or -wabbler, -walloner, -waller, subs. phr. (political: was obsolete).—1. See quots. [The qualification was abolished by the Reform Bill of 1832.] Hence POT-WALLOPING, and also subs. and adj.—GROSE (1785).
1724–7. DEFOE, A Tour Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain, II. 18. The Election of Members here [Taunton], is by those whom they call POT-WALLONERS, that is to say, every Inhabitant, whether Housekeeper or Lodger, who dresses his own Victuals: to make out which, several Inmates or Lodgers will, some little Time before the Election, bring out their Pots, and make Fires in the Street, and boil their Victuals in the Sight of their Neighbours, that their Votes may not be called in Question.
1787. GROSE, A Provincial Glossary, etc., s.v. “Walling.” Walling, i.e., boiling … Perhaps the same as wallopping; whence in some boroughs, persons who boil a pot there are called POT-WALLOPPERS, and entitled to vote for representatives in Parliament.
1807. SOUTHEY, Letters, iv. 39. A POT-WALLOPING borough like Taunton.
1857. A. TROLLOPE, The Three Clerks, xxix. “Here I am once more a constituent part of the legislative wisdom of the United Kingdom, thanks to the patriotic discretion of the POT-WALLOPERS, burgage-tenants, and ten-pound freeholders of these loyal towns.”
2. (common).—A scullion; a kitchen-maid; and (nautical) a cook, esp. on board a whaler: also POT-WRESTLER.
3. (common).—A tap-room loafer; a spouter: esp. (theatrical) a PROSSER (q.v.).
