jerry builing 1832; jerry built 1844; jerry builder 1833

[Stephen Goranson]

jerry-built OED 1869, ads-l archives 1860

Advertisements & Notices
Liverpool Mercury etc (Liverpool, England), October 4, 1844; Issue
1743. p 326;
col. 6 [British Library 19th C BL Newspapers]
Shell cottages--A Clerk--Jerry-built hovels do certainly abound in the
environs to the scandal of the Mammon worshippers of this neighborhood; but
assuredly if a roof be not kept in tenantable order by the landlord, the tenant,
on giving him notice before a witness, can effect the needful repairs himself,
and stop the cost in his rent. The misers will not even attempt to cure smoky
chimneys, and therefore tenants ought to leave such vile holes to their shabby
owners, for whom they are fit residences.

jerry building OED 1885, ads-l archive 1859

Correspondence
Liverpool Mercury etc (Liverpool, England), April 27, 1832; Issue 1095.
p. 131.
col. 3 The Vestry Meeting.
...There were members of the Landlords' Club, the Blue Bell Club, The
Jerry-Building Society, & classical allusions to crockery-ware, with
handles on one side: assertions by some that holding office had removed the
scales from their dark and prejudiced organs of vision. How strange is the
power of
office!....

Advertisements & Notices
Liverpool Mercury etc (Liverpool, England), June 7, 1833; Issue 1153. p. 182,
col. 1
The publication of a letter of a _Constant Reader_ might subject us to an
action, if the jerry-builder should take offense to it.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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