Talk:Broughton Rules

Stevenson's death

I'm not sure if the anecdote about George Stevenson's death is actually true. As I have been improving the article on Jack Broughton, the earliest source I've come across that mentions Broughton killing Stevenson is Fred Henning's Fights for the Championship from 1902. Henning's book is full of unverifiable origin stories of 18th century boxers, but doesn't provide adequate sourcing for all the new information he seems to have dug up. Henning also provides direct quotes from conversations that allegedly took place 150 years earlier, which seems a little suspicious. If you look at references to the fight between Broughton and Stevenson in earlier boxing histories, none of them mention anything about Stevenson dying. (See Pancratia from 1812, Pierce Egan's Boxiana from 1823, and Henry Downes Miles' Pugilistica (a collection of mid-to-late 19th century works, compiled in 1906 and very comprehensively sourced)). In fact, John Godfrey's 1747 A Treatise Upon the Useful Science of Defence, one of the key primary sources on early 18th century boxing, says of Stevenson: 'The Coachman is a most beautiful Hitter'. His use of the present tense in 1747 could be an error, but it could also imply that Stevenson was still alive at the time. It's also worth noting that Tony Gee made a point of leaving out the story of Stevenson's death when he wrote Broughton's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in 2003.

It seems that some online sources, such as the International Boxing Hall of Fame website, have picked up and retold Henning's story about Stevenson's death. However, I think we need to find better sources before including this in the article, because this interesting anecdote may very well be a century-old bit of apocrypha. CoatGuy2 (talk) 19:00, 31 July 2022 (UTC)

Edit: The only source prior to Henning that I've found describing Stevenson as 'dying' is Paul Whitehead's mock epic The Gymnasiad, in which he writes of Stevenson's loss:

Till on the Part where heav'd the panting Breath,
A fatal Blow impress'd the Seal of Death [upon Stevenson].
Down dropt the Hero, welt'ring in his Gore,
And his stretch'd Limbs lay quiv'ring on the Floor.
So when a Faulcon skims the airy Way,
Stoops from the Clouds, and pounces on his Prey;
Dash'd on the Earth the feather'd Victim lies,
Expands its feeble wings, and, flutt'ring, dies.
His faithful Friends their dying Hero rear'd,
O'er his broad Shoulders dangling hung his Head;
Dragging its Limbs, they bear the Body forth,
Mash'd Teeth and clotted Blood came issuing from
his Mouth.

But this is quite obviously a work of satire and shouldn't be taken at face value as a reliable source to say that Broughton actually killed Stevenson in a boxing match. CoatGuy2 (talk) 21:29, 31 July 2022 (UTC)

@CoatGuy2 All poorly sourced or unsourced information can be challenged or removed, so you can be bold and remove this information if you think it is unreliable. But if you think that Stevenson might have actually died, you can always keep digging for sources if you want to. CollectiveSolidarity (talk) 03:41, 1 August 2022 (UTC)