subs. (old).—A gaol: specifically the prison for the City of London: see quots. 1592 and 1823. Also NEWMAN’S HOTEL (or TEA-GARDENS: MAN’S (old cant) = a place). Hence, NEWGATE-BIRD (or NEWGATE-NIGHTINGALE = a thief, sharper, or gaol-bird; NEWGATE (or TYBURN) COLLAR, FRINGE, or FRILL = a collar-like beard worn under the chin; NEWGATE-FRISK = a hanging; NEWGATE-KNOCKER = a lock of hair like the figure 6, twisted from the temple back towards the ear (chiefly in vogue 1840–50—see AGGERAWATORS); NEWGATE-RING = moustache and beard as one, without whiskers; NEWGATE-SAINT = a condemned criminal; TO DANCE THE NEWGATE-HORNPIPE = to be hanged; NEWGATE-SOLICITOR = a pettifogging attorney; BORN ON NEWGATE-STEPS = of thievish origin; AS BLACK AS NEWGATE = very black; NEWGATE SEIZE ME = ‘the gaol be my portion’; NEWMAN’S-LIFT = the gallows.
c. 1531. COPLAND, The Hye-way to the Spyttel-hous [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, IV. 41].
| By my fayth, NYGHTYNGALES OF NEWGATE: | |
| These be they that dayly walkes and jettes. |
1592. NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell [GROSART, ii. 53–4]. NEWGATE, a common name for al prisons, as Homo is a common name for a man or a woman.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., iii. 3. Fal. … Must we all march? Bard. Yes, two and two, NEWGATE FASHION.
1607. DEKKER, Jests to Make You Merie [GROSART, Works (1886), ii., 343]. Our NEWGATE-BIRD … spreading his Dragon-like wings,… beheld a thousand Synnes.
1677. OTWAY, Cheats of Scapin, i., 1. NEWGATE-BIRD … what a trick hast thou played me in my absence.
1732. OZELL, The Miser, i., 3. Out of my House, thou sworn Master-Catpurse, true NEWGATE-BIRD.
1823. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [EGAN], s.v. NEWMAN’S-HOTEL.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. NEWGATE—a house of entertainment for rogues of every description…. The name has itself been transported to, and naturalised in, Dublin, as also in Manchester, where the sessions-house is modernized into New Bailey. The old building so appelled, stood across the entrance to Newgate-street; and probably had its name from the circumstance of its having been the newest of all the gates that then choked up the accesses to the metropolis. Ibid. ‘NEWGATE-STEPS,’ figurative for a low or thievish origin. Before 1780, these steps, ascending to the chief door, were much frequented by rogues and w——s connected with the inmates of that place: some might be said to have received their education there, if not their birth. Ibid. ‘AS BLACK AS NEWGATE,’ is said of a street lady’s lowering countenance, or of her muslin-dress, when either is changed from the natural serene. Ibid. ‘NEWGATE SEIZE ME IF I DO, THERE NOW!’ is an asseveration of the most binding nature, when both parties may be following the same course of life.
1829. MAGINN, The Pickpocket’s Chaunt [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 105], xiii.
| And we shall caper a-heel and toeing, | |
| Tol lol, etc. | |
| A NEWGATE HORNPIPE some fine day. |
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I., 36. As for the hair, they [coster-lads] say it ought to be long in front, and done in figure-six curls or twisted back to the ear, NEWGATE KNOCKER style.
1867. W. H. SMYTH, Sailor’s Word-Book, 497, s.v. NEWGATE BIRD. The men sent on board ships from prisons; but the term has also been immemorially used, as applied to some of the Dragon’s men in the voyage of Sir Thomas Roe to Surat, 1615.
1868. M. E. BRADDON, The Trail of the Serpent, VI., vi. Two greasy locks of hair carefully twisted into limp curls … known to his poetically and figuratively-disposed friends as NEWGATE KNOCKERS.
1871. Echo, 11 Dec. The greasy and begrimed wide-awake, which they wear pushed back, for the display of a philosopher’s brow, and a NEWGATE KNOCKER of ambitious dimensions and oleaginous rigidity.
1885. Cornhill Magazine, Sept., 259. Some of them beardless, others with a fringe of hair around their fares, such as the English call a NEWGATE FRILL.
1888. Daily News, 1 Dec. Visions of Bill Sykes, with threatening look and carefully-trained NEWGATE KNOCKERS, are almost inevitably suggested in the mind of the recipient.
1892. Tit-Bits, 19 March, 421, 2. The frill round the chin … called the NEWGATE FRILL, and the sweep’s frill, would, I imagine, have made the Antinous, or the Apollo Belvedere, look undignified and slovenly.
Verb. (old).—To imprison.
1740. R. NORTH, Examen, 258. Soon after this he was taken up and NEWGATED.
