Death Notice: The Honorable Jonathan Child (1860)

Death. 

--The Hon. Jonathan Child, ex-Mayor of Rochester, N. Y., died in Buffalo on Saturday, in the 76th year of his age. His father and grandfather were revolutionary soldiers, and Mr. Child himself served in the war of 1812.Mr. Child was a temperance man, and he resigned his office of Mayor because he could not consistently sign licenses to sell liquor. 

Sources:  Richmond Daily Dispatch,
                 November 2, 1860
                 Find a Grave: Jonathan Child

Plucky Woman ~ Dr. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck

 

Plucky Woman.

--Mrs. Dr. Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck, of Orange county, N. Y., who insists that a woman should not be taxed unless she is allowed to vote, has thought to shame the collector out of his demand by offering to work out her road-tax. The doctress, having somewhat passed the bloom of youth, made no impression upon the official, and therefore, instead of paying under protest, as some of her sisters do, she went upon the road and drove a cart. 

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

More Trouble in Kansas (1860)

More trouble in Kansas.

--The Leavenworth (K. T.) Times has information from Southern Kansas that sixty dragoons, under Captain Sturgis, accompanied by the Indian Agent, Cowan, had been driving the settlers from what is known as the Cherokee neutral lands. The Times' correspondent states that seventy- four houses had been burned and the occupants turned out. Much excitement prevailed in Southern Kansas, but it is thought the statements are greatly exaggerated.

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

Fraud on Females

Fraud on females.

--A day or two since a New York sharper lauded in Philadelphia, and hired a room. He then advertised in the Ledger for young ladies to learn a business which would pay from $7 to $10 per week.--Quite a number of females answered the advertisement, and were told that they must pay $10 each. This, all except ten or twelve of them declined. The latter paid over the funds and were told to call the next day. They did so, and found the sharper had vanished during the night.

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860
 

$20,000 Embezzled

Twenty thousand Dollars Embezzled.

--On the 17th ult., the firm of Carbajose, Ybarzabal & Co., merchants of Havana, Cuba, were robbed of about $20,000, by a man named Pastor Riemus, who had long been employed by them as collector and confidential clerk.--With the funds thus acquired, Riemus set out for New York, arriving there on the 22d ult., in the steamship Bienville. 

Information of the matter having been sent to Key West, it was thence communicated by telegraph to [ N. ]York, and the accused was arrested Monday evening. A search of the apartment occupied by the prisoner resulted in the recovery of about $11,000 of the money, and it is hoped that the balance will be found. Riemus will be detained pending the action of the authorities. 

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

Execution of a Murderer ~ Daniel Clifford

Execution of a Murderer.

--On Friday week Daniel Clifford was hung in the jail yard at Dubuque, Iowa, for murdering a man named Wood, whom he robbed of $27. Clifford was but 22 years of age, yet the murder was so unprovoked that hardly any sympathy has been manifested for him. He refused to eat any breakfast on the morning of the execution, and had to be supported while on his way to the gallows. Arrived there he had to be lifted up the steps. Although the body fell about seven feet when the rope was cut, the wretched man died from strangulation.

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

New Market Races

New Market races

--Second Day.--The sport at New Market, Wednesday, was favored with fine weather, but owing to the rain of Tuesday, the track was very heavy. There were four entries for the Bollingbrook Hotel Purse of $200, two mile heats--Mr. Belcher's John L., Mr. Beazley's Frank Hicks, Mr. McDaniel's Gov. Wickliffe, and Mr. Hall's Great Eastern. Two heats were run, and were won by John L, Frank Hicks, Wickliffe and Great Eastern following respectively, and in the same position in both heats. The time of each heat was also identical, being four minutes exactly.

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

The Subtlety of Poisons (Arsenic)

The Subtlety of Poisons.

 

--At a recent discussion before the Society of Arts, in London, on the detection of arsenical poisoning, Dr. Letheby traced the progress of toxicological research from the trial of Donald, in 1815, up to the present time. A little while before that period, ten grains of arsenic were required to make a metallic test satisfactory in a court of law. Afterwards, Dr. Black improved the process till he could detect the poison if he had one grain to operate upon. It was then thought a marvel of toxicological skill when Dr. Christison said he only required the 16th of a grain; but now we can trace the presence of the 250,000,000th of a grain of arsenic! It is to be feared that the detection of this particular poison has reached an almost dangerous degree of delicacy, and extreme caution is necessary in examination for its criminal administration. We live surrounded by means of unconsciously absorbing traces of arsenic; we breathe arsenical dust from the green wall papers of our rooms; the confectioners supply it wholesale in their cake ornaments and sweetmeats; the very drugs prescribed for our relief are tainted with arsenic; nay, more, even our vegetable food, as Professor Davy has lately pointed out, may be contaminated with arsenic; and there is probably no drinking water containing iron without a trace of arsenic as well. The poison may thus be stored up in the system till, in the course of years, the amount becomes appreciable.

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

A Young Lady Shot by Her Lover

Tragic affair in Boston.
a young lady shot by her Lover.

A tragic affair occurred in Boston on Tuesday, the chief actor being Jos. G. Hernandez, recently of Savannah, Ga., but for some time a storekeeper in Boston, and the victim was Miss Fanny May, a young lady of seventeen, whom he had met by appointment at a shoe store in Hanover street. The Herald says:

Miss May was the first to arrive at the store, and she was sitting at a desk in the rear part of the store, looking over some papers and doing some figuring. Hernandez entered the store and was observed by one of the parties in the store to be talking with Miss May, and the next thing that was noticed was the report of a pistol, and Miss May was heard to scream and then to stagger back and fall to the floor. After regarding her for a moment, Hernandez started to leave, but after taking a few steps he took a paper from his vest pocket, and swallowing the contents, threw the paper into the stove. He then again cocked his pistol, which he had all along held in his hand, and placing the muzzle to his left side, just under the breast, he fired and fell. At this time the young man in the store had in a measure recovered from the fright and agitation into which the shocking tragedy had thrown him, and he called lustily for assistance, which was soon at hand.

The scene in the store at the time was most tragic. The attendant was imploring assistance with horrified eagerness, while on the floor, weltering in their blood, lay the bodies of the apparently murdered woman and her murderer. Miss May was lifted into a chair, and it soon appeared that her hurts were not so serious as were feared. The ball had struck on her forehead, and, glancing off, had made but a flesh wound, from which she will recover. She was taken to the home of her relatives in a carriage. 

Mr. Hernandez, when raised, was bleeding very freely, and was taken to his residence at No. 32 Leverett street, where the doctors expect he will soon breathe his last. The wound made by the pistol ball is in the lower part of the abdomen, on the left side, and it is not believed that this alone will prove fatal. The physicians fear, however, that the poison may have a fatal effect.

It has been ascertained that he took a dose of poison, and that the drug was arsenic.--After taking a small quantity, he threw the remainder, with the paper, into the stove. A portion of this has been saved. Mr. Hernandez states himself that he took the arsenic, and that he purchased it in Fall River. It appears that four shots were fired, the first of which was directed to Miss May. He fired two across the room in rather a promiscuous manner, and the fourth he discharged with suicidal intentions.

Miss May is a second cousin of the wife of Mr. Hernandez, and for some years past has been befriended by her, and it was by her instigation that Fanny was employed by her husband to aid and assist him in his business. For the term of two years past, Mrs. Hernandez states that she has been well aware of an improper intimacy existing between Miss May and her husband, and though as a wife she has felt justly indignant and hurt at this state of facts, still she contented herself with earnestly remonstrating with her husband, and discharging Fanny from his employ, which discharge she paid no heed to, nor did Mr. Hernandez insist on the discharge. Thus matters have continued along until very recently, when Miss Fanny received the addresses of a young man in Lawrence, and became desirous of breaking her connection with her former employer, after having, as Mrs. Hernandez says, been the means of almost ruining him in a financial point of view.

The result of all this has been the terrible attempt at life which we have already detailed. Its cause is most immediately explained in his own language just before the attempted commission of the dreadful tragedy. It is stated in the following:

Dear Wife:

--Forgive me for what I do.--Live for your children. I have been as man and wife for two years with Fanny May. She has been the cause of this. If Mr. Hall had not interfered this would not have happened. May God bless you, my poor children. I cannot live long. I have been ruined in business by Fanny May. You will find some friends left when I am gone. You need not be ashamed of what I have done. Those who have ruined me will have to go with me. 

Friend Slater, see me decently buried. I am not afraid to meet my God. Keep me as long as possible, and bury May and I.

Good bye,

Joseph.

Boston,Oct. 30th, 1860.

He was a middle-aged man, of a dark complexion, and was well known on Hanover st., as a dealer in fancy goods, and an active man. He had just concluded a purchase of a bill of goods, at a fancy goods house a few doors above the scene of the tragedy, and we do not learn that at this time he showed any signs of excitement or insanity, or that he appeared any other way than in his usual manner.

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

Narrow Escape

Narrow escape.

 

--The mail train of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, which is detained by the washing away of the bridges some distance above Newbern, made a very narrow escape from serious damage Mondaynight. The train had crossed a bridge, against which the swollen stream was fiercely rushing, and proceeded about half a mile, when another was reached, which it was deemed prudent to examine before attempting to pass. While the conductor was engaged in the examination, the engineer, who remained on the engine, felt it sinking beneath him, and, with remarkable presence of mind, commenced to back his train. Scarcely had he removed from the spot, when the embankment was swept away. A moment's delay, and all on board would probably have met a fearful death.--The train was backed until the first bridge was reached, and that, too, was found to be gone.
Lynchburg (Va.) Republican.

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

 

Nautical Mystery

The Maelstrom.

 

--The following passage from a letter from Norway, published in the Boston Transcript, is interesting to those whose ideas have heretofore vacillated between a belief in its terrors, as depicted by representations of large vessels just disappearing beneath the raging waters, and the frequently circulated modern statement of its fabulousness: 

"The far-famed Maelstrom is found between two of the Southern islands of the Lofoden group; and from one of these islands it is named the 'Mosken-stream,' or, in Norwegian, the 'Mosken-stream.' Its violence greatly depends on the direction and strength of the wind, as well as on the tides, and the moon's influence thereupon. It is said to be most violent with gales of westerly winds, and on the full and change of the moon. Sometimes a small boat can pass right across it without danger; at other times it would be dangerous for even a large steamer to approach it. Not that she would be swallowed up and whirled down to the mermaids, but that she would probably be turned round, lose her steering, and be dashed against the surrounding rocks."

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

Attempt of a Young Lady to Commit Suicide

Attempt of a young lady to Commit suicide

--She is made very Sick, but does not Die.--In one of our most flourishing suburban villages, a young man has recently established himself in the apothecary business, with a good degree of success. A short time since, a daughter of one of the most prominent citizens of the place called upon him, and said she wanted to buy some strychnine. He looked at her, and noticing marks of confusion in her countenance, had a vague suspicion of something wrong. He accordingly answered by an evasive question, as to whether she knew that apothecaries were not allowed to sell poison, telling her that if she would bring the prescription of a physician it would be all right. She answered, with a smile, that she only wanted to kill a cat; that she was somewhat attached to the animal, hated to kill it, and therefore would like something that would cause as little pain as possible, but would be sure death. 

The apothecary did not like to offend the young lady, but still had his suspicions. He accordingly mixed a preparation and gave it to her. As he suspected, she went home, took it, was very sick, and finally, calling her father, told him she was tired of this world, had taken strychnine, and had only a few minutes to live. The father, after much persuasion, obtained the name of the apothecary and rushed to him. The latter received him without emotion, and in response to the anxious parent's inquiries, told him the circumstances, and explained that he had given her a dose which would only produce a very nauseating, and perhaps beneficial effect. This proved true, the young lady, who was only about 17 years of age, being made very sick, and now having recovered entirely.

Source:  Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

A Man Burns Himself to Death

Horrible suicide

--A Man Burns Himself to Death.--The suicide of James Black, an innkeeper at New Berwick, Canada, by burning, has been mentioned. The Journal gives the particulars of this terrible case of self-destruction: 

Black had kept a tavern for some twenty years in Puslinch; about a year ago, in one of his fits of the "blues," he beat his wife till her life was despaired of, but, through great care, she recovered. He rented the tavern and removed to Mount Forest and started in business as a butcher, which did not prosper with him. A few months ago he removed to Clinton, on the line of the Buffalo and Huron railway, where his family are at present. He came here on Saturday week, and at first appeared very unsettled, and told some of his acquaintances that this would be the last time they would meet — they had better shake hands. The week passed on till Saturdaymorning, when he was noticed going into a field where some boys were burning brush, and sat down on the burning pile till all his clothes were burned off him. The boys gave the alarm, when two persons came and dragged him off, but he still persisted in going on. They tried to take him off a second time, but he threatened them, when one ran for assistance, and with some others, got him off, but he still wanted to remain on, saying that was his doom. He was then entirely roasted, not a particle of clothing remaining on him. He bore it all without any signs of torture, and lingered on for about eight hours, when death came to his relief.

Source:   Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 2, 1860

Five Historic Hauntings

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there is no denying that many hauntings were human, rather than spiritual, mysteries: ghosts were often the product of personal fears, anxieties, lies, crimes and deceits that are often difficult to fathom as historians. Here are five spooky cases for you to consider…

1621: Nunnifying Mary Boucher

Mary Boucher was a London servant woman employed by a Catholic lady. According to the clergyman John Gee (d1639), the lady hatched a plot with three Jesuits to convert Mary to Catholicism, and so have her ‘Nunnified’. What better way to persuade Mary to convert to the Catholic faith than to convince her that ghosts returned from purgatory?

One of the conspirators dressed up in a white sheet and approached Mary as she lay in bed one night. The supposed spirit touched Mary with “a hand cold as earth or iron” and claimed to be her long-deceased godmother: “See that you tell my children what you have seen, and how their mother appeared unto you”.

When Mary told her mother about the ghostly visitation, she convinced her daughter that it was nothing but a popish trick. But maybe John Gee, who claimed to have visited Mary to verify the story, was making up his own stories to deflect rumours that he himself was in thrall to the papacy…

1650: The haunting of Susan Lay

In 1650 an Essex servant girl named Susan Lay went to her local magistrate in great distress, saying that she was haunted by the ghost of her mistress, Priscilla Beauty, the wife of an alehouse keeper. Lay had given birth to illegitimate children by both Beauty’s husband and her son, William. Both children died in infancy.

Priscilla passed away at Easter 1650. Three days after she was buried, Susan – who was then living in the alehouse barn – began to be visited by the pale ghost of her mistress calling to her, “Sue, Sue, Sue”. The anguished Susan thought the spirit of her mistress had come back from the dead to punish her for her sins – “oh this woman will be the destruction of me”, she said.

When Susan threatened to commit suicide, William told her, “this is a just judgement of God upon you for if she walks, she walks to you and nobody else.”

1765: Shrieking and groaning at Hinton Ampner

The haunting of the Manor House at Hinton Ampner, near Alresford, Hampshire, began simply enough with the inexplicable banging of doors. A groom said he had seen an apparition of its former owner, Lord Stawell.

Mary and William Ricketts had purchased the manor in 1765, and soon began to regret it. When William left for a lengthy trip to Jamaica four years later, leaving his wife and three young children, the poltergeist phenomena began to intensify: Mary began to hear footsteps, knocking noises, and the rustle of silk in her bedchamber. By the spring of 1771, mysterious murmurings, groanings, and shrieks plagued the Manor House.

William was still abroad. Mary’s brother, Sir John Jervis, came to investigate, but could find no rational cause for the disturbances. The family moved out shortly after, and the house was demolished a few years later.

Was it the ghost of Lord Stawell, or perhaps another previous owner, Sir Hugh Stewkeley? A local pauper had told the family that Stewkeley was rumoured to have buried treasure under the floorboards of the dining room.


_{c1865: a man clinging to a tree in the face of an apparition in a forest. London Stereoscopic Company Comic Series - 72 (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images).}

1834: A ghostly tenancy dispute

In February 1834 four men applied to the Bristol magistrates to nullify the tenancy agreement they had signed because their rooms were haunted. One of the men said he saw the ghosts of two women, one wearing mourning clothes. Another’s daughter claimed she also saw the ghost of a woman with light hair and grey eyes, who wore a cap with lace strings. She felt a draft of air as the ghostly woman passed by her bed. As well as these visions, all four tenants complained of a strange blue light appearing in their rooms.

The magistrate tried to convince them that there were no such things as ghosts. But the men refused to believe it, with one of them citing the Reverend John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, as an authority on their reality. Alas, the law could do nothing for the haunted tenants.

1861: A murder revealed by a ghost?

One evening in January 1861, several men and women were gathered at the fireside in the cottage of Joseph Allinson, in Kendal, when terrible knocking sounds emanated from the room above where Joseph’s bedridden, purblind wife lay.

The alarmed fireside congregation proceed upstairs to investigate the cause of the mysterious noises. Mrs Allinson revealed to them that she had just been visited by an apparition of a grim, rough-looking man dressed in black. It breathed in her face, causing the bedside candle to burn dim before being extinguished by some unseen hand.

The ghost pointed to the floor and in a thick, husky, hollow voice told her that she must dig under the hearthstone in the cellar, and there she would find something buried. The ghost then vanished.

Joseph and his friends immediately headed down to the cellar to carry out the spirit’s instructions. On removing the hearth flagstone they found, just below the surface, a quantity of long-buried bones, thought to be human, and a scattering of hops. Were they the remains of a murder victim? Was the ghost that of the murderer, or the murder victim?

Professor Owen Davies from the University of Hertfordshire specialises in witchcraft, magic, and ghosts from the ancient world to the modern era. He is the author of the forthcoming Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic (OUP, 2015) and America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft after Salem (OUP, 2013).

18th Century Slang

A listing of 18th Century slang compiled by Leon Bienkowski
(Posted to the Revlist in 11 installments–last posting in June, 2000)

“The terms listed below were mostly gleaned from Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. There is a bit of a nautical bent to this list because of my own peculiar specialty, but there should be plenty of amusing and useful terms for everyone.

Your underly industrious servant,
Lee Bienkowski”


A

Abbess - a woman who is a brothel keeper
Abraham-sham - a feigned illness
Academician - a whore
Cast up one's accounts - to vomit
Admiral of the Blue - a publican
Admiral of the Narrow Seas - a drunk who vomits into a neighbor's lap
Adrift - discharged
Adzooks! - an expletive
Air and exercise - a flogging at the cart's tail
Akerman's hotel - Newgate prison
All Nations - a mixture of drinks from unfinished bottlesAmen-curler - a parish clerk
Amidships - the belly
Anatomy - a very skinny person
Bring one's ass to an anchor - sit down
Anne's fan - thumbing one's nose
Talk like an apothecary - talk nonsense
Apple-dumpling shop - a woman's bosom
Hang an arse - to hold back
Arse upward - in good luck
Ask bogy - an evasive reply
Avast! - Stop!

B

Not to know B from a bull's foot - to be ignorant
Bacon-faced - full-faced
Bacon-fed - fat and greasy
Empty the bag - to tell everything
Heavy baggage - women and children
Bagpipe - a long-winded talker
Bailed man - a man who has bribed the press gang for immunity
Baked – exhausted
Banbury story – nonsense
Bark at the moon - to agitate uselessly
Barnacles – spectacles
Barrel fever - ill health caused by excessive drinking
To grin like a basket of chips - to grin broadly
Bear - a very gruff person
Beer-garden jaw - rough or vulgar language
Bring to one's bearings - cause to see reason
Drink like a beast - to drink only when thirsty
Beau-Nasty - finely dressed but dirty
To go up a ladder to bed - to be hanged
Beef-head – idiot
Beggar-maker - a publican
Belly-gut - greedy, lazy person
Bender - a sixpence
Bird-spit - a small sword
Bit of red - a soldier
Black arse - a kettle
Black cattle - a parson
Give a bottle a black eye - empty a bottle
Blashy - rainy weather
Blood and 'ounds! - an exclamation
Blue as a razor - extremely blue
Blue stocking - a learned woman
Blue tape – gin
Shift one's bob - to move or go away
Bog orange - a potato
To marry old boots - to marry another man's mistress
Bosom friend - a body louse
To have some guts in one's brains - to be knowledgeable
Brandy-face - a drunkard
Brattery - a nursery
In bad bread - in a disagreeable situation
Break-teeth words - words hard to pronounce
Gold bridge - an easy and attractive means of escape
To be stabbed with a Bridgeport dagger - to be hanged
Broganeer - one with a strong Irish accent
Brown cow - a barrel of beer
Brown George - ship's biscuit
Buck fitch - an old lecher
Like bull beef - big and grim
Bull calf - a big clumsy fellow
Bull's eye - a crown piece (5 shillings)
Bung one's eye - drink heartily
Bung upwards - on his face
Butter-bag - a Dutchman
Buttock-ball - a dance attended by prostitutes

C

Calfskin fiddle - a drum
Cant a slug into your breadroom! - have a drink!
Caper - to be hanged
Captain Copperthorn's crew - all officers
Captain Grand - a haughty blustering man
Captain Tom - leader of a mob
Cat-sticks - thin legs
Caterpillar - a soldier
Caulker - a dram
Chalk - to strike someone's face
Chatter-broth – tea
Christened by a baker – freckled
Cinder-garbler - a female servant
Cite stage - the gallows
A house of civil reception - a brothel
Clapper-claw - to thrash someone soundly
Clicker - one who shares out the booty
Closh - Dutch sailors
Coach wheel - a crown piece
Cock and pie! - a mild oath
Coffee-house - a water-closet
Cold cook - an undertaker
Comb-brush - a lady's maid
Comb one's head - to scold
House of commons - a privy
Condiddle - to steal
Conveyancer - a thief
Cool crape - a shroud
Corinth - a brothel
Make a great harvest of a little corn - much ado about nothing
Corporation - a large belly
Cotswold lion - a sheep
Country-put - a silly rube
Covent Garden ague – VD
Crab lanthorn - a peevish fellow
Crinkums – VD
Crown-office - the head
Cucumber - a tailor
Cut throat - a dark lantern
Swear like a cutter - swear violently


D

The dam of that was a whisker - a great lie
Dangle in the sheriff's picture-frame - to be hanged
Dasher - showy harlot
Drunk as Davy's sow - very drunk
Deadly nevergreen - the gallows
The devil among the tailors - a row or disturbance
Devil-drawer - a bad artist
The Devil may dance in his pocket - he is penniless
Diddle – gin
Gone to the Diet of Worms - be dead and buried
Dilly - a coach
Dog Booby - an awkward lout
Enough to make a dog laugh - very funny
Dog-vane - a cockade
Dog's portion - a lick and a smell
Dog's soup – water
Go dot and carry - a person with a wooden leg
Double Cape Horn - be cuckolded
Roby Douglas with one eye and a stinking breath - the breech
Draggle-tail - a nasty, dirty slut
Draws straws - to feel sleepy
Drury Lane vestal - a whore
Duke of limbs - a tall awkward fellow
Dull-swift - a stupid fellow
Die dunghill - die cowardly
Drunk as an emperor - regally drunk
Dustman - a dead man
Dutch concert - everyone plays or sings a different tune
Dutch feast - the host gets drunk before the guests


E

Earwig - a malicious flatterer
Ensign-bearer - a drunkard
Eternity box - a coffin
Expended – killed
To have fallen down and trodden upon one's eye - to have a black eye


F

Hove no-one's face but one's own - to be penniless
Facer - a glass full to the brim
Make faces - to beget children
Faggot - a man hired to appear on a muster-roll
Fallen away from a horse load to a cart load - to become fat
Fantastically dressed - very shabby
Fegary - a prank
Fiddler's money - all small change
Fiddlestick's end – nothing
Finger-post - a clergyman
Fire a gun - introduce a subject unskillfully
To have been fed with a fire shovel - to have a big mouth
Fish-broth - salt water
Flag of defiance - a drunken roisterer
Flag of distress - the cockade of a half-pay officer
Flap with a fox tail - a rude dismissal
Flapdragon – VD
Flash the gentleman - pretend to be a gentleman
Flash it away - show off
Flats and sharps – weapons
Flawed – drunk
Flay the fox – vomit
Flump - an abrupt or heavy fall
Fly in a tar box - nervously excited
Foreman of the jury - one who monopolizes a conversation
Foul a plate - dine with someone
Frenchified - infected with VD
Frig-pig - a fussy trifler
Froglander - a Dutchman
Full as a goat - very drunk
Fustilugs - a dirty slattern


G

Gallied - hurried, vexed or over-fatigued
Gallows – enormous
Game pullet - a young whore
Gammon – nonsense
Gardy-loo - Look out! (Garde l’eau)
Gaskins - wide breaches
Gentleman in red - a soldier
Gentleman's companion - a louse
Melancholy as a gib cat – dispirited
Give one's head for washing - to submit to be imposed upon
Glass-eyes - person wearing spectacles
Glorious - ecstatically drunk
Glue-pot - a parson
God permit - a stage coach
Golden grease - a bribe
To find fault with a fat goose - grumble without cause
Play old gooseberry - play the devil
Gospel-shop - a church
Gotch-gutted - pot-bellied
Grapple-the-rails – whiskey
Green-bag - a lawyer
Greenwich goose - a Greenwich Hospital pensioner
The cat's uncle gringog - a grinning idiot
Groggified – tipsy
Ride grub - ill-tempered
Guinea-gold – dependable
In the gun – tipsy
Gundiguts - a fat pursy fellow
Gut-foundered - extremely hungry


H

Half an ounce - a half crown
Half seas over - half drunk
Hand like a foot - clumsy handwriting
Hang-gallows look - a villainous appearance
Hanktelo - a fool
Swallow a hare - to get exceedingly drunk
Under hatches – dead
Young hemp - a graceless boy
Hempen bridle - a ship's rigging
Hen-frigate - a ship bossed by the captain's wife
Herring-gutted - tall and very thin
To be on the high ropes - be very angry
Study the history of the four kings - to play cards
Old hock - stale beer
Hog in armor - a finely dressed lout
To drive one's hogs to market - to snore
Holiday - a spot left unpainted
It's all honey or all turd with them - they're either friends or bitter enemies
Off the hooks – peevish
Hopper-arsed - large bottomed
Send for a horse ladder - send on a fool's errand
Horse's meal - food without drink


I

Irish apricot - a potato
Irrigate - take a drink
Itchland – Scotland


J

Jack Adams - a fool
Jack in an office - an imperious petty official
Jack of legs - an unusually tall person
Jack Weight - a fat man
Jakes - a privy
Jaw-me-down - a very talkative fellow
Die like Jenkin's hen - die unmarried (Scottish)
Have been to Jericho - be tipsy
Jerrymumble - to shake
Going to Jerusalem - to be drunk
Jimmy Round - a Frenchman (from Je me rends)
Be laid up in Job's dock - be treated in hospital for VD
You are Josephus Rex - you're joking


K

Kerry security - breath the oath and keep the money
Kicksees – breeches
Kill-devil – rum
One of King John's men - a small man
Clip the King's English - to be drunk
Knob - an officer
Knock-down - strong liquor


L

Laced mutton - a whore
Ship the white lapel - be promoted from the ranks
Lazy as the tinker who laid down his budget to fart - very lazy
Cut one's leg - become drunk
Lay one's legs upon one's neck - run away
Lie with a latchet - tell a great lie
Light-timbered – weak
A line of the old author - a dram of brandy
Little house - a privy
Live lumber - passengers in a ship
Live stock - body vermin
Looking glass - a chamber pot
Lotman - a pirate
Louse-land – Scotland
Lumping pennyworth - a great bargain


M

Mab - to dress carelessly
Mag – chatter
Maltoot - a sailor
Man-a-hanging - a person in difficulties
Married to Brown Bess - enlisted in the army
Mauled - exceedingly drunk
Make mice-feet of - destroy utterly (Scottish)
Milk the pigeon - attempt the impossible
Load of mischief - a wife
Who put that monkey on horseback without tying his tail? - a very bad horseman
Monkey's allowance - more rough treatment than money
Mopus - a dull, stupid person
Morris - to decamp
Mourning shirt - a dirty shirt
Look like God's revenge against murder - look very angry


N

Eat one's nails - do something foolish
Navel-tied - to be inseparable
Born on Newgate steps - of criminal extraction
Nip-cheese - a purser
Dead as a nit - quite dead
Make a bridge of someone's nose - pass the bottle past someone
He numbers the waves - he's wasting time


O

Oaken towel - a cudgel
Give one his oatmeal - to punish
Off the hooks – crazy
Old Robin - an experienced person
Open lower-deckers - to use foul language
Overshoes, over boots – completely
Take the owl - become angry


P

Paddy-whack - an Irishman
Cut's one's painter - send a person away
Palette - a hand
Paper-skull - a fool
Parleyvoo - the French language
Parson Palmer - one who slows passing the bottle by talking
Make a pease-kill - to squander lavishly (Scottish)
Penny lattice-house - a low ale-house
To drop off the perch - to die
Peter-gunner - a bad shot
Peter Lug - one who drinks slowly
Pintle-merchant - a whore
Piper's wife - a whore
Tune one's pipes - begin to cry
Piss more than one drinks - said of a braggart
Pitt's picture - a bricked up window
When the plate-fleet comes in - when I get my fortune
Plump currant - in good health
Pontius Pilate - a pawn broker
Popper - a pistol
Prattle-broth – tea
Princod - a plump, round person (Scottish)
Alter the property - disguise oneself
Prow - a bumpkin
Public ledger - a whore
Pudding-bellied - very fat
Pump ship – urinate
Punch-house - a brothel


R

Rabbit hunting with a dead ferret - a pointless undertaking
Rag-water - bad booze
Rammaged - tipsy (Scottish)
Rapping – perjury
Red-letter man - a Catholic
Remedy-critch - chamber pot
Repository – a jail
Rib-roast - to thrash
Ride as if fetching the midwife - to go in haste
Ride the forehorse - to be early
Cry roast meat - boast of one's good fortune
Roast-meat clothes - holiday clothes
Rocked in a stone kitchen - a little weak-minded
Rogue in spirit - a distiller
Royal image - a coin
Rum gagger - one who tells false sea stories of hardship
Loose in one's rump – wanton
Rusty guts - a blunt, surly fellow
Buy the sack - become tipsy


S

Saddle the wrong horse - lay blame on the wrong person
Saddle one's nose - wear spectacles
Salamugundy - a cook
Salt eel - a thrashing with a rope's end
Sandy - a Scotsman
Sauce – VD
Sawney - a Scotsman
Sawny - to whine
Scald - infect with VD
Scandal-broth – tea
Scarlet horse - a hired horse
School of Venus - a brothel
Scotch casement - a pillory
Sea-crab - a sailor
Sea-lawyer - a shark
Settler - a parting drink
Shab-rag - very worn
Shake a cloth in the wind - be hanged
To have been dipped in the Shannon - to be very forward
Shapes - a name given an ill-made man
Keep sheep by moonlight - hang in chains
Sheep's head - a very talkative person
Shifting ballast - soldiers aboard ship
Shiners – money
Make children's shoes - to be occupied with trivia
Shreds - a tailor
Shut-up house - land headquarters of a press gang
Sick of the idles - a very lazy person
Silver-cooped - deserting for the merchant service
Sky-blue – gin
Snabbled - killed in battle
Smart as a carrot - very smartly dressed
Go a snail's gallop - move very slowly
Soldier's bottle - a large bottle
Solo player - a very bad musician
Sot-weed – tobacco
The Sovereign's parade - the quarterdeck of a man-of-war
Spanish trumpeter -a braying donkey
Spoil pudding - a long-winded preacher
Squire of the placket - a pimp
Stiff-rump - a haughty person
Take a stink for a nosegay - be very gullible
Stoupe - to give up
Strip-me-naked – gin
Sunburnt - having many children
Surly boots - a grumpy person
Surveyor of the highway - a reeling drunk
In deadly suspense – hanged
Keep a swannery - to boast
Purser's swipes - small beer
Swizzle – liquor


T

Tallow-breeched - having a large bottom
Tears of tankard - liquor stains on a waistcoat
Tea-voider - a chamberpot
Thornback - an old maid
Three skips of a louse - worth little or nothing
Tickle-pitcher - a drinking buddy
Tiff - thin or inferior liquor
Tilly-tally – nonsense
Tilter - a small sword
Swill like a tinker - drink immoderately
Make dead men chew tobacco - keep a false muster
Tol-lol - pretty good
Tongue enough for two sets of teeth - a very talkative person
Blast your toplights! - Blast your eyes!
Topping man - a rich man
Pay one's debts with the topsail - run off to sea leaving unpaid debts
Tripes and trillabubs - nickname for a fat man
Trunkmaker-like - more noise than work


U

Untwisted – ruined
The Urinal of the Planets – Ireland


V

Vaulting school - a brothel


W, X, Y, Z

As wise as Waltham's calf - very foolish
Wamble - an uneasiness in the stomach
War-caperer - a privateer
Water bewitched - weak beer
Water in one's shoes - a source of annoyance
You have been to an Irish wedding - you have a black eye
Whigland – Scotland
Whisk - an impertinent fellow
Whister-clister - a cuff on the ear
Whither-go-ye - a wife
Wife in water colors - a mistress
Windy – conceited
Wrapt in warm flannel – drunk

Yea-and-Nay man - a Quaker

Znees - frost

Agnes Dean Abbatt (1847 - 1917)

Born: June 23, 1847, New York
(error in Who's Who in America states 1874)  

Occupation:  Artist

Daughter of William D. and Agnes A. (Dean) Abbatt, of English Quaker and French Huguenot ancestry; the father having been a New York merchant for many years. Her paternal grandfather came to America from Preston, England in the latter part of the eighteenth century settling in Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, New York, where he became interested in manufacturers.

Abbatt showed talent as a child.  Her artistic talents were inherited from both sides of her family, her maternal grandmother and several aunts having been amateur artists of ability. 

Abbatt entered Cooper Union art school in 1873 and won a medal at the end of her first year. She then studied at National Academy of Design where her work was among those selected for exhibition. Abbatt then became the pupil of R. Swain Gifford and then James D. Smillie.  Paints landscapes, coast scenes, flowers; oil and water colors.  Member of American Water Color Society since 1880. Abbatt is notable as being one of the few women elected to the American Water Color Society.

She is notable as being a teacher, both in New York and other cities, while her work, especially that in landscape has been done largely in the vicinity of her summer home in Westchester County, New York, the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts, on Long Island, and on the Massachusetts coast.

Address:  Westchester, New York.

Burial:  1917
Green-Wood Cemetery
Brooklyn
Kings County (Brooklyn)
New York, USA
Plot: 3541

Sources:

Who's Who in America 1901 - 1902
A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men & Women
of the United States
Edited by John W. Leonard
A. N. Marquis & Company 1901

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume VIII
Edited by George Derby, James Terry White, et. al.
James T. White & Company 1808

Find A Grave Memorial - Agnes Dean Abbatt