Spring-heeled Jack

Summary

In the winter of 1837 to 1838 London's newspapers reported a figure who frightened and attacked people, particularly women, in the villages around the city. Two assaults in February 1838 are well documented and their attackers were never identified; much of the rest of the legend, which ran to 1904, grew from rumour, imitators and later writers.

In January 1838 The Times reported an anonymous letter to the Lord Mayor of London that blamed a wager among men of high rank. A suspect in the best documented assault was heard by magistrates and told he was believed innocent. Later writers blamed an aristocrat and added an earlier victim, who cannot be found in any contemporary source.

What is documented

The first reports. According to the historian Mike Dash, whose 1996 study is built on the original newspaper reports, the earliest known accounts of the figure appeared in London newspapers in the last week of December 1837. They said the trouble had begun at Barnes, south-west of London, in early September, where a "ghost, imp or devil" in the shape of "a large white bull" had attacked people, particularly women, and that the figure had since visited about two dozen other villages to the south and west. Dash searched five local papers published near London for September to December 1837 and found nothing. The newspapers, in his words, were "appropriately incredulous".

The Lord Mayor's letter. On 9 January 1838 The Times reported that the Lord Mayor, Sir John Cowan, had received a letter signed "a resident of Peckham". It said that some individuals of high rank, as the writer believed, had wagered that a companion would not dare to visit villages near London in three disguises, "a ghost, a bear and a devil", and that he had already deprived seven ladies of their senses. Cowan's reported response was that the apparition had not entered the City, so he could not act. By the middle of January a committee of citizens had formed to raise money for its capture.

Jane Alsop. At about a quarter to nine on the evening of 20 February 1838, a man called at Bearbinder Cottage, on the outskirts of Old Ford: "I am a policeman. For God's sake, bring me a light, for we have caught Spring-heeled Jack here in the lane." When Jane Alsop brought a candle, he attacked her. In her account, printed in The Times on 22 February, he "vomited forth a quantity of blue and white flames from his mouth, and his eyes resembled red balls of fire". She described white oilskin clothing and claws of a metallic substance. Her sister, Mrs Sarah Harrison, came to her aid.

The hearings. The case was heard at the Lambeth Street police office on 28 February and 2 March, with two suspects, Payne and Millbank. At the end of the second day the chief magistrate, Mr Hardwick, told Millbank that he now believed him innocent. Dash found no sign that anyone was ever brought to trial for the assault.

Lucy Scales. On 28 February 1838, in Green Dragon Alley, Limehouse, a figure spurted blue flame into the face of Lucy Scales, who fell to the ground temporarily blinded.

Imitators and the name. Dash records that several imitators appeared during the 1838 scare, and that the name was soon attached to unrelated frights and assaults.

Later reports. From March 1877 soldiers at the Aldershot camp reported a figure among the outlying sentry posts; the local military gazette described it making off "with astonishing swiftness". In September 1904 the News of the World reported crowds gathering at night in Everton, Liverpool, to watch for him. An Everton resident's recollection, recorded more than sixty years later and cited by Dash, identified the Liverpool "Jack" as a local man who climbed onto rooftops and had to be brought down by the police or with a fire-engine ladder.

Leading explanations

A social panic that gathered many incidents under one name (the leading interpretation; historical, not testable). This is Dash's reading. He argues that Jack belongs not with UFO occupant reports, where he has usually been placed, but "alongside other 'phantom attackers' and with reference to 'urban terrors' and other social panics". On this reading the February 1838 assaults were real attacks by unidentified people, imitators added more, and the name became a convenient label for any scare or assault.

The Marquess of Waterford (unsupported). The idea that Jack was Henry, Marquess of Waterford, a notorious practical joker, was first suggested by late nineteenth century sources, according to Dash. Peter Haining developed it in his 1977 book, opening with an assault on a servant girl, Polly Adams, in the autumn of 1837. Dash found that story first in Haining and could find it in no contemporary source.

A supernatural or extraterrestrial being (unsupported). Popular writers have usually set Jack among UFO occupant reports. Dash, having gone back to the original reports, rejects that classification.

Current status

Partially explained. The scare is well accounted for as a social panic in which one name collected rumours, pranks, imitators and real assaults, and several of the best known details were added by later writers. What is not explained is who attacked Jane Alsop and Lucy Scales in February 1838, and what produced the flames they described. No one appears ever to have been tried for the Alsop assault, and neither attacker was identified. Only new documents from the 1838 inquiries could change that.

Last reviewed: September 2026. Records are provisional. Where the evidence changes, the entry changes. Found an error? Tell us.