subs. (thieves’).—A prowling sharper who entices greenhorns to take a hand in thimble-rigging, the three-card trick, prick the garter, etc.
1859. G. A. SALA, Twice Round the Clock (2 P.M., par. 10), p. 160. Even at remote country race-courses, you may find remnants of the whilom swarming tribe of CHARLEY-PITCHERS, the knavish gentry who pursue the games of ‘under seven or over seven,’… or inveigle the unwary with ‘three little thimbles and one small pea.’
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, IV., 32, note. A CHARLEY-PITCHER seems to be one who pitches to the Ceorla or countryman, and hence is equivalent to the term Yokel-hunter.
1877. BESANT and RICE, This Son of Vulcan, pt. I., ch. ix. With them marched the CHARLEY-PITCHERS, who gained an honourable livelihood with the thimble and the pea.
