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Spring-heeled Jack was an entity in English folklore of the Victorian era.

The first claimed sighting of Spring-heeled Jack was in 1837. Later sightings were reported all over the United Kingdom and were especially prevalent in suburban London, the Midlands and Scotland. There are many theories about the nature and identity of Spring-heeled Jack. This urban legend was very popular in its time, due to the tales of his bizarre appearance and ability to make extraordinary leaps, to the point that he became the topic of several works of fiction. Spring-heeled Jack was described by people who claimed to have seen him as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy, clawed hands, and eyes that "resembled red balls of fire".

The stories told of these figures formed part of a distinct ghost tradition in London which, some writers have argued, formed the foundation of the later legend of Spring-heeled Jack.

The first alleged sightings of Spring-heeled Jack were made in London in 1837 and the last reported sighting is said to have been made in Liverpool in 1904. Gradually, the news of the strange character spread; soon, the press and the public gave him the name "Spring-heeled Jack".

The Times wrote that "Spring-heeled Jack has, it seems, found his way to the Sussex coast", even though the report bore little resemblance to other accounts of Jack.

Perhaps the best known of the alleged incidents involving Spring-heeled Jack were the attacks on two teenage girls, Lucy Scales and Jane Alsop.

Jane Alsop reported that on the night of 19 February 1838, she answered the door of her father's house to a man claiming to be a police officer, who told her to bring a light, claiming "we have caught Spring-heeled Jack here in the lane".

This was followed with an account of the trial of one Thomas Millbank, who, immediately after the reported attack on Jane Alsop, had boasted in the Morgan's Arms that he was Spring-heeled Jack. After these incidents, Spring-heeled Jack became one of the most popular characters of the period. The devil was even renamed "Spring-heeled Jack" in some Punch and Judy shows, as recounted by Henry Mayhew in his London Labour and the London Poor:

In the beginning of the 1870s, Spring-heeled Jack was reported again in several places distant from each other. In April and May 1873, it reported there were numerous sightings in Sheffield of the "Park Ghost", which locals also came to identify as Spring-heeled Jack.

This news was followed by more reported sightings, until in August 1877 one of the most notable reports about Spring-heeled Jack came from a group of soldiers in Aldershot Garrison.

The vast urban legend built around Spring-heeled Jack influenced many aspects of Victorian life, especially in contemporary popular culture.

No one was ever caught and identified as Spring-heeled Jack; combined with the extraordinary abilities attributed to him and the very long period during which he was reportedly at large, this has led to numerous and varied theories of his nature and identity.

Sceptical 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.

The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack (2010) – an alternate history novel by author Mark Hodder, portraying Spring-Heeled Jack as a time traveler.

The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures, Boydell & Brewer, Boydell Press, 2012. Spring-heeled Jack: To Victorian Bugaboo from Suburban Ghost, in Fortean Studies, vol. The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack: From Victorian Legend to Steampunk Hero.

"Spring-heeled Jack: To Victorian Bugaboo from Suburban Ghost" by Mike Dash

Quick Facts

• The first claimed sighting of Spring-heeled Jack was in 1837.
• The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack (2010) – an alternate history novel by author Mark Hodder, portraying Spring-Heeled Jack as a time traveler.
• There are many theories about the nature and identity of Spring-heeled Jack.
• Spring-heeled Jack was described by people who claimed to have seen him as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy, clawed hands, and eyes that "resembled red balls of fire".
• The Times wrote that "Spring-heeled Jack has, it seems, found his way to the Sussex coast", even though the report bore little resemblance to other accounts of Jack.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Spring-heeled Jack". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.