HAWKERS, anciently were fraudulent persons, who went about from place to place buying and selling brass, pewter, and other merchandise, which ought to be uttered in open market. In this sense the word is mentioned anno 25 Hen. VIII. c. 6. and 33 ejusdem, c. 4.—The appellation hawkers seems to have arisen from their uncertain wandering, like those who with hawks seek their game where they can find it.