Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a drink composed of brandy, sugar and water.

1748		Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 192: His mess-mates, who were making merry in the ward-room, round a table well stored with bumbo and wine.
1756		Diary of a Sussex Tradesman in Sussex Arch. Collection IX p.188, cited in N&Q 28 April Ser. 7 I 194: We drank one bowl of punch and two muggs of bumboo [F&H].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1788		‘The Return of Ulysses to Ithaca’ in Sonneck Yankee Doodle (1909) 215: Yankee doodle doodle doo black Negro he get fumbo, / And when you come to our town, we’ll make you drunk with bumbo.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘The Lucky Escape’ in Collection of Songs II 129: I liked the jolly tars, I liked bumbo and flip.
1790		‘The Irish Morsho’ in North Country Maid 3: My spirits I cheer’d with good wine and bumbo.
1812		J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 286: They drank bumbo made of gin.
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 117: Bombo, weak cold punch.
1873		Sl. Dict.
a.1886		Northumberland Song in N&Q 6 Mar. 195: The pitmen and the keelman... drink bumbo made of gin [F&H].