Abraham Cann the Devon Wrestling Champion

Abraham Cann (about 1794-1864) was born at Colebrooke, near Crediton into a wrestling family. His father, Robert, was a farmer, maltster and wrestler. Abraham’s four brothers, James, Robert, George and William all took part in the sport.

Wrestling matches took place throughout the country. Devon wrestlers travelled as far as Leeds and London for inter-county matches. The distinctive feature of Devon wrestling was that contestants were allowed to kick each other’s shins. By contrast, Cornish wrestlers fought without shoes and grasped each other by the short jacket which was always worn.

Prize matches took place in at least 47 Devon parishes during the early 19th century. Contests were usually associated with particular inns like the Salutation at Topsham or the White Hart at Okehampton. During the summers of the mid- to late 1820s thousands of people flocked to watch these two-day events.

Cann rose to fame as the Devon champion and, ultimately, Champion of all England. Little is known of his early career but two of his most important matches were very well recorded by widespread newspaper coverage.

In October 1826 Cann fought Cornishman James Polkinghorne which resulted in Cann winning the title of Champion of the West of England. The match is said to have attracted 6000-7000 spectators. Cann’s victory was still being commemorated 20 years later in popular prints.

By the 1830s and 40s however, the great names like Cann had disappeared, the prize money was more modest and two-day games were increasingly seen as too great an interruption of work.

Portrait research by Stephen Price for the ‘Eye to Eye Project’ in 2006.

Visual description: oil painting of a man dressed as a wrestler. He is wearing a sleeved white jacket over his bare chest, breeches, gaiters and black shoes or boots. His right hand rests on his hip while his left leans on a stone plinth bearing an image of a wrestling match. There is a statue of Hercules on top of the plinth. The statue is smaller than the man in the foreground. On the man's right, a hat and scarf lie discarded.