Combination: kangaroo court (antedating 1841 August 24)

[Garson O'Toole]

OED (1989) kangaroo, n. 4. b. Special combs. kangaroo court

The first citation given in the OED is 1853 'P. PAXTON' Stray Yankee in Texas.

The ADS list archive has several citations. The earliest seems to be
1849 January 12 (reprinting an article dated of 1948 December 1).

Here is a newspaper article from 1841. The author is reprinting
information from another newspaper, and the piece ends with a question
asking about the term "Kangaroo court".

Cite: 1841 August 24, The Daily Picayune (Times-Picayune), Don't
Comprehend, Page 2, Column 5, New Orleans, Louisiana. (GenealogyBank)

DON'T COMPREHEND.--The Concordia Intel-
ligencer says "several loafers were lynched in
Natchez last week upon various charges insti-
tuted by the Kangaroo court. The times grow
warm; we can see another storm coming, not
unlike that which prevailed in the days of the
Murrel excitement. In Natchez, as in New
Orleans, they are driving away all of the free
negroes." What is a Kangaroo court, neigh-
bor?

(Errors in transcription are possible. Please check original documents
or scans. The word "Murrel" might be "Marrel".)

The Chronicling America website has some information about the
publication mentioned but it is not available in the online full-text
Chronicling America database.

Title: Concordia intelligencer. : (Vidalia, Parish of Concordia, La.) 1841-187?
Place of publication: Vidalia, Parish of Concordia, La.
Publisher:  C.S. Smith
Dates of publication: 1841-187?
Description: Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 16, 1841)-

Based on this date of inception the original story appeared in June,
July, or August of 1941 in the Concordia Intelligencer.

Garson

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