woodsman

[pejay]

hi there,
would anyone be kind enough to tell me what a woodsman was, i assume it must have been something to do with wood, could it have been a carpenter
or perhaps someone who cut down trees?

[Geoffers]

would anyone be kind enough to tell me what a woodsman was, i assume it must have been something to do with wood, could it have been a carpenter or perhaps someone who cut down trees?

The Oxford Dictionary gives two definitions:
1) A person who lives in or is familiar with woodland
2) A person skilled in woodcraft.

So it depends on context. Was the person you are thinking of, employed or living on a large rural estate? In which case you may think of him as probably being a forestry worker.

Or was he living in the middle of a wood (maybe working with a charcoal burner, or using wood to make simple furniture?) - or in the centre of a village or town?

Geoffers

[Copper]

I have a direct ancestor who was a woodsman in an early census. In every census there after he was a gamekeeper. I guess he was likely to be a forestry worker. I think he worked on estates in Gloucestershire.

[GeoffD]

Speaking of charcoal burners, I came across an 1841 Devon entry that was clearly written as "Cher Cole Burner". I guess that the accent came through into the written word there!

[pejay]

thanks for replies, yes i guess he was probably a forestry worker, he did live in a small village - well it would be more a hamlet then, so there was probably an estate somewhere nearby where he worked.