HEENAN

John Camel ( son of Timothy Heenan, an Irish man ). b. West Troy, New York 2 May 1835; a machinist at Benicia, California 1852–4; a miner 1854–7; went to New York 1857; fought John Morris sey for 5000 dollars a side and the championship of America at Long Point, Canada 20 Oct 1858 when Morris sey won in 11 rounds lasting 21 minutes; proclaimed champion of America as Morris sey declined to fight again; landed at Liverpool 16 Jany. 1860; fought Tom Sayers for £200 a side and the champion belt near Farnborough railway station on the borders of Hants and Surrey 17 April 1860, after fighting 37 rounds in 2 hours the referee left the ring, the battle was declared drawn and both men were presented with silver belts at the Alhambra, London 30 May 1860; sailed for New York 4 July 1860; returned to England 3 April 1862; fought Tom King for £1000 a side and the championship at Wadhurst, Kent 10 Dec. 1863 when King won in 24 rounds lasting 35 minutes; always known as the “Benicia Boy,” stood 6 feet 2½ inches, and weighed 260 pounds. ( m. near New York 3 April 1859 Adah Isaacs Menken the actre , he obtained a divorce in Indiana 1862), he d. Green River Station, Wyoming Territory 28 Oct. 1873. Modern Boxing by Pendragon [ Henry Sampson ] (1878) 57–78; W. E. Harding’s Champions of the American prize ring (1888) 12–14, portrait ; H. D. Miles’s Pugilistic a (1881) iii, frontispiece, and pp. 415–43, portrait ; Illust. sporting news i , 29, 41, 193 (1862), 3 portrait . Note. —He is one of the characters in Edward Jenkins’s novel Lisa Lena 2 vols. 1880. A poem entitled “The Combat of Sayerius and Heenanus, a lay of ancient London” appeared in Punch, April 28, 1860; the poem is a paraphrase of Lord Macaulay’s lay “Horatius” in the “Lays of Ancient Rome”; the author of it was said to be William Make peace Thackeray.