[Ads-l] OED inter- and ante-dating: FENCE 12 a and b

[Robin Hamilton]

The OED has for FENCE, v:

          12. slang. a. To purchase or sell with guilty knowledge (stolen
goods). Also absol.

          1610 S. Rid Martin Mark-all sig. Cij/2 To fence property [printed
properly], to sell anything that is stolne.
          1789 G. Parker Life's Painter xv. 153 Fenced. Is disposing of any
thing stolen for a quarter of the value.

Between 1601 and 1789, there is the Old Bailey Ordinary's Account, 17th April
1678:

"_George Dogget_ was Executed upon his Condemnation the last Sessions before
this. His Crime was picking a Watch out of a Gentlemans pocket, and that even at
Church. He had long and notoriously been concern'd in _Fending_ [sic], that is,
as those Hellish Linguists understand the Canting word, receiving and putting
off stolen Goods."

[Italics omitted in the transcript in the OBO, and the image link, as is all too
often the case there at the moment, is dead, so to see the text, go to EEBO:

_ The confession and execution as well of the several prisoners that suffered at
Tyburn on Wednesday the 17th of April 1678_  (London : printed for D.M., 1678)

Also, of course, in terms of interdating, close to the Samuel Rowlands [sic]
1610 date, confirmatory evidence for the actual early currency of the term, in
the _Winchester Confessions_  of 1612 [p. 14]:

"A note of the fensing kenes that are about the Cuntry in most partes of our
shire as singing Jack a notable young rogue reporteth unto me"

... and more than several examples which could be added to the Old Bailey
example from 1678, in the period between 1665 [a key date with reference to this
semantic field] and Parker in 1789.

I could add that there's something singularly odd about the usually
non-judgemental David Mallet choosing to describe the speakers of cant as
"Hellish Linguists".  Maybe in this instance, he's reflecting the general
distrust that family members displayed towards brokers of stolen goods.  Or
maybe he's simply having a bad hair day.

I was going to go on to discuss antedating in:

OED FENCE, v 12 b. To spend or lay out (money).

1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Fence, to Spend or Lay out. Fence his Hog, to
Spend his Shilling.
1725 in New Canting Dict.

... but this is Angels Weep territory.

Anyone out there interested?  

Robin Hamilton

(for the Semantic Field Fraction of 4IL)

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