Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) the king of the 19C swindlers, a fashionable swell who appeared as sophisticated a figure as those on whom he preyed.

1822		Bell’s Life in London 9 June 119/3: A few – very few, gipsies, jockeys, mace coves, magsmen, and prigs, to make up the assortment.
1833		Bell’s Life in London 5 May 4/1: The honest hood-winked bumpkin [...] remitted a hundred pounds [...] not only did the farmer but also his partner, Jack — the magsman, get his share.
1838		Town ‘The Swell Mob’ 27 Jan. n.p.: A magsman must, of necessity be a great actor, and a most studious observer of human nature [...] Without [these attributes] a man might as well attempt to fly as to go out for a ‘mag-stake’ [F&H].
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 457: The grand jury! the magsman’s best friend.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 3 Jan. 2/2: A sporting little mill came off on Boxing Day at Paddington, between Charley Oxford and Jack the Magsman.
1856		‘A Harrassing Painsworth’ in Yates & Brough (eds) Our Miscellany 23: Round this table were seated the choice spirits of London — the highwaymen, the mufflers, the area sneaks, the prigging princes, the gonophs, the magsmen, and the fences of the day.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 42/1: Bill Fransham; Harry the Baker; Joe Rowae, the ‘magsman;’ and Charley the ‘flat’.
1873		Sl. Dict. 221: magsmen are wonderful actors. Their work is done in broad daylight, without any stage accessories; and often a wink, a look, or a slip of the tongue would betray their confederacy. Their ability and perseverance are truly worthy of a better cause. magsmen are very often men of superior education. Those who ‘work’ the tidal trains and boats are often faultlessly dressed and highly accomplished.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 48: The order of magsmen will, comprise card-sharpers, ‘confidence trick’ workers, begging-letter writers, bogus ministers of religion, professional noblemen, ‘helpless victims of the cruel world,’ medical quacks and various other clever rogues.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 418: The tip-top cracksmen and magsmen never consorted with the second or third-class thieves.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 26 Aug. 5/4: Those who know the speilers and magsmen by sight can see at least half-a-dozen [...] They chat together [...] till the arrival of a likely ‘mug’ or flat.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Binks and Mrs. B’ in Sandburrs 164: His name is ‘Windy Joe, the Magsman’.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Aug. 25/1: The upheaval in the Flowery Land caused him to talk a lot the other evening. Said he, in almost as many words: ‘Supposing you Australians (who, by the way, are the biggest mugs in creation from a ‘magsman’s’ point of view) had, during the life of Queen Victoria, seen the whole of the Northern Territory seized in time of peace by Russia.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 July 1st sect. 6/2: Benson had a startling criminal record [...] to the detectives of which be was known as one of the most accomplished magsmen of the day.
1925		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 19 Dec. 3/1: Heaven has a rival establishment, too. It’s called Hades; is run by a super-magsman named Old Nick.

(b) (also mag) a street swindler, or thief, esp. one who preys on gullible countrymen.

1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 15 May 126/2: Wren is one of those ‘sporting men’ whose forte lies in betting with bumpkins [...] who are called magsmen by the police; and [...] ‘it is meat and drink to them to see a clown’.
1829		Eve. Mail (London) 30 Nov. 4/5: The officer [...] stated that he found on him a purse, containing some new halfpence, which might mistaken for double sovereigns [...] and a parcel of flash notes, which the officers described forming the regular stock in trade of a nags-man [sic], the slang name for the plunderers who are on the watch to make prey of unawary country people.
1835		Sherborne Mercury 28 Sept. 2/3: The prisoner is a country ‘magsman’ [...] an ingenious thief who practices the art of sleight of hand to perfection.
1839		W.A. Miles Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 58: ‘Magsmen’ [...] infest the docks, the streets, the inn, coach offices, or any other place where strangers are to be found.
1852		Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 24 Dec. 862/1: [Those] who affect to be ministers, and preach in the open air to collect crowds for the benefit of those whose ‘mawleys’ dip deep into the ‘cly’ or who ‘fake a blowens;’ and whether ‘magsmen,’ ‘buzgloaks,’ or ‘dummy-hunters’ give the ‘reglars to their ‘benculls’-pick pockets, and share the spoil with their confederates.
1855		Morn. Post (London) 29 Oct. 3/4: [They] gave a full description of the fellow, who is well known to the police as a ‘magsman’ and thief.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 53: magsmen Fellows who are too cowardly to steal, but prefer to cheat confiding people by acting upon their cupidity.
1865		T. Archer Pauper, Thief and Convict 26: These are the regular thieves – pickpockets, magsmen, sharpers, when they can sport a respectable ‘get up.’.
1869		letter in Age (Melbourne) 14 June 3/8: Many a time my own endeavours to obtain an entrance to the rendezvous of some of the magsmen and burglars of this city was frustrated.
1873		J. Greenwood In Strange Company 282: A select circle of admiring ‘magsmen’.
1885		A. Griffiths Fast and Loose III 140: Joe Magsman was that evil-looking individual whom Leon had accosted.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 20/1: Run him in, too, for in spite of all his craw-thumping and Psalm-snuffling deeds, his pile is made up of ‘crime and immorality,’ and he is just as great a vagrant as the veriest ‘bummer’ or magsman in the land.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 99: Monte-man: applied to professional card or gambling swindlers as a class. Synonyms: spieler, blackleg, takedown, magsmen.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 May 1/1: These flash mags can be seen every Monday morning coming from their cash providing Venuses.
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Oct. 15/1: You sh’d come an’ stand in Bourke-street, with the talent an’ the pugs, / An’ the mags that’s always watchin’ fer the comin’ of the mugs; / Some ’angs about the totes, or stays in smoke ter dodge a D.
1906		N.Z. Truth 1 Sept. 7/8: The Yankee ‘Grafter’ - ther American for ‘Boodle-magsman’ - [...] started out his old game.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 MAGSMAN — [...] a deceiver.
1924		E.G. Murphy ‘The Sport’ Dryblower’s Verses 51: He pauses in a the middle of a shot / To tell you how the Magsman mucked it out.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 63: The following crook’s words and phrases date from the days of the old Old Bailey: [...] thieves who watch for countrymen at railway stations and in the streets – magsmen.
1945		Scone Advocate (NSW) 5 Oct. 3/3: [A]n unusually heavy infestation of gangsters, gunmen, magsmen, together with their kept women, female money-spinners, and an assorted collection of nymphs de pave — mostly blondes.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 191/1: Magsman. Confidence man.
1964		T. Ronan Packhorse and Pearling Boat 239: The Grizzly Bear had a yarn of some smooth-mannered, fast-talking magsman.
1973		(ref. to 1890s) ‘Gloss. of Larrikin Terms’ in J. Murray Larrikins 203: magsman: a racecourse tout, or a street swindler who takes people in.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 96: Magsman – now a petty thief but originally a well-dressed swindler.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Magsman. A confidence trickster.

(c) an assistant for a street swindler or pickpocket.

1852		Launceston Examiner (Tas.) 24 Dec. 862/1: [Those] who affect to be ministers, and preach in the open air to collect crowds for the benefit of those whose ‘mawleys’ dip deep into the ‘cly’ or who ‘fake a blowens;’ and whether ‘magsmen,’ ‘buzgloaks,’ or ‘dummy-hunters’ give the ‘reglars to their ‘benculls’-pick pockets, and share the spoil with their confederates.
1856		H. Mayhew Great World of London I 46: The dependents of the cheats; as ‘jollies’ and ‘magsmen,’ or the confederates of other cheats.
1858		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Feb. 2/7: [heading] A Magsman in Difficulties Henry Clegg, a powerful, rough-looking customer, was [...] charged [...] with having, in a public place [...] played an unlawful game of chance, called ‘seven under or over’.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 93/1: The ‘stalls’ were represented by Ikey Rome, Harry Witty, and Joe the ‘magsman’.
1877		S. James Vagabond Papers (3rd series) 136: You have to go into general business. You must be a magsman, a pincher, a picker-up, a flatcatcher, a bester.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Magsmen - Accomplices of gamblers.

(d) (also magman) a card-sharp or other cheating gamester.

1855		Empire (Sydney) 29 May 5/5: The cards [...] were of different sizes [...] (This pack, known in slang language as the Magman’s Bible.) Had the cards of the black suits longer than the rest, and those of the red suits broader thus rendering it easy for a sharper to cut to whichever colour he pleased.
1861		H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor (1968) IV 295: He was a magsman (a skittle-sharp) [...] The two magsmen (card-sharpers) strutted off, like fine gentlemen.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Dec. 10/1: All the spielers and magsmen of Australia, with a few cargoes from elsewhere, will be in Sydney in early January for the great spree; and as Sydney has plenty of ‘guns’ of her own it would be just as well if [...] the police locked up as many ‘undesirable’ characters as possible.
1964		J.A. Lee Shiner Slattery 170: A few packs of cards bulged their pockets [...] City spielers, magsmen.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 192: Magsmen See Megsmen.