Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a phr. meaning utter, absolute nonsense.

1780		R. Tomlinson Sl. Pastoral 9: But now she to Bridewell has punch’d it along, / My eye, Betty Martin!
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Betty martin, that’s my eye betty martin, an anwer to any one that attempts to impose or humbug.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: My eye & Betty Martin orginated from a Gentleman and his servant attending a Catholic Church service on the Continent. The Gentleman asked his Servant what he thought of it — upon coming out — but the Servant declared it to be a pack of nonsense — a mere repetition of My Eye and Betty Martin. The Latin words Mihi Beattie Martin — being often used in the Service, caused the amusing mistake made by the Servant — When used — It’s all My Eye &c. — it is meant that what has been said is a lie — a fabrication — & so forth .
1797		‘T.B. Junr’ Pettyfogger Dramatized I vi: Blast me, I’m flat — dam’me, ’tis all my eye, Betty Martin — and she was Jenny Slang’s sister.
1809		in J. Ashton Eng. Caricature and Satire on Napoleon (1884) 98: ’Twas all my eye and Betty Martin.
1812		‘Momus Medlar’ ‘Macbeth’ in Smith Rejected Addresses 113: The knife that I thought I saw, / Was nought but my Eye Betty Martin.
1815		‘Cakes, or, My Eye and Peggy Martin’ in Vocal Mag. 1 June 181: But if honour is the stake, it’s all my eye and Peggy Martin.
1816		W.T. Moncrieff All at Coventry II iii: Yes, ’tis all my eye and Betty Martin, indeed.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 2: While you hum the poor spoonies with speeches, so pretty, / ’Bout Freedom, and Order, and – all my eye, Betty.
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 87: The thing has turned out ‘all my eye and Betty Martin’.
1823		Bombay Gaz. 26 Feb. 16/2: St. Martin is one of the worthies of the Romish calendar, and a form of prayer to him commences with the words — ‘Oh, mihi beate Martine;’ which, by some desperate fellow, who was more prone to punning than praying, has furnished the slang phrase ‘My eye, and Betty Martin’.
1825		‘Sheep’s Eyes’ in Universal Songster I 13/2: That’s all ‘Betty Martin’ thought Neddy.
1825		J.K. Paulding John Bull in America 47: O, Buxton! well mayest thou be permitted to poison half the people of London with thine execrable small beer in consideration of thy godlike philanthropy! – And, O, Betty, Martin!
1831		Navy at Home II 291: A galley packet, as it is called, quickly ran round the lower deck [...] to say, that she was a French frigate, coming down on them under all sail — to which might be heard sundry answers— ‘Yes, in a hurry!’ ‘who?’ ‘all my eye, Betty Martin;’ ‘tell that to the marines’ ‘thank you for the next — we’re sure of that, boy’.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 50: I wish I may die, ‘if I an’t all my eye and Betty Martin’. [Ibid.] 160: Then are the tears of sorrow all ‘my eye / and Betty too’.
1841		W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 548: ‘My eye and Betty Martin!’ returned the sailor.
1845		D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune (1847) 170: Mackew, who at length became convinced that the talk about his wife [...] was ‘all in his eye and Elizabeth Martin’.
1845		R.S. Surtees Hillingdon Hall I 280: I minds the time when steam and gas were thought all my eye and Miss Elizabeth Martin.
1846		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 27 Dec. 3/4: ‘O mini beati Martini’ (excuse the dog Latin ! I saw this prad of theirs, the Miss Martin colt, go a burster, and no mistake.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Jan. 3/1: I found it was all my eye and ‘Betty Martin’.
1848		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 10 Sept. 3/4: I never seed any think so dull as it was; all my eye in a banbox about betting and devil a pig’s whisper even up about the Leger.
1858		Athens Post (TN) 28 May 1/3: A report [...] that there has been discovered ‘a vein of gold’ [...] we suspect is ‘all my eye, and Betty Martin’.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 164: There are some strange expressions, I have been told, that in their origin are purely classical : — ‘All my eye and Betty Martin!’ is thus said to be the beginning of a Latin prayer — ‘Oh mihi Beate Martine’.
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 9: All in my Eye and Betty Martin. A corruption of the ecclesiastical ejaculation, ‘O mihi, Beate Martine’.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Mar. 9/1: You’ll find by-and-bye / It’s all my eye / And Betty Martin, too.
1887		London Standard 15 Feb. 6/6: ‘All my eye and Betty Martin’ [...] is not so baseless as Mr Maxwell would make us believe.
1893		in W.S. Walsh Literary Curiosities 352: Eye. All my eye. This slang term for fudge, nonsense, with its pendant, ‘All my eye and Betty Martin’.
1907		B. Baynton Human Toll (1988) 155: ‘But, Fanny, they’re stealin’, an’ it’s Sunday.’ [...] ‘Sunday me eye an’ Betty Martin!’ retorted Fanny.
1920		Marvel 19 June 13: I’ve heard about that dodge before in a ring, but, of course, it’s all my eye and Betty Martin, as they say.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 350: ‘All my eye and Betty Martin!’ muttered Mr. Oakroyd.
1938		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 22 Sept. 12/2: He could not understand it at all as people kept saying ‘All my eye and Betty Martin’.
1950		Gloucs. Citizen 27 June 4/6: As for including the Co-ops among monopolies — well, it’s just ‘All my eye and Betty Martin’.
1954		R. Service ‘Immortality’ in Carols of an Old Codger 44: Down drops the curtain; / Another show is all my eye / And Betty Martin.
1959		A. Sinclair My Friend Judas (1963) 50: All my eye and Lady Chatterley, I said, and staggered to Mary without seeing a thing.
2000		Indep. 25 Mar. 8: Oh, all my eye and Betty Martin too! / You’re not the Dalai Lama of this land!