Block:English Baseball 1700s
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English Baseball 1700s (9 entries)
"Base-Ball" in 1744; Earliest Reference
| Block Game | English Baseball |
|---|---|
| Date | 1744 |
| Location | London/Berkshire |
| Data | "Base-Ball" is the title of a page in a children's book that also bears an illustration showing three youths (one holding a ball), and two bases. No bat is shown. A short poem follows: "The Ball once struck off, Away flies the Boy, To the next destin'd Post, And then Home with Joy." |
| Notes | No known copies of the 1744 edition have survived. The earliest known copy is a 1760 10th edition in the British Library; it is assumed, but not certain, that the base-ball page originated with the 1744 edition. The MCC Cricket Museum in London owns a children's handkerchief printed with images from A Little Pretty Pocket-book. It includes the base-ball poem and image, but the latter is a redrawn copy of the one that appears in the book. The handkerchief is undated but appears to date from the 18th century. John Newbery was born and raised in the small Berkshire village of Waltham St. Lawrence. |
| Sources | A Little Pretty Pocket-book, John Newbery, London, 1744 (presumed) |
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"Base-ball" Mentioned in Lady Hervey's Letter: November 14, 1748
| Block Game | English Baseball |
|---|---|
| Date | Thursday, November 14, 1748 |
| Location | London/Buckinghamshire/Suffolk |
| Data | A letter from Mary Lepel (Lady Hervey) of Ickworth Hall, Suffolk, to Rev. Edmund Morris of Hampshire mentions "base-ball" being played in London by the family of Frederick, Prince of Wales: "…in a large room they divert themselves at Base-ball, a play all who are or have been schoolboys are well acquainted with; the Ladys (sic) as well as Gentlemen join in this amusement..." |
| Notes | The original of this letter cannot be located and may no longer exist. The copy in the Suffolk archive appears to date to the 18th century but whether it was taken at the same time as the original cannot be determined. It is not in Lady Hervey's hand. Frederick's son George, age 10, (the future George III) was almost certainly among the ball players. Although Lady Hervey observed the prince's family playing baseball at Leicester House in London, they spent most of the year at Cliveden, their estate on the Thames at Taplow in Bucks. |
| Sources | Copy of letter dated Nov. 14, 1748 found among Hervey family papers in the Suffolk History Centre, Bury St Edmunds. Also, reprinted in "Letters of Mary Lepel, Lady Hervey," London, 1821, John Murray, pp. 139-140 |
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Prince of Wales Plays "bass-ball": September 19 1749
| Block Game | English Baseball |
|---|---|
| Date | Friday, September 19, 1749 |
| Location | London/Surrey |
| Data | A newspaper reported a game of "bass-ball" at Walton (most likely Walton-on-Thames), Surrey: "On Tuesday last his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and Lord Middlesex, played at Bass-Ball, at Walton in Surry (sic); and notwithstanding the Weather was extreme (sic) bad, they continued playing several Hours." |
| Notes | This is the earliest known mention of baseball in a newspaper, as well as the earliest reference to the game for which the original document has survived (the British Library holds the Whitehall Evening Post issue, and the Remembrancer issue exists in the collections of three or four libraries). Curiously, it was the second mention of baseball within a year's time to be associated with Frederick, Prince of Wales. His playing partner, Lord Middlesex (Charles Sackvile, the future second Duke of Dorset), was Master of the Horse in the prince's court, and the two were close personal friends and political allies. Lord Middlesex had a country home at Walton-on-Thames that was about 20 miles downriver from the prince's Cliveden estate. |
| Sources | Whitehall Evening Post or London Intelligencer, Sept. 19-21, 1749, p. 3; also, The Remembrancer (London), Sept. 23, 1749, p. 3 |
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"Base-Ball" Mentioned in 1755 Novel
| Block Game | English Baseball |
|---|---|
| Date | 1755 |
| Location | London |
| Data | Reference to a game of "Base-Ball" in the satirical novel The Card, written by John Kidgell, a clergyman, but published anonymously: "…the younger Part of the Family…retired to an interrupted Party at Base-Ball, (an infant Game, which as it advances in its Teens, improves into Fives, and in its State of Manhood, is called Tennis.)" |
| Notes | The book has a publication date of 1755, but a newspaper account indicates it was already in production by Christmas, 1754. It was reviewed in a literary journal in February, 1755. All this is to say that it predated the baseball entry in the Bray diary by a few months. Given the highly satirical nature of The Card, it is hard to know whether to take Kidgell's characterization of baseball literally. |
| Sources | The Card, John Newbery, London, 1755, p. 9 (There was also a Dublin, Ireland, reprint edition published in 1755.) |
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| Query |
Surrey Youth Cites "base-ball" in Diary: March 31 1755
| Block Game | English Baseball |
|---|---|
| Date | Monday, March 31, 1755 |
| Location | Surrey |
| Data | Reference to a game of "base ball" in a young man's diary entry for Easter Monday, March 31st, 1755. "After dinner went to Miss Jeale's to play at Base Ball with her, the 3 Miss Whiteheads, Miss Billinghurst, Miss Molly Flutter, Mr. Chandler, Mr. Ford, H. Parsons & Jolly. Drank tea and played till 8." |
| Notes | William Bray was a well-known Surrey historian and antiquarian. He lived to the age of 96 and kept diaries his entire adult life. The baseball entry appeared in a volume covering his 18th and 19th years that had been separated from the rest of his papers. He was living near Guildford, Surrey, in 1755 when he wrote the entry that mentioned baseball. The original diary surfaced in 2007 and a high resolution copy was created by the Surrey History Centre. The original has since disappeared and its whereabouts remain unknown. |
| Sources | William Bray's Diary, 1754-1755, privately owned |
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London Dictionary Defines "Baseball" in 1768
| Block Game | English Baseball |
|---|---|
| Date | 1768 |
| Location | London |
| Data | A dictionary entry and definition for the word "baseball": "(From base and ball) A rural game in which the person striking the ball must run to his base or goal." Also, as one of the definitions for the word "base": "A rural play, called also Baseball; as, Lads more like to run the country base. Shakesp." |
| Notes | This work is unusually rare for a major dictionary; only two library copies have been located. The identities of the authors are unknown. The citing of the Shakespeare quote demonstrates that confusion between the games of prisoner's base and baseball began at a very early date. |
| Sources | A General Dictionary of the English Language, by a Society of Gentlemen, London, 1768, printed for J. and R. Fuller, p. 66 (approx., unpaginated) |
| Comment | "A Society of Gentlemen" was the same rubric used by the authors of the first Encyclopedia Britannica, also published in 1768. This Dictionary was apparently intended to be a companion work by those men, or perhaps a copycat work by imitators (the Britannica was essentially Scottish and first printed in Edinburgh), though evidently an unsuccessful one.- Bill Hicklin |
| Query | Can the Shakespeare citation be located? Yes. The cite is to Cymbeline, Act 5, Scene 3. [ba] "He with two striplings—lads more like to run
The country base than to commit such slaughter," |
Journal Article Cites "baste-ball" in 1788
| Block Game | English Baseball |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, December 13, 1788 |
| Location | London |
| Data | Mention of "baste-ball" in a journal article praising the attributes of the character Nausicaa in Homer's Odyssey: "…she is the very pattern of excellence,…she drives four in hand and manages her whip with utmost skill, …she sings most charmingly, and, in fine, is not above playing a game of baste-ball with her attendants." |
| Notes | "Baste-ball" is one of several alternate spellings of baseball that are found in 18th and 19th century writings. "The Trifler" was a weekly satirical literary journal that ran for less than one year. Its authors, writing under the nom de plume Timothy Touchstone, were reputed to be two Cambridge students and two Oxford students, all under the age of 20. |
| Sources | "The Trifler," by Timothy Touchstone, Number XXIX, Dec. 13, 1788, p. 374 |
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"Englische Base-ball" Described in 1796 German Book
| Block Game | English Baseball |
|---|---|
| Date | 1796 |
| Location | Schnephenthal, Duchy of Gotha (presentday Germany) |
| Data | Seven-page description of a game called "Ball mit Freystäten (oder das englische Base-ball)" in a German book on games and sports. This is the earliest description of a game called baseball and it details the familiar elements of pitching batting, base running and fielding. |
| Notes | The first edition of this book appeared in April, 1796 and the second edition appeared in October of the same year. Gutsmuths' source for the information about English baseball is not certain, although one very likely candidate is an English student, Samuel Glover, who was a student of his in Schnepfenthal between 1788 and 1791. A surviving letter from Gutsmuths to a friend of Glover's documents that the English student was a favorite of his and had a close relationship to the author's family. It may be that the game described by Gutsmuths was incipient rounders rather than English baseball in its pure form, as the latter is not known to have been played with a bat. Glover came from the west of England where rounders first appeared. |
| Sources | Spiele zur Uebung und Erholung des Körpers und Geistes für die Jugend, ihre Erzieher und alle Freunde Unschuldiger Jugendfreuden, by J.C.F. Gutsmuths, Schnepfenthal, 1796, pp. 78-83 |
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Jane Austen's Cousin Mentions "base-ball" in 1799 Novel
| Block Game | English Baseball |
|---|---|
| Date | 1799 |
| Location | London |
| Data | Mention of "base-ball" in the novel Battleridge, written by Cassandra Cooke but published anonymously: "I came to bid adieu to my old playmate, Sir Ralph Vesey: how kindly did he part with poor Jack Jephson, as he called me! 'Ah!' says he, 'no more cricket, no more base-ball, they are sending me to Geneva.'" |
| Notes | Cassandra Cooke's maiden name was Cassandra Leigh, the same as Jane Austen's mother (they were first cousins). The novel is set in the mid-17th century during the period of the English civil war; it is improbable that dialog from that era would include the word "base-ball," belying the claim in the novel's subtitle that it is "founded on facts." |
| Sources | Battleridge: an Historical Tale Founded on Facts, (2 vol.), By "A Lady of Quality" (Cassandra Cooke), London, 1799, G. Cawthorn, Vol. I, p. 2 |
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