roughmasonn.
/ˈrʌfmeɪsn/, U.S. /ˈrəfˌmeɪs(ə)n/ Masonry. Now historical.
A mason who undertakes work requiring less skill or experience than that of a Freemason (Freemason n. 1).Common esp. from the 15th to the 17th cent.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > workers with specific materials > worker with stone > [noun] > who works with rough stone
roughmason1379
rough settera1669
1379–80 in F. Collins Reg. Freemen York (1897) I. 78 (MED) Rad. de Holdernesse, rughmason.
c1442 in J. Blair & N. Ramsay Eng. Medieval Industries (1991) ix. 233 [The clerks at Eton distinguished the bricklayers as] positores de brike alias roughmasons.
1445–6 Rolls of Parl.: Henry VI (Electronic ed.) Parl. Feb. 1445 §44. m. 6 Þe wages of..a maister tyler or sclatter, rough mason and meen carpenter, and other artificers..by the day .iii. d. with mete and drynk.
1504 in S. Tymms Wills & Inventories Bury St. Edmunds (1850) 99 Herry Brown, rough mason.
1538 T. Elyot Dict. Cementarii, daubers, pargetters, rowghe masons, whiche do make onely walles.
1554–5 in R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. (1886) II. 470 Covenauntted with Scott the ruyghe mayson to make vpp the new wall and chimnays.
1602 Burford Reg. in Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS: Var. Coll. (1901) I. 165 For a maister free Mason, vd. For a maister rough Mason, vd.
1689 C. Wren in Wren Soc. Sept. (1937) 14 67 A Ruffe Mason mending ye Mound wall..at 2s 2d per day.
1781 Bristol Poll-bk. 143 Jones Henry rough mason.
1831 G. Henson Civil Hist. Framework-knitters iv. 120 The masons in England, even so late as the year 1680, were known by the terms of free mason, rough mason, hard hewer, and quarry men.
1883 J. Wilkinson Worthies, Families, & Celebrities Barnsley & Distr. xii. 457 The Bowers and their men were employed to do the rough mason work, while Mr. John Platt..was employed to execute the superior work connected with the front.
1902 Builder 19 Apr. 392/2 The process of protecting the walls from the weather has been..to carry them up in rough mason's work to a more or less continuous level, and cope them with a flat coping.
1955 Econ. Jrnl. 65 299 Hewers or free masons who dressed and carved the stone, and layers or rough masons who fixed it in position.
2000 R. King Brunelleschi's Dome (2001) xiii. 111 Blocks of marble were first of all cut from their mountain beds by roughmasons wielding an array of tools..to break the larger pieces.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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