A small dark cell in Guildhall, London, where disorderly apprentices are confined by the city chamberlain: it is called Little Ease from its being so low that a lad cannot stand upright in it.
Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.
Little Clergyman * Little SnakesmanNathan Bailey's 1736 Dictionary of canting and thieving slang
John S. Farmer's collection of canting songs and slang rhymes