boothaler (marauder, plunderer)
• burglar (one who breaks into, and steals things from, other people’s houses.)
• diver (fig. a pickpocket)
• fence (one who trades in stolen goods)
• footpad (one who robs pedestrians)
• outlaw (a person wanted by the law)
• pickpocket (one who steals from the person of another. i.e., from your purse, pocket, bag, etc.)
• poacher (one who illegally kills animals, usually on somebody else’s land)
• silk-snatcher (one who steals bonnets)
• thimblerigger (a professional sharper who runs a thimblerig [a game in which a pea is ostensibly hidden under a thimble and players wager which thimble the pea is under])