Daily AncestorAuctioneer
An auctioneer ran public auctions, calling for bids and selling goods, livestock or land to the highest bidder for the seller.
Wiktionary defines an auctioneer as a person who conducts an auction on behalf of a seller, accepting bids to find the best price. Auctions have been recorded as early as 500 BC and have been used for goods as varied as antiques, livestock and real estate.
In early American records the same work may be called vendue, an archaic word for a public auction, and the person who ran it a vendue master.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Saml. Tolliver, 50, Auctioneer, Penn.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Auctioneer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/auctioneer. Last checked 2026-10-12.