Nat Langham was an English middleweight

Middleweight

Middleweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in 1897...

 bare-knuckle

Bare-knuckle

Bare-knuckle means without gloves, bandages or any other protection for and/or dangerous 'arming' of the knuckles, a larger part or even the whole hand...

 prize fighter. He had the distinction of being the only opponent ever to beat the legendary Thomas Sayers

Thomas Sayers

Tom Sayers was an English bare-knuckle prize fighter. There were no formal weight divisions at the time, and although Sayers was only five feet eight inches tall and never weighed much more than 150 pounds, he frequently fought much bigger men...

.

Early life

Stephen Nathaniel Langham was born in 1820 into abject poverty in Hinckley

Hinckley

Hinckley is a town in southwest Leicestershire, England. It has a population of 43,246 . It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council...

, Leicestershire

Leicestershire

Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

,

He always spoke with a speech impediment, the result of a childhood incident when he stole a hot potato from a market

Market

A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...

 stall

Stall (enclosure)

A stall is a small enclosure of some kind, usually less enclosed than a room.-Market stall:A market stall is usually an immobile temporary structure erected by merchants to display and shelter their merchandise...

 — caught in the act, the vendor thrust the steaming potato into his mouth, causing severe permanent tissue scarring.

Career

Langham was just under six feet (1.8 m) tall, and 11 stones (70 kg or 154 lb) in weight. His deprived childhood caused him to suffer ill health all his life. During his career, boxing was an illegal clandestine profession, carried out in comparative secrecy. In spite of the small prizes available, his prowess in the ring earned him a considerable fortune. Following his defeat of Sayers in 1857, he retired from the ring.

Later life

In the 1861 census of London he appears as a Victualler

Victualler

A victualler is traditionally a person who sells food or other provisions, similar to a grocer, and in particular British usage can be used to mean a person licensed to sell alcoholic beverages....

 and as widower living on Castle Street in Westminster.

Langham died of consumption

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 in 1871 at the age of 52 in London, he is buried in Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven...

.