Herald Of The Times

Origin of the Word Black.—'Blackguards.'— In all great houses, but particularly in royal residences, there were a number of mean and dirty dependents whose office it was to attend the wood yard, sculleries, &c. Of these (for in the lowest depth there was a lower still,) the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchen, halls, &c. To this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, which, with every other article of furniture, were then moved from palace to palace, the people in derision gave the name of blackguards—a term since become sufficiently familiar, and never before properly explained.—Gifford's Notes to Ben Jonson's Plays.