This originally appeared in Robert W. Henderson’s Ball, Bat and Bishop: The Origin of Ball Games in 1947 and was allegedly found in a pamphlet by Rev. Thomas Wilson published in 1700. Some mid-20th Century books on early baseball, and many that relied upon them in the years after, have quoted this passage. But alas it was a misquote. The actual quote contains "Stool-ball," not "base ball." This entry appears here so that those who are aware of it won't question why it is not here.

Describing the activities of the reigning Prince of Wales, Mary Lepell wrote the passage below in a letter dated November 14, 1748. The prince she writes of was Frederick Lewis, who three years later died of a burst abscess in a lung, though it was suggested by some that he died after taking a cricket ball to the head. He was a well-known patron of that sport and had he lived as many years as his father, he would have been been King of England during the American War for Independence rather than his son, George III.

"...the Prince’s family is an example of innocent and cheerful amusements.  All this last summer they played abroad; and now, in the winter, in a large room, they divert themselves at base-ball, a play all who are, or have been, schoolboys, are well acquainted with. The ladies, as well as gentlemen, join in this amusement; and the latter return the compliment in the evening, by playing for an hour at the old and innocent game of push-pin, at which they chiefly excel, (if they are not flattered,) who ought in every thing to precede. This innocence and excellence must needs give great joy, as well as great hopes, to all real lovers of their country and posterity."

Lepell is the first of three 18th Century women to write of "base ball." (See 1798.) Indeed according to the known surviving passages, more women used the term in that century than men!

"After Dinner Went to Miss Seale’s to play at Base Ball, with her, the 3 Miss Whiteheads, Miss Billinghurst, Miss Molly Flutter, Mr. Chandler, Mr. Ford, H. Parsons & Jolly."

This passage was written by the 18-year-old William Bray of Surrey, England in his diary on the day after Easter, 1755.

Satirist and novelist John Kidgell seems to imply that "Base-Ball" was not much of a sport circa the mid 18th Century. Fives, by the way, was a sort of hand tennis.

The Ball once struck off,
Away flies the Boy
To the next destin'd Post,
And then Home with Joy

As the illustration shows, the ball is tossed toward another player who strikes it with his hand(s). There is no bat in this game showing again how different games with similar names can be. The illustration for "stool ball" in the same book also demonstrates the player swatting the ball with the hand (the stools were a form of base).

Courtesy: City of Pittsfield

Author John Thorn discovered a reference to this ordinance in 2004 while searching HeritageQuest's online database of genealogy-related books. Among his search results was an 1869 book by J. E. A. Smith entitled The History of Pittsfield. He was then able to confirm the existence of the original document in the Pittsfield's library. It currently hold the title of "earliest known reference to 'base ball' in the States."

The book itself says this about the ordinance:

"...As a matter of fact, however, the lovers of the muscular sport were not absolutely excluded from the tempting lawn of the "Meeting-house Common," as the letter of the law would have excluded them.

It was, indeed, their favorite resort; but Chandler Williams was ever at hand, with his voice of courteous warning, to ward off the threatened bombardment, when the danger to the meeting-house windows became imminent."

Exactly what the rules or nature of the 1791 Pittsfield game of "base ball" were will almost certainly never be known, and thus it is impossible to say that this reference is really to a game resembling the game we all love any more than that referenced in Mary Lepell's letters; it is a reference by name only. For all we know, someone broke a window playing cricket and those writing the ordinance simply wanted to be comprehensive when listing games they did not want to be played near the new meeting house and included some that that had never actually been played in Pittsfield. Or someone new to Pittsfield and present at the town meeting of September 5, 1791 may have suggested that "base ball" - a game not played in the town but known to him - be added to the list in the ordinance.

Thorn himself wrote in a Boston Globe article this his discovery "gave unequivocal proof that baseball had been played there in 1791." While I am well aware of Occam's razor, it is not possible to conclude based on available evidence that any one of these games were actually played in Pittsfield in 1791. With all due respect to the veteran writer and researcher, and bearing in mind all of the great work he has done in the field over a long period, I think we can forgive him for overselling his own discovery.

When such hyperbole goes unchallenged, it leads to its own kind of Doubleday Myth, which is ironic since such discoveries were supposed to be the antidote to the Mills Commission. Case in point? The town of Pittsfield proudly, if erroneously, suggests that it is the birthplace of baseball. Nor is calling the Pittsfield Myth a claim more substantial than Cooperstown's saying very much.

Read the original document at the town's website in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.

"The Game that Got Away..." in the July 10, 2005 Boston Globe.

Page 447 of The History of Pittsfield, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts, From the Year 1734 to the Year 1800: Compiled and written under the general direction of a committee by J.E.A. Smith. Published in Boston, 1869.

The meeting house was not completed until 1793.

Regarding the apparent "f" in the spelling of base ball in the ordinance: Although most printers stopped using what looked like an "f" but was really a long form of the letter "s" by the early 1780s, it was still common in handwritten documents at the end of the 18th Century.

"Several foot rarces were run this even ing between the indians and our men. the indians are very active; one of them proved as fleet as our best runner Drewer and R. Fields , our switfest runners. when the racing was over the men divided themselves into two parties and played prison base."

"our party seem elated with the idea of moving on towrad their friends and country, they all seem allirt in their movements today; they have every thing in readiness for a move, and notwithstanding the want of provision have been amusing themselves very merrily today in running footraces pitching quites, prison base."

"Pitching the quoit" is not unlike horseshoes, but neither Lewis nor William Clark ever wrote of "base ball." The children's game "prisoner's base" was, however, well known (it is not a ball and stick game). This entry is listed here simply to acknowledge it since it has been widely - and unfortunately - read.

Mrs. B.
Inert matter is as incapable of stopping itself as it is of putting itself in motion: when the ball ceases to move, therefore, it must be stopped by some other cause or power; but as it is one with which your are yet unacquainted, we can not at present investigate its effects."

Courtesy: Microsoft

Jane Haldimand Marcet, in a book designed to explain chemistry to students by using conversational language, becomes at least the fourth female author in less than a century to use the term "base-ball" and the first such author to be based in the States. There are many references to balls in the text, which does seem to be a great way to introduce science to younger readers. The section cited was on "inertia."

The preface makes it clear that these conversations were published previously by the author. I can confirm there is no section on inertia in the 1809 edition and that this passage is from the 1819 edition and may be from some time after 1809 and before 1819.

He almost mentions "base ball" and though nearly impossible to prove, he may indeed be referring to an early form of the game.

"Mary North is now a rosy prattler,—the life and joy of her humble home,—the loveliest and gayest creature that ever lived. But, better than playing with her doll—better even than baseball, or sliding, or romping, does she like to creep, of an evening, to her father's knee, and look at the well hoarded purse..."

"Then comes a sun-burnt gipsy of six, beginning to grow tall and thin, and to find the cares of the world gathering about her; with a pitcher in one hand, a mop in the other, an old straw bonnet of ambiguous shape, halfhiding her tangled hair; a tattered stuff petticoat, once green, hanging below an equally tattered cotton frock, once purple; her longing eyes fixed on a game of baseball at the corner of the green, till she reaches the cottage door, flings down the mop and pitcher, and darts off to her companions, quite regardless of the storm of scolding with which the mother follows her run-away steps.

So the world wags till ten; then the little damsel gets admission to the charity school and trips mincingly thither every morning, dressed in the old-fashioned blue gown, and white cap, and tippet, and bib and apron of that primitive institution, look as demure as a Nun, and as tidy; her thoughts fixed on button-holes, and spelling-books -those ensigns of promotion; despising dirt and baseball, and all their joys."

This story of "Jack Hatch" continues with a number of references to cricket. The village which Mary Mitford is writing about is Three Mile Cross, a hamlet in the parish of Shinfield, near Reading in Berkshire, England. Yet another female English novelist writing about baseball long before Cartwright! But it was not her last. In 1835, another "sketch book" from Mitford appeared with the following passage:

"What can be prettier than this, unless it be the fellow-group of girls—sisters, I presume, to the boys—who are laughing and screaming round the great oak; then darting to and fro, in a game compounded of hide-and-seek and base-ball. Now tossing the ball high, high amidst the branches; now flinging it low along the common, bowling, as it were, almost within reach of the cricketers; now pursuing, now retreating, running, jumping, shouting, bawling—almost shrieking with ecstasy; whist one sunburnt black-eyed gipsy throws forth her laughing face from behind the trunk of the old oak, and then flings a newer and a gayer ball—fortunate purchase of some hoarded sixpence—amongst her admiring playmates. Happy, happy children ! that one hour of innocent enjoyment is worth an age!"

The paragraph previous to the one above has boys playing cricket on the common—another English example of boys playing one sport and girls playing "base-ball." (Note that they word is hyphenated in this later work, but it is also split typographically between the end of one line and the beginning of the next. 

Second passage: Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery (third series) by Mary Russell Mitford published by G. and W. B. Whitaker, London, 1828 and serialized in multiple publications, including The Albion, which contains this story in the August 9, 1828 edition.

Third passage: Belford Regis; or Sketches of a Country Town by  Mary Russell Mitford published by Richard Bentley in London in 1835.

Both of these clubs played in the old-fashioned way of throwing the ball and striking the runner, in order to put him out. To the Knickerbocker Club we are indebted for the present improved style of playing the game, and since their organization they have ever been foremost in altering or modifying the rules when in their judgment it would tend to make the game more scientific."

These words were written in 1867 by William Wood (see footnotes on right) and appear here merely to set the record straight. A slightly different version of the passage above circulates that specifically mentions the Gothams. While it may be possible for some knowledgeable baseball historian to guess which clubs these clubs eventually evolved into, it is not permissible to alter the quote and such guesses are nothing more than that; Wood does not mention the Gothams in this passage - at least not in the first edition of 1867 - and there is no evidence to support assertions that the clubs referred to here even existed later in the year, let alone in the 1840s.

Professor Tommy Boone of the College of St. Scholastica was kind enough to provided the quote above and to point out that Wood did not provide sources for any of the material in his book. As with some other entries, it is here to acknowledge its existence.

The Boys' Own Book by William Clarke published in London by Vizetelly Branston in 1828.

Sect. 10. The Bats, Balls, or other property of the club, shall not be used for any purpose not provided for by the Constitution, without the consent of the Board of Directors, under a penalty of one dollar for each offence."

This entry is here not because it belongs, but because I'd rather not field questions about why it is not here. The Olympic Ball Club of Philadelphia was known for town ball and there is no evidence whatsoever that the club played baseball before 1860. It became known as the Olympic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia some time during the early 1860s and did not join the NABBP until the mid 1860s. Their 1837 constitution makes no reference whatsoever to anything specifically related to baseball (the balls and bats can be used for any number of sports and the document does not specifically mention any sport). From all available evidence, this was just another early "ball" club with no more relevance to baseball than the cricket clubs that shared Elysian Fields (and cricket clubs existed in the States long before this club came into existence). My apologies to the unfortunate person who paid well over $100,000 at auction for an original of this constitution that was enthusiastically, if ludicrously, described as the "single most significant item that could possibly exist relating to the birth of organized baseball."

Making something official does not make it true as this 1988 stamp attests.

On June 4, 1838, the pioneering residents of Oxford County in Ontario, Canada gathered near the village of Beachville for the first-ever game of baseball. The town is not coincidentally located near the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys.

This remarkable game was first reported - and in amazing detail - in an 1886 letter to Sporting Life, a competitor to The Sporting News (which itself made its debut that year). The writer of the letter, a Dr. Adam Ford, enclosed a diagram of the ballfield and described the rules of the game - which differed in most respects to the game the Knickerbockers were to "invent" seven years later - and even gave an exact date for the match. The latter detail is perhaps not quite as surprising considering it was somewhat of a holiday in Canada, even if it was later written by someone who was barely seven years old at the time of the alleged game.

There are many 19th and early 20th Century writers that claim they played (or witnessed) baseball before 1850 and doubtless many did. That does not specifically make any one of their accounts accurate. There is zero contemporary evidence to suggest the game was even played in Beachville before the 1850s.

Nancy Bouchier and Robert Barney have published a sympathetic article on the "Ford Letter" in the Journal of Sports History and the Barney was quoted in a June 20, 1995 Washington Post article ("Baseball Has a Border Dispute") on the subject. While they were able to confirm a number of details about his story - including the fact that certain people that he lists as having participated in the game were residents of the county at the time - they cannot confirm the game itself. Not that anyone can. And as a doctor and one-time mayor of St. Marys, it is not hard to believe that Ford would have been familiar the people, places, and details of life in the area at the time of his childhood. Thus the accuracy of the non-baseball details is not surprising nor can it validate the baseball-related aspects of the letter.

Unfortunately it seems our friends to the north have their own "Cooperstown" in Beachville. and they even have their own Abner Graves in the Adam Ford as well. Ironically, their Graves was also living in Denver, Colorado at the time of his written testimony. Perhaps the lack of oxygen to the brain has something to do with it (I was born and raised there so I can write that!).

While the Canadian postal service didn't embarrassingly print a stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of baseball in 1938 the way the U.S. Postal Service did in 1939 (see below), they more than made up for it with a "150 Years of Baseball" stamp in 1988 (see above right).

If you recall the story of madman Graves, you may wonder how Ford also ended up in Denver, Colorado. He left Oxford County after being acquitted of charges relating to the poisoning death of a drinking buddy named Robert Guest (ironically and perhaps hypocritically the secretary of the St. Marys Temperance Association!). Despite the acquittal, the stench of scandal made his position within the county untenable. What his fall from grace did to his psyche is a purely a matter of conjecture, but even Ford's defenders acknowledge he was dependant upon alcohol and drugs during the timeframe in which he wrote the letter. That does not invalidate the claim, but it does not help an already shaky one either.

It has been suggested that this is the first "recorded" baseball game, but an alleged game with admittedly very different rules witnessed by a 7 year old in 1838 and written about for the first time nearly 50 years later can hardly be referred to as properly "recorded" - even if the witness were beyond reproach. (Are they ever? Cryptozoologists are still searching for such an animal.) As with so many entries, it is listed here to acknowledge it and not to suggest it can in any way can be relied upon.

May 5, 1886 Sporting Life.

Pages 61-65 of David Block's Baseball Before We Knew It.

You can watch a late Awesome80s interview with Robert Barney here.