Jem Mace: The First World-Heavyweight Boxing Champion

November, 2020

When I was a young mother living in Norwich, I used to push my babies out in their pram along Dereham Road and was always intrigued by a large stone memorial dedicated to boxer Jem Mace which stood outside the premises of a monumental mason. The name stuck in the back of my mind and now I have learned his amazing history which began in 1831 at Beeston-next-Mileham, a tiny isolated village in the wilds of Norfolk.

From a poor working-class background, young Mace inherited his father's ability to play the fiddle which gave him the opportunity to earn coins playing pubs and fairs. A brawl with three fishermen outside a public house in Great Yarmouth however, saw the end to that with his precious instrument smashed. Enraged, Mace knocked out two of the thugs while the third fled. Impressed by the show of strength from the slight lad, a gent gave Mace a guinea along with the suggestion that he become a prize-fighter.

The 1850s saw the emergent James "Jem" Mace in London where he became an exhibition boxer, fencer and wrestler associated with Nat Langham, a well-known retired prize fighter who ran a booth. This was solid training for Jem as he moved around the country. A good fight with a touch of showmanship meant money in the hat passed around the crowd afterwards! In London he made extra by giving sparring and training sessions at Langham’s Cambrian Stores boxing club.

In September 1858, Mace met Bob Brettle under London Prize Rules in what is now considered to have been the Welterweight Championships of England for £100 a side. (Bearing in mind the average labourer's earnings were £40 per year if he was lucky, this was a good purse!) Though he conceded after only two rounds, in a second attempt he took the title.

Billed theatrically (and incorrectly), first as The Swaffham Gypsy and then The Gypsy, Mace worked his way up to the top of the prize-fighting scene and in 1861, he became Heavyweight Champion of England by beating reigning champion Sam Hurst, 50 pounds heavier and three inches taller, in an eight-round brutal fight at Medway Island, Kent in which he all but killed his opponent before the police arrived. Mace won his first defence of the title against Tom King in 1862, for £200 a side with a rematch in November the same year for the same purse, but a slip to the grass caused his seconds to concede the match.

Salve no doubt to Mace’s bruised ego, came in February 1863 when he received The Windham Cup, a chased gold trophy in recognition for his win and considered to be worth about £100,000 in today’s money! In September of that year, for a split purse of £1,000 Mace fought for and won the English Middleweight title against Joe Goss, using the technique he had perfected.

Over 20 rounds, on 6th August, 1866, Jem regained his title of English Heavyweight Champion, splitting the exceptional £1,000 prize money with his opponent, again Joe Goss, after both men added weight to their bulk.

Successful pugilists found the type of fame and fortune we are familiar with today in what was considered at the time to be the national sport. Such was Mace’s popularity that he drew a crowd of 10,000 to greet him at Liverpool’s Lime Street Station and was carried on their shoulders through the streets on a return visit to the city after the match. Clearly his respect and popularity as boxing instructor and judge following the Liverpool Olympics in the 1860s ensured good crowds wherever he performed.

A bare-knuckle match in a makeshift grass ring.

Despite a veneer of respectability, clandestine matches with an undefined number of rounds and attendant crowds of gamblers and ruffians were arranged to be fought usually outdoors in remote locations and all weathers, and as such were subject to raids by police. Having suffered arrest in 1867 the night before a scheduled title defence and held over in court not to fight again for two years, Mace left England to further his career in America where in May 1870 in Kenner, Louisiana, he defeated English-born American Tom Allen for a massive purse of £2,500 a side. The fight is now considered by boxing historians to have been the first World Heavyweight Championship and a celebrated Mace would go on to give exhibition fights in New Jersey and New York.

Frequent visits to America followed, and in 1878-9, after an attempt on his life, he travelled to Australia to perform around 30 exhibitions under Queensbury Rules which he had a hand in drafting and which required, amongst new rulings, the wearing of gloves.

Jem Mace, New York, 1896

1882 saw Mace in New Zealand where he schooled new boxers and discovered future champions. The following years saw him criss-crossing the globe performing exhibitions in the world of sport showmanship that had begun so early in his career.

A typical travelling boxing booth

Used to the lure of the nomadic fairground circuit and though officially retired from boxing, he toured Lancashire putting on exhibitions with various travelling shows including that of Norwich’s Pablo Fanque (William Darby), the first black man to own and run a circus. Later he put on entertainments across the country in a circus of his own. He also became the proprietor of The Strawberry Gardens pleasure grounds in West Derby, Lancashire featuring running, bowling, wrestling and boxing. Various licenced premises and hotels (including the White Swan Inn in Norwich) and others in America and Australia passed through his hands as the rich and ambitious wanderlust travelled the world and kept company with Royalty, toffs, gamblers and showgirls.

As wealthy man-about-town, U.S.A., 1877

Approaching age 59 in 1890, the draw of the ring proved too much and Mace fought unsuccessfully for the English Heavyweight title losing in four rounds. Never daunted, he continued exhibition fighting, even opening a boxing academy in faraway Cape Town where he performed himself in 1903 and 1904. Throughout all this time, Jem never forgot his musical inheritance and continued to play the violin.

Astonishingly, Mace's last fight was at age 78, shortly before his death in 1910, when he was still travelling the fairground circuit and performing in music-halls as lecturer to Billy LeNeve’s troupe of lady athletes and gentleman boxers. His appearances were sell-out successes: ‘...all they wanted was to see and hear the unconquered champion of the world. Their sole ambition was to gaze upon the veteran of the pugilistic ring, so that every day, and at every performance throughout the week, the standing order at this world-famed establishment was either standing room only or house full.'

A wanderer in later years

It is little surprise to find Jem Mace had no fixed abode in old age since fighter, racehorse owner and sometime dandy, he had made and gambled away a fortune. Married four times (twice bigamously), he had at least 14 children by five women.

In today’s currency, it is estimated that in his prime he made the equivalent of £200,000,000 but for all that, in 1910, at the age of 79, itinerant Jem had returned to playing fiddle at fairs and pubs. Despite his sell-out reputation, he died penniless in Jarrow, Durham. His only possessions were his cherished violin and bust of Tom Sayer, his greatest rival, which he had refused to sell. World-renowned pugilist, Jem Mace was to suffer an ignominious end, finally being buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

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In much-belated recognition of his hard-won and largely forgotten achievements, in 2002 Merseyside Former Boxers arranged a memorial headstone for his grave and the city of Norwich has a blue plaque in Swan Lane, in recognition of his success. He has also since been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as well as the Australian National Boxing hall of Fame.

Though Mace dictated the story of his life 'Fifty Years a Fighter', published in 1908, he remains pretty-well unknown in his native land where he surely deserves recognition for boxing his way out of illiterate poverty to international stardom in his field, and whose boxing career is longer than any other in recorded history.

Back in Kenner, a bronze life-sized statue of two fighters marks Jem Mace's greatest achievement as the first Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World.

In Norfolk there is practically nothing save the weather-worn monument I saw fifty years ago, re-erected to stand in forlorn isolation beside his father’s grave in the backwaters where it all began, Beeston.

The Forncett Hoard - Iceni Treasure (or The Romans Was 'ere!)

One of my favourite local walks takes me beside a large sweeping field running towards a boggy valley bottom that provides pasture for sheep and cover for deer. There is a wide green path leading towards the River Tas that runs a few fields beyond. A lone tree stands sentinel beside the path and I often wonder how old it is as it looks like a useful marker. For sure it can't be Roman although I understand that it was near here that between 1996-97 that a hoard of 381 silver coins was found.

This large and spectacular find was unusual as it contained not only iron age silver units but also denarii both of which can be associated with the revolt of Queen Boudica. Most of the population of Roman Norfolk, probably several hundred thousand, lived in the countryside and dotted among them were Roman-style villas, residences of officials, prosperous landowners or farmers. Perhaps one stood nearby?

336 coins from the Forncett hoard were Iron Age silver units issued of the Iceni tribe which under their King Prasutagus, had become a client kingdom enjoying considerable independence from the ruling Romans. But all that was to change on his death when the Emperor Nero enforced the return of the territory to his rule. The widowed Queen Boudica was having none of it and waged war, attacking and sacking several large Roman towns before defeat.

Only a few miles away from here lies what was then called Venta Icenorum (market place of the Iceni), a large Roman town founded around AD70. So it's fair to assume that hereabouts there were pockets of wealth. Perhaps the pot of coins in the field was the equivalent of our ATS facility at the bank, a convenient deposit for quick cash? Who owned such a vast amount of money and why such a valuable hoard came to be buried in 'my' field can only be guessed at but I know that as I walk, my eyes are constantly drawn to the ploughed earth alongside the grassy path in the hopes that I might just spot another piece of silver glinting through the crop...

The Witch-Finder of East Anglia

In 1542 Parliament passed The Witchcraft Act, making it a crime punishable by death. It was repealed five years later. However when King James the VI of Scotland became James I of England, the Witchcraft Statute was passed, again carrying the sentence of death.

King James himself was so fascinated with the occult that he wrote and published a best-selling book about it, Daemonologie. This tome explored witchcraft and demonic magic, making clear the King's recommendations for torture and execution of witches. Any 'invocation, conjuration or employment of any wicked spirit' became a hanging offence instead of imprisonment. All of which seems to have given free reign to Matthew Hopkins, son of a Puritan clergyman, who assumed for himself the title Witch-Finder General in 1645 during the troubled times of the English Civil War.

Claiming to be officially commissioned by Parliament, a booklet detailing his witch-hunting methods: ‘The Discovery of Witches’, published in 1647, was delivered to the Judges of Assize for the County of Norfolk 'for the benefit of the whole kingdome' and appears to have given him license to travel East Anglia, examining and trying women for witchcraft. It was very much in his interests to do so since he charged 'twenty shillings a town', with records showing that the small market town of Stowmarket in Suffolk, paid the equivalent in today's money of £3,300 for his services, plus travelling expenses at a time when the average farm worker’s wage was just 6 pence a day. The cost to the local community was such that, in 1645, a special local tax rate had to be levied in Ipswich.

Such was the fear and suspicion that abounded, anything out of the ordinary it seems could be attributed to witchcraft. Toads featured large should they appear nearby. Ailing or lice-ridden people and animals were clearly cursed. Curdling milk or falling chimneys all could be attributed to anyone unfortunate enough to be born with a birth mark, moles or other disfigurements or who had simply had an argument with a neighbour.

The methods used for deciding a witch were both brutal and bizarre. Hopkins and his assistants looked out for ''the Devil's mark', something all witches or sorcerers were supposed to possess. Said to be dead to all feeling, it would not bleed other than to suckle a witches's animal familiar with blood, such as a baby drinks milk from the nipple.

To make matters worse for the accused, if the suspect had no such visible marks, invisible ones could be 'discovered' by the hunters who shaved off the suspect's body hair, then pierced the skin with a needle or sliced her arm with a blunt knife for a convincing exhibition, for if she did not bleed she was said to be a witch.

Hopkins’ favoured method however was the 'swimming test' based on the idea that as witches had renounced their holy baptism, water would reject them. So the unfortunate suspect was tied to a chair and ducked in the river or the village pond. If she did not drown she faced trial as a witch. If she died, she would be declared innocent and received into heaven.

Thanks to Matthew Hopkins, the largest single witch trial in England took place in Bury St. Edmund in 1645 when 18 people were executed by hanging but not before they had had their nails cut and locks of hair shorn from their heads. These were stored in brown jars in the basement of the court in the belief that if you were not whole when you died, you would be unable to come back as a complete witch in the next life!

After just three years as Witch-finder General, Matthew Hopkins retired, moving back to Manningtree in Essex. Before the year ended he had died, supposedly of tuberculosis. Sadly, his book lived on to provide a blueprint for further persecution of witches over the next hundred years, the last being executed in Devon in March, 1684.