John Atcheler
in Highgate Cemetery (west)
John Atcheler (1792–1867) was the operator of a slaughterhouse in the City of London and claimed to be “Horse Slaughterer to Her Majesty Queen Victoria”.
Early life
Atcheler was born in Hockliffe, Bedfordshire, in 1792,[1] and in his younger days was a prize fighter. On 2 September 1815, in a 97-minute fight for ten guineas near Walworth, he beat Jack Curtis.[2]
Career
He first practised his trade at Sharp’s Alley, in Cowcross Street, Smithfield,[3] and his slaughterhouse soon became the largest in London.[4] By 1853 Atcheler’s name became as familiar as a household word, though this was not necessarily positive, as knackers had a poor reputation. He moved his business to the Kings Cross area, to be close to the new Metropolitan Cattle Market, opened in 1855. His office was at 186 York Road North, Belle-Isle, Islington with his slaughterhouse behind the adjacent Fortune of War public house.[5][3] When Atcheler died, the yard was taken over by John Harrison who merged his business with that of William Barber, creating Harrison Barber, a company with an effective monopoly on the horse slaughter business in London.[6]
There was considerable value in a dead horse. The hide was turned into leather, the hair from the tail and mane hair was used to pad soft furnishings and fill mattresses, the flesh became food for dogs and cats, the bones were boiled to extract their oil which was used on harnesses and for soap and glue manufacture and then ground up with the hooves for manure or fertiliser, while the horseshoes were recycled by farriers.[6][7]
Atcheler was a friend of the famous prizefighter Tom Sayers (1826-1865) and was his patron. Sayers was a regular visitor to Atcheler's slaughter yard, helping when required. It is said that whenever they parted company Atcheler would say, "Look after the cat's meat".[8]
Though Atcheler was extremely public in his claims to have a Royal Warrant and had a large sign outside his premises in York Road proclaiming John Atcheler, Horse Slaughterer to Her Majesty, it seems unlikely.[3] False claims to Royal Warrants were such a problem that in 1883 an international convention made it illegal,[9] but by that time Atcheler was dead.[3]
Thomas Mayhew stated that "slaughtermen are said to reap large fortunes very rapidly",[4] and Atcheler was no exception. By his death in 1867, he was worth about £35,000,[10] equivalent to £3,914,537 in 2023.
Personal life
He married three times, firstly to Mary Ann Hewson in 1811, and secondly to Sarah Mansfield in 1851. In March 1851, they were living in St Sepulchre with his son John, aged 20, hers named Henry Mansfield, 23, and a five-year-old granddaughter, Selina Jones. [1] In 1859, when Atcheler was 68 years old, he married thirdly Victoria Chancellor. She was the 21 year old daughter of funeral carriage maker John Chancellor, who supplied horses for hearses,[11] and when Atcheler died she became a wealthy widow. In September 1867, she married secondly at St Pancras George Bury, a surgeon and widower, of Friern Barnet.[12]
Later life
John Atcheler spent his final years at Selina Villas, a large property in rural Finchley. He and his second wife are buried at Highgate Cemetery in separate graves.[13] The grave of Sarah Mansfield, his son and his stepson, is opposite the grave of Tom Sayers and is marked with a statue on a plinth of a Suffolk Punch horse with a drooping head.[14] It is likely that Sayers wanted to be buried close to his friend, but perhaps Atcheler’s third wife did not wish to bury her husband with his second wife, so she purchased a plot for him elsewhere in Highgate Cemetery.
Atcheler’s own tomb is a listed building.[15]
References
- ^ a b 1851 United Kingdom census, 5, Sharps Alley, St Sepulchre, Middlesex, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 31 January 2021 (subscription required)
- ^ Owen Swift, Professor of Pugilism, The Hand-Book to Boxing (London: Nicholson, 1840), p. 37
- ^ a b c d Stuart Orr, "Horse slaughterer to Queen Victoria?" in Highgate Cemetery Newsletter, December 2018, pp. 8–9
- ^ a b Mayhew, Thomas (1851). "London Labour and the London Poor". 1: paragraph 182. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Photo of the Fortune of War pub with John Atcheler's sign just visible on the left, pubwiki.co.uk, accessed 1 February 2021
- ^ a b William John Gordon, The Horse-World of London (1893), quoted in "The Darker Side of London History" at numberonelondon.net, accessed 31 January 2021
- ^ "Uses of Dead Horses" in Farmers' Review, Vol. 29 (Hannibal H. Chandler & Company, 1898), p. 173
- ^ Harrison Barber—Horse Slaughterers, jtrforums.com, 26 May 2015, accessed 1 February 2021
- ^ Guidance on the use of Royal Arms, Names and Images, www.royal.uk, p. 3
- ^ "England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPJ9-JHG8 : 30 August 2018), John Atcheler, 28 Mar 1867; citing Probate, England, United Kingdom, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Great Britain.; FHL microfilm
- ^ The Economist, Vol. 24 (1859), p. 606
- ^ Marriages solemnized at St Pancras Church in the parish of St Pancras, No. 241, George Bury and Victoria Atcheler, 24 September 1867, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 2 February 2021 (subscription required)
- ^ Chris Brooks, Mortal Remains: The History and Present State of the Victorian and Edwardian Cemetery (Wheaton, 1989), p. 151
- ^ Hannah Velten, Beastly London: A History of Animals in the City (2013), p. 55
- ^ Tomb of John Atcheler in Highgate (Western) Cemetery, historicengland.org.uk, accessed 2 February 2021