WILLIAM PERRY (“The Tipton Slasher”)
After this defeat of Spilsbury, it would appear that the sobriquet of “The Tipton Slasher” had become the accepted title of William Perry, for in a local (Staffordshire) paper we find him so described, as being matched for £25 a side against one Jem Scunner, who is described as the “Gornel Champion,” a six-foot specimen, weighing 13st. odd, and therefore a fair opponent in height and weight for our hero. The report is especially meagre, merely informing us that “the battle commenced on Tuesday (Nov. 22, 1837), near Gornel, but was not decided until the following day.” The betting at setting to was 6 and 7 to 4 on the Gornel man. After a few rounds, however, the Gornelites claimed the fight for their man on the ground of a “foul,” but the referee would not allow it, and Scunner, by the advice of his friends, would not go on. A rush to the ring was made, and the referee retired. It was asserted that Perry fell without a blow. After some wrangling, the referee ordered that the fight should be renewed on the next day, at Kingswood, near Wolverhampton. There both men showed at the time appointed, and lost no time in getting to work. During the first four or five rounds the Gornel man rushed at the Tipton like a wild bull, but Perry waited for him, shifted cleverly on his crooked leg, and delivered straight blows and upper-cuts with such slashing effect that the Gornelites were utterly paralysed. From this time Scunner betook himself to out-fighting; but here he took nothing by the change, except prolonging the fight. At the end of one hour the Gornel Champion, having been hit down or thrown in five or six successive rounds, was finally floored in the 31st round, and deaf to the call of time. Tass Parker, of West Bromwich, and Preston, of Birmingham, seconded Perry; Surrender Lane and George Gallant, of Birmingham, waited on Scunner. The match exciting much interest in the Potteries, Perry, with Parker, became the “lions” of the neighbourhood; the Fountain Inn, at Tipton, the Slasher’s headquarters, being crowded by the Fancy of the Midlands at their benefit on the ensuing Monday.
The defeat of Jem Scunner, who had an immense, though undeserved, local reputation, in a period when the dearth of good big ’uns was remarkable, spread the fame of the prowess of the Slasher so widely that he was fain to wield the shovel in laborious obscurity, instead of flourishing his ponderous mauleys in the 24 foot. In the interval, “the Deaf’un” had returned from Yankeeland, and—despite his two successive defeats by Bendigo (Feb. 12, 1839) and by Nick Ward (Sept. 22, 1840)—owing to Bendigo’s accident, and Caunt’s announced absence in America, boldly claimed the Championship. Johnny Broome hereupon sought out the Slasher, and calling to his aid some patrons of the Rising Sun, he proposed a “trial by battle,” to settle the difference of opinion. Burke’s backers came to the scratch with their rhino, for a battle to come off in August, 1842, but at the fourth deposit Broome thought fit to absent himself upon the night of “posting the possibles” at Owen Swift’s, and the Slasher’s money down was confiscated to the extent of £15.
The Tipton, as we know, was a mere tool in this affair, as in other instances, of the over-cunning Johnny Broome, who, like most self-sufficient sharps, often “cut before the edge.” Johnny had other views of the “dark horse” which he flattered himself he had in his own stable, and, as he didn’t find the money, the poor Tipton suffered in reputation (as Johnny intended he should do) by this forfeit. The Editor of Bell’s Life, too honourable himself to suspect this double-dealing, observes: “Though Broome was certainly late, this insistance on forfeit seems very sharp practice; the more so as the same gentleman who backs Perry actually assisted Burke with his first deposit. The forfeit, however, has yet to be taken by Burke’s backers, as he has nothing to do with it beyond their approval, and we may yet find that the last and remaining deposits will be posted, and ‘the ball go on.’ We have since received a letter from the gentleman who put £4 of the first deposit down on behalf of Burke, when the match was made, stating that he will not consent to the forfeit being received, and expressing his desire that the match may proceed, as his only wish is to encourage the manly sports of the Ring.”
But Johnny was determined to be off with the match, as he had not found Brassey, of Bradford, so “tenderly led by the nose as asses are,” and he had now in view a grand coup de poing, to play off against the unquestionable “blaze of triumph” achieved by Ben Caunt in the circus and theatre line, by the introduction of what might be called the “illegitimate” drama in place of, and to the eclipse of, the exhibition of “legitimate” British boxing. In this fairly-planned vindication of the art from mere bulky pretenders, Johnny was certainly to be praised; but as his choice of a champion was “Hobson’s,” and limited to such an inferior tactician as the game, rough-and-ready Tipton Slasher—to oppose immense weight, superior length and activity, backed by a creditable reserve of courage and self-possession, and moderate skill in sparring—the enterprise was certainly ill-judged. Of its progress and issue we shall now have to treat.
In the year 1842, a sensation was created by the return of Ben Caunt to England, bringing with him a seven-foot specimen of humanity, of the name of Charles Freeman. There can be little doubt, from subsequent events, that Ben brought over his gigantic protégé purely as a showman’s speculation; and that Freeman, with his immense length, strength, and bulk, had as little pretensions or inclination to boxing as any non-combative member of the Peace Society could desire. Ben, however, seeing how “big things” carried it in Yankeeland—the country of “big things,” of which he, himself, was certainly one—imported the “American Atlas” as his sparring opponent; and if he might infer future success from their first few nights at the Queen’s Theatre, in Liverpool, when not a seat was to be had in a few minutes from the opening of the doors, the Lancashire people, at any rate, were willing to patronise the show.
Freeman, during several months, not only exhibited at the Queen’s Theatre, Lyceum, Olympic, Adelphi, Victoria, and other theatres, halls and assembly rooms, where a great feature of the entertainments was a caricature of boxing by the giant and Big Ben, but the non-sporting papers were flooded with ridiculous paragraphs, several of them offensively setting forth the wonderful powers and prowess of the American gladiator, and in some instances asserting the “scare” produced among the English prize-fighters by the advent of the New World Goliath. We need hardly say that Freeman himself was entirely innocent of this silly braggadocio, which emanated from the Barnum managers of these performances, and the speculators who at this time degraded the character of the decadent Ring, and prostituted its true aim—the encouragement of courage and skill—to their own profit and plunder. Johnny Broome, then in the full tide of his prosperity, called a meeting at his house, the “Rising Sun,” Air Street, Piccadilly, where, after the reading of some of these “puff paragraphs” about “Championships of England and the World” (Ben Caunt modestly claiming the first, and liberally presenting his prodigious pal with the other), it was proposed to bring these pretensions to a practical test by a challenge for £100 a side from “a novice,” to be hereafter named by Broome. On the following week, at the adjourned meeting, Tom Spring presented himself, on the part of Caunt, and stated the latter to be ready to make a deposit for Freeman. Spring further said that Freeman had not come to this country with any intention to fight; his pursuits were quite different; he, therefore, had challenged no man (this was so; but many of his placards contained a challenge to any and every man); nevertheless, he had determined not to refuse this challenge, and, therefore, his money was ready. Harry Broome, on the part of his brother Johnny, who was from home, covered the deposit, and the Thursday evening following was named for drawing up articles, at the “Castle,” for a further deposit, and for naming “the novice.” Freeman and Caunt were both present, and the crowd immense. The giant and his mentor, Ben Caunt, arrived late, owing to an accident on the rail near Weedon. Broome proposed to defer naming “the novice;” but this being insisted on, or a forfeit claimed, “William Perry, of Tipton,” was nominated as the “great unknown,” and the following articles “signed, sealed, and delivered”:—
“Articles of agreement entered into this 29th of September, 1842, at the Castle Tavern, Holborn, between Charles Freeman and William Perry of Tipton. The said Charles Freeman agrees to fight the said William Perry, a fair stand-up fight, in a four-and-twenty foot roped ring, half minute time, according to the New Rules, for £100 a side, on Tuesday, the 6th of December, half-way between Tipton and London. In pursuance of this agreement, £20 a side are now deposited in the hands of the stakeholder; a second deposit of £10 a side to be made on Thursday, the 6th of October, at Johnny Broome’s; a third deposit of £10 a side on Thursday, the 13th of October, at Johnny Walker’s; a fourth deposit of £10 a side on Thursday, the 20th of October, at Jem Burn’s; a fifth deposit of £10 a side on Thursday, the 27th of October, at Tom Spring’s; a sixth deposit of £10 a side on Thursday, the 3rd of November, at Johnny Broome’s; a seventh deposit of £10 a side on Thursday, the 10th of November, at Tom Spring’s; an eighth deposit of £10 a side on the 17th of November, also at Tom Spring’s; and the ninth and last deposit of £10 a side on Thursday, the 1st of December, at Johnny Broome’s. The said deposits to be made between the hours of 8 and 10 o’clock, p.m., or the party failing to forfeit the money down; a toss for choice of ground to take place on the night of the last deposit. The men to be in the ring between the hours of twelve and one o’clock, or the man absent to forfeit the whole of the stakes. Two umpires and a referee to be chosen on the ground, the decision of the latter in the event of dispute to be conclusive. In case of magisterial interference the referee, if chosen, to name the next time and place of meeting, or if the referee be not chosen then the stakeholder to name the next time and place if possible on the same day; but the money not to be given up until fairly won or lost by a fight; the winner to pay for the ropes and stakes. Should any money be given for the privilege of the fight taking place in any particular locality, such money, if agreed to be accepted, to be equally divided between the men.
“(Signed) “Charles Freeman.