Definition of "groomling"

[…] though it was pitch-dark, and we were obliged to be escorted by grooms and groomlings with candles and lanterns; a very necessary precaution, as the winds blew not more violently without the house than within.

1835, William Beckford, Italy: With Sketches of Spain and Portugal, volume 1, page 13

Half an hour later the two girls were in the wood near Tangley Manor, gathering wild flowers, while the ponies waited in a sheltered corner, and the groomling in charge slumbered placidly in the bottom of the carriage, with the reins in his hands.

1880, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “In Tangley Wood”, in Just as I Am […], volume II, London: John and Robert Maxwell […], page 230