Edward McNiven (21 June 1827 – 4 January 1858) was an English

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and various

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

sides between 1846 and 1851. He was born at Offley,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

and died near

Godstone Godstone is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Surrey, England, east of Reigate at the junction of the A22 road, A22 and A25 road, A25 roads, near the M25 motorway and the North Downs. Godstone railway station is separate ...

. McNiven was educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge. At Eton, he played in the

Eton v Harrow The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual match between public school rivals Eton College and Harrow School. It is one of the longest-running annual sporting fixtures in the world and is the last annual school cricket match still to be pla ...

cricket matches of 1843 and 1844 primarily as a bowler. Between 1846 and 1848, he appeared in several matches for Cambridge University, playing largely as a right-handed lower middle-order batsman; he played in the 1846 University Match against Oxford University but was not picked for the matches in 1847 or 1848. His best batting came in a match against a side calling itself "Cambridge Townsmen" in 1848, when he was unbeaten on 88 when the university innings ended. McNiven did not play any first-class cricket in 1849 or in 1850, the year he graduated from Cambridge University, but in 1851 he played four games inside a month for four teams: the Marylebone Cricket Club, Surrey, the Gentlemen in the annual

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

Gentlemen v Players fixture, and the Gentlemen of England team. Those were his final appearances in senior cricket. McNiven became a lawyer and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1849. He was killed "near Westerham" when his

dog cart A dogcart (or dog-cart) is a light horse-drawn vehicle, originally designed for sporting shooters, with a box behind the driver's seat to contain one or more retriever dogs. The dog box could be converted to a second seat. Later variants included ...

overturned in January 1858; the family home at the time was Perrysfield, near Godstone, and in some references this is given as the place of death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McNiven, Edward 1827 births 1858 deaths English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Surrey cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Deaths by horse-riding accident in England English barristers