Origins of words are always very difficult to pin down precisely. Most likely, we got the term from the English Parliament, where petitioners would hang out in the corridors and reception rooms outside the chambers in which the legislature met, and try to talk to and persuade individual Members of Parliament to take up their cause as the Members walked in and out of the sessions. The term was in common usage in England by the 1840's, though its exact origins there are imprecise.

However, wherever lawmakers have met -- including Federal Hall in New York, the first seat of our U.S. Congress in 1789, and Congress Hall in Philadelphia, hangers-on and both wealthy and desperate petitioners were seen gathering in the rooms around the assembly, some of which were, and are, called "lobbies." The reception and meeting area behind the House chamber in the Capitol, for example, is referred to as the "Speaker's Lobby."

Another story has it that the lobby of the Willard Hotel in Washington -- one of its oldest and grandest -- was frequented by wealthy special interest petitioners who were looking to intercept Members of Congress and the President, whose residence was a mere block away, as they came to dine there. It is said that President Ulysses S. Grant wearied of the petitioners whom he scornfully labeled as "the lobbyists."

The earlier use of the term in the 1840's in England probably knocks out the Willard as the site of origin, since the hotel was bought by the Willard brothers in 1850, and Grant first began to visit the hotel during his service in the Civil War in the 1860's. However, both the English and U.S. origins may be valid. Multiple origins for an expression work to reinforce the term and help it get accepted into the common language.

The first official U.S. lobbyist is purported to be William Hull, who was hired in 1792 by Virginia veterans of the Continental Army to persuade Congress to give them additional compensation for their service in the War of Independence.