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Stoolball

A Working Chronology

Note: This list was derived from version 10 of the full Protoball Chronology, which was uploaded in December 2008. Additional relevant entries may have been added to any later versions of the full Chronology; not all entries on this subchronology are necessarily identical to those on the most recently updated full Chronology. Readers are encouraged to suggest or perform updates. Please send notes about omissions, mistakes, typos, etc, to lmccray@mit.edu.

Notation: the entry numbered “1086.1” denotes the first Protoball entry for the year 1086. An entry numbered as “1570s.3” means the third entry for the decade of the 1570s, and “1592c.4” means the fourth entry for 1592, where in this case the year can only be approximated.]

There remains some confusion about the terms “stool ball” and “stoball/stowball.” Some writers take the terms to be roughly synonymous; others think that one of these names applies to any of three distinct games. The first of these is a simple game in which a defender protects a target against a thrown ball, the second adds a baserunning element, and the third is a simple form of what we would now see as resembling golf. If consensus develops we will restrict future chronologies accordingly.]

One impression that emerges from this working chronology is that the game of cricket was rarely mentioned in the early days when you might expect to see it alongside stoolball as a game that was banned, or regretted, or well-loved. Also note that there are – at least at this stage – very few accounts of American stoolball play.

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1086.1 – Form of Stoolball Listed in Domesday Book in Norman England?

Stoolball, a stick and ball game and a forerunner of rounders and cricket, is apparently mentioned in the Domesday Book as “bittle-battle.”

Note1: This source is Henderson, Robert W., Ball, Bat and Bishop: The Origins of Ball Games [Rockport Press, 1947], p. 75.  However, Henderson doesn’t exactly endorse the idea that the cited game, “bittle-battle,” is a ball game, [or if it is, could it be a form of soule?]  He says that one [unnamed] author claims that bittle-battle is a form of stoolball.  I saw only two RH refs to stoolball, ref 72 [Grantham] and ref 149 [London Magazine].  One of them may be Henderson’s source for the 1086 stoolball claim.  I don’t see an RH ref to the Domesday text itself, but then, it probably isn’t found at local lending libraries. The Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect [1875] reportedly gives “bittle-battle” as another name for stoolball. It is believed that “bittle” meant a wooden milk bowl and some have speculated that a bowl may have been used as a paddle to deflect a thrown ball from the target stool, while others speculate that the bowl may have been the target itself.

Note2: We need to confirm whether the Domesday Book actually uses the term “bittle-battle,” “stool ball,” or what. We also should try to ascertain views of professional scholars on the interpretations of the Book. Martin Hoerchner advises that the British Public Records Office may at some point make parts of the Domesday Book available online.

1189.1 – “Unconfirmed” Report of a Stoolball Reference by Iscanus

There is “an unconfirmed report which was published in the beginning of the Century quoting one Joseph Iscanus, of Exeter, as having referred to stoolball in 1189, but no satisfactory evidence that this quotation was genuine.”

National Stoolball Association, “A Brief History of Stoolball,” page 2. This mimeo, available in NSA files, has no date or author, but has one internal reference to an 1989 source, so it must be fairly recent. It contains no hint on the source of the 1189 claim or how it has been assessed. Note: Is it now possible to further pursue this claim using online resources? The 1189 claim appears nowhere else in available writings about stoolball.

1300s.3 -- Stoolball Said to Originate Among Sussex Milkmaids

“Stoolball is a ball game that dates back to the 14^th century, originating in Sussex [in southern England].  It may be an ancestor of cricket (a game it resembles), baseball, and rounders. Traditionally it was played be milkmaids who used their milking stools as ‘wickets.’ . . . “Later forms of the game involved running between two wickets, but “[o]riginally the batsman simply had to defend his stool from each ball with his hand and would score a point for each delivery until the stool was hit.  The game later evolved to include runs and bats.”

Source: Wikipedia entry on “Stoolball,” accessed 1/25/2007 by LM.  Note: this source does not credit bittle-battle [see entry 1086.1] as an earlier form of stoolball. It gives no citations for the evidence of the founding date. The Wikipedia entry is compatible with entry #1330.1, below, but evidently does not credit 1330 as the likely time of stoolball’s appearance.

1330.1 – Vicar of Winkfield Advises Against Bat/Ball Games in Churchyards; First Stoolball Reference? First “bats” 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.  Henderson’s ref 120 is Mirk [sic], J., “Instructions to Parish Priests,” Early English Text Society, Old Series 31, p. 11 [London, 1868].  A contemporary of Myrc in 1450 evidently identified the Vicar’s targets as including stoolball.  Block [p. 165] identifies the original author as William de Pagula. Writing in 1886, T. L. Kington Oliphant identifies “bares” as prisoner’s base: “There is the term “bace pleye,” whence must come the “prisoner’s base;” this in Myrc had appeared as the game of “bares.” Kington Oliphant does not elaborate on this claim, and does not comment on the accompanying term “bats” in the original. The 1886 reference was provided by John Thorn, 2/24/2008

1330.1 – Vicar of Winkfield Advises Against Bat/Ball Games in Churchyards; First [Indirect] 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.”

Source: 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.  Henderson’s ref 120 is Mirk [sic], J., “Instructions to Parish Priests,” Early English Text Society, Old Series 31, p. 11 [London, 1868].  A contemporary of Myrc in 1450 – a full 120 years later -- evidently identified the Vicar’s targets as including stoolball, and Henderson accepts this view.  David Block’s Baseball Before We Knew It, page 165, identifies the original author as William de Pagula.

1344.1 -- Manuscript Shows a Club-and-Ball Game with Stool-like Object

“A manuscript of 1344 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (No. 264) shows a game of club and ball.  One player throws that ball to another who holds a vicious-looking club.  He defends a round object which resembles a stool but with a base instead of legs. . . ”  “In the course of time a second stool was added, which obviously made a primitive form of cricket.  Now a stool was also called a “cricket” and it is possible that the name cricket came from the three-legged stool . . . “ “We may summarize: The game and name of cricket stem back to ancient games played with a curved stick and ball, starting with la soule, and evolving in England through stoolball . . .”

Henderson, Robert W., Ball, Bat and Bishop: The Origins of Ball Games [Rockport Press, 1947], pp. 130-131.  RH’s ref 17 is Bodleian Library, Douce MSS 264, ff 22, 44, 63. Note: the term “stoolball” does not appear in the 1344 document.

1450.1 -- John Myrc Repeats Warning Against Ball Play in the Churchyard, Including “Stoil Ball”

David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It [page 165], cites the Myrc work, “early poetic instruction of priests,” as “How thow schalt thy paresche preche,” London. It warns “Bal and bares and suche play/ Out of chyrcheyorde put a-way.”  A note reportedly inserted by another author included among the banned games “tenessyng handball, fott ball stoil ball and all manner other games out churchyard.” Note: can we determine when the “other author” wrote in “stoil ball? This may count as the first time “stool ball” [almost] appeared.

1450.2 – Stoolball Dated by NSA to 1450 in “Don Quixote”

“[Stoolball] is mentioned in the classic book Don Quixote.”

Source: NSA website, accessed April 2007. Caution: we need a fuller citation and the key text. It is possible that this entry confuses D’Urfey’s 1694 play about Don Quixote [see Entry #1694.1, below] with the Cervantes masterpiece. A 12/22/08 Google search for “Cervantes stoolball” returned no relevant sources.

1470c.1 –Editor Sees Stoolball in Verse on Bachelorhood

“In al this world nis a murier lyf/Thanne is a yong man wythouten a wyf,/For he may lyven wythouten strif/In every place wher-so he go.

“In every place he is loved over alle/Among maydens grete and smale-/In daunsyng, in pipyngs, and rennyng at the balle,/In every place wher-so he go.

“They leten lighte by housebonde-men/Whan they at the balle renne;/They casten ther love to yonge men/In every place wher-so they go.

“Then seyn maydens, "Farewel, Jakke,/Thy love is pressed al in thy pak;/Thou berest thy love bihynde thy back,/In every place wher-so thou go."

Robert Stevick, ed., One Hundred Middle English Lyrics (U of Illinois Press, 1994), page 141. Posted to 19CBB on 11/14/2008 by Richard Hershberger. Richard reports that Stevick dates this poem -- #81 of the 100 collected --to c. 1470. He interprets the lyric’s ‘running at the ball’ as ‘stool ball, probably,’ but stow ball [resembling field hockey] seems apter. Richard also points out that “for the sake of precision, it should be noted that this volume is intended for student use and normalizes the spellings.”

1500s.2 – Queen Elizabeth’s Dudley Plays Stoolball at Wotton Hill?

According to a manuscript written in the early 1600s, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester and his “Trayne” “came to Wotton, and thence to Michaelwood Lodge . . . and thence went to Wotton Hill, where hee paid a match at stobball.”

Note: Is it possible to determine the approximate date of this event? Queen Elizabeth I named her close associate [once rumored to be her choice as husband] Dudley to became Earl of Leicester in the 1564, and he died in 1588. The Wotton account was written by John Smyth of Nibley somewhere in his Berkeley Manuscripts. He have no citation for that work. Smyth’s association with Berkeley Castle began n 1589, and the Manuscripts were written in about 1618, so it it not a first-hand report. Caveat: “Stobbal” is usually used to denote a field game resembling field hockey or golf; thus, this account may not relate to stoolball per se.

1523.1 – Baron’s Trespass Records Mention Stoball

“Item, quod petrus frankeleyne vid posuit iiiixx ovesin le stoball field contra ordinacionem.”

Source: National Stoolball Association, “A Brief History of Stoolball,” [mimeo, author and date unspecified], page 2. This wording is reportedly found in “an extract from the rolls of he Court Baron of the Royal Manor of Kirklington, belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster (16^th Century), under the heading of trespass.” Note: The relation of stoball to stoolball remains under dispute, with many observers seeing stoball as an early golf-like game. Can we obtain a good translation and interpretation of this quotation?

1564.1 – Formal Complaint in Surrey: Stoolball is Played on Sunday!

“1564 – complaints were made to the justices sitting at the midsummer session, at Malden, Surrey, that the constable (himself possibly an enthusiast with the stool and ball) suffered stoolball to be played on Sunday.”

M. S. Russell-Goggs, “Stoolball in Sussex,” The Sussex County Magazine, volume 2, no. 7 (July 1928), page 318. Surrey is the adjoining county to Sussex. Note: we need to locate the full citations for this and all other Russell-Goggs references. Is this the first appearance of the word “stoolball?”

1567.1 -- English Translation of Horace Refers to “the Stoole Ball”

“The stoole ball, top, or camping ball/If suche one should assaye/As hath no mannour skill therein,/Amongste a mightye croude,/Theye all would screeke unto the frye/And laugh at hym aloude.”

Drant, Thomas, Horace His Arte of Poetrie, Pistles, and Satyrs Englished, and to the Earle of Ormounte, [London], per David Block, page 166.  There is no implication that Horace himself refers to stoolball.

1570.1 – Five in Surrey Are Indicted for Playing Stoolball on Sunday

“A few years later [after 1564], at the Easter Sessions in the same town [Malden, in Surrey], one Edward Anderkyn and four others were indicted for playing stoolball on Sunday.”

M. S. Russell-Goggs, “Stoolball in Sussex,” The Sussex County Magazine, volume 2, no. 7 (July 1928), page 318. Note: we need to locate the full citations for this and all other Russell-Goggs references.

1585c.1 -- Stoole-ball, Nine Holes Included Among Country Sports

In a 1600 publication attributed to Samuel Rowlands [died 1588], the fourth of six “Satires,” presents a catalog of about 30 pastimes, including “play at stoole-ball,” and “play at nine-holes.” Other diversions include pitching the barre, foote-ball, play at base, and leap-frog.

Rowlands, Samuel, The Letting of Humour’s blood in the head-vein (W. White, London, 1600), as discussed in Brydges, Samuel E., Censura Literaria (Longman, London, 1808), p.279. Virtually the same long verse – but one that carelessly lists stoole-ball twice -- is attributed to “Randal Holme of Chester” in an 1817 book: Drake, Nathan, Shakspeare and His Times (Cadell and Davies, London, 1817), pages 246-247. Drake does not suggest a date for this verse. Note: Our choice of 1585 as the year of Rowlands’ composition is speculative.

1586.1 – Sydney Cites Stoolball

“A time there is for all, my mother often sayes/

When she with skirts tuckt very hie, with gyrles at stoolball playes”

[Sir Philip?] Sydney, Arcadia Sonnets [1622], page 493. Note: citation needs confirmation.

1592c.1 – Moralist Lists Things for Scholars to Avoid, Including Playing “Stoole Ball Among Wenches”

“Time of recreation is necessary, I graunt, and think as necessary for schollers . . . as it is for any. Yet in my opinion it were not fit for them to play at Stoole-ball among wenches, nor at Mumchance or Maw with idle loose companions; not at trunks in Guile-halls, nor to dance about Maypoles, nor to rufle in alehouses, nor to carowse in tauernes, nor to steale deere, nor to rob orchards. Though who can deny that they may doe these things, yea worse.”

Attributed to Dr. Rainoldes in J. P. Collier, ed., The Political Decameron, or Ten Conversations on English Poets and Poetry [Constable and Co., Edinburgh, 1820], page 257. This passage is from the “ninth conversation” and covers low practices during the reigns of Elizabeth and of James I. Note: we need to ascertain the source, date, and context of the original Rainoldes material. It appears that Rainoldes’ cited “conversation” with Gager took place in 1592.

1592.2 Canterbury Stoolballer Bloodies Pious Critic

“We present one Bottolph Wappoll, a continual gamester and one of the very lewd behaviour, who being on Mayday last at stoolball in time of Divine service one of our sidemen came and admonished him to leave off playing and go to church, for which he fell on him and beat him that the blood ran about his ears.”

Source: National Stoolball Association, “A Brief History of Stoolball,” [author and date unspecified], page 2. The original source is not supplied but is reported to have been a presentation from the parish of St Paul in Canterbury to the Archdeacon of Canterbury. Note: can we find this source

1612c.1 – A Play Attributed to Shakespeare Cites Stool-ball

A young maid asks her wooer to go with her.  “What shall we do there, wench?”  She replies, “Why, play at Stool-ball; what else is there to do?” 

Fletcher and Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen [London], Act V, Scene 2, per W. W. Grantham, Stoolball Illustrated and How to Play It [W. Speaight, London, 1904], page 29. David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 170, gives 1634 as the publication date of this play, which was reportedly performed in 1612, and mentions that doubts have been expressed as to authorship, so Shakespeare [1564-1616] may not have contributed. Others surmise that The Bard wrote Acts One and Five, which would make him the author of the stoolball reference. Note: can we find further specifics? Russell-Goggs, in “Stoolball in Sussex,” The Sussex County Magazine, volume 2, no. 7 (July 1928), page 320, notes that the speaker is the “daughter of the Jailer.”

1613.1 – Those Stoolball Skills -- Play, or Foreplay?

“Ward: Can you play at shuttlecock forsooth?

Isabella: Ay, and Stool-ball too, sir; I have great luck at it.

Ward: Why, can you catch a ball well?

Isabella: I have catched two in my lap at one game

Ward:  What, have you, woman?  I must have you learn to play at trap too, then y’are full and whole.”

Dutton, Richard Thomas, Women Beware Women and Other Plays [Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999], page 135.  The play itself is generally dated 1613 or 1614.  Submitted by John Thorn, 7/9/2004

1614.1 -- Poet Yearns to “Goe to Stoole-Ball-Play”

“I would I were an honest Countrey Wench/ . . . / And for a Tanzey, goe to Stoole-Ball Play.”

Breton, Nicholas, I Would, and Would Not [London], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 168.  This is from Stanza 79. Tansy cakes were reportedly given as prizes for ball play.

1615.1 – Stoole Ball Goes North with Early Explorer

“And some dayes heare we stayed we shott at butts and bowe and arrows, at other tymes at stoole ball, and some tymes of foote ball

William Baffin, from “The Fourth Recorded Voyage of Baffin,” in C. M. Markham, ed., The Voyages of William Baffin, 1612-1622, [Hakluyt Society, 1881], page 122. This voyage started in March 1615, and the entry is dated June?? 19^th, 1615. The voyage was taken in hope of finding a northwest passage to the East, but was thwarted by ice, and Baffin returned to England in the fall of 1615. Note: Ascertain the month, which is obscured in the online copy. Was location of play near what is now known as Baffin Island?

1616c.1 -- Translation of Homer Depicts Virgins Playing Stool-Ball, Disturbing Ulysses’ Snooze

Translator Chapman described a scene in which several virgins play Stool-ball near a river while Ulysses sleeps nearby:  “The Queene now (for the upstroke) strooke the ball/Quite wide off th’ other maids; and made it fall/Amidst the whirlpools. 

Chapman, George, The whole works of Homer: prince of poets, in his Iliads, and Odysses [London, 1616], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 168.

Steel and Lyttleton indicate that Chapman’s translation may date “as early as 1614,” and say report that Chapman calls the fragment “a stoolball chance.” A.G. Steel and R. H. Lyttleton, Cricket, (Longmans Green, London, 1890) 4^th edition, page 2. Note: The year of the translation needs to be confirmed;. It would be interesting to see how other translators have treated this scene.

1619.1 -- Bawdy Poem Has Wenches Playing “With Stoole and Ball”

“It was the day of all dayes in the yeare/That unto Bacchus hath its dedication,/ . . . / When country wenches play with stoole and ball,/And run at Barley-breake until they fall:/And country lads fall on them, in such sort/That after forty weekes the[sic] rew the sport.” 

Anonymous, Pasquils Palinodia, and His Progress to the Taverne; Where, After the Survey of the Sellar, You Are Presented with a Pleasant Pynte of Poeticall Sherry [London], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 169, who credits Henderson, page 74.  Block notes that “Barley-Break” [not a ball game] was, like stoole ball, traditionally a spring courtship ritual in the English countryside.

1621.1 – Some Pilgrims “Openly” Play “Stoole Ball” on Christmas Morning in Massachusetts; Governor Clamps Down

William Bradford described Christmas Day 1621 at Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts; “most of this new-company excused them selves and said it wente against their consciences to work on ye day.  So ye Govr tould them that if they made it mater of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed.  So he led away ye rest and left them; but when they came home at noone from their worke, he found them in ye street at play, openly; some at pitching ye barr, and some at stoole-ball and shuch like sport. . . . Since which time nothing hath been attempted that way, at least openly.”

Bradford, William, Of Plymouth Plantation, [Harvey Wish, ed., Capricorn Books, 1962], pp 82 – 83.  Henderson had cited Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856. See his ref 23. Full text supplied by John Thorn, 6/25/2005.

1630c.1 – “Ancient Cheshire Games” Include Stooleball, Nine Holes

“Any they dare challenge for to throw the sleudge,/To Jumpe or leape over dich or hedge,/ To wrastle, play at stooleball, or to Runne,/ To pitch the bar, or to shoote off a Gunne/ To play at Loggets, nine holes, or ten pins. . . .[list continues, mentioning stool ball once more at end.]”

This verse, titled “Ancient Cheshire Games: Auntient customes in games used by boys and girles merily sett out in verse,” is attributed to “Randle Holmes’s MSS Brit Mus.” Is in Medium of Inter-communications for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, Etc, July – December 1856, page 487. Note: Can we learn why is this account associated with 1630? This entry needs to be reconciled with #1585.1 above. Add online search detail?

1630c.2 – Stoolball Play Makes Maidstone a “Very Profane Town”

“About 1630 a Puritan records that ‘Maidstone was formerly a very profane town, where stoolball and other games were practiced on the Lord’s Day.”

M. S. Russell-Goggs, “Stoolball in Sussex,” The Sussex County Magazine, volume 2, no. 7 (July 1928), page 318. Note: we need to locate the full citations for this and all other Russell-Goggs references.. We need to sort out how this claim relates to the very similar wording in the quote by Reverend Wilson in entry #1672.1 below.

1630c.3 – City Women’s Shrovetide Customs Include Stooleball

“In the early seventeeth century, an Oxford fellow, Thomas Crosfield, noted the customs of Shrovetide as ‘1. frittering. 2. throwing at cocks. 3. playing at stooleball in ye Citty by women & footeball by men.’”

Griffin, Emma, “Popular Recreation and the Significance of Space,” (publication unknown), page 36. The original source is shown as the Crosfield Diary for March 1, 1633, page 63. Note: we need better citations . . . and when is Shrovetide?

1633c.1 – Ambiguous Reference to Stoole Ball Appears in a Drama

“At stoole ball I have a North-west stripling shall deale with ever a boy in the Strand.”

Cited in W. C. Hazlitt, Faiths and Folklore: A Dictionary of National Beliefs, Superstitions and Popular Customs [Reeves and Turner, London, 1905], page 569. Hazlitt attributes this mysterious fragment to someone named Stickwell in Totenham Court, by T. Nabbes, appearing in 1638. Note: Can we guess what Stickwell was trying to say, and why? I find that Nabbes wrote this drama in 1633 or before, and surmise that “Stickwell” is the name of the fictional character who speaks the quoted line. Can we straighten out, or interpret, the syntax of this line? [The Strand, presumably, refers to the London street of that name?]

1634.1 – That Archbishop Laud, He Certainly Doesn’t Laud Stoolball

“In his visitation and reference to churchyards, he [Archbishop Laud, in 1634] is troubled because ‘several spend their time in stoolball.’”

M. S. Russell-Goggs, “Stoolball in Sussex,” The Sussex County Magazine, volume 2, no. 7 (July 1928), page 318. Note1: we need to locate the full citations for this and all other Russell-Goggs references.

Another source quotes Laud as saying “This whole churchyard is made a receptacle for all ydle persons to spend their time in stopball and such lyke recreacions.” OED, Abp Laud’s Visit, in 4^th Rep Hist. MSS Comm. App 144/1, provided by John Thorn, email of 6/11/2007. Note2: is this from the same source?

1638.1 -- Bishop Sees Churchyard as Consecrated Ground: It’s Not for Stool Ball, Drinkings, Merriments

Bishop Mantague admonishes Norwich Churchmen of consider the churchyard as consecrated ground, “not to be profaned by feeding and dunging cattle . . . . Much less is it to be unhallowed with dancings, morrises, meetings at Easter, drinkings, Whitson ales, midsummer merriments or the like, stool ball, football, wrestlings, wasters or boy’s sports.”

Barrett, Jay Botsford, English Society in the Eighteenth Century as Influence from Oversea [Macmillan, New York, 1924], page 221.  Barrett cites this passage as Articles of Enquiry and Direction for the Diocese of Norwich, sigs. A3-A3v.

1638.2 – Archdeacon: Churchyards Are Not For Stoole-ball or “Other Profane Uses”

“Have any playes, feasts, banquets, suppers, churchales, drinkings, temporal courts or leets, lay juries, musters, exercise of dauncing, stoole-ball, foot-ball, or the like, or any other profane usage been suffered to be kept in your church, chappell, or churchyard?

Attributed to Mr. Dr. Pearson, Archdeacon of Suffolke, in Heino Pfannenschmid, Das Weihwasser [Hahn’sche Hofbuchhandlung, Hannover, 1869], page 74n.

1640.1 – Stoolball Attracts Gentry, Rascals, Boys

“J. Smythe, in his Hundred of Berkeley (1640) gave the following admonition: ‘Doe witness the inbred delight, that both gentry, yeomanry, rascallity, boyes, and children, doe take in a game called stoball. . . And not a sonne of mine, but at 7 was furnished with his double stoball staves, and a gamester thereafter.’”

M. S. Russell-Goggs, “Stoolball in Sussex,” The Sussex County Magazine, volume 2, no. 7 (July 1928), page 320. John Smyth’s three-volume Berkeley Manuscripts were published in 1883 by J. Bellows; Volume Three is titled “A description of the hundred of Berkeley in the County of Gloucester . . . .“ Citation supplied by John Thorn, email of 1/30/2008.

1648.1 -- Short Herrick Poem Proposes a Wager on Stool-ball Game

“At Stool-ball, Lucia, let us play/for sugar cakes and wine,” offers the poet, then further proposing that if he wins, he would “have for all a kisse.”

Herrick, Robert, Hesperides: or, the Works Both Human and Divine of Robert Herrick, Esq. [London], page 280, per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 171. Note: In 1905, W. C. Hazlitt attributed very similar text to “Bold’s ‘Wit a Sporting,’ 1657, page 74.” See Hazlitt, Faiths and Folklore [London, 1905], page 569.

1652.1 -- Traveler in Wales Reports “Laudable” Sunday Games of “Trap, Cat, Stool-ball, Racket &c”

A versifier recounts his journey to Wales, where he notes a lack of religious fervor, “so that people do exercise and edify in the churchyard at the lawful and laudable games of trap, cat, Stool-ball, racket, &c., on Sundays.”

Taylor, John, A Short Relation of a Long Journey Made Round or Ovall [London], book 4, per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 172.

1656.2 – Two English Counties: Stoolball Gets “Too Much Attention.”

“The game [Stoolball] cropped up in 1656 in a pronouncement by the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland which said that “too much attention was being paid to ‘shooting, playing at football, stoolball, wrestling.’”

SRA website, accessed 4/11/07. Note: we need a fuller citation and perhaps further text for these pronouncements.

1660c.1 – Village Life: The Men to Foot-Ball, Maids and Kids to Stoolball

The biography of a 17^th century lord includes “a nostalgic description of the little town of Kirtling” by the lord’s son Roger, born in 1651, as follows:

“The town was then my grandfather’s . . . it was always the custom for the youth of the town . . . to play [from noon when chores ended] to milking time and supper at night. The men [went to play] football, and the maids, with whom we children were commonly mixed, being not proof for the turbulence of the other party, to stoolball and such running games as they knew.” Dale B. J. Randall, Gentle Flame: The Life and Verse of Dudley, Lord North (1602 – 1677 (Duke Univ. Press, 1983), page 56. The town of Kirtling is in Cambridgeshire, northeast of London.

1669.1 – Shadwell Play Said to List Rural Games, including Stool-ball.

“The writer who took most interest in popular pastimes was Shadwell, whose rococo play The Royal Shepherdess was produced before the king in 1669. It included country folk who danced and sand of a list of genuine English rural games, such as trap, keels, barley-break, golf [and] Stool-ball . . . .”

Hutton, Ronald, The Rise and Fall of Merry England: the Ritual Year, 1400-1700 (Oxford U Press, Oxford, 1994), page 235. Provided by John Thorn, email, 7/9/2004. Note: can we retrieve this original list?

1672.1 – Rev. Wilson Decries “Stool-Ball” and “Cricketts” Playing on Sunday

In his memoirs, the Rev. Thomas Wilson, a Puritan divine of Maidstone, England, states: “Maidstone was formerly a very profane town, in as much as I have seen morrice-dancing, cudgel-playing, Stool-ball, cricketts, and many other sports openly and publicly indulged in on the Lord’s Day.”

Source: Robert Henderson Bat Ball and Bishop. Note: Henderson covers Wilson, but doesn’t reference him.  In the text, he says that Wilson wrote a memoir in 1700, but doesn’t use a year for the events that were then recalled.  I assume that the 1672 date is taken from date clues in the whole text.  RH’s source may be his ref #167: see Woodruff, C.H., “Origin of Cricket,” Baily’s Magazine [London, 1901], Vol. 6, p. 51. David Block [page 173ff] describes how “base ball” was, to our great distraction, substituted for “Stool-ball” in later accounts of Wilson’ s biography, which he cites as Swinnick, George, The Life and Death of Mr. Tho. Wilson, Minister of Maidstone [London]. We need to sort out the relationship between this entry and the relevant entry #1630c.2 above.

1672c.2 -- Francis Willughby’s “Book of Games” Surveys Folkways: First Stoolball Rules Appear

Warwickshire scientist Francis Willughby [1635-1672] compiled, in manuscript form, descriptions of over 130 games, including, stoolball, hornebillets, kit-cat, stowball, and tutball [but not cricket, trapball or rounders].  He died at 36 and the incomplete manuscript, long held privately, became known to researchers in the 1990s and was published in 2003.

Willughby described stoolball as a game in which a team of players defended an overturned stool with their hands. Hornebillets, unlike stoolball, involved batting and running [between holes placed 7 or 8 yards apart], but it used no ball – a cat was used as the batted object. A runner [running was compulsory, even for short hits] had to place his staff in a hole before the other team could put the cat in that hole. The number of holes depended on the number of players available. Stowball appears as a golf-like game. Kit Cat is described as a sort of fungo game in which the cats can be hit 60 yards or more. He does not mention cricket, trap, or other games.

David Cram, Jeffrey L. Forgeng, and Dorothy Johnston, Francis Willughby’s Book of Games: A Seventeenth Century Treatise on Sports, Games, and Pastimes [Ashgate Publishing, 2003]. 

1677.1 -- Almanac’s Easter Verse Mentions Stool-ball

“Young men and maids,/ Now very brisk,/ At barley-break and/ Stool-ball frisk.”

W. Winstanley, Poor Robin 1677.  An almanack after a new fashion, by Poor Robin [London], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 174.

1685.1 -- Juicy Early Description of Stobbal is Written, Then Unread for 162 Years

“They smite a ball, stuffed very hard with quills and covered with soale leather, with a staffe, commonly made of withy, about three feet and a half long.  Colerne down is the place so famous and so frequented for stobbal playing.  The turfe is very fine and the rock (freestone) is within an inch and a halfe of the surface which gives the ball so quick a rebound.  A stobball ball is of about four inches diameter and as hard as stone.  I do not heare that this game is used anywhere in England but in this part of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire adjoining.”

Aubrey, John, Natural History of Wiltshire [London, Nichols and Son, 1847], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 210.  Folklorist Alice Gomme [below] called this the earliest description of Stool-ball.  Aubrey says “it is peculiar to North Wilts, North Gloucestershire, and a little part of Somerset near Bath.  Aubrey’s text evidently was brought to light by in Gomme’s, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1964 reprint of 1898 text [New York, Dover], page 217. Note: What is “withy?’

1688.1 – New English Royals Watch Stoolball

“It is reported that William III watched the game soon after he landed at Torbay, and that subsequently Queen Anne was an interested spectator.”

M. S. Russell-Goggs, page 320. Note: we need to locate the full citations for this and all other Russell-Goggs references; short of this, we need to confirm the date of the Torbay landing. A cursory Google search does not reveal evidence of this anecdote.

1690.1 -- Literary Simile: “Catch it Like a Stool-Ball”

In a comical prose work, protection in battle was said to be provided by four Arch Angels -- who, “when they see a Cannon Ball coming toward ye from any corner of the Wind, will catch it like a Stool-ball and throw it to the Devil.”

Anon., The Pagan Prince: or a Comical History of the Heroik Atchievements of the Palatine of Eboracum [London], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 175. 

1694.1 --Musical Play Includes Baudy Account of Stoolball

This song features the refrain “Come all, great, small, short tall, away to Stoolball,” and depicts young men and women becoming pretty familiar. “Down in a vale on a summer’s day/All the lads and lasses met to be merry/A match for kisses at Stool-ball to play/And for cakes, and ale, and sider, and perry.” It ends “Then went the Glasses round, then went the lasses down, each Lad did his Sweet-heart own, and on the Grass did fling her.  Come all, great small, short tall, a-way to Stool Ball.”  Sounds like fun

D’Urfey, Thomas, The comical history of Don Quixote [London], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 175.  Block sees the passage as a “long, silly, bawdy rap song.” Strutt [1801] notes that the play was performed a Dorset Garden in 1694.

1694.2 – Cultural Thaw Arrives; Cricket and Stool-ball Makes List of “Evening” Pastimes

“With a relaxation of attitudes towards sports at the Restoration cricket began to emerge from its postion of relative obscurity with the printed word beginning to define it, along with other folk games, as an element of the national culture. Edward Chamberlyne’s Anglia notitia, a handbook on the social and political conditions of England, lists cricket for the first time in the eighteenth edition of 1694. ‘The natives will endure long and hard labour; insomuch, that after 12 hours of hard work, they will go in the evening to foot-ball, Stool-ball, cricket, prison-base, wrestling, cudgel-playing, and some such vehement exercise, for their recreation.’”

Bateman, Anthony,“More Mighty than the Bat, the Pen . . . ;‘ Culture, Hegemony, and the Literaturisaton of Cricket,” Sport in History, v. 23, 1 (Summer 2003), page 30. The footnote to Chamberlyne reads “Anglia notita: or, the present state of England; with divers remarks upon the ancient state thereof, (London, 1694).” No page reference is given.

An OED summary of the 1694 work’s list reads “The Citizens and Peasants have . . . Skittles or Nine-pins, Shovel-board, Stow-ball, Goff [etc.]” Provided by John Thorn, email, 7/11/2007.

Note: It would be interesting to see whether earlier editions of Chamberlyne cite other games of interest and whether the complete 1694 list has other games.

1704.2 -- While the Rurals Had Stool-ball and Cricket, the Londoner Had “Blood-Stirring Excitement”

“[T]he growth of a commercial London failed to raise the tone of sporting tastes.  While the countryman exercised vehemently at football, Stool-ball, cricket, pins-on-base, wrestling, or cudgel-playing, there was fiercer and more blood-stirring excitement for the Londoner.  Particularly at Hockley-in-the-Hole, one could find bear-baiting, bull-baiting and cock-fighting to his heart’s content.”

Chamberlayne, Edward, The Present State of England [London, 1704 and 1748], page 51.  Submitted by John Thorn, 7/9/04.

1711.1 – Betty Was “a Romp at Stool-Ball”

“James before he beheld Betty, was vain of his strength, a rough wrestler . . . ; Betty [was] a publick Dancer at May-poles, a Romp at Stool-Ball. He was always following idle Women, she playing among the Peasants; He a Country Bully, she a Country Coquet.”

Steele, Spectator number 71, May 22, 1711, page 2. Provided by John Thorn, emails of 6/11/2007 and 2/1/2008. The implication of the passage appears to be that women who played a game like stool-ball were unlikely to be chaste.

1715.1 – Men Excel Over Women in “Merry-Night” of Stoole Balle

“The Young Folks of this Town had a merry-night . . . . The Young Weomen treated the Men with a Tandsey as they lost to them at a Game at Stoole Balle.”

Nicholas Blundell, Diaries [May 1715]. From a photocopy held by the National Stoolball Association, June 2007. Note: a fuller citation and review of context would be good to have.

1719.1 -- Trap and Stool-ball Help Set the Mood . . . Again

“Thus all our lives we’re Frolick and gay,/And instead of Court Revels we merrily Play/ At Trap and Kettles and Barley-break run,/ At Goff, and at Stool-ball, and when we have done/ These innocent Sports, we Laugh and lie down,/ And to each pretty Lass we give a green Gown.”

D’Urfey, Thomas, Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy [London], Vol 3, per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 177.  Note: This closely mimics the verse found above at Protoball entry #1671.1, but adds Stool-ball. A green gown is taken to mean a grass-stained skirt. Naughty.

1720.1 – Puritans Thwarted “Even at Stool-ball”

“He [Lewis] says, that the Puritans were not allowed to play even at stoole-ball for a Tansey.”

This report is in W. C. Hazlitt, Faiths and Folklore: A Dictionary of National Beliefs, Superstitions and Popular Customs [Reeves and Turner, London, 1905], page 569. He refers to T. Lewis, English Presbyterian Eloquence [pub’r?, 1720], page? Note: It would be good to know what period Lewis was describing, or, better, locate the source itself.

1733.1 -- Long Poem Describes Stool-Ball in Some Detail; First Evidence of Use of a Bat

The London Magazine, vol 2, December 1733 [London], page 637, per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 177.  Block calls this account “the most complete and detailed portrayal of the game to date.”  It provides the earliest reference to the use of a bat, describes a game that does not involve running after the young [female] players hit the ball, and includes a description of the field and the assembled audience. Note: A bat had been described in Willughby’s c.1672 account of hornebillets. Some actual text should be added here, if it can be captured.

1740.2 -- Almanac Sees Time Wasted at Stool-ball

“Much time is wasted now away/ At pigeon-holes and nine-pin play/. . . ./ At Stool-ball and at barley-break,/Wherewith they at harmless pastime make.”

W. Winstanley and Successors, Poor Robin 1740. An almanack after a new fashion [London], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 178.  Similar verse evidently appears in the 1744 version of Poor Robin [see Russell-Gogg, “Stoolball in Sussex,” The Sussex County Magazine, volume 2, no. 7 (July 1928), p. 320].

1744.2 – Newbery’s Pretty Little Pocket-Book Refers to “Base-Ball,” “Stooleball, “Trap-Ball,”

John Newbery’s A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, published in England, contains a wood-cut illustration showing boys playing “base-ball” and a rhymed description of the game:  “The ball once struck off,/Away flies the boy/To the next destined post/And then home with joy.” .  This is held to be the first appearance of the term “base-ball” in print.  Other pages are devoted to Stool-ball, trap-ball, and tip-cat [per David Block, page 179].  Block finds that this book (at least in its 1767 edition) has the first use of the word “base-ball.”

Little Pretty Pocket-Book, Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly [London, John Newbery, 1744].  Per RH ref 107, adding Newbery name as publisher from text at p. 132.  The earliest extant version of this book is from 1760 [per David Block], and Altherr [ref #24] gives a p.90 cite for “base-ball” from the 1767 version. Note: is it reasonably safe to assume the “Base-ball” poem appeared in the 1744 version?.  According to Altherr, pp. 20 – 21, the 1767 London version also has poems titled “Stoolball” [p. 88] and Trap-Ball. [p. 91].  According Zoernik in the Encyclopedia of World Sports [p.329], rounders is also referred to [we need to confirm this].  There was an American pirated edition in 1760, as per Henderson [ref #107]; David Block dates the American edition in 1762. He also notes that a 1767 revision features engravings for the three games.

1755.1 -- Johnson Dictionary Defines Stoolball and Trap

Stoolball is simply defined as “A play where balls are driven from stool to stool,” and trap is defined as “A play at which a ball is driven with a stick.”

Johnson, Samuel, A dictionary of the English language [London, 1755], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 179. 

1780s.5 -- Diminished in Range, Stoolball Still Played at Brighton

“The apparent former wide diffusion of stoolball was reduced in the 18^th century to a few geographical survivals. It was played in Brighton to celebrate a royal birthday in the 1780s and by the early 19^th century appeared to be limited to a few Kent and Sussex Wealden settlements.”

John Lowerson, “Conflicting Values in the Revivals of a ‘Traditional Sussex Game,’ Sussex Achaeological Collections 133 [1995], page 265. Lowerson’s source for the 1780s report seems to be F. Gale, Modern English Sports [London, 1885], pages 8 and/or 11.

1790s.3 – Britannica Dates Stickball to Late 18^th Century

“Stickball is a game played on a street or other restricted area, with a stick, such as a mop handle or broomstick, and a hard rubber ball. Stickball developed in the late 18^th century from such English games as old cat, rounders, and town ball.  Stickball also relates to a game played in southern England and colonial Boston in North America called stoolball.  All of these games were played on a field with bases, a ball, and one or more sticks.  The modern game is played especially in New York City on the streets where such fixtures as a fire hydrant or an abandoned car serve as bases.”

Britannica Online search conducted 5/25/2005 by Larry McCray.  Note: No sources are provided for this unique report of early stickball.  It also seems unusual to define town ball as an English game.

1797.4 – “Grand Match” of Stoolball Pits Sussex and Kentish Ladies

“A grand Match of Stool-ball, between 11 Ladies of Sussex, in Pink, against 11 Ladies of Kent, in Blue Ribands.”

Source: an undated reproduction, which notes “this is a reproduction of the original 1797 Diversions programme.” The match was scheduled for 10am on Wednesday, August 16, 1797. Provided from the files of the National Stoolball Association, June 2007.

1801.1 – Joseph Strutt Says Stoolball Still Played in North of England; But He Slights Cricket

Strutt, Joseph., The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England [London, 1801]. Need page reference [is on page 102 of 1903 edition].  Strutt’s reports two stoolball variants; one is a simple game in which teams score points simply by deflecting thrown balls from hitting a stool set on its side. The second variant sets several stools in a circle, and each defender must run to a nearby stool when a ball is deflected [also by hand], risking being put out if he is struck [we would later call this plugging] by a thrown ball before reaching safety. Strutt also treats cricket [but only cursorily], trap-ball, and tip-cat . . . but not rounders or base-ball.  David Block [page 183] points out that Strutt views a game he calls “club ball” as the common ancestor of this set of games, but notes that modern scholars are skeptical about this proposition.

1819.2 – Scott’s Ivanhoe Mentions Stool-ball

[The Jester speaks] “I came to save my master, and if he will not consent, basta! I can but go away home again. Kind service can not be checked from hand to hand like a shuttle-cock or Stool-ball. I’ll hang for no man . . . .”

Scott, Walter, Ivanhoe; A Romance (D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1904), page 257.

1828.1 – Boy’s Own Book [London] Describes “Rounders,” Stoolball, Etc.

The Boy’s Own Book is published in London and contains a set of rules for “Stool-ball,” [p. 26], “trap, bat, and ball,” [p. 27], “northern-spell,” [p. 28], “rounders,” [p.28], and “feeder” [p. 29].   The rounders entry states: “this is a favorite game with bat and ball, especially in the west of England.”  The entry for feeder, in its entirety:  “This game is played with three bases only, and a player takes the place of feeder, who remains so until he puts one of the other players out, by catching his ball or striking him while running from base to base, as at Rounders; the one who is put out taking the place of feeder to the others, and thus the game goes on.  There are no sides at this game.”  The entry for northern spell describes a game without running or fielding, in which the object is to hit the ball farthest – “this pastime possesses but little variety, and is by no means so amusing to the bystanders as Trapball.”

Clarke, W., Boy’s Own Book [London, Vizetelly Branston], second edition.  This book is reportedly still available [Appleton Books, 1996], according to Tim Wiles at the Giamatti Research Library.  Note: Altherr uses a reference to an 1829 US version:  The Boy’s Own Book [Munroe and Francis, Boston, 1829], pp. 18-19, per Altherr ref # 65. David Block, in Baseball Before We Knew It, page 192-193, describes the wide popularity of this text in England and the US, running through many editions through the 1880s, and also identifies this book as Henderson’s key evidence in his refutation of the Doubleday theory of baseball’s origin 11 years later. [XXX Keyboard full text here.]

For Full Text: David Block carries more than a page of text, and the field diagram, in Appendix 7, pages 229-238, of Baseball Before We Knew It.

1839.4 -- London Magazine Covers “Games with a Ball,” Likens Stoolball to Rounders

An article on “Games with a Ball” treats Stool-ball, trap-ball, tip-cat, among other games, and owes much to Strutt (see 1801.1 entry, above).  The writer advises, “[Stool-ball] differs but very little from the game of rounders which is much played at the present day at the west of England.

The Saturday Magazine [London], number 430, March 16, 1839, per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 203.  Block observes: “It is curious that the author equates rounders and Stool-ball, since the former utilized a bat while Strutt’s [1801] sketch of Stool-ball stated that the ball was struck by the bare hand.”

1848.5 -- New York Book of Games Covers Stool-ball, Rounders

Boy’s Own Book of Sports, Birds, and Animals [New York, Leavitt and Allen], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 209-210.  In this books large section, “The Boy’s Book of Sports and Games,” attributed to “Uncle John,” more than 200 games are described, including trap-ball, rounders, and Stool-ball.  Block notes that “The version of rounders the book presents is generally consistent with others from the period, with perhaps a little more detail than most.  It specifies the number of bases as four or five and describes a bat of only two feet in length.”  Given the choice of games included [and, probably, the exclusion of familiar American games], he believes the author is English, “[y]et I find no evidence of its publication in Great Britain prior to [1848].”  This 184-page section was later published in London in 1850 and in Philadelphia in 1851.

1850.5 – “Boy’s Treasury” Describes Rounders, Feeder, Stoolball, Etc.

The Boy’s Treasury, published in New York, contains descriptions of Feeder [p. 25], Rounders [p. 26], Ball Stock [p. 27], Stool-ball [p. 28], Northern Spell [p. 33] and Trap, Bat, and Ball [p 33].  The cat games, barn ball and town ball are not listed.  In feeder, the ball is pitched from a distance of two yards, and he is the only member of the “out” team.  There is a three-strike rule and a dropped-third rule.  The Rounders description says “a smooth round stick is preferred by many boys to a bat for striking the ball.”  Ball Stock is said to be “very similar to rounders.”  In stool ball, “the ball must be struck by the hand, and not with a bat.”

The Boy’s Treasury of Sports, Pastimes, and Recreations [Clark, Austin and Company, New York, 1850], fourth edition.

1850s.13 -- Trap Ball, Stool Ball, Well Established in Louisville KY

“Other forms of bat and ball games, like trap-ball and Stool-ball, became well established in Louisville in the decade preceding the Civil War.”

Bob Bailey, “Chapter 1 -- Beginnings: From Amateur Teams to Disgrace in the National League [mimeo, 1999]’, page 1.

1860.22 – Routledge’s “Ball Games” Depicts Simplified Form of Stoolball

“This is an old English sport, mentioned by Gower and Chaucer, and was at one period common to women as well as men. In the Northern parts of England, particularly in Yorkshire, it is practiced in the following manner: -- A stool being set upon the ground, one of the players takes his place before it, while his antagonist, standing at a distance, tosses a ball, with the intention of striking the stool. It is the former player’s business to prevent this, by striking it away with the hand, reckoning one to the game for every stroke of the ball; if, on the contrary, it should be missed by the hand, and hit the stool, the players change places. The conqueror of the game is he who strikes the ball most times before it touches the stool.”

Ball Games [George Routledge, New York, ], pp 61-62. The copy of this book at MCC is annotated “c1860” in hand. Note: This game, having only two players, no bat, no running, is highly simplified. It does not appear to reflect knowledge of the more evolved Sussex play at about this period. A cursory Google search reveals no stoolball reference in Geoffrey Chaucer or his contemporary John Gower; but then, spelling is a big issue, right?

1860c.26 – British Book Shows Several Safe-Haven Games – Cricket, Rounders, Feeder, Nine Holes, Doutee Stool, and Stoolball

Ball Games with Illustrations (Routledge and Sons, London, 1860 [as annotated by the MCC]).

<snip>

Rounders:  “a most excellent game, and very popular in some of our English counties.”  One-handed batting; teams of five or more, stones or stakes for bases, runners out be plugging or force-out at home, one-out-side-out, three strikes and out, balks allowed, foul balls in play [pages 57-60].

Stool-Ball:  “an old English sport, mentioned by Gower and Chaucer, and was at one period common to women as well as men. Player defends against thrown ball hitting his stool [pages 61 ff].”

1861.2 –Stoolball Played, in Co-ed Form

“Stoolball was played at Chailey [Sussex] in 1861. Major Lionel King . . . first saw stoolball in the early ‘sixties, while still a very small boy. He watched a game in a field belonging to Eastfield Lodge, Hassocks [Sussex], and both men and maidens were playing” Russell-Goggs, in “Stoolball in Sussex,” The Sussex County Magazine, volume 2, no. 7 (July 1928), page 322. Note: Russell-Goggs does not give a source for this report.

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