Note 256 — Chapter IV · SURNAMES OF OCCUPATION (COUNTRY).
Reading edition
‘Hewer’ often occurs in composition, as in ‘Robert le Wodehyewere,’ ‘Richard Stonhewer,’ ‘Richard le Blockhewere,’ or ‘William Flesschewer.’ This last may be but a corruption of ‘Flesher.’ After the prevailing fashion of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the termination ‘ster’ was sometimes added instead of ‘er.’ Thus, in the Chester Play we find the procession joined by the ‘Hewsters.’ Richard le Hewster was sheriff in 1382. (Ormerod’s Cheshire, vol. i. 302.)