William Wreford

The Hero of a Hundred Contests

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I. Life and career

William Wreford was, by the testimony of his obituarist and of every surviving contemporary source, one of the most durable and celebrated figures in the history of Devonshire wrestling. Born at Morchard Bishop, near Crediton — a parish whose inhabitants were noted “from time immemorial” for their great stature and strength — he was by profession a farmer, as his ancestors had been before him (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866). Yet he passionately loved wrestling, and for a period of nearly thirty years he contrived to be present at all the great matches in Devonshire, “almost invariably” maintaining the high reputation he had gained before the age of twenty (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866). His obituary described him as “the hero of a hundred contests in the wrestling ring” (Western Times, 27 February 1866). He died in London, at the house of one of his children, after a very short illness, on a Sunday in late 1866 (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866).

The chronology of his birth can be established with reasonable precision. In February 1866, the Western Times reported that Wreford was “several years above seventy” and that he had thrown Jordan at Crediton in 1812, “when he was but nineteen years of age” (Western Times, 27 February 1866). This would place his birth in approximately 1793. His obituary in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette stated that he first attended a great wrestling match at Crediton at eighteen years of age, standing high in the prize list; this was in 1811 (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866). These two statements are internally consistent with a birth date of c. 1793.

The connection between Morchard Bishop and wrestling excellence was no accident. The father of Abraham Cann, Devon’s greatest wrestler, was himself a native of the same parish, and was reputed by the testimony of the local elders to have been “in many respects a superior wrestler to his renowned son” (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866). Wreford, Cann, and their contemporaries thus emerged from a shared rural culture in which wrestling was transmitted from father to son as an integral element of parish life.

Wreford’s rise to fame was sudden and dramatic. Having performed creditably at Crediton in 1811, he returned to the same venue in 1812, where, near the close of the play, he found himself pitted against John Jordan — a man of gigantic stature and strength, so feared in the Plymouth ring that the committee had on occasion excluded him by name from the bills. After twenty minutes of contention, the young Wreford succeeded in throwing his enormous adversary with such force that the crash was likened to the felling of an oak tree. He was carried on the shoulders of several stalwart men to the Ship Hotel in Crediton to receive his prize, amid the deafening applause of an immense concourse of all classes (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866; project archive material).

In 1815, Wreford visited London and defeated the champion Foareres. Shortly after, he and the celebrated Thomas Baker threw the best of the Cornish wrestlers at Plymouth, carrying off heavy prizes (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866). At Chawleigh, in August 1815, Wreford was named among the first-rate men from Morchard and Colebrook, and his younger kinsman — or possibly his brother — Matthew Wreford won a purse of guineas at Morchard, throwing Flower, Jackman, and all three Cann brothers in the double play (Exeter Flying Post, 17 August 1815; Exeter Flying Post, 15 October 1818).

Wreford’s encounter with James Stone (“The Little Elephant”) at Crediton, c. 1825, was one of the most celebrated single bouts in the history of Devon wrestling. An eyewitness later compared it to the Homeric struggle between Ajax and Hector: the two men grappled simultaneously, and although Wreford appeared initially to hold the advantage, before ten minutes had elapsed Stone hurled him into the air with such violence that he fell heavily on his back and was temporarily incapacitated (project archive material). A return match at South Molton ended likewise in Stone’s favour, after seventy minutes, though Wreford’s opponent magnanimously offered to postpone the decision to the following day (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866; project archive material). These defeats, however, did not end Wreford’s career. He threw the Cornish wrestler Francis Olver, despite suffering several crushed ribs from the Cornishman’s fearsome hug — a testament, as his obituarist noted, to his extraordinary physical resilience (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866).

Wreford was defeated by Abraham Cann — as were virtually all Devon wrestlers of the period — and is named among those whom Cann overcame on his rise to the championship (project archive material). At the great Exeter Metropolitan match in September 1826, Wreford won the first prize of four sovereigns for the “thrown men” — a subsidiary prize for those eliminated before the final rounds — and then defeated the formidable James Frost of Aveton Gifford in a specially arranged subscription match of three falls, winning the first and third turns (Exeter Flying Post, 7 September 1826).

At the Broadclist match of June 1827, Wreford was at the summit of his powers. He threw Webber after thirty-five minutes of play described as “a finer specimen of pure Devonshire” than had scarcely ever been exhibited; then defeated Huxtable in fifteen minutes — a bout likened to the wrestling of Greece and Rome; then threw Bradford in ten minutes; and finally defeated Underdown in the last round to take the first prize of £7, after a contest whose terrific efforts, when the first fall was disallowed and the men returned to the fray, culminated in a tremendous throw after just three further minutes (Exeter Flying Post, 7 June 1827).

At the St Thomas’s match near Exeter in June 1828, Wreford faced Woolaway in the final round. The odds favoured Woolaway, but after eighteen minutes Wreford threw his powerful opponent in “the very first style.” Wreford took the first prize of £12, with Woolaway receiving £8 (Egan, 1836, pp. 321–336). At the Honiton match of the same year, Wreford won the first prize of five sovereigns, throwing James Cann, Toogood, and others in succession to claim the title of best man (Exeter Flying Post, project archive material).

At the Grand Wrestling Match at Leeds in Easter 1828, Wreford was among the Devon party. In the single play he threw Rowe, an Irishman, and then retired for the day. In the double play, Clark gave up the point against Wreford. In the triple play, however, Wreford was thrown by Abraham Cann (Egan, 1836, pp. 321–336). He did not feature in the final prize list at Leeds, being eliminated at this stage, but his presence at a tournament of such national significance confirms his standing among the leading Devon men of the age.

Following the return from Leeds, Wreford was offered as one of Devon’s champions: the Western Times reported in May 1828 that supporters would back “Wreford against any Irishman in London, side and back falls, for £100” (Western Times, 3 May 1828).

Wreford’s later career is less fully documented in the surviving press, but his obituary makes clear that he continued to compete for nearly thirty years from his debut — that is, until approximately 1840. In February 1866, resident in Tiverton and still erect as a bean-stalk, he demonstrated an extraordinary retentive memory when tested against the records of the Crediton Old Wrestling Club, which invariably confirmed his statements. He and Robert Stone, brother of James Stone, declared their legs were without a blemish despite having received thousands of severe kicks over their long careers (Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866).

William Wreford died in late 1866 in London, described by the press as “a well-informed, genial-hearted old man, full of anecdotes of celebrated wrestlers and of scenes of the old sporting days,” and as “a noble specimen, both as regards personal strength and social qualities, of the good old English yeoman” (Western Times, 27 February 1866; Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866).

II. Match Record

III. Summary Statistics

IV. Key Analytical Observations

• 1. Exceptional career longevity. Wreford’s documented career spans at least seventeen years of named tournament appearances (1811–1828), with his obituary confirming nearly thirty years of continuous activity. No other Devon wrestler of the period approaches this duration of top-flight competition.
• 2. Peak performance in the late 1820s. Paradoxically, Wreford’s most fully documented and impressive tournament victories — Broadclist (1827), Honiton (c. 1827), and St Thomas’s (c. 1828) — came when he was already in his mid-thirties, well past what might be considered a wrestler’s physical prime. This suggests either that his technique improved with experience or that his earlier career, which coincided with less extensive press coverage, was underrepresented in the record.
• 3. Defeated only by the very best. Wreford’s documented losses are exclusively to James Stone (twice) and Abraham Cann — the two men who, by near-universal consensus, were the finest Devon wrestlers of their generation. No other opponent is recorded as having beaten him.
• 4. Scientific wrestler of the first order. The Broadclist reports consistently use the language of art and science to describe Wreford’s style: his wrestling is “masterly,” “scientific,” and compared to the wrestling of Greece and Rome. He was evidently a technician rather than a mere kicker or brute-force wrestler, and his ability to defeat larger men (Jordan, Woolaway) through superior skill is a recurring theme.
• 5. Physical resilience. The Olver bout, in which Wreford fought on and won despite several crushed ribs, is the most dramatic illustration of his toughness, but his entire career — including thousands of kicks received, as he himself acknowledged in old age — testifies to an extraordinary capacity to absorb punishment and continue.
• 6. Connection to a wider wrestling dynasty. References to “the Wrefords” (plural) at Chawleigh in 1815, and to Matthew Wreford winning a purse at Morchard in 1818, suggest a family tradition of wrestling. Wreford’s links to Morchard Bishop — the same parish that produced the Cann family — place him at the heart of Devon wrestling’s geographic and cultural centre of gravity.

V. Methodological caveats

This record is heavily weighted toward two documentary clusters: the obituary materials of 1866, which provide a retrospective narrative of Wreford’s early career (1811–c. 1825), and the newspaper reports of 1826–1828, which provide detailed match-by-match coverage of his later tournaments. The intervening years (c. 1813–1824) are poorly documented, and almost certainly contained numerous victories at local Devon matches that attracted no surviving press coverage. The total of nineteen documented entries should therefore be understood as a very substantial undercount of Wreford’s actual competitive record. His obituarist’s description of him as “the hero of a hundred contests” may, if anything, be conservative.

VI. References

1. Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 20 May 1827.
2. Egan, P. (1836). Pierce Egan’s Book of Sports, and Mirror of Life. T. Tegg. Pp. 321–336.
3. Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 7 December 1866 [obituary of William Wreford].
4. Exeter Flying Post, 17 August 1815; 15 October 1818; 7 September 1826; 7 June 1827.
5. Leeds Intelligencer, 20 March 1828; 3 April 1828.
6. Western Times, 27 February 1866; 3 May 1828.
7. Project archive material (Devonshire Wrestling Society archive): retrospective accounts of Wreford/Stone and Wreford/Jordan bouts; Honiton match report; Crediton Old Wrestling Club records (as cited in the obituary).