Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. creditors, those to whom one owes money.

1607

Dekker Iests to make you merie 62: [T]hey thankt him for his paines, and in requitall promist to deale with his Philistines (his creditors) that are now come vpon him, to see if they could take them off.

2. bailiffs.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Philistines, Serjeants Bailiffs and their Crew.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1751		Fielding Amelia (1926) I 26: She was too ignorant of such matters to know that if he had fallen into the hands of the Philistines, [...] he would hardly have been able so soon to recover his liberty.
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) II 222: I must make an effort to advance what farther will be required to take my friend out of the hands of the Philistines.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London II 90: ‘What brought you here [i.e. prison]?’ ‘Driven in by the Philistines, [...] caught like a harmless dove by the Greeks—clean’d out.—By the cog, I was obliged to fly to this pigeon house, in order to avoid being cut up by my creditors; and, up to a little of the Newmarket logic, I am now crossing and justling, thought it is doubtful at present who will win the race.’.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 188: It was soon whispered about that the Philistines were abroad.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 127/2: Philistines, bailiffs and their crew.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1882		Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 1 Nov. 3/3: Names for police officers: ‘pig,’ ‘Philistines,’ ‘bobby’.

3. (also philistians) a group of drunkards.; thus have been among the Philistines v., to be drunk.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Philistines [...] Drunkards.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 8: But Colonel, they say, you went to Court last Night very drunk: Nay, I’m told for certain, you had been among the Philistians.
1770		Gent.’s Mag. 560/1: To express the condition of an Honest Fellow [...] under the Effects of good Fellowship, [...] It is also said that he has [...] 62 Been among the Philistines; a Pun on the word fill.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
a.1856		Benjamin Franklin quoted in Hall (1856) 461: Dr. Franklin, in speaking of the intemperate drinker, says, he will never, or seldom, allow that he is drunk; he may [...] ‘be among the Philistines [...] pretty well entered, &c., but never drunk’.

4. the police.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 8/2: We espied Billy Connolly and Billy Hughes from London, in the hands of the Philistines, followed by a large number of ‘flats,’ who were eager to see the ‘swell mob’ and what would be done to them.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1882		Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 1 Nov. 3/3: Names for police officers: ‘pig,’ ‘Philistines,’ ‘bobby’.
1886		Graphic 30 Jan. n.p.: A policeman is also called a ‘cossack’, a ‘Philistine’, and a ‘frog’ [DSUE].
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 57: Philistines, the police.