18th Century

The cant database seems to be popular. Welcome to everyone from around the world (29 countries so far this month) - even those of you who were lost.

I’m still working on it. I’ve just categorised another 400-500 terms which will now appear in their proper subject headings. I’ve also removed a few duplicates which crept in there somehow. You may still find the odd duplicate with an entry in both the categorised and uncategorised sections. I’ll get to them shortly.

The database now has nearly 6,000 entries of which about half have been put into categories. Nearly of the uncategorised ones are from 1811.

I need to update the fixed category pages (the ones listed on the menu in the Cant section) as they still only contain the old lists and have very little of the later material. Shouldn’t be too big a job - really it’s more a matter of making sure their aren’t any terms on those pages which somehow haven’t made it into the database.

If all this sounds a bit dodgy, it has been a very manual process and mistakes do creep in. If you do spot any problems, please contact me and let me know. All help is appreciated.

I’ve added the thieves’ cant database search I mentioned last time. It allows you to do a string search on either the cant term, the plain language description or the subject category.

The good news is, I’ve included all (or nearly all - I still have one or two bits to deal with) the terms from both 1736 and 1811. You can search either date or both together.

The bad news is, most of the 1811 terms are in a category called "Uncategorised". You still get to see them - they just won’t be divided up neatly like the ones that have already been categorised. I’ll get around to fixing this but it is a slow, manual task so don’t expect miracles too soon.

Anyway, give it a go. I’m open to any suggestions for improvements. I hope it proves useful.

After some delays I have updated the Food and Drink section of the Thieves Cant to include references from 1811 as well as from 1736.

This has made the page a fair bit bigger but so far I have decided against splitting it up. Let me know if you think it would help to do so.

I’ll update some more sections when and as I have time.

Most of the entries in the Thieves’ Cant section of this site come from Nathan Bailey’s Canting Dictionary published in 1736. Francis Grose produced a similar work called Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1811 which contains much of Bailey’s material but also a lot of new terms.

I have started to add these into the Cant section. They appear in the same subject tables as the 1736 versions but I have indicated the date in each case.

Hopefully this will be of some use to those whose interests lie with the Regency rather than the early 18th century.

Given the popularity of Wikipedia these days I’ve decided it makes sense to put some of the 18th century data in it. As a test case I’ve added an entry about Quilt Arnold - one of the henchmen of master criminal Jonathan Wild between the years 1716 to 1725.

Check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilt_Arnold and let me know if you have any suggestions.

I’ve added a new page to the 18th century resources section dedicated to the Cost of Living. It includes such things as the prices of food, drink and clothing - everyday stuff affecting people’s lives.

I’ve also updated the Wages page with a couple of items. Did you know that a Ship’s Boy earned £2 10s per year while the First Commissioner to the Admiralty earned £3,000? The gap between rich and poor was pretty big.

I’ve added a couple more categories to the Thieves’ Cant section of the site - one for miscellaneous verbs and the other for places and travel. I’ve also moved some of the other categories around to be a bit more sensible.

Nearly all the cant terms date to the early Georgian period although quite a number are still in use in the later Georgian and Regency periods.

If you have any suggestions as to how it might be better arranged I’d be interested to hear them.