A coachman is an employee who drives a

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

or carriage, a

horse-drawn vehicle A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have m ...

designed for the conveyance of passengers. A coachman has also been called a coachee, coachy, whip, or hackman. The coachman's first concern is to remain in full control of the horses (or other similar animals such as mules) and another employee, traditionally a

footman A footman is a male domestic worker employed mainly to wait at table or attend a coach or carriage. Etymology Originally in the 14th century a footman denoted a soldier or any pedestrian, later it indicated a foot servant. A running footman deli ...

, would accompany the coach to handle any circumstances beyond the coachman's control.

Duties

"Coachman" is correctly applied to the driver of any type of coach or carriage having an independent seat for the driver. If it is a public transport vehicle the owners might arrange things differently and a coachman may do no more than drive the vehicle. A private coachman reports directly to his employer or the employer's agent or factor and, being in command of the stables, the most important building after the house, is responsible for caring for and providing all the master's horses and carriages and related employees. Where necessary the coachman may delegate the driving of household vehicles but it is a primary duty to personally drive the employer. In a

great house A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or ...

, this would have been a specialty, but in more modest households, the "coachman" would have doubled as the stablehand or

groom A bridegroom (often shortened to groom) is a man who is about to be married or who is newlywed. When marrying, the bridegroom's future spouse (if female) is usually referred to as the bride. A bridegroom is typically attended by a best man an ...

. Even a head chauffeur with under-chauffeurs and mechanics held a much lesser position needing such a small staff and little capital. In early coaches he sat on a built-in compartment called a ''boot'', bracing his feet on a footrest called a ''footboard''. He was often pictured wearing a ''box coat'' or ''box jacket'', a heavy

overcoat An overcoat is a type of long coat (clothing), coat intended to be worn as the outermost garment, which usually extends below the knee. Overcoats are most commonly used in winter when warmth is more important. They are sometimes confused with ...

with or without shoulder capes, double-breasted, with fitted waist and wide lapels; its name derives from its use by coachmen riding on the box seat, exposed to all kinds of weather. An ornamented, often fringed cloth called a ''hammercloth'' might have hung over the coachman's seat, especially of a ceremonial coach. He could be seen taking refreshments at a type of

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

called a ''watering house'', which also provided water for horses. The role of the coachman, who sat on the vehicle, was contrasted with that of the

postillion A postilion or postillion is a person who guides a horse-drawn coach or post chaise while mounted on the horse or one of a pair of horses. By contrast, a coachman controls the horses from the vehicle itself. Originally the English name for a g ...

mounted directly on one of the drawing horses. On the grandest ceremonial occasions the coachman might escort a number of his postillions with his own horse.

Bynames

A coachman was sometimes called a ''

jarvey Jarvey or jarvie may refer to: *The driver of a jaunting car *Coachman, often referred to as a " jarvey" or "jarvie" Literature * ''The Jarvey'' (newspaper), a weekly comic newspaper edited by Percy French *'' The Adventure of the Laughing Jarv ...

'' or ''jarvie'', especially in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

; Jarvey was a nickname for Jarvis. In the first of his

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

stories, ''

A Study in Scarlet ''A Study in Scarlet'' is an 1887 detective novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in literature. The book's title deri ...

'',

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

refers to the driver of a small cab in London as a jarvey. A coachman who drove dangerously fast or recklessly might invoke biblical or mythological allusions: Some referred to him as a jehu, recalling King

Jehu ) as depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III , succession = King of Northern Israel , reign = c. 841–814 BCE , coronation = Ramoth-Gilead, Israel , birth_date = c. 882 BCE , death_date = c. 814 BCE , burial_place = ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, who was noted for his furious attacks in a

chariot A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&nbs ...

(2 Kings 9:20) before he died about 816 BC. Others dubbed him a Phaeton, harking back to the Greek Phaëton, son of

Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the deity, god and personification of the Sun (Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyper ...

who, attempting to drive the chariot of the sun, managed to set the earth on fire. The driver of a

wagon A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...

cart A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed tr ...

drawn by a

draught animal A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for tr ...

was known as

teamster A teamster is the American term for a truck driver or a person who drives teams of draft animals. Further, the term often refers to a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union in the United States and Canada. Origi ...

er.

Hungarian folklore

The English word ''coach'', the Spanish and Portuguese ''coche'', the German ''Kutsche'', the Slovak ''koč'' and the Czech ''kočár'' all probably derive from the Hungarian word "kocsi", literally meaning "of Kocs".

Kocs Kocs () is a village in Komárom-Esztergom county, Hungary. It lies west of Tata (Hungary), Tata and north-west of Budapest. A site of horse-drawn vehicle manufacture from the 1400s, the name is the source of the word ''carriage, coach'' and its ...

(pronounced "kotch") was a Hungarian post town, and the coach itself may have been developed in Hungary. Hungarian villages still hold Coachman of the Year competitions (similar to those held in Zakopane in Poland). The coachman soon became a prominent figure in Hungarian folklore. As the Clever Coachman (tudós kocsis), he turns up unexpectedly in the hero's life, either knowing his name or naming him by his true name. Many of

Steven Brust Steven Karl Zoltán Brust (born November 23, 1955) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. He is best known for his series of novels about the assassin Vlad Taltos, one of a disdained minority group of humans livi ...

's novels play with this image of the coachman. Topinin Yamschik

Other uses

Coachman is also a synonym for the

pennant coralfish The pennant coralfish (''Heniochus acuminatus''), also known as the longfin bannerfish, reef bannerfish or coachman, is a species of fish of the family Chaetodontidae, native to the Indo-Pacific area. Description The pennant coralfish is a s ...

(''Heniochus Monoceros''). The

Royal Coachman The Royal Coachman is an artificial fly that has been tied as a wet fly, dry fly and streamer pattern. Today, the Royal Coachman and its variations are tied mostly as dry flies and fished floating on the water surface. It is a popular and widel ...

is also a type of

fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

used for fly fishing, which exists as both a dry-fly and a wet-fly. The pattern was composed in England pre-1860.

References

External links

Gentlemen Coachmen, by Anne Woodley.

Compiled by Blupete (Peter Landry).
The stables - Coachmen 1662-1837 , British History Online.
{{Authority control Transport occupations Obsolete occupations Personal care and service occupations Postal history