Tom Sayers - Retirement and Death

Retirement and Death

Tom Sayers never fought again. A public subscription was raised for him after the fight, and he received the sum of £3,000, enough to fund a comfortable retirement. It was fortunate for him that this money was safely invested, or he might have been ruined by his unwise decision to go into the circus business.

He had by this time begun living with another woman, but the relationship broke up in acrimony, and his final years were marred by diabetes, tuberculosis and heavy drinking. He died on 8 November 1865, and his funeral a week later attracted some 100,000 people to Camden Town.

Misfortune pursued him beyond the grave. His estranged (but not divorced) wife, who now had three sons by the man for whom she had left him, went to court to disinherit her two children by Sayers. The parents’ subsequent marriage had not changed their legal status, and a judge ruled that, while they were certainly illegitimate, it could not be proved that Sayers was not the father of his wife’s other three children. These must therefore be regarded as legitimate, and entitled to inherit his estate.

Tom Sayers is buried in Highgate Cemetery, his tomb guarded by the stone image of his mastiff, Lion, who was chief mourner at his funeral.