1752. Foote, Taste (ed. 1781), p. v. Don’t mind my shape this bout,
for I’m only in jumps.
Verb. (old).—1. To seize upon, whether forcibly or by stealth; to
cheat; to supplant: e.g. to jump a man = to pounce upon and rob or
maltreat; to jump a house = to rob it; to jump a claim = to take
possession of a mining right in the absence of an owner. Fr. farguer à
la dure.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, 160. They ... pick him up and
take him to the above alehouse to jump him, or do him upon the
broads, which means cards.
1855. F. Marryat, Mountains and Molehills, 217. If a man jumped my
claim.... I appealed to the crowd.
1857. Westgarth, Victoria and the Australian Goldmines. There was
for that day at any rate to be no jumping of claims.
1870. Bret Harte, Luck of Roaring Camp, 134. The old proprietor ...
was green, and let the boys about here jump him.
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl. 500. Who used to take me a
parlour-jumping (robbing rooms), putting me in where the window was
open.
1888. Chicago Herald. He arose at early dawn and jumped his bill.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxxviii. We lying down and
our horses hung up not far off for fear we might be jumped by the
police at any time.
1890. Athenæum, 8 Feb. p. 176, col. 2. ‘How a Claim was nearly
jumped’ is the most natural and the best of the five stories.