Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gin, occas. young Tom.

1807		Ashburner’s New Vocal & Poetic Repository 163: In a barrel so round then a cock was put in, / And some have since call'’. the contents of it gin; / But this we know, the liquid therefrom / Is that cure for the cholic, the juice of Old Tom!
1808		Satirist 1 July 450: There is scarce any one who has not a decided preference for some particular spirit, though the spirit of Old Tom is undoubtedly almost an universal favourite, at least among the lower classes.
c.1817		Keats Complete Poems (1976) 333: The slang of cities in no wise he knew, Tipping the wink to him was heathen Greek. He sipped no olden Tom or ruin blue, or nantz or cherry brandy .
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 9: The Laundress loves dearly a drain of ‘Ould Tom’.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 187: The dancing party was knock’d up, and were lobbing their lollys, half asleep and half awake, on the table, bowing as it were to the magnanimous influence of Old Tom.
1835		Duncombe Dens of London 84: Fired with jealousy, and backed by Old Tom (gin), she sprung upon her rival.
1837		‘The Rambling Sons of Night’ in Rum Ti Tum! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 160: Well prim’d with Jack, or old Tom’s juice.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 Dec. 2/5: A bottle of ‘genuwine old tom’.
1849		Paul Pry 15 Jan. n.p.: He is become a devotee of ‘Old Tom.’ Gin, like a fiery snake, crawls in every vein of his body, destroying the fresh blood of the man, and making of his once strong limbs a shattered wreck.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes III 228: A bed, a glass of old Tom, a cup of coffee [...] for 5s.
1858		‘Shadow’ Midnight Scenes 98: Brightly gilded spirit casks lettered [...] under the cognomen of ‘Old Tom’ or ‘Young Tom’ as the case may be.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 14: [They] subsided into a chivalrous offer of standing glasses of ‘Old Tom’ all round.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 228/1: Most of the scavagers, he thought, liked Old Tom (gin) best.
1864		J. Armour Diggings, the Bush, and Melbourne 13: About midnight they came—a noisy multitude, full of brandy and ‘Old Tom’.
1868		Sportsman 25 Apr. 4/1: Notes on News [...] ‘Old Tom’ takes his name from Old Tom Chamberlain, relative and partner of Hodges, the distiller [...] While Hodges managed the commercial part of the business, Old Tom superintended the distillery and the manufacture of the compounds, for which the firm was almost as celebrated as for its gin.
1871		Nelson Eve. Mail (NZ) 11 Oct. 2/2: Sales by Auction [...] Cigars, Rum, Old Tom.
1871		Nelson Eve. Mail (NZ) 13 June 4/1: Thirty years ago the pricipal London makers of the luqid known as ‘Old Tom’ were [...] Burnett and Booth.
1873		Sl. Dict. 241: Old Tom extra strong gin; sometimes termed cat’s water. Various reasons are given for the use of the words old tom. The distillers have the sign of a tom cat on their illuminated placards. The origin of the phrase is, however, in the fact that the managing clerk of a once celebrated ‘gin-spinning’ firm, who was known as old tom, used to keep a special bottle of extra good stuff with which to regale customers when they settled their accounts. To get a drink of old tom’s was then a great favour.
1881		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 11 Dec. 4/7: ‘The Ballad of the Bunco Man’ [...] And trhen he called out loudly for / ‘A drop of Old Tom gin’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Sept. 20/1: Those who were going drank largely of Old Tom at the Wattlegum shandies in the exhilaration of hope – those who were returning did likewise in the depression of despair.
1886		S. Watson Wops the Waif 1/2: And a-slides along from ‘shampain’ to brandy, and from that to old tom.
1889		Dundee Courier 7 Mar. 4/4: Liquids in the shape of cognac [...] and hot tom were handed round, the young gents [...] partaking very sparsely of the latter throat burner.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 25 Oct. 4/4: It is true I’d been eating some lobster, and drank / Just onough of ‘Old Thomas’ to fill up a tank.
1891		Sporting Times 3 Jan. 3/2: The baby has been getting at the Old Tom.
1894		Otago Daily Times 8/7: [advt] Boord’s Old Tom.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 20 Jan. 3/6: Mariar [...] fetched six-penny worth of Old Tom from the corner public house.
1896		Illus. Police News (London) [part of cartoon] ‘The Young Man of the Period’: Old Tom Gin.
c.1905		Lottie Lennox [perf.] ‘The Donah’s Wedding’ 🎵 Whiskey by the bloomin’ bin, Old Tom in galore.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 41: He’s as groggy as a keg of Old Tom.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.