“It is my intention to start on a sparring tour for a few months. I beg you will do me the favour, through the medium of your journal, to inform those who have a wish to meet me in the P.R., that I shall not be at leisure for seven or eight months. In the interim, the various aspirants to the championship may contend with each other, and I shall be happy, at the expiration of the time specified, to accommodate the winner of the main.
“I am, Sir, yours respectfully,
“JAMES WARD.
“Mulberry Tree, Commercial Road, July 26, 1825.”
In Bell’s Life of the 2nd of July, 1826, the turn-up with Sampson is stated to have been the result of a quarrel as to the division of the proceeds of some sparring exhibition given by the erewhile rivals at Norwich and elsewhere. It says: “Ten determined rounds were fought, in which as much mischief was done as in many of those fights which have cost a hundred miles trot to witness. The superiority of Ward was, however, conspicuous throughout. He met Sampson’s fierce rushes with coolness and scientific precision, drew his cork, and floored him in every assault. Sampson succeeded in planting some heavy facers, and was even with Ward in the claret way; but still he was overmatched, and although he proved himself no mean opponent, he was constrained, as he had been before, to knock under to one who may be fairly pronounced the most accomplished boxer of the age.”
In the same paper, of the following week, a letter from Sampson appears, denying the accuracy of the above account, and stating that it was not caused by a quarrel, but was the result of a mutual agreement to see which was the better man, and that it took place, with the gloves, at York. Sampson further affirmed that he had the best of it throughout, and that he intended again to enter the ring with Ward, when the public would have an opportunity of judging which was entitled to pre-eminence. This intention, luckily for the “Birmingham Youth,” he never carried out, for in two months after he made a match with Ned Neale, the Streatham Youth, an inferior boxer to Ward, by whom he was defeated in eleven rounds, occupying sixty-six minutes. (See Life of Ned Neale).
Seventeen months had elapsed, notwithstanding all his challenges and industry to get a job, before Ward met a customer in the person of Peter Crawley. During this period Jem was viewed as champion of England. The backers of Ward having consented that he should fight for £100 a-side, a match was made between them; and on Tuesday, January 2, 1827, the battle was decided upon Royston Heath, Cambridgeshire. In twenty-six minutes, occupying eleven rounds, the title of champion passed to Peter Crawley, as will be found in the memoir of Peter. The backers of Ward were so satisfied with his brave conduct, although in defeat, that at Holt’s benefit, two days after the fight, at the Tennis Court, they offered to make another match for £1,000. Peter, however, refused, said he would not fight any more, and left the championship open to those boxers who wished to fight for it.
In the same paper with the speech of Crawley at the Tennis Court appears a letter from Ward, in which, after regretting that Peter would not give him another chance, and declaring that to the accidental blow in the second round his defeat was attributable, he says, his friends will back him against any man in England for £200 to £300 a-side. He concludes by saying, “I still hold the champion’s belt, and certainly shall not resign it to any man who will not fight for it.”
On Tuesday, the 6th of January, 1827, Ward took a benefit at the Tennis Court, which was crowded by his patrons, who then bore testimony to their approbation of his manly conduct in his fight with Peter Crawley. Ward was anxious to get up a fight with Brown, of Bridgnorth, but as the latter would not come to the scratch under £500, for the present the match went off, Ward’s friends not being strong in the shiners to that extent. The challenge, however, was again sent by Brown, and accepted at the price by Ward, in May, but went off after much dispute on the point of fighting on a stage, Brown declining to fight on turf. To this Ward’s backers would not allow him to agree. Their objection was that a stage fight with so big a man would be such a manifest disadvantage to Ward, that it would be throwing away too great a chance. Brown, they urged, would fight all fifteen stone, while Ward would be twelve stone four pounds to twelve stone seven pounds; and it must be obvious that on a stage a heavier body propelled against a lighter must increase the danger to the latter, as the chances were that the lesser man would more frequently come in contact with the rails, planks, or skirting boards, and thus suffer twofold punishment from blows and contusions. At a meeting at Tom Cribb’s, in April, 1827, they said, “It was true that Ward himself had no objection to the stage, that he would as soon fight Brown there, or even in a saw-pit, and it was only to be lamented that Brown did not show a similar spirit. It was their duty to curb the natural and courageous impulses of Ward’s heart, and to mix up, on his behalf, prudence with valour. The stake to be fought for was not only great in a pecuniary point of view, but great in point of glory, for the winner would be champion of England. This was a prize of too much magnitude to be treated lightly, or to be risked without due foresight, and without equality in point of advantage.” Cribb, on the part of Brown, could not make the match except on the terms authorised by Brown himself, and therefore nothing was done. A long angry correspondence, not worth preserving, ensued, in the course of which Brown offered to stake £320 to Ward’s £300, if Ward would fight on a stage. Ward, on the other hand, offered to fight for £100 a-side on a stage, or for £300, or even £1,000 a-side, on turf. This was declined by Brown. Finally, the question of superiority was decided in another way. Phil. Sampson (thrice defeated by Ward), challenged Brown, and beat him, April 28, 1828, after forty-two hard-fought rounds in forty-nine minutes. This, in the judgment of those who can get “a line” by the comparison of performances, set at rest the question of the respective merits of Brown and Ward.
Bell’s Life remarks on this fight: “Brown turned out a blank in the wheel of fortune. His main dependence seems to be on bodily strength and a terrific hit with the right hand. These requisites may be fearful when opposed to a novice, but with a scientific professor they prove of little avail.” These remarks must convince any one that the big man of Bridgnorth would have proved a chopping-block for the skilful and ready Jem Ward.