Jacco Macacco

Jacco's most famous fight, against the equally well-known bitch Puss, seems to have marked the end of his career: he may have died as a result of injuries received during the match or of an unrelated illness sometime afterwards.

[3] Lewis Strange Wingfield (1842–1891)[4] wrote in his 1883 novel Abigail Rowe: a Chronicle of the Regency of an advertisement for a hundred guinea match between Jacco and "Belcher's celebrated dog Trusty".

[5][note 4] Pierce Egan also wrote about a battle between the "monkey phenomenon" and a dog in his popular account of the adventures of the characters Tom and Jerry in various sporting venues, Scenes from London Life.

It appears that there was at least one contest between Jacco and the equally renowned white bull and terrier bitch, Puss, who belonged to the former prizefighter Tom Cribb.

[2] Thomas Landseer produced an etching from his own sketch of Fight between Jacko Maccacco a celebrated Monkey and Mr Tho.

[9] Martin also revised his own account of the outcome of Jacco and Puss's match when he used the fight as an example of cruelty in an 1824 speech, claiming that the dog had been killed, but although the monkey's jaw had been torn away he had not been humanely dispatched but "allowed to languish in torment".

According to Aistrop, Jacco was then stuffed and sold to a Mr Shaw of Mitchum Common, which would have been impossible if the monkey's jaw was torn away.

Berkeley stated that he had attended the pit on the night of the match and had seen Tom Cribb cradling the dog's head in a suspicious manner before the fight began.

The 1821 advertising broadsheet for his match against the 19 pounds (8.6 kg) bitch states he was open to challenges from "any dog in England for 100 Guineas of 24lbs being double his own weight".

[12] According to Lennox: His mode of attack, or rather of defence, was, at first, to present his back or neck to the dog, and to shift and tumble about until he could lay hold on the arm or chest, when he ascended to the windpipe, clawing and biting away, which usually occupied him about one minute and a half, and if his antagonist was not speedily with drawn, his death was certain; the monkey exhibited a frightful appearance, being deluged with blood — but it was that of his opponent alone; as the toughness and flexibility of his own skin rendered him impervious to the teeth of the dog.

[2]Lennox writes that after several fights, Jacco adapted his technique and would overcome his canine opponents by leaping directly on their backs and manoeuvring himself into a position where he could tear at their windpipes while remaining out of reach of their jaws.

Lennox reports him as having overcome fourteen opponents in total and the advertising broadsheet states he had already been involved in thirteen matches "with some of the best dogs of the day including his combat with the wonderful bitch Puss of T. Cribbs and the famed Oxford one".

[12][note 6] Both Berkeley and Lawrence Fitz-Barnard (writing in Fighting Sports in 1922) cast doubt on Jacco's ability to beat any canine opponent in an un-rigged match though.

The monkey was given a club to assist him..."[13] Most accounts agree that Jacco was held in a small cage when not fighting and was secured by a short length of thin metal chain during his matches.

Rhesus macaques adapt well to the presence of humans and often live in or near urban environments, which may explain Jacco Macacco having come into the possession of a sailor (presumably while on shore leave in a port).

However, rhesus macaques are relatively light in colour (both in fur and skin) which seems inconsistent with, for example, Lennox's description and Cruikshank's depiction of a darker pigmentation.