jeames, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jeames n.

also jeems

[deliberately tortured pron. of proper name James and thus a generic term for a footman or a pej. for a flunkey. This in turn based on Thackeray’s servant Jeames in the Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche, Esq. (1846). Until it was swallowed up by the Daily Telegraph (in 1937), the ultra-conservative Morning Post was the paper of choice for the British upper classes]

1. a manservant.

1849		Sam Sly 6 Jan. 1/2: Just look, reader, at our illustration [...] a daring flunkey is making an effectionate assault on the cook; and the ‘Jeames’ of the Club is dandling a housemaid in his arms.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 June 3/3: Sinclair [...] was rather too wide awake for Jeames.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Sept. 106/2: Give my remembrifications to Jeames and Cook.
1860		R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 87: ‘Jeames’ jumps nimbly down to unfold the door-steps.
1869		Melbourne Punch 10 June 179/1: The men seem devoid of flunkeyism, and the woman of servant-gal-ism. Jeames would not suit the views of the resident gentry—Bridget would not be half natty enough.
1872		Sportsman (London) ‘Notes on News’ 27 July 4/1: The insolence of Jeames is proverbial. His tongue and his calves ‘protect him sairly;’ in many cases. Indeed, where his master would get into a scrape were he to indulge in the same vein.
1882		Bristol Magpie 13 July 19/1: Jeames loftily expressed himself to the effect that [...] the young guvn’r might be in, or perhaps he mightn’t.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 8 July 5/2: Handsome ‘Jeames’ [...] was seen in close and ministering attendance on the flitting damsel.
1896		Mirror of Life 16 Dec. 31: Ernie’s calves would do credit to Master Jeames, the footman, the pride of Berkeley Square.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 161: ‘I buy it [i.e. a limousine] by the month,’ says she, ‘including Jeems and Henri in front.’.
1914		Day Book (Chicago) 20 July 17/2: A gentleman [...] demanded of Jeames, the footman, whence arose the outrageous odor.

2. the Morning Post newspaper.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1891		Sporting Times 31 Jan. 1/2: The Duke of Bedford’s suicide went right under the unnoticing nose of the omniscient Jeames.

3. in fig. use of sense 1, a toady.

1868

Sportsman 22 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] The Jeamses of the press are a sad [...] lot. Give them a prince or duke and they once begin to fawn like hounds [...] Take yesterday’s Sporting Life for examples princely lickspittIeing.