James Pycroft
General information▶Date of birth: 1813 Place of birth: Geyers House, Pickwick, Wiltshire ▶Father: Thomas Pycroft Mother: Mary Collinson ▶Spouse(s): Ann Raggitt Date(s) of marriage: 8 July 1843 Place(s) of marriage: St Marylebone, Westminster ▶Occupation: Schoolmaster, Clergyman (Anglican), Author ▶Lifestory: James Pycroft was a clergyman who became an important chronicler of early cricket history. He was born at Geyers House, Pickwick, Wiltshire, in 1813, the second son of Thomas Pycroft, a barrister, of Pickwick, Wiltshire, and his wife Mary. Pycroft was educated at King Edward VI’s grammar school in Bath, and matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford in 1831, BA 1836; while at Oxford he played in the third Oxford v. Cambridge cricket match at Lord’s, in 1836, where he opened the batting for Oxford. After his degree he was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1836, but was apparently not called to the bar. In 1835 he published anonymously his Principles of scientific batting, the first of his literary incursions onto the cricket field, while still an undergraduate. After leaving Oxford he became interested in the origins of cricket and visited villages in the south associated with the beginnings of the game, and interviewed old players. He took holy orders and was ordained Deacon in 1840, and Priest (both Peterborough) in 1841. In 1840 he was appointed Second Master at the Collegiate School in Leicester, where he taught for five years. In 1842 the Cheltenham Annuaire records him as living at 29 Clarence Square, Pittville, Cheltenham, where he was perhaps staying for a short while at the time the Annuaire’s information was being collected in 1841. He married Ann, daughter of George Raggitt Esq., and widow of Frederick Perceval Alleyn, in 1843; there were no children of the marriage. He was licensed Curate of Chardstock, Dorset in 1845 but soon moved to Barnstaple, as Perpetual Curate of St Mary Magdalene 1845-56. Later publications included his edition of Valpy’s Virgil improved in 1846 and of W. Enfield’s The speaker (1853). After leaving Barnstaple he resided at Bathwick, in Bath, where he was a Member of the Lansdowne Cricket Club, before he finally removed to Brighton. His most celebrated book was The cricket field, or the history and the science of cricket (1851), but he wrote many other books, on educational and religious subjects, memoirs, and five novels, including Dragon’s teeth, published in 1863. Pycroft was remembered as ‘a tall, erect and clerical figure, clad always in black, with a cape and a silk hat, pure white hair and a fringe of white whisker’ (E. V. Lucas, quoted in ODNB). He died of influenza at Brighton in 1895, at the age of eighty-two; his estate at death was sworn at over £9,200. ▶Moved to Pittville from: [apparently visiting rather than residing permanently] Moved from Pittville to: ▶Date of death: 10 March 1895 Place of death: Dudley Mansion, Lansdowne Place, Brighton ▶Date of burial: Place of burial: ▶Notes: Boase Modern English Biography ID: 5758 Contributor(s): John Simpson/Alan Munden
Found no family members on the Pittville History Works Database (based on “relation to head” in the 1841-1911 census records and 1939 register records) |