Take this link for a very impressive list of occupations from former days. Check out these samples from the criminal division:
boothaler – marauder, plunderer
diver – fig. a pickpocket
fence – one who trades in stolen goods
footpad – one who robs pedestrians
silk-snatcher – one who steals bonnets
stewsman – probably a brothel keeper – “since the words stew and stewholder both mean a bawd, I’m guessing that a stewsman would be a brothel-keeper as well. Whether bawdry counts as a criminal activity varies at different times and places.”
thimblerigger – a professional sharper who runs a thimblerig (a game in which a pea is ostensibly hidden under a thimble and players guess which thimble it is under)
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