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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BLUE GOWN, n. A licensed beggar whose badge of office was a blue gown. (See quots.) Arch.Sc. 1749 Scots Mag. (Oct.) 509:
On the 23rd of October, the noted blue-gown-Hamilton, a bachelor, aged about 80, was married, in the Canongate, Edinburgh to Jean Lindsay, aged about 20, a bluegown's daughter.Sc. 1818 Picken Dict. Sc. Lang. 18:
Blue Gown, a beggar who every King's birthday receives a blue cloak, a tin badge with the inscription “pass and repass” which he wears on the front of his cloak, a shilling Scots for every year of the Sovereign's age, a pair of gloves, and a dinner.Sc. 1899 H. G. Graham Social Life 18th Cent. I. 234:
The method had been prescribed by a law dating as far back as James VI. A license was given to a certain number of beggars yearly to ply throughout each parish. . . . These ‘blue gowns,' as they were called, or ‘gaberlunzies' — from the wallet they carried — were not allowed to beg beyond their own parish.Ayr. 1822 Galt Sir A. Wylie iv.:
For lack of other company, often, on the roadside, [he] fell into discourse with travelling tinklers, blue-gowns, or old soldiers. attrib.Edb. 1773 R. Fergusson Sc. Poems (1925) 12:
Sing likewise, Muse, how blue-gown bodies, Like scar-craws new ta'en down frae woodies, Come here to cast their clouted duddies And get their pay.Wgt. 1703-25 G. Fraser Lowland Lore (1880) 46, 47:
To 3 Blew Gouns, 6s. . . . To a blewgoun, 2s. . . . To 3 poor men, qrof 2 blewgouns, 6s.