subs. phr. (old cant).—‘The fifth and last of the most ancient Order of Canters’ (B. E.); ‘beggars that rather demand than ask’ (GROSE).
1569. STRYPE, Order of City of London. Those that were Vagabonds, and STURDY BEGGARS, they were to carry to Bridewel.
1572. [Encyclopædic Dictionary, s.v.]. A term occurring in the Act 14 Eliz., c. 5, and used to distinguish ‘beggars able to work’ from ‘beggars impotent to serve’; hence = a vagrant or tramp. By a statute of the Commonwealth, 1656, ‘all and every idle and dissolute persons, vagrant and wandering from their usual place of living or abode without sufficient cause or business, and fiddlers and minstrels,’ were adjudged rogues, vagabonds, and STURDY BEGGARS within the meaning of the Act of Elizabeth.
