The Great Chester Cat Hoax: Creating an Urban Legend in the Anglosphere Press, 1815–1955

Abstract

AbstractIn 1815 a cat hoax rocked Chester. Someone plastered the city with handbills offering to buy cats. Hundreds of cats were rounded up and delivered, yet there was no buyer to be found. In the resulting chaos, people were injured, and hundreds of cats were drowned. This story was widely reported at the time up and down Britain. Soon enough it was also told in newspapers and compendia of trivia across the anglosphere. Yet, the Great Chester Cat Hoax never happened; it was a journalistic invention which rapidly transformed into a widely believed urban legend. This did not, however, prevent copycat hoaxes from materialising as pranksters imitated the story, first in the British Isles and then later in North America. The press were instrumental in the evolution and spread of cat hoaxes, and pranksters soon utilised newspaper adverts to engineer new hoaxes. Press coverage of cat hoaxes also evolved, reflecting the changing role of the cat in urban society and emergent anti‐cruelty concerns. Finally, the article shows that the meaning of the hoax was tied to ideas regarding ignorance rooted in anti‐Hibernian attitudes, as well as gendered and working‐class stereotypes.