jan 1, 1490 - souter

Description:

A maker or mender of shoes, derived from a word meaning to sew or stitch. 1202 <i>et terram Thomæ Sutoris</i>, Swillington (SS94/31); 1298 <i>Adam Sutor</i>, Hunmanby (YRS31/67). It was particularly common in Yorkshire in the poll tax of 1379 and occurred thirty times in the wapentakes which include Bradford and Wakefield, mostly as an occupation but occasionally as a by-name, e.g<i>. Johannes Mylner, sout</i>[er], Flockton; <i>Johannes filius Galfridi sutor</i>, Dewsbury (PTWR). At that time these tradesmen were closely involved in the tanning of leather: <i>Hugo Souter</i> of Quarmby (1379) is mentioned in the court rolls in 1386 holding the office of souter or tanner – <i>offic. sutor et tannator</i> (MD225/1/112). In a city such as York the terms ‘shoemaker’ and ‘souter’ continued to overlap in meaning through the fifteenth century. In a case heard in the <i>Counsail chaumbre</i> in 1490 the words of Sir Thomas Gribthorp, a priest, were reported by two different witnesses: firstly <i>ther sholdbe ijc men that was no shomakers to take the part of shomakers </i>and secondly <i>ther woldbe iijc or iiijc men not being sowters that wold name thame selfs sowters </i>(YRS103/57).

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