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New in Version 9: Subtopic Files: This page shows the full Protoball 750-item working chronology. There are selected chronologies available on African-American play [4 items], Female play [8 items], Local bans of ballplaying [24 items], the Massachusetts Game [44 items], Ballplay as Reflected in Narrative Fiction [12 items], Rounders [31 items], Stoolball [62 items], Town Ball [31 items], and Wicket [30 items]. Several of these compilations are based on version 8 of the full chronology (dated March 2006).

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Version 9, updated January 2008

The Protoball Working Chronology of Early Ball Play --

2400BC to 1860AD

Project History: This chronology originated with an initial listing by John Thorn and Tom Heitz, one that included about 70 entries. We took that popular set and added another 200 entries by 2004, always adding formal citations where we could. Then, in 2005, David Block’s impressive Baseball Before We Knew It was published, furnishing so far (we have at this point drawn only from its appended bibliography) nearly 150 new entries for later versions of the Protoball chronology. Researchers, many of them subscribers to the “19CBB” listserve, have since added scores more. Version 9 contains about 750 items.

Scope: The Protoball list includes entries for what are taken to be “safe haven” ball games (i.e., ball games that use bases), including base ball, town ball, cricket, wicket, and the old-cat games, but not the many other stick-and-ball games such as golf, the racket sports, croquet, field hockey, and hurling. The earliest entries range worldwide, the middle years focus mainly on games in the English-speaking nations, and the latter portion focuses mainly on games played in North America. The objective is to trace baseball’s early roots, and the roots of most of its essential rules.

It’s a Work in Progress: This chronology is a work in progress. Your contributions are welcome in completing and correcting it. As its next step, Project Protoball will examine twelve shelf-feet of secondary sources -- there are over 340 relevant baseball and histories to look at -- to find additional entries and enrich information on current entries. Our hope is to ultimately create a searchable file of useful primary information on the evolution of safe-haven ballgames. For more information, to make suggestions, or to add to the chronology, contact Larry McCray at Lmccray@mit.edu. Note: Serial numbers for the entries comprise the year of the reported event [for example, “1820s” means “in the 1820’s,” and “1823c” means “circa 1823”] and an identifying numerical suffix. The reader should note the unavoidable imprecision in some dates; for example, if a memoirist who was born in 1810 reports that he played ball as a youth, the date is probably recorded as “1820c,” but could obviously be a few years off either way.

Please Contribute Comments, Data, and Corrections: Reader comments are especially welcome to fill information needs for queries carried after the term “Note:” within an entry.

Important Caveat on the Authenticity of Entries: The Protoball Project includes all plausible published claims for historical events associated with the evolution of baseball. Some of these claims have been questioned within today’s research community. Instead of removing such claims, we include most of them, noting any later challenge to their reliability. The reader should not take the inclusion of an item on the Chronology to imply our endorsement of the authenticity of that item.

Caveats Concerning the Protoball Chronology

How the Chronology Grew From 70 Entries to its Current Size

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The Protoball Chronology

BC2400C.1 – Egyptian Text Has Bat-and-Ball Reference

“The earliest known references to seker-hemat (translation: batting the ball) as a fertility rite and ritual of renewal are inscribed in pyramids dating to 2400 BC.” An Egyptologist reads Pyramid Texts Spell 254 as commanding a pharaoh to cross the heavens and “strike the ball” in the meadow of the sacred Apis bull.

Piccione, Peter, “Pharaoh at the Bat,” College of Charlestown Magazine (Spring/Summer 2003), p.36. From a clipping in the Giamatti Center’s origins file Note: It would be good to confirm details in an academic source and to see whether other Egyptologists have other interpretations of this text.

BC2000.1 -- 2000 BC to 0 BC – The Ball in Ancient Play

Ancient cultures—Lydians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians—play primitive stick and ball games for recreation, fertility rites and religious rituals.

Henderson, Robert W., Ball, Bat and Bishop: The Origins of Ball Games [Rockport Press, 1947], pp. 8-21.

BC1500C.1 – 1500 to 700 BC -- Mexican Game Believed to Use Rubber Ball, Bat

According to SABR member César González, “There are remains of rubber balls found since the time of the Olmeca culture between 1500 and 700 BC.” He reports that it is believed that one of the earliest Mesoamerican games was played with a stick.

Email from César González, 12/6/2008. Note: Can we add sources for these points?

BC1460.1 – Egyptian Tomb Inscriptions Show Bats, Balls

Wall inscriptions in Egyptian royal tombs depict games using bats and balls.

According to Egyptologist Peter Piccione, “A wall relief at the temple of Deir et-Bahari showing Thutmose III playing under the watchful eye of the goddess Hathor dates to 1460 BC. Priests are depicted catching the balls . . . this was really a game.”

Per Henderson, Robert W., Ball, Bat and Bishop: The Origins of Ball Games [Rockport Press, 1947], p. 20. Note: Henderson’s source may be his ref 127, Naville, E., “The Temple of Deir el Bahari (sic) ,” Egyptian Exploration Fund. Memoirs, Volume 19, part IV, plate C [London, 1901]. ]. Also, Batting the Ball, by Peter A. Piccione, “Pharaoh at the Bat,” College of Charlestown Magazine (Spring/Summer 2003), p.36. See also http://www.cofc.edu/~piccione/sekerhemat.html, as accessed 12/17/08.

BC750.1 -- 750 BC to 150 AD -- Ballplay in Ancient Greece

The Greeks, famous for their athletics, played several ball games. In fact the Greek gymnasium [palaistra”] was often known to include a special room [“sphairiteria”] for ballplaying . . . a “sphaira” being a ball. Pollux [ca 180 AD] lists a number of children’s ball games, including games that loosely resemble very physical forms of keepaway and rugby, and the playing of a complicated form of catch, one that involved feints to deceive other players.

The great physician Galen wrote [ca. 180 AD] especially fondly of ballplaying and its merits, and seems to have seen it as an adult activity. He advised that “the most strenuous form of ball playing is in no way inferior to other exercises.” Turning to milder forms of bal play, he said “I believe that in this form ball playing is also superior to all the other exercises.” His partiality to ballplaying stemmed in part from its benefit for the whole body, not just the legs or arms, as was the case for running and wrestling.

As far as we are aware, Greek ball games did not include any that involved running among bases or safe havens, or any that involved hitting a ball with a club or stick (or hands).

Source: Stephen G. Miller, Arete: Greek Sports from Ancient Sources, [University of California Press, 2004]: See especially Chapter 9, “Ball Playing.” The Pollox quote is from pp 124-125, and the Galen quote is from pp. 121-124. Special thanks to Dr. Miller for his assistance.

BC 100.1 – Historian Dates Early Cricket to 100BC – Others Disagree

In his 1912 article “The History of Cricket” [in Pelham and Warner, Imperial Cricket (London, 1912), p. 54] Andrew Lang “argued that cricket was played as far back as 100 BC, basing this on evidence supposedly provided by the ancient Irish epics and romances.” According to Lang, “cricket was played by the ancestors of Cuchulain, by the Dalraid Scots from northern Ireland who invaded and annexed Argyll in about 500 AD.” Modern writers do not accept this view.

Bateman, Anthony,”‘More Mighty than the Bat, the Pen . . . ; ‘Culture, Hegemony, and the Literaturisaton of Cricket,” Sport in History, v. 23, 1 (Summer 2003), pp 27 - 44. Note: It would be interesting to know what particular features of Irish lore gave Lang the feeling that cricket stemmed from ancient Irish sources.

824.1 -- 15-Year-Old Chinese Emperor Criticized for Excessive Ball-playing

Ching Tsung, was the new Chinese emperor at the age of 15.  “As soon as he could escape from the morning levee, the young Emperor rushed off to play ball.  His habits were well known in the city, and in the summer of 824 someone suggested to a master-dyer named Chang Shao that, as a prank, he should slip into the Palace, lie on the Emperor’s couch and eat his dinner, ‘for nowadays he is always away, playing ball or hunting.’”  The prank was carried out, but those prankful dyers . . . well, they died as a result.

Waaey, Arthur, The Life and Times of Po Chu-I, 772-846 [Allen and Unwin, London, 1949], page 157.  Submitted by John Thorn, 10/12/2004.

900.1 – Mayan Games Played at Chichen Itza, Mexico

Mayan Indians play stick and ball games in ceremonial courts in Chichen Itza, Mexico

Note: This source may be Henderson, Robert W., Ball, Bat and Bishop: The Origins of Ball Games [Rockport Press, 1947], p. 201.  And Henderson’s source may be his ref 53, Effler, L. R., The Ruins of Chichen Itza [Toledo, Ohio], pp 19 – 21.  However, Henderson’s Effler ref. shows no publisher, and Henderson’s account of the game played at Chichen Itza is not dated to 900 AD, or connected with a stick, so another source may be preferable.

1086.1 – Form of Stool Ball Possibly Reflected in Domesday Book of Norman England

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

Note: 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.

Note: 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.

1100s.1 -- Ball Rites Observed in France in 1100s and 1200s

Henderson: “The testimony of Beleth and Durandus, both eminently qualified witnesses, clearly indicates that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the ball had found a place for itself in the Easter celebrations of the Church.”  In fact, Beleth and Durandus had both opposed the practice, seeing it as the intrusion of pagan rites into church rites.  “There are some Churches in which it is customary for the Bishops and Archbishops to play in the monasteries with those under them, even to stoop to the game of ball” [Beleth, 1165].  “In certain places in our country, prelates play games with their own clerics on Easter in the cloisters, or in the Episcopal Palaces, even so far as to descend to the game of ball”  [Durandus, 1286].

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 12^th and 13^th 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.

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.

1200s.1 – Bat and Ball Game Illustration Appears in English Genealogical Roll

“The [1301 -- see below] illustration is a very early depiction of the game we know as baseball, but it’s probably not the first.  In 1964, a writer named Harry Simmons cited an English bat and ball picture from a genealogical roll of the Kings of England up to Henry III, who died in 1269.”

Baltimore Sun article on the Ghistelle Calendar [see entry for 1301] April 6, 1999, page 1E.

1205.1 -- “Ball” Rolls into the English Language

Scholars report that the Chronicle of Britain [1205] contained the words “Summe heo driuen balles wide . . .” which they see as “the first known use of the word ball in the sense of a globular body that is played with.”  The source? Old Norse, by way of Middle English.  [Old High German had used ballo and pallo, but the English didn’t use “ball” in those days.]  The source does not say whether people in England used some other term for their rolling playthings prior to 1205.

Source: Wikipedia entry on “ball,” accessed 5/31/2006.

1255.1 – Spanish Painting Seen as Earliest Depiction of Ballplaying

The book Spain: A History in Art [Date? Publisher?] includes a plate that appears to show “several representations of baseball figures and some narrative.” The work is dated to 1255, the period of King Alfonso.

Email from Ron Gabriel, July 10, 2007. Ron also has supplied a quality color photocopy of this plate, which was the subject of his presentation at the 1974 SABR convention. Note: can we specify the painting and its creator? Can we learn how baseball historians and others interpret this artwork?

1299.1 – Prince of Wales Plays “Creag,” Seen By Some as a Cricket Precursor

Cashman, Richard, “Cricket,” in David Levinson and Karen Christopher, Encyclopedia of World Sport: From Ancient Times to the Present [Oxford University Press, 1996], page 87.

1300s.1 – Trapball Played in the British Isles

Trevithick, Alan, “Trapball,” in David Levinson and Karen Christopher, Encyclopedia of World Sport: From Ancient Times to the Present [Oxford University Press, 1996], page 421.

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, 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.

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.  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.

1301.1 – Ghistelles Calendar Depicts Vigorous-Looking Bat/Ball Game

A manuscript obtained in 1999 by the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore appears to show a batted-ball game played by two young persons.  The manuscript, called the Calendar of the Ghistelles Hours, dates from 1301. It is a small monthly calendar of saints’ days from a monastery in the town of Ghistelles, in southwestern Flanders.  The illustration is for the month of September.

Schoettler, Carl, “The Old, Old, Old Ball Game,” Baltimore Sun, April 6 1999, page 1E.

1310.1 – Documents Said to Describe Baseball-like Romanian Game of Oina

According to an otherwise unidentified clip in the Origins file at the Giamatti Center, an AP article datelined Bucharest Romania [and which appeared in the Oneonta Times on March 29, 1990], the still popular Romanian game of oina can be traced back to a [unspecified] document dating to the year 1310. The game itself “was invented by shepherds in the first century.”

The article is evidently based on an interview with Cristian Costescu, who sees baseball as “the American pastime derived from the ancient game of oina.” Oina reportedly has eleven players per side, an all-out-side-out rule, tossed pitches, nine bases describing a total basepath of 120 yards, plugging of baserunners, the opportunity for the fielding side to score points, and a bat described as similar to a cricket bat. Costescu is reported to have served as head of the Romanian Oina Federation in the years when baseball was banned in Romania as “a capitalist sport.”

The Oneonta Times headline is “Play Oina! Romanians Say Their Game Inspired Creation of Baseball.” Note: Can we find additional documentation of oina’s rules and history? Is the 1310 documentation available in English translation? Have others followed the recent fate of oina and the work of Costescu?

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.  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.

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: do other observers agree with Henderson on whether and how stoolball evolved into cricket?

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.

1385.1 -- English Boys Play Ball “To the Grave Peril of Their Souls”

A letter written by Robert Braybroke laid out the palpable risks of ball-playing:  “Certain [boys], also, good for nothing in their insolence and idleness, instigated by evil minds and busying themselves rather in doing harm than good, throw and shoot stones, arrows, and different kinds of missiles at the rooks, pigeons, and other birds nesting in the walls and porches of the church and perching [there].  Also they play ball inside and outside the church and engage in other destructive games there, breaking and greatly damaging the glass windows and the stone images of the church . . . This they do not without great offense to God and our church and to the prejudice and  injury or us as well as to the grave peril of their souls.”  And the sanction for such play?  “We . . . proclaim solemnly that any malefactors whatever of this kind [including churchyard merchants as well as young ballplayers] whom it is possible to catch in the aforesaid actions after this our warning have been and are excommunicated . . . .”

Crow, Martin M., and Clair C. Olson, eds., “Chaucer’s World” [Columbia University Press, New York, 1948], pp 48-49.  Submitted by John Thorn, 10/12/2004.

1393.1 – Unconfirmed Poetry Lines Said to Denote Stoolball in Sussex

According to a 2007 article in a Canadian magazine, there is poetry in which a milkmaid calls to another, “Oi, Rosie, coming out to Potter’s field for a whack at the old stool?” The article continues: “The year was 1393. The place was Sussex . . . the game was called stoolball, which was probably a direct descendant of stump-ball”

The article, by Ruth Tendulkar, is titled “The Great-Grandmother of Baseball and Cricket,” and appeared in the May/June 2007 issue of The Canadian Newcomers Magazine. We have been unable to find addition source details from the author or the magazine. http://www.cnmag.ca, as accessed 9/6/2007. Note: If confirmed [the verse is not Chaucerian in tone] this would stand as an early reference to stoolball play.

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.”

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. Note: 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.

1478.1 – Du Cange Mentions “Criquet” Game in his Glossary

While others see cricket as taking its name from the term for a staff, or stick, “[T]he famous New English Dictionary favors a word used as a [game’s] target: criquet,  Du Cange quotes this word in a manuscript of 1478: ‘The suppliant came to a place where a game of ball (jeu de boule) was played, near to a stick (attaché) or criquet,’  and defines criquet as ‘a stick which serves as a target in a ball game.’”

Du Cange, Glossarium Mediae ET Infimae Latinatis [Paris, 1846], Vol. 4: Mellat, Vol. 5” Pelotas.  Per Henderson ref 48.

1494c.1 -- Christopher Columbus and the Coefficient of Restitution

“When Christopher Columbus revisited Haiti on his second voyage, he observed some natives playing with a ball.  The men who came with Columbus to conquer the Indies had brought their Castilian windballs to play with in idle hours.  But at once they found that the balls of Haiti were incomparably superior; they bounced better.  These high-bouncing balls were made, they learned, from a milky fluid of the consistency of honey which the natives procured by tapping certain trees and then cured over the smoke of palm nuts. A discovery which improved the delights of ball games was noteworthy.”  350 years later, after Goodyear discovered vulcanization [1839], “India rubber” balls were to be identified with the New York game of baseball. 

Holland Thompson, “Charles Goodyear and the History of Rubber,” at http://inventors.about.come/cs/inventorsalphabet/a/rubber_2.htm, accessed 1/24/2007.  Note: We need better sources for the Columbus story.  And: what were “Castilian windballs?”

1500s.1 -- Ballplaying Permitted at College of Tours in France, if Done ‘Cum Silentio’

“Parisian legislators were more sympathetic with regard to games than their English contemporaries.  Even the Founder of the Cisterian College of St Bernard contemplated that permission might be obtained for games, though not before dinner or after the bell rang for vespers.  A sixteenth century code of statutes for the College of Tours, while recording the complaints of the neighbors about the noise made by the scholars playing ball (‘de insolentiis, exclamationibus et ludis palmariis dictorum scholarium, qui ludent . . . pilis durissimis’) permitted the game under less noisy conditions (‘pilis seu scopes mollibus et manu, ac cum silentio et absque clamoribus tumultuosis.’)

Rait, Robert S., Life in the Medieval University [Cambridge University Press, 1912], page 83.  Submitted by John Thorn, 10/12/2004.

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

. . . “in the days of Good Queen Bess, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, with a long ‘trayne’ went to stay at Michaelwood Lodge, and after resting there awhile repaired to Wotton Hill, where he and others of his ‘trayne’ played stoolball.”

Source: National Stoolball Association, “A Brief History of Stoolball,” [author and date unspecified], page 3. Lowerson’s “Stoolball” [Sussex Archaeological Collections, 1995, p. 265] also credits an account of Leicester playing stoolball, but gives no details. Note: is it possible to determine the date, if not the source, of this claim using online resources? One commenter refers to the game as stobbal.

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 the Court Baron of the Royal Manor of Kirklington, belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster (16^th Century), under the heading of trespass.” Note: We need a citation here, and a reason for assigning the 1523 date. 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?

1538.1 -- Easter Ball Play at Churches Ends in France

“Certain types of ball games had a prominent place in heathen rituals and were believed to promote fertility.  Even after Christianity had gained the ascendancy over the older religion, ball continued to be played in the churchyard and even within the church at certain times.  In France, ball was played in churches at Easter, until the custom was abolished in 1538.  In England, the practice persisted up to a much later date.”

Brewster, Paul G., American Nonsinging Games [University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK, 1953] pp. 79-89.  Submitted by John Thorn, 6/6/04.  Brewster gives no source for the French dictum, nor for the “later date” when Easter play ceased in England.

1550.1 – No English Reference Claimed for ”Cricket” Found Before 1550

“The medieval origin of the national game of the English is beyond doubt, but not so its Island roots. There would have been ample opportunity for it to figure on the lists of banned games set out by their kings, but there is no written mention of it before 1550. It is, of course, not impossible that its forerunner was one of the many ball games played with unidentifiable rules, as for instance club ball.”

From an unidentified photocopy in the “Origins of Baseball” file at the Giamatti Center at Cooperstown. Note: the inconsistencies among the preceding cricket entries [see #1478.1,] need to be resolved . . . . or at least addressed.

1550c.2 – Cricket Play Recalled at Southern England School

[Cf #1598.3 below.] A 1598 trial in the Surrey town of Guildford includes a statement by John Derrick, then aged 59. According to a 1950 history of Guildford’s Royal Grammar School, “[H]e stated that he had known the [disputed] ground for fifty years or more and that ‘when he was a scholar in the free school of Guildford, he and several of his fellows did run and play there at cricket and other plays.’ This is believed to be the first recorded mention of cricket.”

Brown, J. F., The Story of the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, 1950, page 6. Note: it would be interesting to see the original reference, and to know how 1550 was chosen as the reported year of play.

1555c.1 -- English Poet Condones Students’ Yens “To Tosse the Ball, To Rene Base, Like Men of War”

“To shote, to bowle, or caste the barre,

To play tenise, or tosse the ball,

Or to rene base, like men of war,

Shall hurt thy study naught at all.”

Crowley, Robert, “The Scholar’s Lesson,” circa 1555, in J. M. Cowper, The Select Works of Robert Crowley [N. Truber, London, 1872], page 73.  Submitted by John Bowman, 7/16/2004.  Citation from Thomas L. Altherr, “A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball,” reprinted in David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, see pages 230 and 312.

1562.1 -- Cricket Forerunner an “Unlawful Game?”

“The Malden Corporation Court Book of 1562 contains a charge against John Porter alias Brown, and a servant, for ‘playing an unlawful game called “clycett.”’”

Brookes, Christopher, English Cricket: the Game and its Players Through the Ages (Newton Abbot, 1978), page 16, as cited in 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 29.

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.

1565.1 -- Bruegel’s “Corn Harvest” Painting Shows Meadow Ballgame 

“We had paused right in front of [the Flemish artist] Bruegel the Elder’s “Corn Harvest” (1565), one of the world’s great paintings of everyday life . . .  .[M]y eye fell upon a tiny tableau at the left-center of the painting in which young men appeared to be playing a game of bat and ball in a meadow distant from the scything and stacking and dining and drinking that made up the foreground. . . . There appeared to be a man with a bat, a fielder at a base, a runner, and spectators as well as participants in waiting.  The strange device opposite the batsman’s position might have been a catapult.  As I was later to learn with hurried research, this detain is unnoted in the art-history studies.”

From John Thorn, "Play's the Thing," Woodstock Times, December 28, 2006.  See thornpricks.blogspot.com/2006/12/bruegel-and-me_27.html, accessed 1/30/07.

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 a stool ball.

1570c.1 – Five Indicted for Stoolball Play on Sunday

“A few years later [than 1564], at the Easter Sessions in the same town [Malden, 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. Surrey is the adjoining county to Sussex. Note: we need to locate the full citations for this and all other Russell-Goggs references.

1575.1 -- Gascoigne’s Poem “The Fruits of War” Refers to Tut-ball

Gascoigne, George, The Posies of George Gascoigne Esquire, Corrected, perfected, and augmented by the Authour [London, Richard Smith], per Block, Baseball Before We Knew It,  page 166.  The key lines:  “Yet have I shot at master Bellums butte/And throwen his ball although I toucht no tutte.”

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. This entry needs to be reconciled with #1630c.1 below.

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.

1586.2 – Possible Early Rounders Reference?

In his entry for Rounders, W. C. Hazlitt speculates: “It is possible that this is the game which, under the name of rownes (rounds) is mentioned in The English Courtier and the Country Gentleman, 1586.

Hazlitt, W. C., Faiths and Folklore: A Dictionary of National Beliefs, Superstitions, and Popular Customs (Reeves and Turner, London, 1905), vol. 2, page 527. Note: Can we find this early text and evaluate whether rounders is in fact its subject?

1591.1 -- Early Spanish-English Dictionary Mentions the “Trapsticke”

Pericule [Percival], Richard, Bibliotheca hispanica: containing a graamar, with a dictionarie in Spanish, English, and Latine, gathered out of diuers good authors: very profitable for the studious of the Spanish toong [London], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 166.  The dictionary’s entries include “paleta -- a trapsticke” and paletilla -- a little trapsticke.”

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 sidesmen 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?

1598.1 – Youth Ball Games Widespread at London Schools.

“After dinner all the youthes go into the fields to play at the bal…. The schollers of euery schoole haue their ball, or baston, in their hands: the auncient and wealthy men of the Citie come foorth on horsebacke to see the sport of young men.”

Stow, John, Survey of London [first published in 1598]. David Block [page 166] gives the full title as A Survey of London: Contayning the Originall, Antiquity, Increase, Modern Estate, and Description of that Citie: written in the yeare 1598 [London].  Block adds that the term “baston” is described by the OED as a “cudgel, club, bat or truncheon.”

1598.2 -- Italian-English Dictionary Includes Cat, Trap

Florio, John, A world of wordes or Most copious, and exact dictionarie in Italian and English [London], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 167.  This dictionary defines lippa as “a cat or trap as children use to play with.”

1598.3-- First Known Appearance of the Term “Cricket”

[Cf #1550c.2 above.] A 1598 trial in the Surrey town of Guildford includes a statement by John Derrick, then aged 59. According to a 1950 history of Guildford’s Royal Grammar School, “[H]e stated that he had known the [disputed] ground for fifty years or more and that ‘when he was a scholar in the free school of Guildford, he and several of his fellows did run and play there at cricket and other plays.’ This is believed to be the first recorded mention of cricket.”

Brown, J. F., The Story of the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, 1950, page 6. Note: it would be interesting to see the original reference, and to know how 1550 was chosen as the reported year of play.

1598.4 – Italian Dictionary’s “Cricket-a-wicket” doubted as reference to the Game of Cricket

“People have often regarded Florio’s expression in his Italian Dictionary (1598) cricket-a-wicket as the first mention [cf #158.2 and #1598.3, above] of the noble game. It were strange indeed if this great word first dropped from the pen of an Italian! I have no doubt myself that this