E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Crowde’ro.
One of the rabble leaders encountered by Hudibras at a bear-baiting. The original of this character was one Jackson or Jephson, a milliner, who lived in the New Exchange, Strand. He lost a leg in the service of the Round-heads, and was reduced to the necessity of fiddling from alehouse to alehouse for his daily bread. The word means fiddler. (See above, CROWD.)
