From Walter's Web World at digital.net/~kenaston.

Misters

 

Those of us who receive letters and notices from Government will note that such are addressed to Mr. so and so, such as Mr. John F. Kennedy. Are you a 'Mister'?

The Continental Congress, in designating the classes of foreign ministers, calls the third class "residents," and then declares one of the titles they receive is "Mr." Is a "Mr." (mister) before your name understood as your title as a resident?

Notice that the term "mister" is apparently new to legal dictionaries, and may either be used as a title of courtesy, or as a designation of "trade, craft, occupation, employment, office." There being no conjunctive article in this definition from Black's 6th, it therefore must be that the term "mister" means, in certain usages, all the meanings: trade & craft & occupation & employment & office. Also note its similarity with "maister" as an old form of "master," which in turn can mean "employer." Therefore "mister," I believe, designates one as a "resident," and probably an "employer."

 

 

From Journals of the Continental Congress:

FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1778, page 698:

That Ministers being of three different classes, viz, Postponed. on reconsidering Agd. 20 July proposed amendment rejected. 1st. Ambassadors, 2nd. Ministers Plenipotentiary and Envoys, and 3rd. Residents, it will be necessary to establish a ceremonial for each according to their relative dignity. Then your Committee report for an Ambassador, the following ceremonial, viz.

FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1778, page 700:

Your Committee Report for a Resident the following ceremonial.

He shall when he arrives at the place of the sitting of Congress wait on the President as before. He shall be waited upon by the Master of the ceremonies, and by him brought to the House in the Coach. He shall be announced and make one bow to the President and the Postponed on reconsidering 20 July. House and receive one, and the whole be seated together. His chair shall not be raised from the floor. Having spoken and being answered, He and the President shall bow to each other. When again he shall bow to and be bowed to by Agd. the President and the whole house and be conducted home in the same manner in which he was brought to the house. He shall have no title.

[And further after the audience the Members of Congress [[shall pay the first visit to an ambassador and they]] shall be Within [] stand rest out. first visited by a minister Plenipotentiary or Envoy [[and by a Resident]]1 The Secretary of Congress, Treasurer, President of the Board of War, and the like, shall pay the first visit to a Plenipotentiary or Envoy, and shall receive it from a Resident.

[Note 1: 1 "Relative to Ambassador and Resident postponed 20 July." Note on the report in the writing of
Henry Laurens.]

The Stile of Congress shall be, the Congress of the United States of North America. And when addressed it shall be thus. May it please your Excellency Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Congress, &c. &c.

The address to an ambassador shall be, May it please your Excellency &c. &c.

To an Envoy or Plenipotentiary, Most Honorable &c.

To a Resident Sir, Monsieur, My Lord, Mr. and the like, according to his appellation in his own Country;2

[Note 2: 2 These four paragraphs on style of address appear to have been struck out.]

Those who shall visit upon a Public Minister, shall always inform him, that if in any audience he chooses to speak on matters of business, Agd. 20 July. it will be necessary to deliver what he shall say in writing to the President, and if he shall not incline

[Page 701]

thereto, it will be from the constitution of Congress impracticable for him to receive an immediate answer.1

[Note 1: 1 This report, in the writing of Gouverneur Morris, is in the Papers of the Continental Congress,
No. 25, I, folio 47.]

 

 

Mister. - Practical Standard Dictionary, Funk & Wagnalls (1941)

n. Master; a title of address prefixed to the name and to some official titles of a man; commonly written Mr.; as, Mr. Darwin; Mr. Chairman. [Cor. of MASTER. n.]

mister. - The Oxford English Dictionary [italicization and bolding are in original]

I. Occupation, service, etc.
1. Handicraft, trade; profession, craft. man of mister: a craftsman. Obs.
2. Office, duty, business, function. Chiefly qualified by possessive pron. Obs.
3. Employment, occupation; practice. to do, use (such) misters: to be so employed. Obs.
4. Skill or cunning in a profession; art. Obs.
5. Comb. mister man, misters (genitive) man: a craftsman, artificer; a man having a certain occupation. Also mister folk. Phrases like all mister men, what mister man, such a mister man came to be analysed as 'men of all misters', 'a man of what mister', 'of such a mister'; and these were subsequently interpreted as = 'men of all classes', 'a man of what (such a) class, of kind', 'what kind of a man', etc. The idiom occurs as an archaism in Spenser and later writers, from whom it was adopted (but with misapprehension of its meaning) by Pope and Scott; it survives dialectally in Yorkshire (see E.D.D.).
II. 6. Instrument, tool. Obs.
III. Need, necessity.
7. Need arising from the circumstances or facts of the case. mister is, (it) is mister: it is necessary.
8. A condition in which help is needed, or there is a lack of some necessary thing; a state of difficulty or distress; esp. a state of destitution, lack of means. Phr. in or at (one's) mister. Rarely pl. = necessitous circumstances. In later use Sc.
b. to have mister: to be in straits or in necessity; to be in want of something. Obs.
9. Need or want of something specified. Const. of, to. Chiefly in to have mister. Obs.
b. with ellipsis of prep. Obs.
c. with inf. to have mister: to need require (to do something). Obs.
10. a. pl. Necessary articles, fittings, etc.; necessaries. Obs.
b. Something needed or necessary. rare.
11. A matter or respect in which some necessity or want is felt; a case of need. Sc. in phr. with the vb. to beet: see BEET.

Mister. - New Comprehensive International Dictionary of the English Language, Funk & Wagnalls (1971)

1.  Master; a title of address prefixed to the name and to some official titles of a man: commonly written Mr.: Mr. Darwin; Mr. Chairman.  2.   Official salutation in addressing a warrant officer, flight officer, or a cadet in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and, in some practice, officers below the rank of captain.  In the Navy it is directed to those of all ranks below that of commander; in the Maritime Service it is applicable to all ranks below the captain of the ship.   [Var. MASTER]

MISTER. - Not in Black's 3rd

MISTER. - Black's 6th

A title of courtesy. A trade, craft, occupation, employment, office.   [Notice the last definition has no conjunctive article; therefore it must be that mister means trade & craft & occupation & employment & office.]

MISTERY. - Not in Bouvier's

MISTERY. - Black's 3rd

A trade or calling.  Cowell.

MAISTER. - Black's 3rd

MASTER. - Black's 3rd