Saturday, December 05, 2009

Jack Scroggins: New Cross Cock of the Walk

Jack Scroggins (born John Palmer) was a famous British boxer in the days of bare-knuckle fighting. According to The Sportsman's Magazine of Life in London and the Country, 1845:

'John Palmer was born, December 1st, 1787, near New-cross, Deptford. It should seem, that as Hercules in his cradle betook himself to serpent strangling by way of prefiguring his future monster-destroying propensities, so Jack was pugilistic from his cradle; and although not an ill-natured lad, was continually fighting the boys of New-cross, till his victories were so numerous, that he was considered as the cock of the walk'.

He moved on to be a servant in Kilburn where he diversified into scrapping outside pubs, joined the Navy, and then moved on to a famous boxing career. By this time he had gained the nickname Jack Scroggins: 'In height only five feet four inches, in weight hard upon 11 stone, "his appearance when stripped" say Boxiana, "is not unlike the stump of a large tree, and from his loins upwards he looks like a man of fourteen stone"'.

Scroggins was big news in his day - 30,000 people came to a field outside Hayes to watch him fight Ned Turner in 1817 (I guess many of them couldn't see very much of the fight). William Hazlitt wrote about him, mentioning that he was known variously as the "All-conquering Scroggins", "the invincible Scroggy" and the "Little Napolean of the Ring".

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