ticket-porter

English

Alternative forms

• ticket porter

Noun

ticket-porter (plural ticket-porters)

1. (now historical) A porter licensed by the City of London Corporation; an official street porter in London.
   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 83, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume III, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

     [H]is servant put in his hand a packet, which had been delivered by a ticket-porter at the door.

   • 1843, John Scott, Scott's New Reports in the Court of Common Pleas, page 47:

     [T]he production of a certificate to the governor of the said society of tackle-house and ticket-porters for the time being, from the clerk of the company to which such porter belongs, of such bond having been duly entered into by such porter, should be deemed and taken to be fully sufficient.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 49, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     You could hear the ticket-porter, who lolls about Shepherd’s Inn, as he passed on the flags under the archway: the clink of his boot-heels was noted by everybody.

   • 1884, Report of cases argued and determined in the English courts:

     [H]e, the plaintiff was on the said wharf with divers, to wit, three servants, then being ticket-porters of the said city duly and regularly admitted, and then was ready and willing and offered to unship, land, and carry the said casks of olive oil, and no other tackle-porter belonging to the said city then was present to unship, land, or carry the said casks of olive oil […] .

   • 2012, Jerry White, London in the Eighteenth Century, Bodley Head, published 2017, page 223:

     Around 2,000 or more ticket porters, their names stamped on a metal ticket hung from their belts, were authorised to ply for hire at one of ninety-two stands about the quays and in the streets.

Usage notes

• The ticket-porters were originally distinct from the tackle-house porters (or tackle-porters) of the chief merchant companies, though later both were united under the Society of the Tackle-house and Ticket Porters.

See also

• tackle-porter