headsman

noun

1. (Scotland, obsolete)A chief person; a head man
2. An executioner whose method of dispatching the condemned is decapitation.

   “And of those base-minded jesters or buffons, some have beene seene, that even at the point of death would never leave their jesting and scoffing. He whom the heads-man threw off from the Gallowes cried out, ‘Row the Gally,’ which was his ordinarie by-word.”

   “And made him Headsman, for we said, / "Who's next to be decapited / Cannot cut off another's head / Until he's cut his own off[…]"”

3. (historical)A labourer in a colliery who transports the coal from the workings to the horseway, and who is oftentimes assisted by a younger worker called a foal.
4. One in command of a whaling vessel.