Green’s Dictionary of Slang

james n.

1. a cooked sheep’s head [jemmy n.1 (3)].

[UK]W. Clarke Every Night Book 38: Hear us, great James — thou poetry of mutton! / Delicious profile of the beast that bleats— / Rich excellence of culinary treats .
London Figaro 2 July n.p.: Club your pence, and you may attain to the glories of Osmazome and james – that is, of baked sheep’s head [F&H].

2. a housebreaker’s implement [play on the nickname Jemmy/jemmy n.3 (1)].

[Aus]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 16 Oct. 1/1: James and the screw, without any ado / Will shove ’em all into a mess, Brave tools.
[UK]A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 382: The ‘james’ — a short crowbar — and the centrebit soon cleared away the obstruction of the shutter.
[UK] ‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 503: I [...] guyed down a double before you could say Jack Robinson. It was a good job I did, or else I should have got lagged (sent to penal servitude) because I had the James (crowbar) and screws (skeleton keys) on me.
[UK]‘Dagonet’ ‘A Plank Bed Ballad’ in Referee 12 Feb. n.p.: I pulled out a chive, but I soon came to grief, / And with screws and a james I was collared.
[UK]A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 184: ’Ere’s [...] a knife for the winder-ketch, an’ a little james, an’ a neddy.
[US]F.H. Tillotson How I Became a Detective 92: James – A jimmy; a small crowbar.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 109/2: James. Whimsical personification of jimmy.

3. (also jemmy) a sovereign, latterly a pound note [orig. use as 16C James Royal, a Scot. silver coin of James VI of Scotland (r.1567–1603), the sword dollar].

[UK]A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 69: S’elp me! if a mauley like that there ain’t worth a jemmy a day to a kenobe at wiring. Why, they’re just made for hooking a fogle out of a clye. [Ibid.] 365: The firm [...] was in the habit of pricing its ‘half-James’ and ‘James’ (i.e., half and whole sovereigns) at 2s. 10d. and 7s.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[UK]Sporting Times 6 Mar. 1/1: The training bill [...] comes to three hundred ruddy and jangling Jameses.
[UK]Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 15 Oct. 6/4: The business will put a ‘quid’ or a ‘thick un’ or a ‘James’ in their ‘clyes,’ that is, if the ‘bossman’ hasn’t been ‘coopered’ (i.e. spoilt — learnt wisdom).
[Aus]C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 39: James, a pound.
[UK] ‘Thieves’ Sl.’ Gent.’s Mag. CCLXXXI Oct. 349: ‘James’ (a sovereign) perhaps dates from Stuart times.
[Aus]Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: Bank notes are generally referred to as soft ’uns or flimsies, a five pound note being a finny, and a pound note a James.
[Aus]Western Mail (Perth) 28 May 21/1: [from Daily Mail, London] A sovereign had a lot of slang names [...] a portrait, a yellow boy, [...] a canary, a james, a couter, a foont, a poona [and] a bean.

4. (Aus.) a servant, a waiter.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 9 July 9/2: ‘Waitah, bring me some steak, chops, and cutlets and —ah, waitah —four boiled eggs.’ ‘Yes, your hon—yes sir,’ was the reply of the ever-ready James .

5. see john n.2 (2a)

In phrases

half-James (n.) (also half-a-james, half-jemmy)

ten shillings (50p).

[UK]G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
[UK]Flash Dict.
[UK]A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 365: The firm [...] was in the habit of pricing its ‘half-James’ and ‘James’ (i.e., half and whole sovereigns) at 2s. 10d. and 7s.
[UK] ‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 506: I put a half-James (half-sovereign) in his hand and said, ‘Guy’.
[UK]Sporting Times 24 Apr. 6/4: Taking out his last half-jemmy, / Spends the blooming lot in grub.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 13/1: It seems, however, that a tender has been put in by a tinker or shoe-maker to do the job at ‘half-a-james’ per week.
[UK]P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 98: He gives him the half-James, and told him never to bother him more.
[UK]Illus. Police News 8 Sept. 3/3: Plaintiff. I sold him these clothes for half a james.
[Aus]Truth (Brisbane) 14 Feb. 9/5: I’d copped ½ a James, you see.