What was a .... ?

• Badger - a licensed huckster. Formerly badgers dealt in corn, butter, cheese and fish, and had to be licensed by the justices. They were often guilty of regratin [buying up goods and then selling for a higher price, sometimes at the same market], and were held liable by statute.
  
  Hence
  Badgering - the act or practise of buying provisions in one place and selling them in another.
  Badgerer - one who badgers or cheapens in price.
  
  
• Drover - one who drives animals in droves to market. A cattle dealer. The drovers used to follow old traditional routes and would often travel many miles.*
  *Mike Spencer notes that "A drover had to be at least thirty years old,a householder and married, to obtain a licence."
  
  
• Huckster - one who retails small wares, provisions or the like; a pedlar; hawker; especially one who raises and sells garden products; a market gardener.
  To hawk goods about was the privilege of men who were then called hawkers, and of women who became hawkestres, from which our huckster
  Schele de Vere Studies in English p.152 [s.1867]

Mike Spencer, who researched the list of names below in early 2003, writes that this is by no means an exhaustive list. The records cover 1746-1772, so many years and sessions have not been covered, but if you had ancestors who dealt in corn, sold small wares in the streets or market,or sold dairy products, cheese and eggs then you may find mention of them in the volumes. When most parish records reveal very little at this date about occupations it nice to be able to put that little bit of information against a name to let them live again so to speak, and these records supply that little bit for those who needed licences to work.

The information is given here with the kind permission of Derbyshire Record Office, with whom copyright remains.