English Champions: Duggan "Jack" Fearns

Duggan Fearns defeated Champion of England Harry Sellers in 1779. He relinquised the title due to inactivity. Little is known about him, it appears Sellers intentionally lost.

From Boxiana
Harry Sellers got possession of the title, but, if report speaks true, he paid for it; and who knew its value so very little, as to let Fearns, an Irish boat swain, carry it off in less than five minutes ! Thus was the Championship badgered about — till TOM JOHNSON appeared, and put in his claim to support it with true courage and dignity.

From Pugilistica
The Crown, at Slough, a favourite rendezvous of the swell patrons of pugilism, was the scene, on the 25th of September, 1780, of a boxing match between Harry Sellers and Duggan Fearns, an Irish boatswain (called Jack Fearns in "Boxiana"). The accounts read very like a cross, though we can hardly say that there is clear evidence. "The battle lasted one minute and a half, when victory was declared in favour of Duggan." We are not told how the event was brought about, but the reporter adds his own opinion : " the amateurs were swindled to a large amount," and certainly very clumsily.


From Pancratia
September 25, 1780, a boxing match for 50 guinneas was fought at the Crown, at Slough, between Harry Sellers and Duggan, an Irish boatswain. The contest lasted only one minute and a half, victory declared in favour of Duggan, and the amateurs swindled to a large amount.

Link to Heavyweight Champions from Ancient to Present

 

From the New York Clipper, 15 December 1883
Lives and Battles of the Irish Champions
from 1769 to the Present Time
By Ned James
Duggan Fearns,
The Second Irish Champion of England
When Duggan was sailing from Kingstown to Cork
The Fall of Pete Corcoran was the ship's talk,
And all over Ireland, wherever he went,
He heard-naught but sorrow and grief and lament—
His country was bleeding with anguish and woe-
To think that an Englishman should overthrow
The boy above all that they'd placed all their trust,
And lost their last shilling—go thirsty they must ;
Which so bothered Duggan he up and he swore
That lf be but lived to see Albions shore
He'd challenge tbe champion square to his face .
And try to wipe out the others disgrace .
He felt the defeat of bis friend Corcoran
With all tho true feeling of an Irishman .
He fought and he conquered , the laurels got back ,
And gave Master Sellers the touch Faddy Whack ;
With back-heels and buttocks , twists and dog-falls ,
Downward his colors soon did quite haul ,
And ran up the green once more oer the red .
And nailed fast the sunbnrst right at the mast-head .

After Sellers had wrested the championship of England from the unfortunate Irishman Corcoran , who became champion by beating Bill Darts the dyer , he was the lion of the day , and held undisputed possession of the title . To afford an extra treat to the swells after the Ascot Heath races of 1777 the sum of £ 50 was made tip by Captain O'kelly and a few of tbe leading betting men for Joe Hood the weaver ( wbo had defeated Jim Parratt , Dennis Kellyborn , a famous Irish bruiser , and Macdonaid , a sawyer and a man of great strength and stature ) to fight the champlon Sellers . The battle ended ln tho defeat of the weaver , for , although he displayed astonishing judgement and bottom , he was glad to call for quarter at the fists of the clever but saucy Sellers . In Jane , 1778 , Sellers met the once formidable Bill Stevens the Nailer . It was a one-sided affair . Stevens could not stand against the rapidity , skill and freshness of Harry , and was defeated . Tbe stakes were but £ 26 .

As might be naturally supposed , Duggan Fearns , the Irish boatswain , living at the same period as the bold Corcoran , in manhood were warm personal friends . Natives of separate parts of the land of the shamrock and their stock , belonging to different factions , on English soil they bore each other nothing but goodwill . While Peter had seen service as a marine and cruised pretty much all over thr sections where the British Government held any territory in Europe , Fearns had boon an out-and-out Jack-tar , and rose from an ordinary seaman to be boatswain , which is next position in rank to a mate . As a salt Duggan was in for a fight or frolic , particularly when away from home . During the ships laying-up at a seaport in Spain he got a little more champagne vie or old brandy tban he was ablo to navigate with , and while at a fandango in a sailors dance-house got into a dispute with three villainous Spaniards . The would-be assassins followed the Irish sailor out of the place , and under the cover of darkness made a murderous attack on Paddy . Tho point of one of their stilettos entering his hand , the blood spouted out , and wtth a bowl be dashed at the party and mado the cowards take to their heels . Fearns didn't mind the touch of a marlinspike or belaying-pin as long as it was among friends or countrymen , but he used to say : "By de powers , no blackguard of a foreigner shall ever go scot free from Duggans fist , if he'll only oome within rache of It . "

He had just returned from a voyage abroad when the news reached him of the defeat of his boon companion and fellow countryman , lt had a great effect on Fearns , and he was compelled to bear many slurring remarks about Peter from not only the frequenters of sporting cribs , but all along tho docks tbo labarors wore loud in their denunciation of Corcoran's alleged treachery . Fearns had never fought in public , but had the courage of the Irish wolf flowing in his veins and the love of his country in his heart . Duggan had taken the conceit and blow out of several of Peter's slanderers , and made up his mind to take Corcoran's place as the representative champion of Erin's Isle , and as such boldly sent a challenge to Sellers , the champion . At first It was laughed at , for few people knew of Fearns , and the sporting world were ln darkness as to whom he could be who , previously nnheard of , dared challenge the greatest boxer in all England . It ls more than likely that the very backers of Corcoran were those who found the blunt for the Patlandor , on the strength of Peter's knowledge of the man's game and bottom .

 

Fearns Victory Over Champion Sellers.
The match was for £ 50 , and took place where Sellers beat Corcoran , at Slough , Sept . 26 , 1779 . At the start the more crafty and scientific Sellers frequently got at the headlights of the boatswain , but the Jack Tar returned his favors about midship and put a stopper to Sellers fasticionsness , as he was continually slurring the Irish sailor about his native land . Paddy dealt his blows as If he were belaying aboard ship , and fairly outfought the Englishman at all points , flooring him at the finish . Whether the hard ground so shook up the champions beef and bottom , or whatever else may have been the cause , at the expiration of two minutes he had all he wanted of the boatswain's fists for that day and for all days . Fearns being proclaimed the winner , much to the delight of his few friends and the astonishment of the swell amateurs , who bad invested the "rowdy" on Sellers at odds sufficiently tempting to induce the speculative partisans of Fearns to take them as fast aa offered , and their "readers" wore well filled with the notes ot the Englishmans backers .

At sight of the carrier-pigeons with green ribbons tied round their necks , the Milesian's went almost wild , carrying on after the fashion of the members of the Mew York Stock Exchange at certain periods of the year—smashing hats , tossing them in air , yelling , screeching and howling with joy . The unconscious bearers of dispatches from the seat of war were almost choked to death with caresses . Suspended to the green necklace of one of the birds was a discolored piece of paper , emitting a strong odor of barley-corn Juice , bearing these significant words : "We've bate tbe Englishman . Duggan for iver!" which was deciphered after much difflculty ; "but it was there , sure , and good luck to it" , said the scholar of the Dials . Irish Row , a dilapidated alley leading into St . Giles , had the appearance of a rag-fair , with everything of a green hue flying from the glassless window-frames . Tho whole of St Giles , from the Church to the heart of the Dials—a location bearing a striking resemblance to the Five Points of this city , and within a stone's throw of the fashionable Oxford street , as the Points are from Broadway—was in an uproar . The potato-venders , green-grocers , coal-peddlers and streetvenders who live or congregate there , were nearly all half-seas-over in consequence , while all the groggeries did a roaring trade . Around Fearns' residence the Alliloos might almost be heard from Newgate to Tyburn Tree . The Noddles , or old watchmen , didn't attempt to quell the rumpus , but discreetly kept around the corners like their successors of the present day , and for once the "Alf-past twelve o'clock and h'alls well!" was either not bellowed out or drowned by the hoorahs of the wearers of the green . One of the popular chants of the time * was:
"Yes may prate of yer Sellers and Darts ,
But well creak both your bones and your hearts
Wid our darlln'b'y brave Dnggan Fearns .£

It is a pity that so little can be gleaned about this Anglo-Celtic prize battle , but enongh is handed down to us to prove the unmistakable claim of the gallant boatswain to the title of the champlonship . Fearns never appeared in the ring afterwards , either as principal or second , but was fond of looking at a mill in the good old style . He lived to a ripe age , and died much beloved and respected by all for his manly , generous and magnanimous disposition .
"Cowards die many times before their death—the brave but once!"


Like modern pugilists after defeat , or -victory too , for the matter of that . Sellers took to the ardent after losing the championship of England at the hands of the gallant Irish boatswain . He either could not fight as well or was becoming a victim to drunkenness ; but in order to make some sort of a show before the public he did a vast amount of blowing , thinking thereby to keep in with the English swells . Having an abusive tongue , he never let an opportunity slip to insult the Irish milling fraternity . The thrashing he got from Fearns ought to have taught him manners , but it only nettled his ungovernable temper all the more , and he attempted to bulldoze the residents of the Dials for the amusement ot the toffs of St . James .

The name Seven Dials occurs so frequently in this series that a word or two of explanation may not be out of place as affording a clue to its origin . At one time this section , low as it is to-day , and has been for a century or more , was a fashionable part of London . The seven streets leading from the centre were composed of first-class private houses , and on the front of each one facing the square was placed a large dial clock , and from this fact in after years it derived its name . To-day a clock on the outside ot buildings in that historical section , where Blueskin , Jack Sheppard , Johathan Wild , Dick Turnin , Tom King , and others who died with their boots on held carnival , would be as much in place as a diamond on the sooty shirt of a sweep , and stand no better chance of remaining there than a ticker in the vest-pocket of an inebriated stranger after gaslight .

Going the rounds of the sporting houses and free-and-easies one night , Sellers dropped ln at the Black Dog in Hollywell Mount , a favorite resort of the boys of the Sod . They were having a jolly good time , singing comic songs and otherwise amusing themselves , between the puffs at the dudheen and pulls at the potheen . Either Harry was bent on picking a quarrel or the sound of the bagpipes and wbat they were singing riled his impetuous nature . Bill Harvey , an Irish lampblack maker , was among the company , with a green ribbon on his bat . Sellers ( who , lt appears , was unknown ) began sneering and laughing at Harvey , and observed that he ought to take that thing from his hat , as the conceit had been completely taken out of the Paddies since their champion Corcoran bad been defeated . Harvey , feeling warmly for tbe honor of his countrymen , talked about resenting thia insult , whereupon Sellers offered io flght him and stake nine guineas to four , which was accepted by Harvey . The stakes were instantly made good , and it was agreed that the contest should be decided the next morning in the most convenient field near the honse . Harvey was a tall , well-made man , but a total stranger to fistic science , yet possessed that manly courage which would not let him put up with a gross affront . Sellers imagined that when his antagonist had found out who he was he would forfeit the money rather than enter the lists with so great a man ; but , seeing Harvey so cool and collected about the business , the Englishman did not half like him , and by way of terrifying Harvey said : "My name is Sellers . I don't want to hurt you , and will let you off with a leg of mutton and trimming" . "By de powers of Moll Kelly ," replied Paddy , "if a single potato would buy me off I'll not give it you , honey , and devil may care whether you're Sellers or any other big blackguard ; but I mane to give yon a good bating for your . impertinence ." The combatants then entered tho ring , and the set-to commenced .

Harveys Defeat of the English Ex-Chainplon .
The date given for this off-hand mill is June 7 , 1785 , and the locality a place known by the singular name of the Ass Field , near Hollywell Mount , Gray's Inn road , for the last flfty years the thickly settled part of Clerkenwell , London . Sellers tried all the manoeuvres of his art to puzzle and exhaust his antagonist , and was about the first boxer on record to introduce the tumble-down system . Things looked squally for the sootmaker and rosy for the bouncing Sellers during the first two or three rounds , but Harvey's seconds urged him to renewed exertions and advised him "tip him a bit of the Curragh style" , meaning to go in and wrestle with him . Harvey , tough and ready at almost any game , grappled Sellers whenever at close quarters , neatly giving him the back-heel , with an occasional Clonakilty fall by cantering the noisy Harry over his shoulders . The heavy falls soon told their tale , and as Sellers found the ground was as hard as his bones , to say nothing of the beef on his carcass , that he came up less and less eager , and the tables were turned ln favor of Erin-go-bragh after fighting but a little over a quarter of an hour . Sellers felt not only beaten , but disgraced , and soon fell Into disrepute and oblivion .
"Honor and shame from no condition rise ;
Act well your part—there all the honor lies ."