Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a public house landlord (occas. landlady, see cite 1906); thus later, a night-club owner.

1786		Mr Thompson Female Amazon 4: She was [...] constantly attending the pawnbroker’s office and the gin-shop [...] and was able [...] to outwit both Mr Two to One, and Mr Boniface.
1796		Sporting Mag. Nov. IX 86/1: Boniface was summoned to attend [...] the vice Chancellor’s presence.
1803		J. Bristed Pedestrian Tour I 120: To give the characteristic features, and to stamp the peculiar traits of honest boniface [F&H].
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 17: From the Swell Inn down to the little hedge Lushing Crib the Bonifaces are all awake.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 190: Mr. Bonniface soon blustered up to Bob telling him [...] he would send him to the cage.
1830		Owl (NY) 10 July n.p.: He had a [...] perception that these ‘sworn friends’ had been sacrificing too freely at the shrine of Bacchus [...] Mr Boniface may yet feel in ‘pentitential mood’ for his mistake.
1842		Flash (NY) 4 Sept. n.p.: The latter proposed to go and pawn [the gold watch], which Boniface permitted him to do.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 8 Nov. 2/2: The well-known Plough Inn, over which, presides the only thorough-going Boniface in the gigantic island of New Holland.
1854		G.J. Whyte-Melville General Bounce (1891) 224: The landlord either could not, or would not, give them any actual information as to his guests [...] So the blue-coated myrmidons of Scotland Yard got but little information from Boniface.
1860		R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 182: An unfortunate Boniface, who had got into the quagmire of the Insolvent Court.
1875		Derry Jrnl 22 Feb. 4/6: The cellar of boniface is sneered at by every youth who knows Bordeaux from Burgundy.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Feb. 5/1: The Prince took his dinner, and the loyal landlord to this day preserves mementos of the event […]. The boniface could hardly have gone a step further than this.
1881		N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 5 Feb. 207/4: Some days ago, the wife of a Queen-street tradesman died and two jolly Bonifaces, Messrs. H. and E. determined (as the deceased’s husband was a friend of theirs) to attend the funeral.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 15 Dec. 14/4: Edwin Drew, the noted sporting man and boniface of a saloon on Bleecker street.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 20/1: Having seen to his horses, and fixed up his kit, the bagman requested the landlord to show him where the bath-room was. ‘Bath-room – Bath-room,’ exclaimed the puzzled Boniface, as he slowly wooled his head with his nails; ‘y’ mean th’ place t’ put ye baggage in, I s’pose?’.
1888		Australia’s First Century 644: He partakes himself to a public-house. Arrived there, he hands his cheque to Boniface, and proceeds to ‘lamb down’ its amount, and the public-house loafers indulge in the luxury of a several days ‘drunk.’.
1890		E. Dyson ‘Golden Shanty’ in Golden Shanty (2003) 9: Mickey had been compelled to supplement his takings as a Boniface by acting alternately as fossicker, charcoal-burner, and ‘wood-jamber’.
1896		Mirror of Life 14 Mar. 3/4: Charley Donaldson, ‘Butcher Boy,’ is no longer a butcher boy, but a pretty successful boniface, with a well-equipped bar, hall, and rooms in Ardgowan Street [...] Glasgow.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Nov. 4/7: A boniface who wanted a pleasure trip to Mandurah got the doctor in.
1906		Burra Record (SA) 25 July 3/6: They Say [...] That Miss Lizzie Vivian is about to become ‘boniface’ of the Court House Hotel.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 24 Feb. 6/4: [A] noted boniface. and many others would like to stretch him out again over the same distance.
1912		G.R. Chester Five Thousand an Hour Ch. viii: Mr. Washer, proprietor of two of the largest hotels in New York, and half a dozen enormous winter and summer places, looked no more like a boniface than he did like a little girl on communion Sunday.
1944		J. Archibald ‘Defective Bureau’ in Popular Detective 🌐 ‘I am innercent!’ the night-club boniface iterated.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1859

G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 88: He has been a general of brigade in his time; but he has donned the Boniface apron, and affiliated himself to the Boniface guild.