This is the story of Joseph Capper, the 18th-century eccentric, who made a Kennington Pub his home for 25 years. Such was his notoriety that his life story is recorded in several books and his image preserved for future generations to admire.
Joseph Capper (1727–1804)
Joseph Capper was born in 1727 in Cheshire into humble circumstances. At an early age, he came to London to begin an apprenticeship as a grocer before setting up his own shop in Whitechapel. Owing to the support and recommendations of his former master, Capper soon prospered in his trade, and, having been fortunate in various speculations, eventually retired from business.
Upon retiring he spent several days walking around London, searching for lodgings before his search eventually brought him to the Horn’s Tavern in Kennington.
A 25 year feud with the Landlord
Stopping at the Horns Kennington, one day, where he stopped to order ‘a chop’. As the evening drew near demanding a bed, in his usual blunt manner, and he received a blunt refusal from the Landlord, in a style of churlishness not inferior to his own. Capper refused to accept this and after some altercation was accommodated with a bed. It was at this point that he determined to stay and ‘plague the growling fellow!’
Though for many years he talked about quitting the place the next day, he lived there until the day of his death, for a period of twenty-five years. At no stage was any agreement as to lodging or eating but wished to be considered as an inmate for the moment.
A creature of habits
So methodical were his habits, that he would not drink his tea out of any other than his favourite cup, as well as using the same plate and cutlery.
He rose at the same hour every day and would always sit in the same chair next to the fire, so he guard it against interference from other customers, without his permission.
Throughout his stay, he was never known to have slept in the bed in the room that he was keen to acquire on that first night.
At Breakfast, he arranged, in a particular way, the paraphernalia of the tea table, but first of all, he would read the newspapers. At dinner, he observed a general rule, and invariably drank a pint of wine. For supper was uniformly a gill of rum, with sugar, lemon peel and porter mixed together, the latter he saved from the pint he had at dinner.
So regular was he in his habits that his bill was always £4. 18s every fortnight.
Killer of flies
He called himself the champion of government, and nothing angered him more than to hear anyone declaiming against the British constitution.
His favourite amusement was killing flies with his cane, before doing which he generally told a story about the rascality of all Frenchmen, ‘whom,’ he said, ‘I hate and detest, and would knock down just the same as these flies.’
When a new landlord took over the Horns, he found that Mr Capper came with the Tavern, like any other aspect of the Pub. This led to a new understanding and acceptance of Mr Capper’s peculiar behaviour
Steward of the fire
He was elected as the Steward of the parlour fire, and if any were found daring enough to put a poker into it without permission, they incurred the risk of experiencing the weight of his cane.
Joseph Capper died at the Horns on 6 Sept. 1804, at the age of seventy-seven, and was buried in the church of St. Botolph, Aldgate. In his will, which was made on the back of a sheet of banker’s cheques, and dated five years before his death, he left the bulk of his property, then upwards of £30,000, among his poor relations, whom he always had refused to see in his lifetime. To his nephews, whom he appointed his executors, he bequeathed £8,000 between them. There appears, however, to have been considerable doubt whether this will had been properly witnessed or not.
Sources
Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09
