? antedating ? of Rowdy? ? to 1693?

[Joel S. Berson]

I have just this instant heard about the site Stephen has cited:
>From: Sharon Howard <sharonemw at BTINTERNET.COM>
>
>I'd like to welcome all members of C18-L to London Lives 1690-1800,
>a digital archive of over 200,000 pages of manuscript records from
>the archives of 18th-century London (poor relief, criminal justice,
>health care). It also contains the 18th-century Old Bailey
>Proceedings and Ordinary's Accounts and a bunch of other relevant
>datasets. It's transcribed, tagged and fully searchable - and
>completely free to use.
>
>http://www.londonlives.org/
>
>(Please be patient if the site gets a bit busy and slow over the
>first few days...)

Transcribed from manuscript.  Click on the source information, see
the MS page, click on Full Size, however over the page, and click to
magnify.  (One is presented with a strange variable magnification if
one first hovers, then slides.)

I can't tell what the initial capital letter is, but the rest,
unfortunately, looks more like "awdy", not "owdy", to me.  (Compare
with other "o"s.)  But perhaps worth chasing down, with a better and
more stationary magnifying glass.

It would be useful to get a more exact date, but one would have to
hunt through previous pages.

Joel

At 6/28/2010 06:43 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>Maybe, perhaps, possibly, an antedating of rowdy.
>OED online has rowdy, n.1 and a. from 1808 Also 9 rowdey [Of
>American, but otherwise quite obscure, origin.]
>and rowdy n. 2  slang. ? Obs. [Of obscure origin.] from 1841
>
>Bridewell Royal Hospital: Minutes of the Court of Governors
>23rd August 1693--2nd May 1701
>
>Mary Walker P wart. of Sr. Robt. Geffery For being idle person & a
>Frequenter of Rowdy Houses & For Defrauding one & Andrews of a Steal
>hilted Sword val 25s.
>Pun
>
>
>http://www.londonlives.org/browse.jsp?div=BBBRMG20202MG202020252&terms=rowdy#highlight
>
>Stephen Goranson
>http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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