Peddler. Scribe. Town Crier

Peddler

This type of businessman hasn’t quite disappeared, but it is rare to find an itinerant merchant who travels the countryside to sell various goods. In the Middle Ages this would have been a common practice to go from village to village, serving as a economic lifeline to more remote places. However, those who were involved in this trade were often viewed with suspicion by locals, and sometimes accused of being criminals.

Reeve

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, one of the main characters is Oswald, who works as a Reeve, or the manager of an estate. This was a position that went back to Anglo-Saxon times, serving as a local administrator. After the Norman Conquest, it became the person on a manor who oversaw its day-to-day running and handled any minor disputes between the peasantry. The reeve himself was also a peasant, chosen by the lord or elected by his neighbours, to serve for a one-year period. As the feudal system declined, so did this position, but you can find some local officials in Canada who bear the title of reeve.

Scribe

In places where literacy was not common, people had to be hired to write all sorts of documents, from letters to business contracts. A more indepth job was to copy a manuscript, a process that could take months. Men and women at monasteries often took up this role, but in the cities the ability to write was a skill that had much value.

Town Crier

Today one can find people partaking in this ceremonial role, but during the Middle Ages this could be an important position, as it served as the most direct way for local authorities to communicate with their community. In medieval England, these men could be heard calling out “Oyez, Oyez, Oyez! ” (Anglo-Norman for Listen), a term that evolved to become “Hear ye”.

The town crier could be used to read out royal proclamations, local laws, the start of events, or even to note the punishment of criminals.

Water Carrier

In a medieval city the water supply was not distributed evenly – if you were close to a river or a well then it would be fairly easy to get your own water, but others would have to make a daily chore out of drawing water and bringing it back home. It is not surprising that enterprising young men looked for work by doing this task, and in late medieval London there was enough of these “cobs” that they created their own fraternity.

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