1) A name for the men who worked alongside urban butchers in the Tudor period but who were subject to different regulations.
1589 ordeinid that no maister ... shall by him self ... dresse anie manner of fleshe ... furthe of there owne howses or shoppes ...but that the pennymen ... shall have the dressing of all suche fleshe with the whole benefit thereof, York
1610 that no butcher dwelling within this towne commonly called a penny-man, shall take for wages of any other butcher for killing of meat above 2d for every beast, Doncaster. The inference may be that slaughtering and dressing animals was the pennyman’s task and the butchers were retailers. The earlier history of these trade practices is likely to be found in York’s records: 1483 in esyng of the tolls, murage, bucher penys and skaitgyld, York.