Last Updated August 14, 2007
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Ballgames Banned!
A Chronology of Prohibitions
[Note: this list was
compiled from version 0.8 of the Protoball Working Chronology, which comprised
about 625 entries, in August 2007.
1165 -- Ball Rites Observed
in
Note: This source appears to be Henderson, Robert W., Ball, Bat and
Bishop: The Origins of Ball Games [Rockport Press, 1947], p. 37-38.
Page 37 refers to an 1165 prohibition and page 38 mentions 12th and
13th Century Easter rites. Henderson identifies two sources
for the page 38 statement: Beleth, J., “Rationale Divinorum
Officiorum,” in Migne, J. P., Patrologiae Curius Completus, Ser 2,
Vol. 106, pp. 575-591 [Paris, 1855], and Durandus, G., “Rationale
Divinorum Officiorum,” Book VI, Ch 86, Sect. 9 [Rome, 1473]...Henderson
does not say that these rites involved the use of sticks. ||5||
1300s.2 – Edward III
Prohibits Playing of Club-Ball.
“Citizens so club-ball
conscious Edward III issued a solemn proclamation forbidding playing
club-ball.” Edward III lived from 1327 to 1377.
Seymour, Harold – Notes in the Seymour Collection at Cornell
University, Kroch Library Department of Rare and Manuscript Collections,
collection 4809. Note: David Block argues that, contrary to
Strutt’s contention [see 1801.1, below], club ball may not be the common
ancestor of cricket and other ballgames. See David Block, Baseball
Before We Knew It, pages 105-107 and 183-184.
1330.1 – Vicar of
Winkfield Advises Against Bat/Ball Games in Churchyards; First Stoolball
Reference?
“Stoolball was played in England as early as 1330, when William
Pagula, Vicar of Winkfield, near Windsor, wrote in Latin a poem of instructions
to parish priests, advising them to forbid the playing of all games of ball in
churchyards: “Bats and bares and suche play/Out of chyrche-yorde put away.”
Henderson, Robert W., Ball, Bat and Bishop: The Origins of
Ball Games [Rockport Press, 1947], p. 74. Note: The
Vicar’s caution was translated in 1450 by a Canon, John Myrc.
1365.1 -- Englishmen
Forbidden to Play Ball; Archery Much Preferred
“In 1365 the sheriffs had to forbid able-bodied men playing ball
games as, instead, they were to practice archery on Sundays and
holidays.”
Hassall, W. O., [compiler], “How They Lived: An Anthology of
Original Accounts Written Before 1485” [Blackwell, Oxford University
Press, 1962], page 285. Submitted by John Thorn, 10/12/2004.
1656.1 – Dutch
Prohibit “Playing Ball,” on Sundays in New
Channing, Edward, A History of the United States [
1659.1 -- Stuyvesant: No
Tennis, Ball-Playing, Dice on Fast Day
“We shall interdict and forbid, during divine service on the
[fasting] day aforesaid, all exercise and games of tennis, ball-playing,
hunting, plowing and sowing, and moreover all unlawful practice such as dice,
drunkenness . . .” proclaimed Peter Stuyvesant.
1771.2 –
“[M]any disorders are occasioned within the town of
“An Act to prevent and punish Disorders usually committed on the
twenty-fifth Day of December . . . , “ 23 December 1771,
1780.3 – Dartmouth
College Bans Ball-playing Near Windows
1784.1 – UPenn Bans
Ball Playing Near Open University Windows
RULES for the Good Government and Discipline of the SCHOOL in the
1787.1 – Ballplaying
Prohibited at
“It appearing that a play at present much practiced by the smaller
boys . . . with balls and sticks,” the faculty of
Quoted without apparent reference in
1791.1 –
“Bafeball” Among Games Banned in
In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to promote the safety of the exterior of
the newly built meeting house, particularly the windows, a by-law is enacted to
bar “any game of wicket, cricket, baseball, batball, football, cats,
fives, or any other game played with ball,” within eighty yards of the
structure. However, the letter of the law did not exclude the city’s
lovers of muscular sport from the tempting lawn of “Meeting-House
Common.” This is the first indigenous instance of the game of baseball
being referred to by that name on the North American continent. It is
spelled herein as bafeball. “
Per John Thorn: The History of
1795.1 –
By-Laws of the Town of
1797.2 –
Bye-Laws of Newburyport: Passed by the Town at Regular
Meetings, and Approved by the Court of General Justice of the Peace for the
County of Essex, Agreeably to a Law of this Commonwealth [Newburyport, 1797], p. 1.
Per Altherr ref # 68.
1797.3 –
Gilbert, Tom, Baseball and the Color Line, [Franklin Watts, NY,
1995], p.38. Per Millen, note # 15.
1805.1 – Williams
College Bans Dangerous Ball-playing
The Laws of
1805.2 –
The By Laws of the Town of
1813.1 -- Newburyport MA
Reminder -- “Playing Ball in the Streets” is Unlawful
“Parents and Guardians are also requested to forbid, those under
their care, playing Ball in the streets of the town; as by this unlawful practice
much inconvenience and injury is sustained.”
1816.1 –
On June 6, 1816, trustees of the Village of Cooperstown, New York enact
an ordinance: “That no person shall play at Ball in Second or
Otsego Herald, number 1107, June 6, 1816, p. 3. The Herald carried
the same notice on June 13, page 3. Note: the intersection
cited is a half block from the
1816.2 –
“Ball-playing” in the streets of
Worcester, MA Town Records, May 6, 1816; reprinted in Franklin P. Rice,
ed., Worcester Town Records, 1801 – 1816, volume X [Worcester
Society of Antiquity, 1891], p. 337. Also appears in
1820s.10 –
Philadelphians Play Ball, But in
A group of Philadelphians who will eventually organize as the Olympic
Ball Club begin playing town ball in
1821.3 --
The Schenectady City Council banned “playing of Ball against the
Building or in the area fronting the Building called City Hall and belonging to
this corporation . . . under penalty of Fifty cents for each and every offence
. . . .” XXX Note: citation needed. Submitted by David
Pietrusza via John Thorn, 3/6/2005.
1823.5 --
“The Town of
1839.2 – NYC
Ordinances Permit No Ballplaying, “Or Any Other Sport Whatsoever.”
On May 8, the
Source is By-Laws and Ordinances of the Mayor, Aldermen,
and Commonality of the City of
1845.12 --
“[I]t shall be unlawful for any person or persons to play at any
game of Ball . . . whereby the grass or grounds of any Public place or square
shall be defaced or injured.” [Fine is $5 plus costs of
prosecution.]
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