James Lucas (1813 – 21 April 1874) was a celebrated English Victorian eccentric and hermit who gained international renown by his strange way of life.[1] He was known as the Hermit of Hertfordshire and Mad Lucas. Lucas lived with his mother's dead body for 3 months before it was taken away by the clergyman.
James Lucas continued to live in that house for 25 years until his death. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, which people link to his ‘hermit’ label. He was often taken advantage of for his generosity and was even visited by Charles Darwin in 1842 as a part of a United States tour. They were introduced by a mutual friend and Dickens even interviewed Lucas about his lifestyle.
Lucas was very intelligent according to Dickens, he just had some mental health issues regarding his paranoid schizophrenia. He often offered candy to children who visited his house and was described as a very kind and academic man. People believed his mother's death sent him spiralling and caused damage to his mental health. He was a successful scientist, landowner and political figure; he even played a very important role in the history of the Galapagos Island in relation to Charles Darwin.
Life
He loved to administer his mother's will, in which he inherited the family estate at Elmwood House near Redcoats Green, Hertfordshire, and deferred the burial of her mother for three months. He developed a paranoid fear of his relatives. He locked himself in his mansion and allowed nothing in the building to be touched. It sank into a dilapidated and decaying condition.
He lived solely in the kitchen, sleeping on a bed of ashes and soot. He went naked except for a blanket, enveloped in which he used to appear at his windows. He never washed and his hair grew to waist length. He lived on bread, cheese, eggs, red herrings and gin.[2] His house became infested with rats and he kept his food in baskets hung from the ceiling to protect it from them. He always kept a gun at his side.[3][4]
Lucas communicated with the world only through an iron grille and employed two armed watchmen who lived in a nearby hut. He was, however, quite willing to receive visitors, mostly tramps and children but increasingly the well-to-do who came to engage him in conversation.
Lucas died of apoplexy in 1874, having hoarded a considerable sum of money in his living room.[8] He is buried in the family grave in Hackney churchyard, London.[3]
After his death 17 cartloads of dirt and ashes were removed from the house.[3]
Lucas is the subject of the song Mad Lucas by The Breeders on their 1993 album, Last Splash.
Notes
↑ Irving, Joseph (1879). ""Mad Lucas" the hermit". The Annals of Our Time from March 20, 1874, to the Occupation of Cyprus. London: Macmillan. p.3. The protagonist "Mr. Mopes" of the 1861 story Tom Tiddler's Ground by Dickens is based upon James Lucas.
↑ Caufield, Catherine. (2006). The Man Who Ate Bluebottles: And Other Great British Eccentrics. Icon Books. p. 125. ISBN978-1840467772
Lucas, John (1990). "69". Hertfordshire Curiosities. Winborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press. ISBN0-946159-75-0. The Hermit of Redcoats
Whitmore, Richard (1983). Mad Lucas. North Hertfordshire District Council and Hitchin Museum. ISBN0-902755-02-1. Archived from the original on 2 May 2008.
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