Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a ne’er-do-well who, accompanied by his woman, wanders the country, mixing villainy and legitimate work, pursuing neither, it appears, with particular enthusiasm.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 59: These dronken Tynckers, called also Prygges, be beastly people, and these yong knaues be the wurst.
1608		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) IV i: [He] swore like a dozen of drunken Tinkers; at last growing foule in words, he and foure of his men drew vpon me, sir.
1659		E. Gayton The art of longevity 37: [A] drunken Tinker, metall'd man, / (Who his teeth out of’s budget strengthen can).
1663		T. Southland Love a la mode 37: I have seen a Tragoedian really weep, in acting a feign’d story, when off the Stage he appear’d as joviall as a drunken Tinker.
1675		W. Churchill Divi Britannici 39: [L]ike the Drunken Tinker, that [...] was made believe he was a Prince, and dream’d of nothing but power and greatness, till translated [...] into the Ditch out of which he was first taken.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812–82		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1845		Cork Examiner 15 Oct. 4/7: This fair [waas wel supplied with the stock [...] tinkers and their wives and asses in great abundance —A drunkard tinker offered to sell his wife for ten shilings, but no bidder.
1857		Alnwick Mercury 1 July 10/3: The artist [...] had some trouble in discovering a suitable head for the drunken tinker.