Reverend Henry Bligh (10 June 1834 – 4 March 1905) was an English clergyman and

cricket 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 str ...

er. He played eight

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

matches between 1853 and 1860, five for Kent County Cricket Club, two for the Gentlemen of Kent and one for

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC).Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), p. 68.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...

. Retrieved 7 August 2022.) Bligh was born in Westminster, the fifth child of

Edward Bligh, 5th Earl of Darnley Edward Bligh, 5th Earl of Darnley, FRS (25 February 1795 – 12 February 1835), styled Lord Clifton until 1831, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a British peer and politician. Background Darnley was the second but eldest surviving son o ...

and his wife Emma Parnell. The Darnley family lived at

Cobham Hall Cobham Hall is an English country house in the county of Kent, England. The grade I listed building is one of the largest and most important houses in Kent, re-built as an Elizabethan prodigy house by William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham (1527� ...

near Gravesend in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and was closely associated with Kent cricket and Bligh's two brothers,

John Bligh, 6th Earl of Darnley Lieutenant colonel John Stuart Bligh, 6th Earl of Darnley DL (16 April 1827 – 14 December 1896), styled Lord Clifton from 1831 to 1835, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a British peer. Early life He was the eldest son of Edward Bligh, ...

and Edward Vesey Bligh both played the sport. John was President of Kent and MCC and his son,

Ivo Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley Ivo Francis Walter Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley (13 March 1859 – 10 April 1927), styled The Honourable Ivo Bligh until 1900, lord of the manor, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a British nobility, British nobleman, parliamentarian and cri ...

, played for Kent and captained

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in their Ashes win in Australia in 1882/3. Bligh was vicar of Abingdon and then of

St James' Church, Hampton Hill St James's Church is a Grade II listed parish church in the Church of England in Hampton Hill, London. History The first church building was opened in 1863 to designs by the architect William Wigginton. It was later enlarged, with work start ...

between 1881 and 1893, where he was also the President of the cricket club.Revd and Hon Henry Vesey Bligh
St James's Church, Hampton on the Hill. Retrieved 31 March 2017.History of Hampton Hill Cricket Club
Hampton Hill Cricket Club. Retrieved 31 March 2017. He left St James' in 1893 as a result of "suffering from the strain of over-work" and moved to Holy Trinity Church in Fareham where he was vicar between 1893 and 1900. After retiring in 1900 he lived in Winchester but was buried at St James' in

Hampton Hill Hampton Hill (initially known as "New Hampton") is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to the south of Twickenham, bounded by Fulwell and Twickenham Golf Courses to the northwest; the road bridge over the railway line; a ...

when he died in 1905.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bligh, Henry 1834 births 1905 deaths

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

English cricketers Kent cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers People from Westminster Cricketers from Chelsea, London Younger sons of earls Gentlemen of Kent cricketers