Whilst the name of Spring-heeled Jack may be reasonably familiar, the story from which it originates is not so well known. The principal aim of this chapter is to set out a narrative of the legend's development from rural rumours around the fringes of south London in late 1837, through the metropolitan scare popularised in the press in early 1838, and then on to a migratory character of predominantly provincial folklore until his last sightings in the early years of the twentieth century. In doing so it aims to provide both a chronological framework of the legend's story arc and the raw material from which subsequent analysis will be drawn.

For historians, who by training and inclination are generally dependent upon written or visual sources for their information, a being that spent much of its life enveloped in oral rumour, gossip and conjecture is particularly hard to track. This is not to suggest a lack of primary sources. Given the diverse range of cultural forms that Spring-heeled Jack took in the nineteenth century there is a rich if somewhat scattered body of material that includes folklorist accounts, street ballads, several series of ‘penny dreadful’ stories (and illustrations), other literary texts which co-opted the character for their own use, journals, magazines, newspapers, comics, court accounts and published reminiscences by individuals reflecting back on the nineteenth century. There is certainly no shortage of newspaper coverage through which we can gain some access to Spring-heeled Jack's existence in a vibrant contemporary oral culture.