Spring-heeled Jack was a ‘new’ legend who also had identifiable links to earlier cultural influences. It was this rich hybridity that prevented him from merely being a nineteenth-century version of a pre-existing migratory motif. Although wholly original, Spring-heeled Jack's originality was located in the gestalt derived from his opulent cultural compilation. In many ways Spring-heeled Jack was not so much born as evolved, his legend defined by a transformative, acquisitive nature that left him in a state of constant gestation. Whilst this may sound like a convoluted way of saying it was made up as it went along, the legend's construction was not random. A potent blend of cultural components and narrative contours cumulatively informed the providence of the legend, and this chapter seeks to delineate some of the threads within that rich cultural tangle. Therefore, whilst dealing with a popular phenomenon that was marked by its fluidity, this chapter situates Spring-heeled Jack as a product of the period in which he first appeared.

As is often the case with cultural history, it is far easier to identify than explain the direct correlation between Spring-heeled Jack's contemporary cultural influences. What follows is an exploration of what appears to be the most pertinent social and cultural factors which cohered to create a sense of substance and depth from which something original was spawned. This chapter is structured around some fundamental questions about Spring-heeled Jack's emergence in 1837–38.