Also (7 subtler, suckler, shuttler, sutteler), 7–9 suttler. [a. early mod.Du. soeteler (mod.Du. zoetelaar) small vendor, petty tradesman, victualler, soldier’s servant, drudge, sutler in an army (= MLG. sut(t)eler, sudeler), f. soetelen to befoul, to perform mean duties, follow a mean or low occupation or trade (cf. LG. suddeln, early mod.G. sudeln to sully: see SUDDLE).]
One who follows an army or lives in a garrison town and sells provisions to the soldiers.
1790. (Dec. 31) Ordonances & Instr. Musters. The Provost Mareschal and Sergeant Maior of euery garrison shal keepe a perfect rolle of all such English victuallers (called in dutch Sutlers) petimarchants,… and other loose persons of the English nation.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, C j b. Sutlers booths and tabernacles.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., II. i. 116. I shal Sutler be vnto the Campe, and profits will accrue.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., King & No K., IV. A dry sonnet of my Corporals To an old Suttlers wife.
1627. Drayton, Agincourt, ccxc. A few poore Sutlers with the Campe that went.
1645. Harwood, Loyal Subj. Retiring-room, 14. Sucklers to your Army.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., cclxviii. Hee … Knocks of the Subtler’s tally with a Crowne.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3714/4. Mr. Wollaston, Suttler, at the Horse-Guards.
1714. Prior, Viceroy, xiii. The suttlers too he did ordain For licences should pay.
1775. R. Montgomery, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), I. 498. If they can send down to the army such articles as soldiers choose to lay out their money upon, employing sutlers for that purpose.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 267. No huts are to be allowed in front of, or between the intervals of the Battalions; their proper situation is in the rear of the line of petty sutlers.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, III. v. An honest little Irish lieutenant … who owed so much money to a camp sutler, that [etc.].
1877. Encycl. Brit., VI. 517/2. Even the licensed sutlers, who follow the autumn manœuvres, are under the Mutiny Act.
1889. Times (weekly ed.), 7 June, 5/4. Elshe van Aggelin … a sutler with the Dutch at the battle of Waterloo.
fig. 1827. Hare, Guesses, Ser. II. (1873), 302. The sutlers and pioneers … who attend the march of intellect.
† b. gen. One who furnishes provisions. Obs.
1710. Brit. Apollo, III. No. 43. 3/1. He came to a Sutlers to Dine.
c. 1710. Celia Fiennes, Diary (1888), 304. Houses for Suttlers for to provide for the servants.
1793. [Earl Dundonald], Descr. Estale of Culross, 55. Many of the Scots Owners of Collieries acting as Sutlers, and supplying their workmen … with Oatmeal.
† c. slang. (See quot.) Obs.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Sutler, he that Pockets up, Gloves, Knives, Handkerchiefs, Snuff and Tobacco-boxes, and all the lesser Moveables.
Hence (all rare) Sutlerage = SUTLERY; Sutleress, a female sutler; Sutlership, the office or occupation of a sutler.
1854. Bentley’s Misc., Oct., 323. The slaughterage, the *sutlerage, and the sewerage.
1747. Gentl. Mag., Dec., 571/1. To these must be added the *sutleresses.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust, II. IV. ii. 308. Speedbooty (sutleress fawning upon him).
1831. New England Farmer, 11 May, 2/3. It is improper to … even prepare for the *sutlership of this general war.
1864. Webster, Sutlership.
1889. Harper’s Mag., July, 178/2. Improper conduct in the disposal of a sutlership or post-tradership in the army.
