He was born in 1788 at St Keverne, Cornwall, United Kingdom but spent much of his life at St. Columb Major, where he ran a pub called the Red Lion.

He had a number of famous contests against Devon fighters, including Flower, Jackman (1816) and Abraham Cann (1826).

The Devonians, "kickers", fought in the Devon style, wearing boots with toes that had been soaked in bullock's blood and then baked as "hard as flint".

Polkinghorne was 6 feet, 2 inches tall, weighed 320 lbs, and had not wrestled for some years, being the landlord of the Red Lion inn at Saint Columb Major.

This match, the purse for which was £200 a side for the best of three back falls, took place at Tamar Green, Morice Town, near Devonport, on 23 October 1826, in the presence of upwards of 12,000 spectators.