Thomas Lord

Thomas Lord (23 November 1755 – 13 January 1832) was a celebrated English professional cricketer, who prospered as a wine merchant in Georgian times.

Thomas Lord

Thomas Lord's profile in relief displayed on a tile at St John's Wood tube station
Personal information
Born	(1755-11-23)23 November 1755 Thirsk, Yorkshire, England
Died	13 January 1832(1832-01-13) (aged 76) West Meon, Hampshire, UK
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Role	Bowler
Relations	Amelia née Smith (wife): Thomas Lord jr. (son)
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1787–1798	Middlesex
1792–1797	Marylebone Cricket Club
FC debut	31 May 1787 Middlesex v Essex
Last FC	14 August 1816 MCC v Middlesex
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 59 Runs scored 899 Batting average 9.87 100s/50s 0/3 Top score 68 Balls bowled ? Wickets 148 Bowling average ? 5 wickets in innings 5 10 wickets in match 0 Best bowling 7/? Catches/stumpings 17/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 27 January 2016

Lord's Home of Cricket logo

Lord played first-class cricket from 1787 to 1802, making a brief comeback in 1815, after Wellington's victory at Waterloo, to play for Surrey versus Lord Frederick Beauclerk's All-England XI at his new ground near St John's Wood.^[1]

Lord made 90 known appearances in first-class cricket, mostly for Middlesex and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). His legacy continues today as the founder of Lord's Cricket Ground.^[2]

Background and business enterprise

Scion of a recusant yeoman family, he was born in 1755 near Thirsk in Yorkshire^[3] to William Lord, resident in Kirkgate now the site of Thirsk Museum.^[4] His father became déclassé having forfeited the family farm near Thirkleby in 1746, after raising a troop of horse for the unsuccessful Jacobite cause. He was then employed as a labourer on the land the Lord family previously owned.^[5]

The Lords soon settled in Norfolk, where he attended Diss Grammar School,^[6] and started playing cricket.

Lord, at the age of about 19, moved to Islington, Middlesex, where first he became a groundsman and then a factor at White Conduit House in Barnsbury, before setting up business in the wine and liquor trade. He prospered as an importer of Portuguese, Spanish and German wines for the White Conduit Club, whose aristocratic clientèle he befriended.^[7]

Putting the groundskeeping skills gleaned from his father to good use by maintaining the cricket pitch at White Conduit Fields, Lord took the opportunity to develop further business in cricket event management.^[8]

Cricketing career

MCC logo

Lord is known to have begun playing professionally about 1780 but his first recorded game was on his "own ground", now referred to as Lord's Old Ground at Dorset Fields, Marylebone, where he played for Middlesex v. Essex on 31 May 1787. Lord was never regarded as a top-class player but match records of the 1790s indicate that he was a very capable bowler, albeit his opposition was not always of the highest standard.^[9]

In 1786 Thomas Lord was approached by George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea & Nottingham, and Colonel the Hon. Charles Lennox, grandees of the White Conduit Club. They wanted Lord to find a more private venue for their cricket club and offered him a guarantee against any losses he might suffer. In May 1787, Lord acquired seven acres (28,000 m²) on Dorset Fields, establishing his first ground. White Conduit relocated there soon afterwards becoming known as the new Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).^[10]

The lease on his first ground coming to an end in 1810 with little prospect of the Portmans renewing, Lord made alternative arrangements by securing from the Eyre family an eighty-year lease of two fields nearby, the Brick and Great Fields at North Bank in St John's Wood.^[11] This second venue, now referred to as Lord's Middle Ground, was ready by 1809 when the first fixtures were played there by St John's Wood Cricket Club, a club which then merged with MCC after its relocation to the Middle Ground in 1811. In 1813 Parliament requisitioned the land for the construction of the Regent's Canal whose route cut through the outfield, thereby necessitating a further move.

Lord's Cricket Ground

The Tavern Stand at Lord's Cricket Ground

Relocating to the present ground in St John's Wood, literally taking his turf with him, Lord's opened its gates in 1814.^[12]

By 1825 Lord was not, in his opinion, making sufficient money and therefore obtained planning permission to develop part of the ground for housing, a move which would have left only 150 square yards of playing area. To stop this proposal, Lord was bought out for £5,000 by prominent MCC member William Ward MP, a noted batsman and Director of the Bank of England. Despite its change of ownership, the cricket ground continues to bear Lord's name.^[13]

Personal life

Thomas Lord's tomb in West Meon Churchyard

In 1794 at the City Church of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, Lord married Amelia Smith (1754–1828), daughter of Edward Smith, having an only son: Thomas Lord (1794–1875), who practiced as a solicitor as well as playing first-class cricket for Middlesex and MCC.

After his wife died in 1828 from a stroke, Lord continued living in St John's Wood till 1830 before retiring to West Meon, Hampshire, where he died in 1832.

Thomas Lord is buried at St John's Church, West Meon. The Thomas Lord is the village's public house named after him,^[14] and 8 miles south is Hambledon, home of the famous Hambledon Cricket Club.

See also

• Marylebone Cricket Club