Stephen Rose
This is a list of English cricketers who were first recorded in historically important matches played between the 1701 and 1786 seasons. People known to have participated before 1701 are listed under Earliest known participants. 1786 was the season before Thomas Lord, backed by the White Conduit Club (WCC), opened his original ground in May 1787, with Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) being founded soon afterwards. Players who were first recorded in or after the 1787 season may be found in List of English cricketers (1787–1825).
In the 18th century, more information is available in the sources than in the 17th, so it is easier to identify the active players, and the clubs or county teams with which they were most usually associated. Although some people like the Dukes of Richmond are remembered primarily as patrons, they were invariably players too, and generally captained their own teams. Cricket underwent radical changes during the 18th century. Patronage and popular support enabled it to outgrow its roots as a village pastime, and develop into a major sport in southeast England which had begun its spread through the rest of the country by 1787. The Laws of Cricket were first written in 1744, and revised in 1774. In the early 1760s, pitched delivery bowling was introduced, and this necessitated the invention of the straight bat: an evolution in bowling and batting techniques.
Inter-county matches were fairly common from about 1730, but they were mostly organised on an ad hoc basis, and there was no formal championship. The main county teams were Hampshire, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. By the end of the period, Berkshire, Essex, and Middlesex had also become prominent. A key feature was the parish or town club, some of which effectively represented their counties. Among them were Chertsey, Dartford, Hambledon, London, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Slindon. Many matches involved occasional XIs named after their patrons, and teams labelled as England.
Much of our knowledge about 18th century players has come from match scorecards. The earliest known scorecards date from 1744, but only a handful exist from then until 1772 when they began to be completed and preserved on a regular basis. As such, the sport's statistical record begins in 1772, but scorecards until the Lord's Pavilion fire in July 1825 are often incomplete, or have been irretrievably lost. Key sources for the more important historical record are the works of Arthur Haygarth, F. S. Ashley-Cooper, H. T. Waghorn, G. B. Buckley, Rowland Bowen, Tim McCann, and Ian Maun, among others.
Note #1: Online databases are excluded from this work as the scope is historical, and NOT statistical.
Note #2: The list is not necessarily exhaustive, as ongoing research is always likely to discover additional information.
Note #3: Inline citations reference the debut or earliest known mention of each player.
Note #4: Where a player's name is preceded by a † symbol, the article is a redirect to this list.
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