Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an anonymous person, a pseudonym; also attrib.

1690		Pagan Prince 12: The Cause was a very knotty Cause between the Sieur John Doe Plaintiff, and the Sieur Richard Roe Defendant.
[1743		Fielding Life of Jonathan Wild (1784) I 136: Mr. John Doe*, a person whose company is in great request. [*footnote – This is a fictitious name which is put into every writ; for what purpose the lawyers best know]].
1795		in Southey Life and Correspondence I (1850) 245: I cannot take a house till my finances will suffer me to furnish it; and for this I depend upon my Madoc, to which [...] I shall apply with assiduity, always remembering John Doe and Richard Roe.
1810		‘Four In Hand’ in Tegg’s Prime Song Book 34: But a lawyer is as necessary as a rough rider, for if we will shy at Justice, or kick down credit for a caper, why we must be brought up to the mark; and we shall find Johnny Doe no Johnny Raw; and that when Richard Roe mounts the box, it’s all Dickie with us.
[1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 215: Those two ever watchful friends, / The step-brothers, whom sheriff sends, / John Doe and Richard Roe, / A taking pair].
[1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 34: There’s John Doe’s salary, it is seven hundred and thirty pounds a year].
[1840		R. Barham ‘Sir Rupert the Fearless’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 39: Throw us out John Doe, and Richard Roe, / And sweetly we’ll tickle their tobies!].
1862		Tralee Chron. 7 Jan. n.p.: It seems but the other day that we were finally rid of John Doe and Richard Roe [...] and of John A’ Noakes and John A’ Styles in chancery proceedings; when indictments wee drawn in bog Latin and declarations in bastard Norman French.
1869		Sportsman (London) 28 Jan. 2/1: Notes on News [...] The absurd old legal fictions of ‘John Doe’ and ‘Richard Roe’.
[1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 19: John Doe or Richard Roe. These two names, so long used as formalities in certain English law papers].
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Dec. 13/3: In our opinion, my good woman, Mr. Doe-and-Roe has done you a very good turn.
1890		A.C. Gunter Miss Nobody of Nowhere 75: I got supenees for every man of ye [...] and he reads them out: ‘Asa Doe Bullock, Hiram Roe Filkins, John Doe, Richard Roe, etc., etc.’.
1900		[title] The bridge manual by John Doe [pseudonym of Francis Reginald Roe] [OED].
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 435: I’ll put his name here instead of ‘John Doe’.
1922		U. Sinclair They Call Me Carpenter 170: He wrote down ‘John Doe Carpenter’.
1945		Nation CLX 28 Apr. 480/1: John Doe and Joe Doakes, along with the Cabots and the Lowells [...] will have very little idea whether the result should be a source of enthusiasm or despair [DA].
1955		F. Kane ‘Return Enggagement’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] Police have announced that John Doe, victim of a hit and run accident [...] early this morning has still been unidentified at press time.
1967		W. Manus Mott the Hoople 25: My card [...] All it says is ‘John Doe — Madman’.
1971		J. Simon Sign of Fool 136: The ‘John Doe’ warrant would be issued in my name.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 148: I’d like to know how this John Doe on the tracks got himself from A to B.
1992		S.L. Hills Tragic Magic 88: A John Doe warrant is when we get a guy selling dope directly to the police. We know his real first and last name. He makes a sale to an undercover cop [...] What you have to do first of all is you’ve got to know the legal first and last name of these pushers.
2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 37: No John Does in any of the city’s various loony bins matched his description.
2013		F. Bill Donnybrook [ebook] ‘We’ll know more after the toasted Does are ID’d’.