Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) a prison van for conveying prisoners.

1835		N.Y. Transcript 24 Dec. 2/5: Escape. — A man named Henry Stage [...] contrived to make his escape on Saturday last while on his way from Bellevue prison to the city in the carriage generally known as ‘Black Maria’.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 12 Mar. n.p.: She was conveyed to ‘the Island’ in ‘the Black Maria’ with oaths and curses.
1846		Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, PA) 14 Sept. 2/1: No longer grace can be allowed these indifferent partizans: after the stated hour, the committee must wake them, shake them, and if still indifferent, force them into a carriage, like convicts in ‘Black Mariah,’ and drive them to the polls, nolens volens.
1850		J.C. Neal Pic-nic Sketches 15: He walked toward the corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets – [...] where ‘Black Marias’ most do congregate.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 120: Black Maria is the only one that’s doin’ a trade now. Every journey full as a tuppenny omnibus.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 61: On alighting from the ‘sable maria’ we were ushered through a door into a long, white-washed passage, with cells on one side.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple III 18: [He] inquired [...] of another when he last had a ride with ‘Black Maria’ – that term being robbers’ cant for the sombre police van.
1880		G.R. Sims Three Brass Balls 206: It is the time when ‘Black Maria,’ the prison van, stands waiting at the door, and the signal is given that the prisoners are coming out.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 1: Black Maria, Black Bess - The police van.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 12/4: Governor Carington was at Redfern railway station about 9:45 last Thursday morning and with his customary luck ‘Black Maria’ came rolling up close behind him. There never was a man haunted by a gaol-van as Carington is.
1890		Sporting Times 4 Jan. 1: In order to duly prepare themselves for the new year, Gubbins and the Australian spent the better part of New Year’s Day in Bow Street Police Court. After duly inspecting the court, an adjournment was made to the cells. After a lot of strategy had been employed, Gub was at length enabled to bolt the door of a cell into which the colonist had ventured and, if it had not been for the good, kind gaoler, the gentleman from the Antipodes would probably have sojourned in durance vile until the arrival of Black Maria.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 25 Feb. 1/2: The barbarous, disgraceful, ‘gaol upon wheels’ vulgarly and familiarly designated as ‘Black Maria’.
1901		C.R. Wooldridge Hands Up! 75: Men of prominence in the speculative world mingled with those who made dollar deals and they sat side by side in the ‘Black Maria’.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Sept. 4/7: An ancient hard case philosopher was convicted to six months’ imprisonment. ‘Thanks, yer ’Onor,’ he replied gratefully, previous to skipping into the Black Maria.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 288: There was a closed carriage waiting which they motioned us to get into. It looked exactly like the Black Maria.
c.1921		T. Norman Penny Showman 14: I therefore went down with the rest [...] into the cell to await the Black Maria to cart us off.
1926		Odum & Johnson Negro Workaday Songs 75: Good God a’-mighty! / What’s a fellow gonna do, / When ol’ black mariah / Come a-sailin’ after you?
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 228: I boarded in Prison. I went there in the Black Maria.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 246: In the midst Emily Anseer, all flying hair and garments, was busily hacking the ankles of two policemen painfully endeavouring to drag her to the black maria.
1942		J. Archibald ‘Knife Thrower’ in Popular Detective June 🌐 Call the mechanized Maria will you?
1949		Louis Jordan ‘Saturday Night Fish Fry’ 🎵 When the policeman said, ‘Where you goin’ there, bub?’ / Now, they got us out of there like a house on fire, / Put us all in that Black Maria.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 81: The Maria was there to meet us.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 25: I heard the Black Maria back into the yard.
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 11: Black-maria – a police patrol wagon.
1968		A. Buzo Norm & Ahmed (1973) 20: They were all singing Sweet Adeline in the Black Maria. What a bunch of ratbags they were!
1975		A. Bleasdale Scully 71: I could see [...] the police cars on the old tram lines and a Black Maria.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 24: There was an exchange of papers and the gate swung wide allowing the Maria to roll triumphantly in.
1987		(con. 1930s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 136: Then came the black Maria, loaded with police.
1993		(con. 1945) S. McAughtry Touch and Go 98: They beat him up and threw him into the Black Maria.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 110: Busies are swarming everywhere, nicking every likely head and lobbing them in the Maria.
1999		Indep. Rev. 30 Aug. 1: I was taken off in a black mariah.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 Black Mariah n. Name given to the van the police used to collect and transport offenders to and from the scene of apprehension, to police stations and/or courthouses.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 19/1: black bitch 2 the police van that transports inmates between court and prison.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] One month later he escaped from the Black Maria (a police escort van).

2. (orig. US) a hearse.

1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 23: I never cried when father and mother died, nor when the Black Maria carted ’em away.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

3. late 19C an omnibus.

1890

Kipling ‘Chautauquaed’ in Pioneer (1909) 169: They swept us, this horde of clamouring women, into a Black Maria omnibus.

4. (orig. US) an ambulance.

1985

S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 106: And bring the black marias out like wailing banshees.