James Jordan (21 June 1793 – 10 September 1866) was an English

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 striki ...

er who 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 ...

from 1822 to 1824. Jordan was born at

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

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 ...

in 1793. He worked as a ropemaker in

Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century, ...

and was a publican, keeping ''The Black Lion'' public house on the Chatham Lines for a period.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 299–300.
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 Stati ...

. Retrieved 2022-08-16.)Lambert I (2023) Kent's first centurion 200 years ago, ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2023'', pp. 97–99. Canterbury:

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

. He known to have played for Gillingham Cricket Club from at least 1816, appearing in the same year for an

East Kent Kent is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation. Prehistoric Kent Kent has been occupied since the Lower Palaeolithic as finds from the quarries at Fordwich and Swanscombe attest. The Swanscombe sku ...

and Sussex side against West Kent and Surrey. Although few scorecards survive from club matches in this period, he is thought to have been a prolific batsman during this period. Described as an aggressive batsman who was "quick on his feet" and willing to play shots, Jordan made his first-class debut for the Players in the 1822

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of English first-class cricket matches. Two matches were played in 1806, but the fixture was not played again until 1819. It became an annual event, usually played at least twice each season, exc ...

match at

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 ...

. He was the top-scoring batsman for his side, making 38 runs in the first innings and 33 in the second, before going on to play for a Kent XI against MCC at the same ground the following week, again top scoring, this time with a score of 86. He made two further first-class appearances in 1822, scoring 56 for Kent against MCC in the return match at

Chislehurst Chislehurst () is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater L ...

before making 94 for an England XI at Lord's.James Jordan
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2009-08-04. In 1823, Jordan scored a century for Gillingham against

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

in a minor match before repeating the feat for Kent, making a score of 109 against MCC at Chislehurst. This is the first century known to have been scored for a Kent side in first-class cricket. He had already played for Kent against MCC and for the Players at Lord's during the season, but the match in which he scored his century is the last he played for a Kent representative side. The following season he played again for an England XI, again at Lord's and made his final first-class appearance for the Players. The reasons for Jordan's lack of first-class cricket after 1824 are unknown. In '' Scores and Biographies'',

Arthur Haygarth Arthur Haygarth (4 August 1825 – 1 May 1903) was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians. He played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club and Sussex between 1844 and 1861, as well as num ...

suggests that he may have been unwell,From Carlaw, p. 300. but he played four matches for the Players of Kent against the

Gentlemen of Kent Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

between 1826 and 1828. Haygarth also describes him in 1853―aged 60―as "a hearty, active man, still enjoying the sport of shooting and taking much exercise on foot",Quoted in Carlaw, p. 300. and ''

The Sporting Magazine ''The Sporting Magazine'' (1793–1870) was the first English sporting periodical to devote itself to every type of sport. Its subtitle was "Monthly Calendar of the Transactions of the Turf, the Chase and Every Other Diversion Interesting to the ...

'' suggested that he may have lost form, and that his aggressive style of play may have made him likely to be out caught or

stumped Stumped is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket, which involves the wicket-keeper putting down the wicket while the batsman is out of his ground. (The batsman leaves his ground when he has moved down the pitch beyond the popping crease ...

. It has also been suggested that his "manner was not liked by some of the aristocratic patrons of the sport", and that this may have alienated him from the amateur's who selected sides at the time. He is certainly known to have still been playing for Gillingham as late as 1833. Jordan married Elizabeth Featherstone at

Frindsbury Frindsbury is part of the Medway Towns conurbation in Kent, southern England. It lies on the opposite side of the River Medway to Rochester, Kent, Rochester, and at various times in its history has been considered fully or partially part of the ...

in 1822. He received a dockyard pension, but was still working in the ropery at Chatham at the 1861 census. He died at Chatham in 1866 aged 73.James Jordan

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. Retrieved 2023-04-08.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, James 1793 births 1866 deaths English cricketers English cricketers of 1787 to 1825 Kent cricketers Players cricketers Sportspeople from Chatham, Kent Cricketers from Kent