The Origin of Spring-Heeled Jack

In the early hours of Thursday, April 6th, 1837, Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquis of Waterford and his fox-hunting friends arrived in Melton Mowbray at the Thorpe End tollgate. They had been drinking heavily at Croxton races, and understandably the tollkeeper asked to be paid before he opened the gate for them. Sadly for him some repairs were underway, and ladders, brushes and pots of red paint were lying nearby; the Marquis and his cronies seized these and attacked the tollkeeper, painting him and a constable who intervened red. They then nailed up the door of the tollhouse and painted that red before moving into the town carrying the stolen equipment. They rampaged down the Beast Market (now Sherrard Street), through the Market Place, and into Burton Street, painting doors as they passed, pulling on door knockers and knocking over flower pots. At the Red Lion (now part of the Harborough Hotel), they pulled down the sign and threw it into the canal. At the Old Swan Inn in the Market Place, next to what is now the Grapes, the Marquis was hoisted onto the shoulder of another man to paint the carved swan inn sign there red. (In 1988, when the old Swan Porch fell down, traces of red paint were found on the back of the carved swan when it was removed for restoration). They also vandalized the Post Office and the Leicestershire banking company before trying to overturn a caravan in which a man was fast asleep. Solitary policemen tried to intervene at intervals and were beaten up and painted red for their trouble. Eventually more police arrived in numbers and seized one of the men, Edward Raynard, who was put in the Bridewell prison. The others promptly returned and rescued him, breaking three locks and beating two constables, threatening them with murder if they did not produce the key. The following day there was uproar; when the Marquis of Waterford finally sobered up, he paid for all the damage to people and property, but the group were still brought to trial before the Derby Assize Court in July 1838. They were found not guilty of riot, but were fined £100 each for common assault, a considerable sum then. Following the incident, the phrase "paint the town red" entered the language.
A popular rumor that was in circulation as early as the 1830s claimed that Lord Waterford was the main suspect behind the "Spring Heeled Jack" phenomenon. However, as that character's acts continued after his death in 1859, Waterford cannot be given sole responsibility.
That Lord Waterford had some role has been accepted by several modern authors, who suggest that a humiliating experience with a woman and a police officer could have given him the idea of creating the character as a way of "getting even" with police and women in general. They speculate that he could have designed (with the help of friends who were experts in applied mechanics) some sort of apparatus for special spring-heeled boots, and that he may have practiced fire-spitting techniques in order to increase the unnatural appearance of his character. They also note the embroidered coat of arms with a "W" letter observed by the servant boy during the Ashworth incident, a notorious coincidence with his title's territorial designation.
Indeed, Waterford was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do anything for a bet; his irregular behavior and his contempt for women earned him the moniker "the Mad Marquis", and it is also known that he was present in the London area at the time the first Spring Heeled Jack incidents took place. He was also pointed to as the perpetrator by the Revd E. C. Brewer in 1880, who attested that Waterford "used to amuse himself by springing on travelers unaware, to frighten them, and from time to time others have followed his silly example".
An 1838 news report referred to "that turbulent piece of aristocracy" and his "nocturnal vagaries in the neighborhood of Melton", adding that his "name in many quarters is regarded with as much terror as that of Spring-heeled Jack himself". 
Lord Waterford was a keen horseman and in 1840 he entered two horses in the Grand National Steeplechase, regarded today as the most famous race over jumps in the world. Waterford chose to ride one of the horses, The Sea, himself but was sent off in a field of thirteen runners as a totally unconsidered outsider. Reporters noted that, at one stage during the four and a half mile contest, The Sea was almost half a mile behind the leaders, but Waterford persisted and completed the course to finish last of four to complete the course.
In 1842, Lord Waterford married Louisa Stuart, daughter of the 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay, and settled in Curraghmore House in Ireland, where he reportedly led an exemplary life until he died in a horse riding accident in 1859. Spring Heeled Jack remained notionally active for decades after, which leads the aforementioned modern researchers to the same conclusion as Brewer's: Waterford may well have been responsible for the first attacks, while it was up to other pranksters who occasionally imitated him to continue the task. 
Skeptical investigators have dismissed the stories of Spring-heeled Jack as mass hysteria which developed around various stories of a bogeyman or devil which have been around for centuries, or from exaggerated urban myths about a man who clambered over rooftops claiming that the Devil was chasing him. Other researchers believe that some individuals may have been behind its origins, being followed by imitators later on. Spring-heeled Jack was widely considered not to be a supernatural creature, but rather one or more persons with a macabre sense of humor. This idea matches the contents of the letter to the Lord Mayor, which accused a group of young aristocrats as the culprits, after an irresponsible wager. A popular rumor circulating as early as 1840 pointed to an Irish nobleman, the Marquis of Waterford, as the main suspect. Haining suggested this may have been due to him having previously had bad experiences with women and police officers.
The Marquis was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do anything for a bet; his irregular behavior and his contempt for women earned him the title "the Mad Marquis", and it is also known that he was in the London area by the time the first incidents took place. In 1880 he was named as the perpetrator by E. Cobham Brewer, who said that the Marquis "used to amuse himself by springing on travelers unawares, to frighten them, and from time to time others have followed his silly example." In 1842, the Marquis married and settled in Curraghmore House, County Waterford, and reportedly led an exemplary life until he died in a riding accident in 1859.
Skeptical investigators have asserted that the story of Spring-heeled Jack was exaggerated and altered through mass hysteria, a process in which many sociological issues may have contributed. These include unsupported rumors, superstition, oral tradition, sensationalist publications, and a folklore rich in tales of fairies and strange roguish creatures. Gossip of alleged leaping and fire-spitting powers, his alleged extraordinary features and his reputed skill in evading apprehension captured the mind of the superstitious public—increasingly so with the passing of time, which gave the impression that Spring-heeled Jack had suffered no effects from ageing. As a result, a whole urban legend was built around the character, being reflected by contemporary publications, which in turn fuelled this popular perception. 
A variety of wildly speculative paranormal explanations have been proposed to explain the origin of Spring-heeled Jack, including that he was an extraterrestrial entity with a non-human appearance and features (e.g., retro-reflective red eyes, or phosphorus breath) and a superhuman agility deriving from life on a high-gravity world, with his jumping ability and strange behavior, and that he was a demon, accidentally or purposefully summoned into this world by practitioners of the occult, or who made himself manifest simply to create spiritual turmoil.
Fortean authors, particularly Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark, list "Spring-heeled Jack" in a category named "phantom attackers", with another well-known example being the "Mad Gasser of Mattoon". Typical "phantom attackers" appear to be human, and may be perceived as prosaic criminals, but may display extraordinary abilities (as in Spring-heeled Jack's jumps, which, it is widely noted, would break the ankles of a human who replicated them) and/or cannot be caught by authorities. Victims commonly experience the "attack" in their bedrooms, homes or other seemingly secure enclosures. They may report being pinned or paralyzed, or on the other hand describe a "siege" in which they fought off a persistent intruder or intruders. Many reports can readily be explained psychologically, most notably as the "Old Hag" phenomenon, recorded in folklore and recognized by psychologists as a form of hallucination. In the most problematic cases, an "attack" is witnessed by several people and substantiated by some physical evidence, but the attacker cannot be verified to exist. 
After Henry (now in the twilight of his time) slept in his bed one night, he woke in the middle of the night by a familiar voice telling him to "Wake up". after waking up and walking over to his bedroom mirror, he saw his reflection, Spring-heeled Jack, and the Demon asked him, "Are you ready to let me in for the last time...?" Henry nodded, and let his dark side flow through, transformed through a cloud of black and blue smoke, ran out his door, and leapt away from London, to Czechoslovakia. There he was called, "Pérák, the Spring Man of Prague". And just like in London, no evidence of attacks, or clues to his identity, was never found.
Category:Beings
Category:Insanity
Category:Origins