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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

come down v.¹

to give or lend money.

1701		R. Steele Funeral II i: I must do according to my orders... except you’d come down a little deeper than you talk of: – You don’t consider the charges I’ve been at already [F&H].
1718		C. Hitchin Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers n.p.: come down The Cull comes down alias the Man puts his Hand in his Pocket.
1725		Life and Glorious Actions of [...] Jonathan Wilde 31: He must of necessity [...] convey him thereunto [i.e to Newgate] provided he doth not come down the Civil Coal (viz. Civility Money).
1731		Fielding Letter Writers II ii: I fancy, Suky this is a Sharper, and no coming-down Cull.
1767		J. O’Keeffe The She-Gallant 16: If he comes down handsomely, I’ll let him go.
1781		Belle’s Stratagem 42: Strike me stiff, if Courtall does n’t come down with the rhinoon his marriage-day.
1792		New Cheats of London Exposed 10: He must come down something handsome.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 10: Come down – to give, stand treat.
1842		Boston Satirist (MA) 21 Oct. n.p.: ‘Bolt?’ she falter’d, ‘from the gov’nor? / Oh! my Colin, that won’t pay / He will ne’er come down, my love, nor Help us, if we run away’.
1848		‘Percival Plug’ Biscuits & Grog 36: Some of them don’t come half often enough down with the needful.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 69: He lives tall, and can afford to come down very handsome, I dare say.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Bristol Magpie 14 Dec. 27/1: He had been turned out of his boarding house because he could not come down with the cash.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Mar. 7/1: Australia can get but little money in London for genuine gold-mining enterprises. But when coin is required for a South African, or South American venture, or for some bogus Indian scheme – the British public dropped eight or ten millions in Indian gold-mining – John Bull ‘comes down’ like a lamb.
1893		St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 3 Dec. 17/7: ‘To come down’ means to pay .
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 77: [He] either showed up with the regulation sum, or brought in an explanation as to why this one or that one wouldn’t come down.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Nov. 39/1: Ain’t it a fair boshter? [...] You’ll have to come down real ’andsome jest fur once, Ikey, ma tear.

In phrases

come down with (v.)

to hand over money; usu. extended as come down with the needful/dust/rhino etc.

1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera III i: Did he tip handsomely? – How much did he come down with?
1812		‘George Barnwell Travestie’ in H. Smith Rejected Addresses 120: His uncle [...] Refus’d to come down with the rhino.
1825		Egan Life of an Actor 125: Will you come down with the ready?
1844		Bell’s New Wkly Messenger (London) 14 July 1/6: L. Phillip [...] beseeches them to come down with the stumpy.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes I 408: His employers [...] doubtless came down with the ‘dust’ pretty freely.
1859		Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 6/2: We do not see how they [i.e. shop girls] can swing such harness on the $3 per week they earn. Perhaps their lovers come down with the soap.
1868		H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 22: Won’t he come down with any more chink?
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 11/3: The P.I. and the Australian public will have to come down with a lot more than the price of two long beers a-piece if they want to get a navy of their own.
1905		Sporting Times 1 Apr. 3/2: If we don’t come down with the dibs on our own, the County Council, or one of those delightful institutions in our midst for wringing the last oat out of a long-suffering public, will be down upon us with a fine Jubilee rate.