[Ads-l] Antedating non-military "rank and file" of a group?

[Peter Reitan]

I do not know the OED's earliest dates. Etymonline lists earliest date of "rank and file" for "common people, general body" of any group as 1860.

May 1, 1796: Letter from John Jay to Lord Grenville, regarding efforts to stop the Jay Treaty:

These men have, indeed, for the present missed their object, but they have not abandoned their designs.  I mean the leaders, not the rank and file of the party.  Among the latter are many misled, honest men, who, as they become undeceived, will act with propriety.

Letter published in, William Jay's, The Life of John Jay: With Selections from His Correspondence, volume 2, New York, J. & J. Harper, 1833.

The expression used in political and non-political contexts in William Clarke's Every Night Book; or, Life After Dark, London, T. Richardson, 1827:

[Referring to the acting company at Sadler's Wells theatre] The rank and file of the company are "Leather and Prunella. [Page 175]

[Describing observing Parliament from the gallery] On the Speaker's left, and of course on your right, the leading members of the opposition occupy the seats next the table; behind them are the rank and file of their party.

The expression appears to be common in political usage in the United States by the mid-to-late-1830s.



 		 	   		  
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