Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bellswagger n.

also belswagger
[one who ‘swaggers his belly’; Nares, Glossary (1822), cites one ‘St. Belswagger of Mims’ but cannot offer any information on ‘the history of this canonised person’]

1. a womanizer, a pimp.

[UK]Greene Defence of Conny-Catching 47: Neither the report of others, nor the admonition of their friends, can draw them from the loue of the Poligamoi or bel-swaggers of the country. And when the wretches haue by the space of a moneth or two satisfied their lust, they waxe weary [...] & so go & visit some other of his wiues.
F. Kirkman Presbyterian Lash 3: ’Tis a fine age I’faith when such Belswaggers must be taking up Wenches Petticoats .
[UK]Dryden Kind Keeper IV i: Be satisfi’d, thy Sheers shall never enter into my Cloth. But, look to thyself, thou impudent Belswagger: I’ll be reveng’d.
[UK]Bloody Register I 133: And, what is worse than thieves can do, / Cheat you of soul and money too; / Lead scandalous and wicked lives, / And, like Bell-swagger, ride your wives.
[UK]J. Ash Dict. Eng. Lang. n.p.: Belswagger, a whoremaster.
C.Dibdin ‘Sergeant Belswagger’ in Songs (1842) 38/1: When Sergeant Belswagger, that masculine brute [...] kiss’d you.

2. (also bellyswagger) a noisy braggart, a bully.

[UK]J. Taylor ‘This Summers Travels’ in Hindley Works (1872) 1: A cockney boasting bragger in mirth did ask the women for Belswagger.
[UK]J. Taylor Nonsence upon sence 8: Bell-swagger / Who oft at Mims did his dudgeon Dagger.
[UK]J. Phillips Maronides (1678) VI 60: Such rude Belswaggers, all Pickt-hatch / Nor Bear-garden did ever match.
World in the Moon n.p.: Mean? Why here has been a young belswagger, a great he-rogue, with your daughter, sir [N].
Indictment of Sir John Barley Corn 2: The Right Worshipful Sir Solomon Sobersides, and Sir Lucifer Bellswagger, chief Judges of the Court.
[UK]Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: Bellswagger a swaggering Fellow, a hectoring Blade, a Bully.
[UK]W. Kenrick Falstaff’s Wedding (1766) IV xiii: The devil sure is in fee with this roisting bell-swagger.
[UK]J. Ash Dict. Eng. Lang. n.p.: Belly-swagger, a bully, a hectoring fellow.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 73: bel-swagger [...] is used in the sense of a bully or hector.
[US]‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 27: The gineral at first thou’t him a mere bell-swagger.