- UPRIGHT MAN
- An upright man signifies the chief or
principal of a crew. The vilest, stoutest rogue in the
pack is generally chosen to this post, and has the sole
right to the first night's lodging with the dells, who
afterwards
are used in common among the whole fraternity.
He carries a short truncheon in his hand, which he calls
his filchman, and has a larger share than ordinary in
whatsoever is gotten in the society. He often travels in
company with thirty or forty males and females, abram
men, and others, over whom he presides arbitrarily. Sometimes
the women and children who are unable to travel,
or fatigued, are by turns carried in panniers by an ass, or
two, or by some poor jades procured for that purpose.
The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.