damber

_Dimber-damber_ = the chief of a gang: also an expert thief.

Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] John S. Farmer

Now here be a maid -- a regular dimber-damber dell as looketh better than she be, for her's a gnashing, tearing shrew wi 'no kindness in her.

Peregrine's Progress Jeffery Farnol 1915

"We must not suffer this," said Thornton, whose hardy effrontery enabled him to lord it over the jolly boys, as if he were their dimber-damber;

Pelham — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

"We must not suffer this," said Thornton, whose hardy effrontery enabled him to lord it over the jolly boys, as if he were their dimber-damber;

Pelham — Volume 08 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

Canting Dict_: -- "Sung on the electing of a new dimber damber, or king of the gypsies"].

Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] John S. Farmer