Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the member of a criminal gang who keeps watch or entices a victim into a crooked gambling game.

1552		G. Walker Detection of Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play 15: He, namely Hodge Setter, whose surname witnesseth what opinion man had of him [...] was thought peerless at crafty play.
1592		Greene Defence of Conny-Catching 7: At these wordes Conny-catcher and Setter, I was driuen into as great a maze, as if one had dropt out of the clowds, to hear a pesant cant the wordes of art belonging to our trade.
1608		Dekker Belman of London F2: The party that fetcheth in the Gull, (whose feathers they meane to plucke) is not called the Taker, but the Setter.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 77: The Moon-Curser [...] who under the pretence of lighting you over the Fields, being late and few stirring, shall light you into a pack of Rogues, that wait for the coming of this Setter, and so they will all joyn in the Robbery.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Setters, or Setting-dogs, they that draw in Bubbles, for old Gamesters to Rook.
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 7: There are also Setters of both Sexes, that make it their Business to go about upon Information, to pry into the Disposition and Avenues of Houses, and bring notice of the Booty, of which they have a share when the Robbery is perform’d.
1722		Swift Last Speech Ebenezer Elliston in Works (1766) XI 6: We had setters watching in corners, and by dead walls, to give us notice when a gentleman goes by.
1734		Pretty Doings in a Protestant Nation 33: Their Art of Trapping [...] by Sharpers, Setters and Bullies.
1755		The Tricks of the Town Laid Open (4 edn) 47: They [i.e. cheating gamblers] have their Whores, and Setters, their Thieves, and their Pickpockets; their false Dice and cards, and almost all other Engines for Mischief.
1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1770		R. King Frauds of London 85: So artful are these Setters.
1792		New Cheats of London Exposed 17: setters These are servile despicable wretches, capable of every action base and sordid.
1805		G. Barrington New London Spy 78: Setters. Their lives are one continued series of fraud and deception. [...] As to lying, cheating, dissimulation, flattery, or hypocrisy, they have them all at their beck.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 48: sharpers such as Gamblers, Ring-droppers, Money-droppers, Setters, or Trappers, Crimps [...] Imposters, and Swindlers.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 5 Mar. n.p.: A setter I vos once, ’tis true, could chaunt like head of Mammon.
1867		(con. 1600s) M. Lemon Leyton Hall I 233: The man that stood beside thee is old Crookfinger, the most notorious setter, barnacle and foist in the City.
1873		Sl. Dict.

2. a pimp.

1667		‘Ballad’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 11: And Dapper his clerk, Being true to the mark, / Was at once both his scribe and his setter.
1808		G. Andrewes A Stranger’s Guide or Frauds of London 33: Setters [...] are a dangerous set of wretches, who are capable of committing any villany, as well as by trepanning of a rich heir into matrimony with a cast-off mistress or common prostitute.

3. a bailiff’s assistant or serjeant’s [i.e. an official authorized to arrest wrongdoers] yeoman.

1630		J. Lane Continuation of Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale 2nd version (1887) 134: So maie wee doe and live, woold Algarsive and his state setters, all vs thus reprive.
1662		Fuller Worthies (1840) II 222: It was not long before he [Campian] was caught by the Setters of the Secretary Walsingham, and brought to the Tower.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Setters, or Setting dogs [...] a Sergeant’s Yeoman, or Bailiff’s Follower, or Second.
1725		Life and Glorious Actions of [...] Jonathan Wilde 49: He was glad to take up with his old Trade of being a Setter to a Marshall’s Court Bailiff.
1731		Prisoners Opera 5: Where no Bailiff, Dun or Setter, / Dares to show his frightful Face.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: setter a bailiffs follower, who, like a setting dog, follows and points out the game for his master.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 382: Welcome, welcome, brother debtor, / To this poor but merry place, / Where neither bailiff, dun, nor setter, / Dares to show his measly face.
1839		(con. 1715) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 146: My oldest and trustiest setter, Abraham Mendez.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 123: Setter, persons using the haunts of thieves in order to give information for the reward.
1849		Leamington Spa Courier 4 Aug. 4/5: They have the pops ready — and the Setters are out, and they are determined to let out the stash.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 78: setter A shadow; an officer in disguise, who points out the thief for others to arrest.

4. an excise man, whose job is to ensure that brewers do not defraud the Excise.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Setters, or Setting dogs an Excise-Officer to prevent the Brewers defrauding the King.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: setter [...] an excise man.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

5. (UK Und.) a police spy or informer.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: setter a person uses the haunts of thieves, and gives information for the reward.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 71: Setter, an officer who watches the movements of a thief till his arrest.

6. a fake bidder at an auction house.

1725		View of London & Westminster (2nd part) 13: [T]he President of the Sale surrounded by his Puffs and Setters (Persons appointed to bid, to decoy or postpone others).
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 210: Setter a person employed by the vendor at an auction to run the biddings up; to bid against bona-fide bidders.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 71: Setter, [...] a person employed at auctions to bid against bona-fide bidders.