Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) money; a purse.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 83: lowre money.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching A2: upright man: Why hast thou any lowre in thy bonge to bouse. rogue: But a flagge, a win and a make.
1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 1: The Canters Dictionary Lowre, money.
1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 42: For all the Rome coues are budgd a beake / And the quire coues tippe the lowre.
1612		Dekker Canting Song O per se O O1: For all your Duds are bingd awaste / the bien Coue hath the loure.
1622		Beaumont & Fletcher Beggar’s Bush II i: Except you do provide me hum enough, / And lour to bouze with.
1637		Dekker Canting Song in Eng. Villainies (8th edn) O: And wapping Dell, that niggles well, and takes loure for her hire.
1639		J. Taylor Crabtree Lectures 189: Cove. Mort, what lower hast thou in thy Bung?
1648		Dekker Canters Dict. Eng. Villainies (9th edn).
1659		Catterpillers of this Nation Anatomized 3: Trust not too much (lowre or mint) wealth in your house.
1664		T. Jordan ‘A Canting Rogue Parallel’d with a Phanatick’ in A Royal Arbor 71: Nurs’d by a maunding mort, whose mother tongue / Directs him first the way to nipp a bung, / And mill the lower.
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 284: But ere this life I’ll longer lead, / I’ll stroll for Lower, or beg my bread.
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Lowre, Money.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Loure, c. Money.
1707		‘Maunder’s Praise of His Strowling Mort’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 34: There if lour we want; I’ll mill / A gage, or nip for thee a bung.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 205: [...] Fib the cove’s quarrons in the rum-pad, for the lowr in his bung. Beat the man in the highway lustily, for the money in his purse.
1724		Coles Eng. Dict.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 105: The first Question they asked him was, If he had any Loure in his Bung.
1741		Ordinary of Newgate Account of the Malefactors executed at Tyburn 18th March 1740 part II 7: They examined the Contents of their Booties, which was three Bungs, with Lowers (Purses), in each Lower there were ten Ridges.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 14: A Guiny or Job – Huskin-lour. [Ibid.] 18: Money – Lower.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Lowre, money, (cant).
1791		‘Highway-man’s Flash Song’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 20: We dunn’d them of their lowr, / And thought it all our own.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress xxvii: Notwithstanding the Protean nature of the Flash or Cant language, the greater part of its vocabulary has remained unchanged for centuries, and many of the words used by the Canting beggars in Beaumont and Fletcher, and the gypsies in Ben Jonson’s Masque, are still to be heard [...] to fib, to beat; lour, money.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 608: He has shell’d out the lour? for the occasion. [? Shell’d out the lour—Supplied the cash].
1834		W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1864) 315: Take back the lowre. He should not have shown it me – it was that as did all the mischief.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 206: But through filing of a rumbo-kit, / My lowyer is gabbled again.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
c.1863		glossary in Occurence Book of York River Lockup in Seal (1999) 37: A cross cove who had his regulars lowr, a fly grabbed him. I am afraid he will blow it.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 173: LOUR, or lowr, money; ‘gammy lowr,’ bad money.
1889		Clarkson & Richardson Police! 321: Bad money (coin) ... Gammy lower.
1891		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 15 Oct. 6/4: I’ve got the lowr (cash).
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 46: Lowre, money.