>I have come across "shoorman" as an occupation in a 17th century quarter
>sessions records.
>Does it describe a specific occupation?
It might, as per OED, be an obscure Shearman. But a Shearman (who also
seems to appear as Sherman and Sharman) might have used his shears on the
sheep or on the surface of woven cloth to remove the nap to produce a finer
quality of cloth. It has also been suggested that the shearman might have
been operating a plough share or shear. These names all seem to cluster
around Nottinghamshire, Rutland and that sort of area.
My late father used to say that Sharman derived from shire man - either the
equivalent of shire reeve or the man who was sent to the shire court from
the local court. Either way a much more important person. This
attribution is, so far as I know, based purely on snobbery and is therefore
much to be favoured.
Frank Sharman
Wolverhampton
01902 763246
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