penman

noun

1. A scribe, or a person who copies texts.
2. A person with writing skills; a journalist or other author.

   “[T]he holy Pen-men of the Nevv Teſtament ſeem to have borrovv'd and apply'd it [the word mystery] to ſome of the Great and Arduous Truths of Chriſtianity, ſuch as human Reaſon cannot give a clear and explicit Account of.”

   “Well, I often wish I were a penman; but I never could do it. I’ll read any day as long as you like, but that writing, I could never manage.”

   “You have a very bad opinion indeed of the present state of Literature and of literary men, if you fancy that any one of us would hesitate to stick a knife into his neighbour penman, if the latter's death could do the state any service.”

   “But there had been total silence. The Captain evidently was not a great penman, and Rosamond reflected that the sisters might have been abroad.”

3. (slang)A forger.

   “Forgers, counterfeiters (penmen) and other such intellectuals have a certain standing in the underworld and even pickpockets are respected more or less as the masters of a difficult art, but they do not rank with the princes of the big con […]”

name

1. A surname.