Stumped by "a common stumper", 1736

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Fri Oct 12 03:02:57 UTC 2007


Is "stumper" familiar?  A newspaper writes of a woman felon being
transported from Newgate to Maryland in 1736, she "had receiv'd
sentence of death for theft, and was reputed a common stumper in
Dublin and always of ill repute, and [im]personated Mr. Buckler's
widow, in order to [steal his ship and possessions] and defraud [his]
real widow of his estate."

In another newspaper, she is described as "a common whore in Dublin,
and always of a very ill repute in her country."

I hope this is something more interesting than a misprint for
"strumpet".  OED2 has no plausible sense for this "stumper".

Joel

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