Note 366 — Chapter V · SURNAMES OF OCCUPATION. (TOWN).

It is only right to say that there seems to have been a term ‘coucher’ to imply one who resided in certain towns for purposes of trade of a somewhat doubtful character. In this sense it was but a French sobriquet, meaning in English ‘a lurker.’ A statute of Edward III. concerning the prices of wine and their import speaks of ‘Cochoures Engleys’ (English couchers, or lurkers), living in Rochelle, Bordeaux, etc., who traded in wines. The tenor of the allusion to them, however, is such that we could hardly expect them to be represented openly in an English pageant.