Green’s Dictionary of Slang

one who operates a game of thimble-rig n.; also as a nickname (see cits. 1836, 1856) and a synon, for a rogue.

1829		Chester Chron. 15 May 3/1: They consisted of [...] fogle-divers (alias pickpockets), thimble-riggers, garter-prickers, etc.
1836		D. Crockett Exploits and Adventures (1934) 168: After my speech, and setting my face against gambling, poor Thimblerig was obliged to break off conjuring for want of customers.
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 19: Them other chaps after all on’y wants to throw dust in our eyes! But it’s no go, they’re no better than a parcel o’ thimble riggers just making the pea come under what thimble they like.
1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 170: Like the mysterious ball of those ingenious artists the ‘thimble-riggers.’.
1841		N.Y. Daily Trib. 31 Aug. 2/4: [headline] Arrest of a Thimble Rigger.
1843		Illus. London News 15 July 12/1: The thimble and pea-riggers were dispersed by the police.
1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 578: Nor did it mark him out as the prey of ring-droppers, pea and thimble-riggers, duffers, touters, or any of those bloodless sharpers, who are, perhaps, a little better known to the Police.
1846		Censor (London) 25 Jan. 5/3: Oh! I’m one of the Whigs, oft yclept thimblerigs.
1851		G. Borrow Lavengro II 274: ‘I have been called a lord in my time.’ ‘It must have been by a thimble-rigger, then.’.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 26 Feb. n.p.: ‘Thimble-riggers’ and ‘jokers’ she does not allow.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 296: There is a Government reward of two hundred pounds for Thimble-rig Jem.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 3 Oct. 3/6: [A] pack of flash men, thimble-riggers, etc., have arrived to participate in the profits of to-day's grand Intercolonial match.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 108: THIMBLE-RIG, a noted cheating game played at fairs and places of great public thronging, consisting of two or three thimbles rapidly and dexterously placed over a pea, when the thimble-rigger, suddenly ceasing, asks you under which thimble the pea is to be found. If you are not a practised hand you will lose nine times out of ten any bet you may happen to make with him.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 8/1: You may observe several well dressed, gentlemanly looking men [...] They each belong to separate mobs of ‘chat pitchers’ (thimble riggers) and are on the look out for a ‘flat.’.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 227: Being obliged to keep a strict watch upon his cappers, dice-coggers, thimble-riggers, two-card pullers, strap players, trigger-wheel players, etc.
1880		Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie I tab.II ii: Jingling Geordie [...] an old thimble rig.
1882		G.A. Sala in Living London (1883) June 208: He ‘made believe’ to throw dice, and to conceal one of the dice up his sleeve; but the company only said ‘gambler,’ and one young person was heard to murmur ‘thimble-rigger.’.
1890		Bird o’ Freedom 22 Jan. 7: I prowled around [...] shaking hands with an early-blooming thimble-rigger or two out of pure overflow of brotherly feeling.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 228: One of them Thimble-Riggers from the City was just regarded as Meat.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Private Agitator’ in Ade’s Fables 13: One day the busy Thimble-Rigger took his Helpmate into the lonesome Library and broke the glad Tidings to her.
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘The Downfall of Mulligan’s’ in Three Elephant Power 64: Small bookmakers, thimble riggers, confidence men, and so on, plying their trades outside.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 533: The crowd bawls of dicers, crown and anchor players, thimbleriggers, broadsmen.
1929		J.B. Booth London Town 220: Conjurers and thimble-riggers set up their ‘joints.’.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 59: Today, as a hundred years ago, the Thimble-rigger uses a dried pea or a little rubber ball, and three cup-shaped receptacles.
1943		H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 193: The theory appears to be that every man who comes around with a piece of business in hand is a double-dealer, a thimblerigger, and a footpad.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 221/2: Thimble-rigger. 1. One who works the shell game. 2. (By extension) Any swindler.
1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling.