Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a street thug.

1712		R. Steele Spectator No. 276 3: A very gay [...] old Man...who has been, he tells me, a Scowrer, a Scamperer, a Breaker of Windows [etc.].
1866		Wild Boys of London I 126/2: ‘You scampers,’ he muttered, trying to get at his staff. ‘I’ll pay you when I gets you.’.

a highwayman.

1786		Mr Thompson Female Amazon 10: She received advice [...] that her scampsman was under sentence of deat at Kingston.
1790		‘The Highway Man’ in Highway Man 6: Bold boys a thieving never go, / To bring the Scamp-man’s act so low.
1800		Sporting Mag. Apr. XVI 26/1: If anything is done by scampsmen on the Fulham road, send the traps to pull up Bounce and Blunderbuss, two forties at least.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1827		‘The Trotting-Horse’ in Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 238: If a scampsman bold should come, or a kiddy on the hop.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: Cracksmen, buzmen, scampsmen, we [...] On the spice gloak high toby / We frisk so rummy, / And ramp so plummy.
1842		Egan ‘The By-Blow of the Jug’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 145: A scampsman, you know, must always be bold.

(UK Und.) a highway robber.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 83: foot scamp. Men not having horses, who are on the Foot-pad Rig, but whose behaviour is correspondent with that of those who are on the Royal Scamp.
1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 156: Scamp. Scamp, is going upon the highway: a foot scamp is a low fellow that stops you with a bludgeon, cutlass, or knife and ill treats you.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: Scamp-foot a street robber, a foot pad, spicer.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 29: Scamp foot – a street robber.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 86: A royal-scamp was a highwayman, whilst a foot-scamp was an ordinary thief with nothing but his legs to trust.

(UK Und.) to work as a highway robber; also as n.

1728

J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 18: He [...] sat swearing he would never part with such Company, to go upon the Foot Scamper. [Ibid.] 59: Adieu to stopping Coaches, and adieu to all the hurry-scurry of Foot-Scampering.

(UK Und.) a highway robber who works on foot.

1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 19: The Foot-Scamperer, alias Foot-Pad.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxvii: The Foot Scamperer A Foot Pad.

working as a highwayman.

1739		Ordinary of Newgate Account 14 Mar. 🌐 He asked me if I would not go with him, and some more of our Countrymen upon the Scamp; I did not understand what he meant by the Scamp, but he explained himself.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 5: He could help us to about five or six hundred Pounds, if we were both willing: I said How, John? He answered on the Scamp.
1763		Proc. Old Bailey 14 Sept. 🌐 while he was drinking it came in Lydia Cox , who talked to him about his going on the scamp, and the lay, cant words used among thieves for going a thieving.
1772		Ordinary of Newgate Account 8 July 🌐 Those youths that venture on the scamp, / You’ll say are much to blame; / But since they all do respites get, / Makes more follow the same.
1781		G. Parker View of Society II 36: The celebrated Hawke,[...] being one day out on the scamp, saw a man lamenting loudly.
c.1790		‘Swaggering Jack’ in Luke Caffrey’s Gost 2: A thieving then he scorned to tramp, / So hir’d a Pad and went on the scamp.
1791		‘A Song, How a Flat became a Prigg’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 21: He napped a pred, went out on the scamp, / For longer on diving he scorn’d to tramp.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 109: scamp to go upon the scamp.

a highwayman who specializes in robbing rich victims and in causing them no physical harm.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 36: Royal Scamp is the term appropriated to those Highwaymen who rob without using ill; they never shoot or maim.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Royal scamp; a highwayman who robs civilly; royal foot scamp, footpads who behave in like manner.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 86: A royal-scamp was a highwayman, whilst a foot-scamp was an ordinary thief with nothing but his legs to trust.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].