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Edward 'Neddy' Prince (1800-73) - the celebrated Heanor character clutching his beloved pipe.

EDWARD PRINCE was born in Heanor, Derbyshire, on 4 March 1800. Although he lived beyond the allotted 'three score years and ten' nature was not kind to him, for his mental faculties stopped developing when he was barely seven years of age. Nor did his physical stature reach maturity, although visually he aged normally.

He came to be known as 'Neddy', and because of his peculiarities, which were variously offensive and endearing, became a real character in and around Heanor - 'Neddy' was known by all, loved by many, but often mercilessly mocked in an age less compassionate than the one we now enjoy.

Not long before he died a contemporary journal described him thus:

'Neddy Prince is a veritable curiosity. He is still a child in his mode of thinking and acting and may often be seen playing marbles and other boyish games in the streets with children sixty years his junior. He is only 4ft 6ins in height and an inveterate smoker. And should any of his four pipes be spirited away from him, as they sometimes are by cruel jokers, his rage is unbounded.

Swearing is a vice he is addicted to - this upsets many he encounters, but he seems not to need friends, for he is quite happy holding imaginary converstaions with a host of characters of his own invention, playing all the parts so earnestly that he seems almost to be in a trance.'

Neddy's sundry peculiarities would undoubtedly cary an extensive range of medical labels today, but such impairments were far less tolerated and understood in the early to mid-nineteenth century.

Many anecdotes concerning Neddy did the rounds of old. On one occasion he was so irritated by a dog belonging to the landlord of the Red Lion at Heanor that he hanged it. When the landlord discovered the limp body of his pet he took Neddy firmly to task. The culprit's reply was both swift and endearingly innocent: 'If you will only forgive me, I promise never to hang him again.'

Edward 'Neddy' Prince died aged 73 in Heanor, in 1873, and was buried in Heanor Marlpool Cemetery, having remained blissfully untroubled by the various challenges and difficulties of adult life. Much about the eventful life of Neddy Prince is lost in the mists of time, but one thing is crystal clear. He would certainly not have predicted that over 200 years after his birth he would become the subject of his very own internet tribute!

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County:  Derbyshire

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