deerstealer

plural deerstealers

1. One who steals or illicitly takes a deer, especially in England in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

   30. I. [The Same] to Att. Gen. Coventry. Two under keepers of Lord Denney, deerstealers, committed by him to Chelmsford gaol, have escaped […]

   1859, Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series of the Reign of James 1. Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majestyʼs Public Record Office Edited by Mary Anne Everett Green: 1623-1625 with addenda, page 91, record of events of 9 October 1623

   1 more example

   À propos of the bloodhounds, a good story is told of how they were hunting some deerstealers, and how they came to a check at some cottages by three cross roads — possibly the Robin Hood at the top of Marchington Cliff. […] the deerstealers escaped.

   1901, James Lowndes Randall, A History of the Meynell Hounds and Country, 1780-1901, page 46