Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a heavy drinker.

1623		Middleton & Rowley Spanish Gypsy II i: Though I am no mark in respect of a huge butt, yet I can tell you great bubbers have shot at me.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Bubber, a drinking Bowl; also a great Drinker, and he that used to steal Plate from Publick-houses.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1793		Sporting Mag. May II 128/2: The gunner’s a dev’l of a bubber.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. a drinking bowl.

c.1698		see sense 1.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

3. a thief who steals from taverns.

1671		‘L.B.’ New Academy of Complements 204: The eleventh is a Bubber, much used of late / He goes to the Alehouse, and steals there the Plate.
c.1698		see sense 1.
1712		‘Black Procession’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 38: [as cit. 1671].
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1869		‘Thief-Catcher’s Prophecy’ in W.H. Logan Pedlar’s Pack of Ballads 143: [as cit. 1671].