or Kitch subs. (old).—A hangman or executioner; a DANCING-MASTER (q.v.); a TOPSMAN (q.v.). [From a famous practitioner of that name (circa 1663–86). Before his time the office had been filled by men whose names each and all became popular colloquialisms: e.g., DERRICK (q.v.); GREGORY BRANDON (GREGORIAN TREE q.v.); DUN (q.v.).
FRENCH SYNONYMS. L’adjoint (thieves’: the assistant); l’aricoteur (thieves’); le béquillard (thieves’); le béquilleur (thieves’); le bourreau (= the hangman); le buteur (thieves’); le Charlot (popular: les soubrettes de Charlot = Charley’s maids: cf. Monsieur de Paris: le panier à Charlot = Charley’s basket); le faucheur (popular: = the reaper); le mec des gerbiers (thieves’); l’Haricoteur (thieves’); le marlou de Charlotte (thieves’: = Lottie’s ponce); le mécanicien (pop.: = engine-driver); Monsieur de Paris (pop.: an official title); le père Rasibus (pop.: a play on raser = to shave); le tolle or tollart (thieves’); le rouastre (thieves’: = (‘sawbones’); le marieux; le lamboureur.
ITALIAN SYNONYMS. Cattaron; cattarone.
SPANISH SYNONYMS. Caffler; malvechino.
1676. The Life and Death of the Darkmans Budge, verse 5.
| And we come to the Nubbing-Cheat, | |
| For running on the Budge, | |
| There stands JACK KITCH, that Son of a Bitch | |
| Who oes us all a Grudge. |
1678. Broadside, ‘The Plotters’ Ballad, being JACK KETCH’S incomparable Receipt for the cure uf Traytorous Recusants &c.
1682. D’URFEY, Butler’s Ghost, p. 54. Till KETCH observing he was chous’d, &c.
1682. DRYDEN, Epilogue to the Duke of Guise, 30. JACK KETCH, says I, ’s an excellent Physician.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. JACK KITCH, c, the Hangman of that Name, but now all his Successors.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1849–61. MACAULAY, The History of England, v., Note. He (Monmonth) then encountered JACK KETCH, the executioner … whose name has, during a century and a half, been vulgarly given to all who have succeeded him in his odious office.
1856. C. READE, It Is Never Too Late to Mend, lxx. ‘He will come back without fear, and we will nail him with the fifty pound note upon him: and then—JACK KETCH.’
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
1866. MANSFIELD, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 109. The culprit had to ‘order his name to the BIBLE-CLERK,’ and that individual, with the help of Ostiarius, performed the office of JACK KETCH.
Verb. (old).—To hang.
1694. Gentlemen’s Journal, June, p. 147. JACK-KETCH thyself or cut thy throat.
JACK KETCH’S KITCHEN, subs. phr. (old).—See quots.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 17. Over them is JACK KETCH his kitchen, where, in Pitch, Tar and Oil, he boils the Quarters of … Traitors.
1882. Fortnightly Review, xxxi., 798. ‘JACK KETCH’S KITCHEN’: A room in Newgate, where that honest fellow, the hangman, boiled the quarters of those executed and dismembered for high treason.
JACK KETCH’S PIPPIN, subs. phr. (old).—A candidate for the gallows; a GALLOWS-APPLE: cf. HEMPSEED.
