John ‘Jack’ Broughton,
17th August, c.1703
It has long been the prerogative of the Gentleman to explain his otherwise mundane actions via the medium of expansive and florid prose. Even the most base and brutal of gentlemanly pursuits, once dressed with the vinaigrette of verbosity, lend the gentleman an air of sophistication and debonair swag that his deeds may not fully deserve. Wrap meat in pastry and call it Beef Wellington and you may charge a hatful of guineas for the pleasure. Call it a sausage roll and you can’t charge a schmuck more than 2 bucks.
When Homer Simpson encounters an alien, he is visited by Mulder and Scully of the X-Files who ask him to explain his actions on the evening of the encounter.
“The evening began at the Gentleman’s Club,” begins Homer, who is an idiot because he has had a crayon stuck up his nose since he was an infant, “where we were discussing Wittgenstein over a game of backgammon.”
“Mr Simpson,” Agent Scully reminds him “it’s an offense to lie to a Federal Agent.”
”Okay, okay,” continues a chastened Homer, his natural ability to talk absolute shit not enough to shield his idiocy from plain view. “We were sitting in the back of Barney’s car eating packets of mustard. You happy?”
As such, one can turn any old carnival coconut shy into a Greek tragedy with the judicious application of enough bullshit. Take boxing, for example, oft given such glowing sobriquets as ‘the noble art’ whilst being, in effect, a pursuit in which two morons try and knock each other’s teeth out.
One way of making the face pounding seem more genteel is to attach rules of conduct to it, which does, on the whole, seem to go somewhat against the whole point of the thing, but also means that it’s easier to set up face pounding matches and thereby make money out of it. If two fellows can agree on the degree of face pounding in advance, the location and the time, then other ruffians can lay odds on the face pounding and everyone goes home happy. Well, most of them do.
One of the first people, in modern times at least, to come up with a set of face pounding rules was a rogue by the name of John ‘Jack’ Broughton.
Broughton was born somewhere, sometime, but first pops up around 1723, aged about 20, as waterman on the River Thames. In 1730, he won the annual Doggett's Coat and Badge rowing race, the world’s oldest continuous rowing race that has been held since 1715.
His fighting career started sometime around 1726, probably lamping the crap out of other watermen and he was certainly built for it, standing 180cm tall (5’11”) and weighing some 90 kilos (200lbs). By 1730 he was fighting professionally, often in a series of contests against the same opponents, including three contests against a coachman called George Stephenson, one of which was immortalized by the satirist and member of the infamous Hellfire Club, Paul Whitehead in his 1744 poem ‘Gymnasiad’.
He opened his own venue on Oxford Road in Westminster in 1743 where, for the princely sum of a shilling, people could watch all manner of ruffians smack the nonsense out of each other. Not only with fists, too. With cudgels, swords, quarterstaffs, anything they could lay their hands on, apparently. He had cock fighting, even bear baiting. As long as it involved some sort of violence, Jack was willing to charge people a few pennies to come in and watch.
Although it wasn’t just a free-for-all. In 1747, he opened a school where gentlemen could learn the noble art of turning another chap’s face into pudding whilst wearing specially designed gloves he called ‘mufflers’. Although hand protection had been worn in boxing contests since Roman times, Jack is often credited with inventing boxing gloves, probably to entice wealthy dandies to hand over some cash for a swing or two without risking their fingers.
On 16th August 1743, Jack published the first set of rules that was adapted in the modern sport of boxing. The Broughton Rules were replaced by the London Prize Ring Rules in 1838, but many of them form the basis of face pummelling rules still in place today:
1. A one-yard square must be drawn in the middle of the combat place, to which the “seconds”, after the fall of one of the contestants or at the beginning of the fight, must take their pupils, placing them face to face. While both are in said square they cannot hit each other.
2. That in order to avoid any discussion regarding the time that a contestant remained down, it is established that if the “second” does not take his principal to the aforementioned square within thirty seconds after he was knocked down, he is considered beaten.
3. That in the main matches no one can enter the place of the same (ring), except for the contestants and their “seconds”; The same rule applies to preliminary bouts, but in the latter, the referee is allowed, as long as he does not interfere in the bout, to enter the place of the bout, to ask for correction and to demand that the spectators take their places ; Anyone who violates these rules will be expelled from the place of the fight. When the wrestlers are ready for the fight and before the start of the fight, the place where it is held (ring) must be vacated.
4. That no contestant will be considered defeated unless after his fall he spent more time than the regulation to get into the square or his “second” declared him beaten. The latter are not allowed to ask questions of their ward's adversary, nor to advise him.
5. That at the end of the fight, the money collected will be distributed in public, at the place of the fight, and the winner will receive two-thirds, notwithstanding any private agreements that may be to the contrary.
6. That in order to avoid discussions, the contestants, upon arriving at the place of the fight, will choose two judges from among those present, who will decide on all the questions that may arise in the fight; If they do not agree, they will choose a third party to decide.
7. That it is not allowed to hit the opponent when he is on the ground, nor to grab him by the leg, by the breeches or by any part of the body located below the waist; a contestant will be considered down if on his knees.
On April 11th, 1750, Jack fought a Norfolk butcher called Jack Slack. Early on, Slack hit him in the eye and after 14 minutes, Broughton was forced to retire because he couldn’t see. The Duke of Cumberland, Broughton’s sponsor, lost £10,000 on the match. The injury forced him to retire from fighting, although he continued running the violence venue until around 1754 at which point he retired into the altogether more brutal world of antique dealing.
In December 1768, Broughton was involved in hiring ruffians to be sent to Brentford on behalf of Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, who was running for parliament. A riot broke out on December 8th, though it is unclear whether the gang Broughton hired was meant to incite the riot or maintain order. Two men, one of whom was hired by Broughton, were found guilty of murder, but both were later granted a reprieve.
Broughton continued to teach boxing until 1787, well into his eighties. He was married to Elizabeth, who was about 20 years younger than him.
Broughton passed away on January 8, 1789, at his home in Walcot Place, Lambeth. He left £7,000 to his niece. He was buried at Westminster Abbey and requested the epitaph “Champion of England” on his headstone. However, the dean of the church objected, leaving a blank space. In 1988, Broughton’s request was honored with the addition of “Pugilist” to the epitaph.