Also 4–7 belman. [f. BELL sb.1 + MAN.]
1. A man who rings a bell; esp. a man employed to go round the streets of a town and make public announcements, to which he attracts attention by ringing a bell; a town-crier.
(Formerly a bellman announced deaths, and called on the faithful to pray for the souls of the departed; a bellman also acted as night-watchman, and called the hours.)
1391. Test. Ebor. (1836), I. 163. Le belman portand’ campanam per villam … ij.d.
1463. Bury Wills (1850), 17. Item I wele the ij bellemen haue ij. gownys.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1209/1. Certaine houses in Cornehill, being … cried by a belman.
1648. Herrick, Hesper. (1869), 221. I heare the cock, The bell-man of the night.
1659–60. Pepys, Diary, 16 June. I staid up till the bell-man came by … and cried, ‘Past one of the clock, and a cold, frosty, windy morning.’
1858. Dickens, Lett. (1880), II. 80. There is a bellman announcing something.
† 2. He who ‘bears the bell’; the best or most excellent. Obs. rare.
1617. Markham, Caval., V. 55. Repaire to the Stable of greal Princes, where commonly are the bell-men of this Art.
Hence Bellmanship, the office of bellman.
1839. Blackw. Mag., XLVI. 386. The election of John Tapps to the bellmanship of Buzzleton.
