Likely a term meaning lowly individuals. The similar contemporary terms “lickskillet” and “lickspittle” referred to contemptible individuals or parasites. (“Lickskillet,” in Green, Green’s Dictionary of Slang, 1368; “Lickspittle,” in Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant, 2:15; see also, for example, Stephen Burnett, Orange Township, OH, to Lyman Johnson, 15 Apr. 1838, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 65.)
Green, Jonathan. Green’s Dictionary of Slang. 3 vols. London: Chambers, 2010.
A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant, Embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian Slang, Pidgin English, Tinkers’ Jargon, and Other Irregular Phraseology. Edited by Albert Barrere and Charles G. Leland. 2 vols. [London]: Ballantyne, 1889–1890.
See Jeremiah 24:6; 42:10; and Amos 9:14–15.