Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford

The following day there was uproar; when the Marquess of Waterford finally sobered up, he paid for all the damage to people and property, but the group were still brought to trial before the Derby Assize Court in July 1838.It was reported that "The Marquis of Waterford is fully recovered, he was tried at Bergen and sentence passed, he was absolved from the accusation and the watchman from all further prosecution, the latter is to pay the costs"— following the intervention of the local British consul.[7] They speculate that he could have designed (with the help of friends who were experts in applied mechanics) some sort of apparatus for special spring-heeled boots, and that he may have practised fire-spitting techniques in order to increase the unnatural appearance of his character.They also note the embroidered coat of arms with a "W" letter observed by the servant boy during the Ashworth incident, a notorious coincidence with his title's territorial designation.Indeed, Waterford was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do anything for a bet; his irregular behaviour and his contempt for women earned him the moniker "the Mad Marquess", and it is also known that he was present in the London area at the time the first Spring Heeled Jack incidents took place.[8] An 1838 news report referred to "that turbulent piece of aristocracy" and his "nocturnal vagaries in the neighbourhood of Melton", adding that his "name in many quarters is regarded with as much terror as that of Spring-heeled Jack himself".Spring-Heeled Jack remained notionally active for decades after, which leads the aforementioned modern researchers to the same conclusion as Brewer's: Waterford may well have been responsible for the first attacks, while it was up to other pranksters who occasionally imitated him to continue the task.