MORRIS SEY

John . b. Temple more, Tipperary 5 Feb. 1831; taken to Lower Canada 1836 and to Troy, New York 3 months later; apprenticed to an iron moulder at Troy; bar-tender at Aleck Hamilton’s house, Troy; an emigrant runner in New York 1849; fought George Thompson on Mare Island 31 Aug. 1852 for 2,000 dollars a side and championship of California and won in 9 rounds; fought Yankee Sullivan at Boston Four-corners, 100 miles from New York 5 Oct. 1853 for 2,000 dollars a side and won in 37 rounds; badly beaten by Wm. Poole in New York 26 July 1854. Poole was killed by Morris sey’s friends 24 Feb. 1855; fought J. C. Heenan at Long Point Island in lake Erie 10 Oct. 1858 for 5,000 dollars a side and the championship of America and won in 11 rounds lasting 21 minutes; kept a gambling house where he lost 124,000 dollars in one night to Benjamin Wood 1867; opened a large gambling house in Saratoga 1869, made Saratoga a famous summer resort; member of Congre 6 Nov. 1866 to death. d. Saratoga, New York county 1 May 1878. bur. St. Peter’s cemetery, Troy 4 May. W. E. Harding’s John Morris sey, his life, battles and wrangles (1880) portrait ; Nation 9 May 1878 pp. 304–5.