"leatherhead"= "watchman", now 1831

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/1/2010 04:52 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>The earliest hit for "leather-head" as "watchman" is from 1838.
>Nothing before 1835, so George's find remains the standard.

Adding to my previous search the form "leather-head", I find it also
locates "leather head".  (Apparently EAN treats the hyphen as a word
separator, identically to space.  I think I once knew that!)

Farmer's Cabinet [Amherst, New Hampshire]; Date: 10-22-1831; Volume:
30; Issue: 7; Page3, col. 1.  Titled (on page 2) "From the New-York
Enquirer. Riot in New-York.  Theatrical Hubbub. ..."  [EAN does not
have the New-York Enquirer for 1831, which presumably has an earlier instance.]

"At about 1/2 past 9 o'clock, some fifty or sixty watchmen were
brought to the front of the Theatre, and about half a dozen of them
introduced into the second tier of boxes. This was a most injudicious
and unadvised measure, and the audience viewed it as an insult. 'Out
with the leather heads'---'Away with the Police' ..."

Joel

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