Gentleman Harry Simms, Flash, and the OED

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is an earlier citation in 1764.

Year: 1764  (MDCCLXIV)
Title: Select Trials for Murder, Robbery, Burglary, Rapes, Sodomy,
Coining, Forgery, Pyracy: And Other Offences and Misdemeanours, at the
Sessions-house in the Old-Bailey
Volume: 1 of 4
Section: Select Trial at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bailey, 1741
Sub-Section: Henry Simms for the Highway, Feb 1746
Printed for J. Wilkie in St. Paul's Church-yard
Start Page 151
Quote Page 156

http://bit.ly/1sUbzrH

http://books.google.com/books?id=odMrAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Flash+language%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
They soon recollected me, and were glad
to see me, so I went with them to a music Booth,
where they made me almost drunk with Gin, and
began to talk their Flash Language, which I did not
then understand.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 10:44 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> Here is a matching passage published in 1825, i.e., before the 1841
> publication that you have cited, but many years after the 1745
> execution.
>
> Year: 1825
> Title: The Terrific Register: Or, Record of Crimes, Judgments,
> Providences, and Calamities,
> Volume: 1
> Publisher: Sherwood, Jones, and Company, London
> Start Page: 485
> Quote Page: 486
>
> http://bit.ly/XkQuu2
> http://books.google.com/books?id=8esTAAAAIAAJ&q=haunts#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> CONFESSIONS OF A HIGHWAYMAN
>
> Henry Simms was tried and executed for a highway robbery in 1745 after
> conviction he gave the following account of his exploits: . . .
>
> On my promise of amendment I got released, and more new clothes were
> bought me, which when I got, I went to my old haunts, and this being
> the time of Tottenham-court fair, I went thither, and saw my
> companions tossing up for money. They soon recollected me, and were
> glad to see me, so I went with them to a music booth, where they made
> me almost drunk with gin, and began to talk their flash language,
> which I did not then understand.
> [End excerpt]
>
> The second citation in the OED for flash in the appropriate sense is dated 1756.
>
> flash, adj. 3
> 5 b. esp. of the language spoken by thieves: Cant, slang. Also quasi-n.
>
> 1747   Narr. Exploits H. Simms in G. Borrow Zincali (1841) II. iii.
> ii. 129   They..began to talk their Flash Language, which I did not
> then understand.
>
> 1756   W. Toldervy Hist. Two Orphans II. 79   Copper learnt flash, and
> to blow the trumpet.
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 8:55 PM, Robin Hamilton
> <robin.hamilton3 at virginmedia.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
>> Subject:      Gentleman Harry Simms, Flash, and the OED
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> The OED, for FLASH, adj, Sense 5b, -- of the language spoken by thieves:
>> Cant, slang -- has as its first citation:
>>
>>     1747   Narr. Exploits H. Simms in G. Borrow Zincali (1841) II. iii. ii.
>> 129   They..began to talk their Flash Language, which I did not then
>> understand.
>>
>> Well, Henry Simms *was* hanged in 1747, and citation in question occurs as
>> the epigraph to a chapter in George Borrow's _Zincali, or The Gypsies in
>> Spain_.  However, I've never managed to find this form of words anywhere
>> other than in Borrow's work, which suggests (it wouldn't be the first time)
>> that Borrow composed the quotation from whole cloth.  It certainly doesn't
>> occur in either the Old Bailey transcript of the trial of Henry Simms, the
>> Ordinary's Account of Simms' life, or the text of an alleged Life published
>> shortly after he died. ***
>>
>> Has anyone ever found Henry Simms uttering the words which Borrow attributes
>> to him, or is the OED sustaining a ghost here?
>>
>> HDAS includes the OED citation, but encloses it in square brackets, which to
>> my eye indicates a degree of scepticism.
>>
>> Robin Hamilton
>>
>> *** To give this its full title, _The life of Henry Simms, alias Young
>> Gentleman Harry: From his birth, to his death at Tyburn, on June 17, 1747_
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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