Obs. Also 7 spador, 8 spadier. [Explained by Holland (Camden’s Brit., 185) as f. SPADE sb.1, but perh. an error for SPALLIARD.] A laborer in the Cornish tin-mines.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., To Rdr. 3. A Spadiard that worketh in mines, who while he … followeth the maine vaines, seeth not the hidden small fillets.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon (1811), 11. There are also labourers, that serve for daily wages, whereof be two sorts: the one is called a spadiard, a daily labourer in tin works.
1630. T. Westcote, View Devon., I. xi. (1845), 53. Of these last are two sorts; one named a spador or searcher for tin.
[1661. Blount, Glossogr. (ed. 2), Spadiards, Laborers in the Tin-mines of Cornwall.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Spadiers, Labourers that dig in the Mines in Cornwall.]
