Why are they called Darby Cuffs?

I recently went to a quiz and one of the questions was "What are Darbies?" We were given the correct answer at the end but no-one can tell us how this name came about. Can you help?

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) gives the definition.

Darbies \Dar”bies\, n. pl Manacles; handcuffs.

Jem Clink will fetch you the darbies. Sir W. Scott.

In “The Steel Glass” by Gascoigne, printed in 1576, occurs the line ‘‘To binde such babes in father Derbies bands.”

What does this mean? Why is a Darby called a Darby?

It begins with the town of Derby, the county town of Derbyshire, located about thirty-five miles northeast of Birmingham. This is the same Derby as the hat and of the horse race. What is not so obvious to Americans is that the British pronunciation of the name Derby is “Darby.”

The story goes this way about six hundred years ago, give or take a few, there was a particularly notorious money lender, an extortionist of his day, who was affectionately named by his clients as “Father Derby.” Escaping from Father Derby’s clutches was not easy. Indeed “Father Derby’s bands” came to bond many unfortunate creditors. The term “Father Derby’s bands” was generalized to mean restraints of all kinds and by the 1500’s the word Derby came into general use as a slang expression for handcuffs. The change in spelling from Derby to Darby evolved over time. Note that the term Darby has never been an official name for handcuffs; Hiatt called them “Snap” handcuffs.

I recently went to a quiz and one of the questions was "What are Darbies?" We were given the correct answer at the end but no-one can tell us how this name came about. Can you help?

Ah the light begins to dawn, I knew I could get an answer here if nowhere else. Thank you.

Your answer does raise one question though, the meaning of the phrase :

Indeed “Father Derby’s bands” came to bond many unfortunate creditors.

as far as I understand the word creditor it means a person to whom money is owed by a debtor, surely a money lender wouldn't have many creditors if any.

I recently went to a quiz and one of the questions was "What are Darbies?" We were given the correct answer at the end but no-one can tell us how this name came about. Can you help?

A reporter at the BBC interviewed me for a handcuff story a couple years ago. He believed that the term Darby originated from the Charles Dickens novel Bleak House in which a character named Darby ends up in handcuffs.

I recently went to a quiz and one of the questions was "What are Darbies?" We were given the correct answer at the end but no-one can tell us how this name came about. Can you help?

Maybe the character was named Darby because he ended up in handcuffs.

I recently went to a quiz and one of the questions was "What are Darbies?" We were given the correct answer at the end but no-one can tell us how this name came about. Can you help?

Dear Joe,

The 1971 G, & C. Merriam Webster's Third New International Dictionary, unabridged also defines darbies as handcuffs and provides the Father Darby citation.

That is that, it would seem, except to mention there are many handcuffs I have not bought because they did not have a quay...

Cheers,

Jack
http://www.editing.org.uk/tanis/collectibles.htm

I recently went to a quiz and one of the questions was "What are Darbies?" We were given the correct answer at the end but no-one can tell us how this name came about. Can you help?

Maybe the character was named Darby because he ended up in handcuffs.

That would be a particularly Dickensian construction.

I recently went to a quiz and one of the questions was "What are Darbies?" We were given the correct answer at the end but no-one can tell us how this name came about. Can you help?

Even older: This from the Oxford English Dictionary:

2. pl. Handcuffs: sometimes also, fetters. slang.

1673 R. Head Canting Acad. 13 Darbies, irons, or Shackles or fetters for Fellons.
1815 Scott Guy M. xxxiii, ‘But the darbies’, said Hatteraick, looking upon his fetters.
1889 D. C. Murray Dang. Catspaw 301 Better get the darbies on him while he’s quiet.

I recently went to a quiz and one of the questions was "What are Darbies?" We were given the correct answer at the end but no-one can tell us how this name came about. Can you help?

recently saw explaination that they are called darby's because they are the shape of the letter "D" & darby or derby was an old english word meaning for the letter "D"????

I recently went to a quiz and one of the questions was "What are Darbies?" We were given the correct answer at the end but no-one can tell us how this name came about. Can you help?

It was told that thr great harry Houdini put names on all cuffs in the world around 1900. Maybe the name Darbys or Darbies came from the fact that the cuff looks like an "D" also looks like stirrups on a saddel.