Well sinker

It may be some particular set of workmen—brickmakers, wellsinkers, and others, who are the ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ in our locality, but who, unlike the Nethinim of old, cannot be said to have anything to do with the congregation of the Lord.

If I contract with a wellsinker to sink a well in my field I am under no duty to provide for the safety of his workmen.

The name, however, is of wide import, and is applied to masons, bricklayers, plasterers, wellsinkers, field-labourers, roadmakers, and labourers of every kind.

With several other wellsinkers, he advertised in 1850 that he would sink wells at one dollar a foot, and guaranteed a supply of good water.

It was sunk in such an odd place one can only suppose the wellsinker was fooled by his divining rod.