Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) a gang leader.

1612		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ O per se O O3: Dimber Damber fare thee well Pallyards all thou didst excel.
1637		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ in English Villainies (8th edn) O3: [As cit. 1612].
a.1674		‘A Wenches complaint for . . . her lusty Rogue’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 17: [as cit. 1612].
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Dimber damber, a pretty Rascal.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Dimber-Damber c. a Top-man or Prince among the Canting Crew; also the chief Rogue of the Gang, or the compleatest Cheat.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 198: [as cit. 1612].
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1749		B.M. Carew ‘The Oath of the Canting Crew’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 51: No dimber damber, angler, dancer, / Prig of cackler, prig of prancer.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Dimber damber, a top man, or prince among the canting crew, also the chief rogue of the gang, or the completest cheat, (cant).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 173: Dick Turpin must be one of us. He shall be our dimber damber.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1881		Trumble ‘On the Trail’ in Sl. Dict. (1890) 42: I only piked into Grassville with a dimber-damber, who couldn’t pad the hoof for a single darkman’s without his bloss to keep him from getting poggy.