cropper

1) The skilled workman who ‘cropped’ or sheared the nap from woollen cloth with shears.

The word is poorly documented despite the importance of croppers in the textile area, and the first reference noted is in the diary of the Leeds historian Ralph Thoresby: 1711 A fund for the aged and poor croppers at 2d or 4d per cloth. In 1762, John Brearley wrote: On May first the cropers at Leeds and Wakefild ... have a general meeting and has a great diner provided att some alehouse and each man pays one shilling, Wakefield. In Huddersfield a street was named Cropper Row some time before 1807.

dates 1711 1762 1807

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