1. A partisan of the king; a royalist. In Sc. Hist., (see quot. 1862).
a. 1639. Spottiswood, Hist. Ch. Scotl. (1655), 253 [anno 1571]. One professing to be the Kings man, another the Queens.
1659–60. Hist. 2nd Death Rump, 1/1. Two Kings-men Last week to the Country did gallop.
1770. Burke, Pres. Discont., Wks. 1815, II. 256. The name by which they chuse to distinguish themselves, is that of king’s men, or the king’s friends.
1862. Hunter, Biggar & Ho. Fleming, xxviii. 357. In the year 1571 … the people of Scotland were divided into two inveterate factions, called respectively Queensmen and Kingsmen.
2. A custom-house officer.
1814. Scott, Diary, 25 Aug., in Lockhart. We observed a hurry among the inhabitants, owing to our being as usual suspected for king’s men.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl. (1876), 362. He was one of the greatest smugglers on … the Solway, and outwitted the most sagacious kingsmen.
3. slang. (see quot.).
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 51/1. The man who does not wear his silk neckerchief—his ‘King’s-man’ as it is called—is known to be in desperate circumstances.
