The Sparrowhawk Companion (16 page)

Droit of Admiralty
1. The proceeds or booty from a captured enemy vessel; 2. colloquially, a wreck’s cargo claimed or seized by civilians living on a coast.

drum
A tea party, so called because the tea was served on a drum table.

dub lay
A burglary in which keys are used to enter a house. See also CRACK LAY, RUM LAY.

Duck Lane
An eighteenth–century London street noted for its booksellers.

duffer
An accomplice in tea smuggling, who sold untaxed tea to street hawkers or house to house.

duke
The highest hereditary title of nobility; a sovereign prince who rules a duchy or small state; a royal prince. See BARON, BARONET, EARL, MARQUIS, VISCOUNT.

dulcify
1. To sweeten naturally acidic or bitter food; 2. to flatter.

dun
To demand payment of a bill or debt; to take legal action against a debtor.

duty
An impost or customs tax recoverable by law on goods imported, exported, or consumed. See CUSTOMS, EXCISE, TARIFF.

earl
A nobleman ranking between a marquis (variation:
marquess
) and viscount. See BARON, BARONET, DUKE, MARQUIS, VISCOUNT.

embracery
The crime of bribery. See BARRATRY.

encomium
A formal essay marked by high-blown praise of, or glowing tribute to an author that introduced his book. It is now called a
preface
or
introduction
, and is more likely today to be more instructive, informative, and even objective.

English mobility
The common people, or the mob. See MOB.

ensign
In the eighteenth century, the lowest-ranking army officer (today a subaltern), corresponding to a CORNET in the cavalry, usually charged with minor command duties and with carrying a regiment’s colors; the regimental colors.

entail
The custom or legally mandated practice of preserving a land estate so that it may pass on to a father’s first-born or eldest son. See COPYHOLD, PRIMOGENITURE.

epergne
A serving platter of several levels or tiers for holding desserts,
fruits, and sweetmeats.

esquire
The title of gentry, immediately below a BARON or knight. In medieval times, a
squire
was a knight’s valet.

excise
A duty or tax levied on goods or commodities produced or sold within a country, and also on various licenses. See CUSTOM, TARIFF.

fair-trader
A “legitimate” merchant who paid all customs and excise taxes. See FREE-TRADER.

false cambist
A counterfeiter or forger of paper currency and bills of exchange. See CAMBIST, CURRENCY, SPECIE.

faro
A “banking” game in which players bet on cards drawn from a dealing box.

fathom
A nautical term for a depth of six feet.

fatwit
A dull, stupid person, made more so by strong drink.

firelock
A smooth-bore, muzzle-loading musket. See WALLGUN.

fireship
1. A damaged naval vessel set afire and sent in the direction of enemy ships or so placed to deter pursuit or further engagement; 2. a prostitute with venereal disease. See CRACK.

flapper
A stranger who seems familiar to one.

flagitious
Deeply criminal, or utterly villainous.

flimflam
An idle, usually untrue story.

flip
Strong beer sweetened with molasses and dried pumpkin; also a measure of rum.

flummer
y Confusing nonsense.

fly
Sharp-witted.

footman
A liveried servant who rode on the rear of a coach or carriage.

footpad
A stealthy robber who worked on foot.

fopdoodle
A fool. “An insignificant wretch.” (Samuel Johnson’s
Dictionary
)

fowling piece
A gaming flintlock musket that fired buckshot, a precursor of the shotgun.

free-trader
The self-styled name of British smugglers of untaxed goods, especially in the south counties. See FAIR-TRADER.

frigate
A three-masted naval vessel, smaller than a ship of the line, but as large or larger than a merchantman, having only one gun deck, or between 20 and 36 guns. The
Sparrowhawk
is a fifth-rate frigate, converted to a merchantman, whose guns were placed “on deck” to make room for cargo below decks.

fuddle
To intoxicate, stupefy, or confuse a person with drink or sophistry; a spell of drinking.

funky
Ill-smelling.

fusil
1. A “light” musket, carried by officers; 2. a grenadier’s grenade fuse or match.

fusilier
Originally, a grenadier who accompanied artillery trains, but by the mid-eighteenth century a grenadier who carried a fusil. See GRENADIER.

fustian
1. A bombastic, florid type of prose, consisting of “words and ideas ill-associated” (Samuel Johnson’s
Dictionary
); 2. a strong cotton and linen fabric.

galley
A ship’s boat, propelled by oarsmen, large enough to carry several men. See GIG, JOLLY-BOAT.

gavotte
A lively version of the minuet, often performed by two or more couples.

general warrant
In the eighteenth century, a “discretionary” power of the British government, exercised by secretaries of state, to apprehend and arrest persons chiefly for seditious libel, but also for other “suspect” actions perceived as endangering the state or the sovereign. Much abused by political officials, especially as a device to impose censorship on writers and printers, the most famous victim of one was John Wilkes in 1763. Chief Justice Pratt of the Common Pleas declared general warrants unconstitutional in 1766, while Chief Justice Mansfield of the King’s Bench upheld them. See ATTAINDER, WRIT OF ASSISTANCE.

gibbet
A cage-like iron box, supported by a pole, erected near a public way or the scene of a crime, in which a hanged or executed criminal was displayed.

gig
1. A light, two-wheeled, one-horse carriage; 2. a ship’s boat, propelled by oarsmen, used for communicating between vessels at sea or between ship and port, but usually employed to convey a ship’s captain or naval commander. See GALLEY, JOLLY-BOAT.

gillie
A man or boy attending a Scottish sportsman or chief; a shotgun bearer.

gin
A corruption of “Geneva” from Holland, distilled from grain or malt, flavored with juniper. Gin was the most affordable alcohol to the lower classes, even when taxed.

gorget
In medieval times, a piece of armor that protected a knight’s throat; in the eighteenth century, an ornamental, embossed, roughly crescent-shaped plate of brass or coated tin, secured by a chain or cord, signifying officer status and “knighthood.”

grape
An artillery munition, consisting of clusters of iron balls roughly the size of golf balls, intended to inflict maximum casualties. See CANISTER, CASE.

grasshopper
A British three-pound gun often attached to a regiment. See GUN.

grenadier
A soldier who threw hand grenades, lit by his fusil. British, French, and Prussian grenadiers were also chosen for their extraordinary height (usually six feet). See FUSILIER.

grocer
A wholesaler of foodstuffs (from
gross
).

gudgeon
A dupe or a fool.

guinea
An English gold coin of 21 shillings, which circulated between 1663 and 1817. It was replaced with the pound. A pound weighed twenty shillings. See POUND, SHILLING.

gun
Any army or naval artillery piece, distinguished from small arms such as pistols, firelocks (
muskets
), and, later, rifles, all of the later often referred to as
side-arms
.

H.M.S.
His or Her Majesty’s ship, the prefix for Royal Navy vessel names, not adopted, however, until 1789, at the outset of Britain’s conflict with France. The prefix was adopted probably as a reaction to the French Revolution, to stress that England was a monarchy.

halberd
A spear-like staff, largely ceremonial, topped with an elaborately forged ax instead of a spear tip, carried by sergeants in eighteenth–century armies.

Half-Joe
A Portuguese gold coin (a Johannes) worth 36 shillings.

Halifax gibbet
A device for beheading, the forerunner of the French guillotine.

hand
A bundle of tobacco leaves, packed together with other hands in the packing or “prizing” of a hogshead. See HOGSHEAD.

Harry
1. A country man, or a rustic; 2. to harass, pursue, or investigate.

hazard
A game of chance, similar to craps, played with two dice.

hick
A country man or rustic; an ignorant clown.

higgler
A dealer in or carrier of sundry dry goods. See CHAPMAN.

hogshead
A cask or barrel constructed to hold between 700 and 1,400 pounds of tobacco, and also used to transport grain. See BUTT, HAND, PUNCHEON.

Holland
See GIN.

House of Commons
The lower governing and legislative body of the British Parliament. In the eighteenth century, its elective members often numbered over 600. Many blocs of seats were controlled by members of the House of Lords, as well as by the sovereign, as a check on the “democratic” tendencies of the Commons, or to introduce or ensure passage of certain bills. Army and Navy officers, as well as civilians, also held seats in the Commons. The Commons reserved the power to originate money or finance bills, and also tax legislation.

House of Lords
The upper governing and legislative body of the British Parliament. In the eighteenth century, its membership numbered about 240, including many bishops. Only peers, either hereditary or elevated by the sovereign, could sit in Lords. Lords also acted as the “supreme court” of Britain, when a peer was charged with a capital crime (treason or murder). In practice, Lords functioned as a modern “senate.” It could reject or pass by vote any money or finance bill sent up from the Commons, and also tax legislation.

howitzer
An artillery gun used to throw balls over an enemy’s fortifications.

hundred
A subdivision of some English shires and colonial American counties. See WAPENTAKE.

hurdy-gurdy
A mechanical, violin-like musical instrument that could play melodies set by devices in the neck.

impressment
The practice of the British navy in the eighteenth and early ninteenth centuries of raiding chiefly port towns to kidnap men to serve in involuntary servitude on warships. The raiding parties were called
press gangs
or
pressmen
. See CRIMP.

in case
A colonial planter’s term for a tobacco leaf’s time for handling, the leaf being neither dry enough to crumble nor damp enough to begin rotting, and ready for packing or prizing into a hogshead. See HAND, HOGSHEAD.

in fee
A baron’s proprietaryship of a king’s land in exchange for an oath of loyalty and obedience, together with the obligation to provide the king with a fixed number of knights and common soldiers for military service. This legal device was linked closely to the notion of “quit-rents,” in which a landowner paid the monarch a “rent” in exchange for an exemption from all other royal obligations. See QUIT-RENT, SOCCAGE.

indenture
A state of contractual or criminal servitude, in which one’s labor is committed or leased for a specified period of time, in the eighteenth century, usually seven years, under penalty of criminal infraction. See REDEMPTIONER.

indigo
A plant cultivated for blue dye.

Inns of Court
The several legal societies or “colleges” having the exclusive right to teach law and admit persons to practice at the bar. See ATTORNEY, BAR, BARRISTER, BENCHER, CHANCERY.

interlude
A dramatic or comedic stage production, technically not a play, and staged without the lord chamberlain’s license. The Licensing Act of 1737 for decades gave Drury Lane and Covent Garden in London a near monopoly on full stage play productions. The Act was intended to forestall ridicule of unpopular public figures, such as prime minister Robert Walpole, and to preserve “public decency and
morals.”

ironmonger
A dealer in ironware; a hardware merchant.

Jack Ketch
A colloquialism for the hangman.

javelin men
A body of men in a sheriff’s retinue who carried spears or pikes, and escorted the judges at the assizes. They also escorted convicts to their execution or place of public punishment. See CONSTABLE, SHERIFF.

jolly-boat
A ship’s boat, propelled by oarsmen, smaller than a cutter. The origin of
jolly
is unknown. Possibly it is a slang corruption of the French
joie
for the delight or gladness felt by naval or civilian seamen when they were rowed ashore in it to spend leave in a port town. See GALLEY, GIG.

jointure
An estate settled on a wife to be taken by her in lieu of a dowry; a settlement on the wife of a freehold estate for her lifetime.

Jonathan (Brother)
A British nickname for America or an American.

jougs
An iron neck ring or collar, with a joint or hinge in back to permit opening and closing, and loops in front for a padlock, worn by offenders in England and Scotland.