August’s Object of the Month was chosen by Norton College student Alfie Cottrell, who recently did work experience at Malton Museum.
Flint Jack- The Greatest Impostor of the Era
Flint Jack was an alias for an infamous forger named Edward Simpson born in 1815. He was renowned for his forgery of Roman artefacts along with other relics and fossils due to how difficult it was to tell the difference between the real objects and his forgeries, beginning this work around 1843. He collected several aliases in his time such as ‘Bones’ in Whitby, ‘Shirtless’ in the Eastern counties, ‘Fossil Willy’ on the Yorkshire Coast, and finally’ the Old Antiquarian’ in Wiltshire and Dorset but universally was named Flint Jack.
Malton Museum displays several of his forgeries alongside genuine flints – you can see how similar his forgeries were to the real artefacts. Some artefacts were more believable than others, such as the arrow heads he forged which were wildly popular at the time with them being one of his first successful forgeries. Flint Jack forged a wide variety of artefacts including a Roman chest plate, pottery, tools and arrow heads with success.
Flint Jack is a fascinating figure as his main motivation was found when he successfully recreated a barbed arrowhead he had been shown. He took joy in working his forgeries and earned a pretty penny whilst doing it. His success is evident from the wide range of customers he had, including various prominent museums in England who believed that they were real artefacts.
Flint Jack eventually found a vice, drinking. There are several accounts of people seeing Jack drunk around town. In 1864, Jack is quoted as saying “In this year, I took to drinking; the worst job yet. Till then, I was always possessed of five pounds. I have since been in utter poverty, and frequently in great misery and want.”

Flint Jack regularly travelled from place to place where he often changed his forgeries in each area picking up the forging of fossils in Newark which he sold to the only geologist in the area. Jack often read about local history to help make his lies more believable. He did still find and sell genuine artefacts and fossils with a period of just selling genuine fossils until he came across more flint and couldn’t resist the temptation and began making forgeries.
In 1859 Jack was invited by Mr Tennant to address a meeting. Tennant knew Flint Jack was making forgeries and persuaded him to share his techniques. This knowledge quickly spread through England causing many to become suspicious of their collections and by 1861 his occupation as a deceiver was practically over. Few were willing to buy from him as many had heard of his exploits and his duplicates. He then began a second career advising people on whether their collections contained fakes.
Flint Jack was an interesting figure who always strived to learn and still had a passion for finding artefacts and fossils but fell to his vices of forgery and drink ending up in prison on several occasions for forgery and later on theft last being seen after an appearance before the Malton Magistrates in February 1874. He is believed to have died not long after this court appearance.
I personally find Flint Jack interesting due to his exploits and the similarity I have with him, we both share an interest archaeology, fossils and the past and we both strive to learn as much as we can, and he’s more interesting as he revealed his lies surrounding his forgeries making him a very popular figure in the era.
Many people owned or suspected that they owned forgeries and some didn’t even know they had a forgery because he was that skilled, not even museums could tell the difference between real and fake artefacts.
Flint Jack’s displays of forgeries were displayed when Malton Museum first opened in 1935. The flints are on display once more alongside genuine artefacts as part of Malton Museum’s 90th anniversary celebrations. For information about visiting Malton Museum, including our opening times, please click our Visit Us section.
Malton Museum has been open for 90 years and we are fundraising for a new home. If you have enjoyed this article and want to help us, please donate to our new museum kickstarter.