Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a high constable.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Hamlet c. a High Constable.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 206: Hamlet, a high constable.
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.
1791		B.M. Carew Life n.p.: Hamlet, a high-constable [F&H].
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

2. (US Und.) a police captain.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).