From: keith_nuttle@sbcglobal.net   
      
   On 9/3/2021 12:13 PM, Jenny M Benson wrote:   
   > In the 1861 Census (RG9-84-45-20)) Elizabeth Harris (who may have been   
   > married to a relative of mine) appears to have been a "Hawker of Jays".   
   >   
   > It seems unlikely this was related to birds, so what was a Jay?   
   I don't know if the meaning carried across the ocean, but a hawker of   
   Jays (Jay Hawker) was a native of Kansas USA.  More particularly in the   
   late 1850's and 1860's, a band of Union (Northern) guerrillas from   
   Kansas that worked to maintain Kansas as a Free State.   
      
   I don't know why this term with the US definition would appear in an   
   English census.   Could it have something to do with Falconry, or hawker   
   (seller) of Jays?   
      
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