Henry Perkins (10 December 1832 – 6 May 1916) 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 ...

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 ...

and cricket administrator. He played

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 officiall ...

for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Cambridge Town Club Cambridge Town Club (CTC) was a first-class cricket club established in Cambridge before 1817. Among notable players who represented CTC were Tom Hayward senior, Robert Carpenter and George Tarrant. It co-existed with Cambridge University Cri ...

(''aka'' Cambridgeshire),

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) 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 1854 and 1868, and he was the secretary of the MCC from 1876 to 1898. He was born at

Sawston Sawston is a large village in Cambridgeshire in England, situated on the River Cam about south of Cambridge. It has a population of 7,260. History Prehistory Although the current village of Sawston has only existed as anything more than a ha ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, and died at

New Barnet New Barnet is a neighbourhood on the north east side of the London Borough of Barnet. It is a largely residential North London suburb located east of Chipping Barnet, west of Cockfosters, south of the village of Monken Hadley and north of Oaklei ...

, then in

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 ...

. The son of the curate of Sawston, Perkins was educated at

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

and at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. His father died when he was five years old, but at seven he inherited an estate at

Thriplow Thriplow () is a village in the civil parish of Thriplow and Heathfield, in Cambridgeshire, England, south of Cambridge. The village also gives its name to a former Cambridgeshire hundred. History The parish of Thriplow covers , roughly span ...

, Cambridgeshire. He was at

from the autumn of 1850, but appeared in important cricket only in his later years there, and his sole first-class match for the first team was the 1854

University Match The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club. From 2001, as part of the reorganisation of first-class cricket, ...

against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

; at the end of the first day in this game Cambridge, already facing a first-innings deficit of 68, had lost seven wickets for just 13 runs in their second innings, but on the second morning Perkins made 27 out of a final total of 60. Leaving Cambridge with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1854 – converted to a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1857 – Perkins qualified as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1858, practising on the Norfolk Circuit. He played intermittent first-class cricket matches from 1856 to 1868, appearing most regularly for the Cambridgeshire county team, which was first-class in some games until the late 1860s, and where he also acted as honorary secretary. A lower-order, sometimes tail-end, right-handed batsman and a right-arm underarm lob bowler, his best bowling came in an 1862 Cambridgeshire match against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, taking five second innings wickets (out of seven that fell) for just 48 runs. He had earlier taken five wickets for 83 runs for the "Gentlemen of the North" against the "Gentlemen of the South" in a match in 1859 and in this game he also scored 36 in the first innings, which was his highest first-class score. Perkins became secretary of the MCC in 1876 and remained in the post for 22 years; he instituted the annual meeting of the county club secretaries at which the fixture list was agreed, with the counties that achieved a threshold number of home and away fixtures qualifying from 1890 for the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

. At his retirement in 1898, when he was succeeded by

Francis Lacey Sir Francis Eden Lacey (19 October 1859 at Wareham, Dorset – 26 May 1946, Sutton Veny, Wiltshire) was the first man to be knighted for services to cricket (and the first person to be knighted for services to any sport) in the 1926 King's Birth ...

, he was voted an annual pension of £400 a year and given life membership. MCC membership doubled from 2,000 to 4,000 during his tenure, and he was also responsible for a written history of the club at its centenary in 1887. He was also an author in his legal career, acting as editor of ''Dixon's Law of the Farm''. In 1855, Perkins married Blanche, daughter of Charles Fiddey; three of their sons also attended Cambridge University. His brother,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, was also a first-class cricketer.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Henry 1832 births 1916 deaths People from Sawston People educated at King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers All-England Eleven cricketers Cambridge Town Club cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Members of the Inner Temple English barristers Gentlemen of the North cricketers Gentlemen of the South cricketers Southgate cricketers English cricket administrators Secretaries of the Marylebone Cricket Club 19th-century British businesspeople