Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a derog. term for a second-rate teacher of writing or mathematics.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Dot and Go One [...] also a Jeering Appellation for an inferior writing Master or teacher of Arithmetic.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. (also dot and go one) a person with a wooden leg or a club foot [the dot is the impression made by the bottom of the wooden leg, in an era before properly moulded ‘feet’ were available, while the good leg is ‘carried’].

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Dot and go one,[...] generally applied to persons who have one leg shorter than the other, and who, as the sea phrase is, go upon an uneven keel.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel I 115: That was his father [...] You old dotard Dot-and-carry-one that you are.
1838		‘Lay of St. Nicholas’ in Bentley’s Misc. Apr. 498: How he rose with the sun, limping ‘dot and go one’.
1841		W. Leman Rede Sixteen String Jack I vi: Of all the rummy chaps I ever did see, that dot-and-carry-one-of-old poetry is the queerest; he’s as green as a babby, and as deep as a wooden spoon.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 150: Vell done old dot-an’-carry-one, the werry cove I’ve been praying for.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 101: Besides these were messrs. ‘Cherry-legs’ and ‘Dot-and-carry-One,’ and ‘Shivery-shanks’.
1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd series (1880) 23: Him thet wuz nicknamed frum his limp Ole Dot an’ Kerry One.
1891		Hants. Advertiser 20 May 3/2: There could be no mistaking the marks of a ‘dot-and-carry-one’ burglar.
1902		A.N. Lyons Hookey 3: Blow me if it ain’t my old ‘Dot-an’-carry-One’.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 52: Everyone can see you’re as mad as can be because you can’t bring your old dot-and-go-one to the scratch.
1932		Edinburgh Eve. News 31 Dec. 8/5: The miner who, though badly lamed, could facetiously dub himself ‘Dot and Carry one’.

3. the state of lameness; walking with one lame leg .

1887

St Paul Dly Globe (MN) 16 Aug. 8/2: Jackson threw up the sponge and went home with a ‘dot and carry one.’ One of his ledgs being out of kilter he has not since showed up.