During the Victorian era, England transformed from a rural, agricultural country to an urban, industrialised nation.
Charles Darwin discovered the concept of evolution, Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone, and humble inventions like the cheese grater, the can opener and the potato peeler would go on to become staples in any British home.
But, in seedy ‘pits’ across the country; there was a barbaric activity at play. Defenceless animals were being thrown into fighting-rings and made to brawl to the death in a Gladiator-esque battle. From above, Victorians would whoop as the chaos unfolded. Animals rarely lived long enough to become known by name.
That is, until Jacco Macacco arrived on the scene in the early 1800s.
The monkey – his exact species unknown – was forced to compete in ‘monkey-baiting’, a blood sport which pitted him against huge dogs.
‘Jacco was brought to England at the time of the industrial revolution and this era of “Britannia rule the waves”, Joel Griggs, curator of the True Crime Museum in Hastings, tells Metro.
‘People would go over to other countries and plunder whatever they fancied, and that included wildlife and endangered species,’ he continues. ‘Monkeys were popular to bring back as they were worth a fair bit of money. People would dress them up or teach them how to beg for sweets or treats. But when these animals got angry, they went completely psychotic. There’s tales of monkeys completely destroying beautiful Victorian homes or ripping Victorian women’s dresses to shreds.
‘Soon, exotic animals like monkeys were forced to fight dogs or badgers in the pits. That’s the period Jacco was brought over, presumably from Africa, into Portsmouth.’
Jacco, who weighed between 10 and 12 pounds, earned the name ‘The Hoxton Ape’ after successful fights in the Chick Lane and Tottenham Court Road pits. One advert from 1821 proclaimed the monkey was open to challenges from ‘any dog in England for 100 Guineas of 24lbs being double his own weight.’ Jacco was kept in a tiny cage between matches and, when in the ring, tethered to a metal chain so he couldn’t climb into the audience.
In ‘Pictures of Sporting Life and Character’, writer William Pitt Lennox described the monkey’s fearsome fighting style, saying: ‘His mode of attack, or rather of defence, was, at first, to present his back or neck to the dog, and to shift and tumble about until he could lay hold on the arm or chest, when he ascended to the windpipe, clawing and biting away, which usually occupied him about one minute and a half, and if his antagonist was not speedily with drawn, his death was certain; the monkey exhibited a frightful appearance, being deluged with blood — but it was that of his opponent alone; as the toughness and flexibility of his own skin rendered him impervious to the teeth of the dog.’
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Jacco, who was often given a stick to attack his foes, became a household name when he was sold to the proprietor of the Westminster Pit, Charles Aistrop. His fights were now in central London, more wealthy and influential attendees gathered.
‘The fighting pit was multi-galleried like a Victorian theatre,’ Joel continues.
‘You wouldn’t pay to get in, but you would place bets on how long the fight would go on for or who would win. Members from all levels of society would gain entertainment from these animals, especially the exotic ones they were less familiar with. Jacco was one of these unfortunate animals. He was said to have gone 13 rounds with American Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and Pitbull Terriers. He would beat his opponents to the deaths with a stick. I can imagine Jacco was quite large and vicious to dispatch Pitbulls, as they are not softies.’
How Jacco ultimately reached his end is unclear. In some accounts, his jaw was ripped from his face by ‘Puss,’ who was part bulldog and part terrier and belonged to a bare-knuckle boxer called Tom Cribb. After the blow, on June 13, 1821, the monkey was said to have bled to death. But other accounts claim Jacco in fact won the fight and died 15 months later of an illness.
Either way, Jacco’s devastating life ultimately had one silver lining.
The barbarity of his fights reached the likes of Richard Martin, a Galway MP. The Irish politician lamented how Jacco had been ‘allowed to languish in torment’ and went on to lobby for the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822, the first known piece of animal welfare legislation in the world. To begin with, it made it an offence to ‘beat, abuse, or ill-treat any horse, mare, gelding, mule, ass, cattle, sheep, or other livestock.’ Three years later, the Act was extended to protect all animals – including monkeys.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded off the back of this progress in 1824, with the Royal added (RSPCA) when Queen Victoria became patron of the charity in 1840.
However, ‘it still took a while before England became a “nation of animal lovers”,’ says Joel. ‘I was born in East London and remember a guy on Walthamstow High Street with a monkey on a chain. People could pay to get a photo taken with it and all sorts. And we know today that people still find ways to pay for fights between animals.’
Over at the True Crime Museum in Hastings, visitors can see a figurine of Jacco Macacco and a dog-enemy in a fighting ring. There’s also a brass urn beside the display.
‘We have his ashes here,’ Joel explains.
‘Initially, the urn was displayed at a pub called the Grapes in the east end of London with a sign which said “these are the ashes of Jacco Maccaco, the famous fighting monkey.” My father bought the urn at a Sotheby’s auction in the early seventies. Are the ashes really Jacco’s? We can never be 100% sure as I don’t know if there’s any chance to DNA test them.
‘But it certainly makes for a really good story.’
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