Jack Black (rat catcher)

Jack Black was a rat-catcher and mole destroyer from Battersea, England during the middle of the 19th century.[ 1] [ 2] At the time, England was ravaged by a massive population of rats that disrupted crops and spread disease, and Black's rat killing abilities made him a minor celebrity and Queen Victoria's official rat-catcher. Though he has been called the rat's "most notorious enemy," he did not kill all rats.[ 3] [ 2] Black bred unusually colored rats and sold them as pets, playing a large role in domesticating the animal. He had a flamboyant appearance, typically donning a self-made "uniform" of a green topcoat, scarlet waistcoat, and breeches, with a huge leather sash inset with cast-iron rats.

As a young boy, Jack Black grabbed feral rats in Regent’s Park and flung them in wire cages, which impressed passersby. He behaved like a showman, entertaining onlookers by training rats to live in his shirt and crawl up and down his arms.[ 4] Black said the rat work came naturally to him. He earned him various jobs catching rats on private property, and he also supplied live rats to pubs for rat-baiting contests, popular mid-Victorian activity of placing bets on the number of rats a dog could kill.[ 2]

Jack Black's eye-catching outfit caught the attention of Henry Mayhew, who wrote about Black in London Labour and the London Poor. Black told Mayhew about his vicious, nearly-fatal battles against England's rats: "I’ve been bitten nearly everywhere, even where I can’t name to you," he said.[ 1] [ 3] He also revealed that he tasted rat flesh "unbeknown to his wife," describing it as "moist as rabbits, and quite as nice."[ 3]

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