[BITList] Feet first

[John Feltham]

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Allardice,  Robert Barclay  [known as Captain Barclay]  (1779-1854), pedestrian, was the son of Robert Barclay (1731-1797) of Ury, Kincardineshire, founder of the town of Stonehaven, who took the name of Allardice upon his marriage to Sarah Ann Allardice (d. 1833) in 1776. The marriage was dissolved in 1793, and Mrs Allardice married John Nudd in 1795. Robert was born at Ury, on 25 August 1779, and was educated at Richmond School and Brixton Causeway before succeeding to the family estate after his father's death in 1797. He went into the 23rd regiment in 1805, was promoted captain in 1806, and served in the Walcheren expedition in 1809 as aide-de-camp to the marquess of Huntly. He was promoted major in January 1814, but resigned in March that year. He devoted himself to agriculture and improved the local breed of cattle. He married, on 19 July 1819, Mary (d. 1820), daughter of Alexander Dalgarno, of Aberdeen. Their only child, Margaret, married S. Ritchie in 1840, and settled in America.

After his mother's death in July 1833, Captain Barclay claimed the earldom of Airth on the ground of his descent from William, earl of Monteith (d. 1694). The case was heard before the House of Lords in 1839; and in 1840 Captain Barclay claimed also the earldoms of Strathearn and Monteith, but proceedings were ultimately dropped.

Captain Barclay was known for his extraordinary pedestrian performances. Powerful physique was a hallmark of the family. His ancestor, the first Barclay of Ury, was one of the strongest men in the kingdom, and his sword, too heavy for ordinary men, was preserved in the family; his grandfather (great-grandson of this first Barclay) was known as 'the Strong', and his father was a 'noted pedestrian', who walked from Ury to London (510 miles) in ten days.

Captain Barclay's most noted feat was walking 1 mile in each of 1000 successive hours. This feat was performed at Newmarket from 1 June to 12 July 1809. His average time of walking the mile varied from 14 min. 54 sec. in the first week to 21 min. 4 sec. in the last, and his weight was reduced from 13 stone 4 lb to 11 stone. He was so little exhausted that he started for the Walcheren expedition on 17 July in perfect health. He had previously accomplished many similar if less dramatic feats, starting at the age of seventeen, when he walked 6 miles within an hour on the London to Croydon road for a wager of 100 guineas. Another outstanding-and rewarding-achievement was to walk 90 miles in 21 hours in 1801 for 5000 guineas. He also competed in a 24-hour race against the professional Abraham Wood, an unusual match, from which Wood had to withdraw with injured feet after six hours. Wagers and challenges aside, Barclay's own lifestyle was one of extraordinary vigour. In 1808, for instance, he started at 5 a.m., walked 30 miles grouse shooting, dined at 5 p.m., walked 60 miles to his house at Ury in eleven hours, then after attending to business walked 16 miles to Laurence Kirk, danced at a ball, returned to Ury by 7 a.m., and spent the next day partridge shooting, having travelled 130 miles and been without sleep for two nights and three days. In 1810-11 he rode twice a week 51 miles to hunt, and after hunting returned the same night. A year later he went 33 miles out and home three times a week for the same purpose.

Barclay had trained under John Smith, the Yorkshire pedestrian, and Will Ward, the pugilist. He earned a high reputation as a trainer himself after preparing Tom Cribb for his second fight with the American Tom Molyneaux. In their first contest in 1810 Cribb, unfit and overweight, had come close to losing. Barclay then took him up to Scotland and gradually put him through a regime similar to his own, with the result that he won the return fight in September 1811 with comparative ease. Barclay described his methods in a pamphlet, Training for Pedestrianism and Boxing (1816). Less happily, his attempt to do the same for the Scottish fighter Sandy M'Kay nearly twenty years later ended in tragedy, with M'Kay killed in his return fight with Sandy Byrne in June 1830. Barclay's pedestrian career appears to have ended after his defeat by an officer of the 7th dragoons in a 2 mile race in Hyde Park, London, in 1813, though his achievement of 1000 miles in 1000 hours remained a standard challenge long after his retirement. In 1842 he published a short account of an agricultural tour made in the United States in the preceding spring. He was a strong protectionist, discussing the matter with W. E. Gladstone (the Gladstones were his neighbours at Ury). He died on 8 May 1854, at Ury, having been injured three days previously by a kick from a horse; he was buried at the family burial-ground, known as the Houff, in Ury.

Leslie Stephen, rev. 

Dennis Brailsford 

Sources  H. D. Miles, Pugilistica: the history of British boxing, 3 vols. (1906) + Sporting Magazine (Nov 1801) + Sporting Magazine (Sept 1804) + Sporting Magazine (Nov 1804) + Sporting Magazine (July 1807) + Sporting Magazine (Sept 1807) + Sporting Magazine (Oct 1807) + Sporting Magazine (Dec 1807) + Sporting Magazine (Oct 1808) + Sporting Magazine (June 1809) + Sporting Magazine (June 1813) + Sporting Magazine (Jan 1823) + Sporting Magazine (March 1830) + Sporting Magazine (July 1830) + The Times (16 May 1854) + P. F. Radford, 'From oral tradition to printed record: British sports science in transition, 1805-7', Proceedings of the XIIth HISPA Congress (1987), 295-304 + W. Thom, Pedestrianism (1813) + Gladstone, Diaries + Boase, Mod. Eng. biog.
Likenesses  R. Dighton, coloured etching, pubd 1809, NPG · S.? Williams, coloured aquatint, pubd 1809, BM, NPG [see illus.] · line engraving, pubd 1813, BM · R. M. Hodgetts, mezzotint, pubd 1843 (after J. Giles), NPG · R. M. Hodgetts, mezzotints (after J. Giles), NPG · engraving (after a miniature, 1798), repro. in Miles, Pugilistica, 1, facing p. 436