John Levett (athlete)
Hannah and the children lived at York Street with her Levett in-laws, apparently because her husband was often away training or competing.
Levett stayed at the Liverpool Arms, Duke Street, and trained at Hoylake and Aintree racecourses.
On Tuesday he was clearly suffering from his previous efforts and gave up after running an hour and 29 minutes, completing 15 and a half miles.
The financial rewards pushed Levett forward, but in those days the running was gruelling with men exerting themselves to the point where they frothed at the mouth.
On Sunday 15 April 1855, another match was scheduled, pitting James (aka Jem) Pudney of Mile End against Levett at Mr Sadler's enclosed ground at Garratt Lane, Wandsworth.
[6] The day of the race dawned gray and rainy, but 2,000 spectators still showed up for the competition, in which Levett was favoured.
At the time of the race, Pudney was the country's champion but his poor performance cost him his title, which he ceded to Levett.
But suddenly Pudney shot by his opponent and left Levett increasingly in the rear, winning by 40 yards.
Headlines in July 1855 newspapers announced: "Tomorrow the once-renowned 10-mile runner and Richard Manks, the 'Warwickshire Antelope', run at Hyde Park, Sheffield for £50".
The same year, Levett ran again at Hyde Park, Sheffield, against Manks, defeating him; it was the fastest race ever run there.
In 1856 he wrote to the New York Clipper "As my friends and I consider that I have been ill-used by the present world champion, James Pudney, perhaps you will allow me, as an old, and when in my best day, not the slowest pedestrian, to say a few words for the last time, considering the championship.
Before going into Scotland in the spring of the year, I challenged all the world for the championship, having first proved, that the celebrated clipper, John Levett, was once more, after so much hard training, coming to his old form.
In Dublin, Ireland, on 17 October 1860 a local newspaper reported that Levett wished to walk 1,000 miles (1,600 km) in 1,000 hours, beginning at Mr Doyle's hotel in Sandymount.
By 1860 Levett was listed as manager of a running establishment in Dublin, holding grand competitions at La Rotunda and offering training and instruction classes in athletics.
It was in Blackpool in August 1876 that John and a group of professional swimmers put on some entertainment at the end of the pier to show the advantage of using the floats, called bladders, to an attentive audience.
John had established a new life for himself in Edinburgh leaving his London family behind, therefore the death certificate for his wife, Sarah Hannah Levett, can be found among the records for the Isle of Thanet, where she moved to be near her son, Edwin, who became proprietor of the Metropolitan Infirmary (a therapeutic establishment for sickly and scrofulaous children in Margate), and to her daughter Esther, who lived nearby and had married the previous proprietor of the infirmary, John Weekley.
