[Ads-l] "spiriting (away)" -- verbal noun not in OED?

[Joel Berson]

Is this instance a noun?
“The evils which would arise, if the practice of spiritingway artificers was not strongly resisted by law, would be infinite ...”   1794 Baltimore Daily Intelligencer July 21, page 2.  EAN.
And I would not be surprised to find "illegal spiriting (away)", since it was illegal (although the law was much ignored in 17th/18th-century England).  

Via Google Web & Books I find some modern instances:
"... by an illegal spiriting away of the C.I.O. leaders ...".  1938.

"... the US Government was found complicit in the illegal spiriting away to the U.S. of the spouse and children of Devayani's maid, Sangeetha Richard."
"... the arrogant arrest and kidnaping of Adolph Eichmann and his illegal spiriting out of Argentina ."

"... the illegal spiriting of Rashid and the collaborative effort to obtain the 64 year old ..."
(Other examples fit the OED's current senses of "spiriting n.".)
I'm disappointed not to have found "illegal spiriting (away)" in the 17th or early 18th centuries, but I am unable to search EEBO and ECCO from home.
Joel

 

     From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
 To: Joel Berson <berson at att.net> 
Cc: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> 
 Sent: Thursday, April 2, 2015 10:54 AM
 Subject: Re: "spiriting (away)" -- verbal noun not in OED?
   

> On Apr 2, 2015, at 10:32 AM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
> 
> If "spiriting"or "spiriting away" (kidnapping; see "spirit v." senses 5.a and 6.a) can be a noun, I don't see it in the OED.  "Spiriting n." is present, but not with the "kidnapping" sense.

I would consider these to be verbs; they take adverbs as modifiers rather than adjectives (e.g. quickly or illegally, not quick or illegal) and don't take an "of" with their objects.  But "the spiriting away of children" would indeed involve a (verbal) noun.  If it's [kidnapping or spiriting away] children, as opposed to [kidnapping] or [spiriting away children] in the OED cite, "kidnapping" would be a verb there too.  In the latter case it would be a noun.  

I'm actually more surprised by "an evidence" below.

LH
> 
> I think the following are examples of "spiriting away" as a noun ... but I defer to superior knowledge on how to distinguish a verb from a verbal noun.
> 
> Under "ˈkidˈnapping  n. and adj.":  1682  N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) I. 187  The witnesses..were..to prove that there was..such a trade as kidnapping or spiriting away children.  [If here "kidnapping" is a noun, then so should be "spiriting away"?  Or is "kidnapping" a noun but "kidnapping children" would not be?]
> 
> Under "evidence, n.":  1731  Gentleman's Mag. 1 218  The Lady Lawley was sentenced to be imprisoned one month for spiriting away an evidence.
> There are several other quotations in the OED for "spiriting (away)" that I suspect are verbal nouns.
> Joel  

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