Green’s Dictionary of Slang

fortune-teller n.

a trial judge.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Fortune-Tellers, c. the Judges of Life and Death, so called by the Canting Crew: Also Astrologers, Physiognomists, Chiromancers, &c.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Fortune teller, or cunning man, a judge, who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot, or doom; to go before the fortune teller, lambskin man, or conjuror, to be tried at an assize.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 241: It has always stuck in his gizzard [...] to think as how he had been werry cruelly used by the Fortune Tellers* when he was quite a mere boy [*The Judges at the Old Bailey].
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1936		H. Corey Farewell, Mr Gangster! 278: Fortune teller – a judge.