Caddie (historical occupation)
A caddie, also spelt "cadie", was an urban occupation in early 18th century Scotland ("in Edinburgh and other large towns")[1] that consisted of running various errands.
Magistrates on the Council determined the number of members, each of whom was issued with an "apron of blue linnen" to be worn as a badge of identification "which none may lend, on pain of losing his privilege".
Slovenly appearance, lodging disreputably and "fighting with any, beating his neighbour, or keeping a correspondence with thieves, pickpockets or debauched persons" were grounds for expulsion.
[7] Apart from the purposes identified by Maitland, caddies acted as town guides hired for their specialist knowledge of the city in an age before street plans and directories were available.
"[8] An English visitor, Edward Topham, writing in the mid-1770s, noted that, "It is impossible at Edinburgh to be concealed or unknown, for though you enter into the City a mere traveller, and unacquainted, you cannot be there many hours before you are watched, and your name, and place of abode, found out by the Cadies.
A gentleman once sent one of these Mercuries with a letter enclosing bills for some hundred pounds; the man lost it, and the Society (who are responsible for these losses) restored the sum to the proprietor".
Captain Edmund Burt, an English soldier visiting Edinburgh in the 1750s, relates how he was assisted to his lodgings at ten o'clock at night, just as the beat of the city drum signalled the time for residents to empty their chamber-pots from their windows with the cry of "Gardyloo!"
[12] "Being in my retreat to pass through a long narrow wynde or alley, to go to my new lodgings, a guide was assigned to me, who went before me to prevent my disgrace, crying out all the way, with a loud voice, "Hud your haunds".
A stranger coming to reside temporarily in Edinburgh got a caddy attached to his service to conduct him from one part of the town to another, to run errands for him; in short, to be wholly at his bidding.
