Lord John Philip Sackville (22 June 1713 – 3 December 1765) was the second son of

Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset (18 January 168810 October 1765) was an English political leader and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Life He was the son of the 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex, and the former Lady Mary ...

. He was a keen

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 was closely connected with the sport 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 ...

. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamworth from 1734 to 1747.

Cricket career

Sackville was first recorded as a cricketer in 1734 when he and his brother, Lord Middlesex, played for a Kent side against one from

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

Sevenoaks Vine The Vine Cricket Ground, also known as Sevenoaks Vine, is one of the oldest cricket venues in England. It was given to the town of Sevenoaks in Kent in 1773 by John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745–1799) and owner of nearby Knole ...

H T Waghorn Henry Thomas Waghorn (11 April 1842 – 30 January 1930), was a cricket statistician and historian. He is best known for his two classic researches into cricket's early history: ''The Dawn of Cricket'' and Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730 - 1773 ...

, ''Cricket Scores, Notes, etc.'' (1730–1773), Blackwood, 1899 Timothy J McCann, ''Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century'', Sussex Record Society, 2004 In August 1735, Sackville captained Kent to victory against Sir William Gage's Sussex side on the same ground. He became the main patron of the Kent team and captained the side in many matches until 1745, but he is not mentioned after that. In 1739, he played for

London Cricket Club The original London Cricket Club was formed in 1722 and was one of the foremost clubs in English cricket over the next four decades, holding important match status. It is closely associated with the Artillery Ground, where it played most of i ...

. In 1744 Sackville challenged an England side to play against his team. Kent won, in part thanks to Sackville himself taking a catch to dismiss Richard Newland. The catch was eulogised in ''Cricket, An Heroic Poem'' (1745) by James Love. The match details were recorded and preserved in what is now cricket's second oldest known scorecard.

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 ...

, ''Scores & Biographies, Volume 1'' (1744–1826), Lillywhite, 1862

Family and personal life

Sackville was a notorious rake in his youth. He was compelled to marry Lady Frances Leveson-Gower, daughter of

John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, PC (10 August 1694 – 25 December 1754), was an English Tory politician and peer who twice served as Lord Privy Seal from 1742 to 1743 and 1744 to 1754. Leveson-Gower is best known for his political caree ...

and sister of the

Duchess of Bedford {{Notability, date=September 2022 Duchess of Bedford is a title given to the wife of the Duke of Bedford, an extant title in the peerage of England which was first created in 1414. Duchesses of Bedford ;1st creation (1414) * Anne of Burgundy (140 ...

in 1744, after she gave birth to his child at Woburn. They eventually had two sons and one daughter. The couple's parents were furious, and the Prince of Wales compensated Sackville for any loss of income, making him a lord of his bedchamber in 1745, and thus securing him as a recruit to his party.''History of Parliament'' Two of Sackville's children were: *

John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, KG (25 March 174519 July 1799) was the only son of Lord John Philip Sackville, second son of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset. His mother was the former Lady Frances Leveson-Gower. He succeede ...

(25 March 1745 – 19 July 1799). * Mary Sackville (b. 1 April 1746). Married

Sackville Tufton, 8th Earl of Thanet Sackville Tufton, 8th Earl of Thanet (Lord Thanet) (1733–1786) was an English nobleman. Life He was the second son of Sackville Tufton, 7th Earl of Thanet. Tufton received his early education at Westminster School. He was hereditary High Sheriff ...

in 1767. Sackville was also disappointed when

Lord Wilmington Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, (2 July 1743) was a British Whig statesman who served continuously in government from 1715 until his death. He sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1698 and 1728, and was then raise ...

the late Prime Minister (d. 1743) declined to leave him his Sussex estates, worth £3-£4,000 a year. It is not clear if Wilmington's decision was made because of Sackville's messy private life, or his political inconstancy. Commissioned a captain in the 37th Regiment of Foot in 1734, he became a captain and lieutenant-colonel in the 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards on 1 May 1740. He disgraced himself by deserting from the Guards when they were sent on foreign service in 1746, and was forced to leave the Army in September. Finally, he was committed to a private lunatic asylum circa 1746, then sent abroad to exile on a very small allowance in Lausanne where

Lord Shelburne William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 May 17377 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first ...

met him in 1760, and commented on his dirty condition but lucid conversation. According to his descendant

Robert Sackville-West, 7th Baron Sackville Robert Bertrand Sackville-West, 7th Baron Sackville DL (born 10 July 1958), is a British publisher, author and guardian of Knole in Kent, which has been a Sackville house since 1603 and is now owned by the National Trust. The eldest son of Hugh ...

in his book ''Inheritance'' he became insane later in life, dying in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, aged 52. However, his brother lived long enough to allow John Philip's son to inherit his title and become the next Duke of Dorset.

References

Bibliography

F S Ashley-Cooper Frederick Samuel Ashley-Cooper (born c. 22 March 1877 in Bermondsey, London; died 31 January 1932 in Milford, near Godalming, Surrey) was a cricket historian and statistician. According to ''Wisden'', Ashley-Cooper wrote "103 books and pamphl ...

, ''At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742–1751'', ''Cricket'' Magazine, 1900 *

G B Buckley George Bent Buckley (1885 – 26 April 1962) was an English surgeon and a celebrated cricket historian and an authority on the early days of the game. Buckley was born in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, the son of Arthur and Jane Buckley, his fath ...

, ''Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket'', Cotterell, 1935 *

, ''Scores & Biographies, Volume 1'' (1744–1826), Lillywhite, 1862 * Timothy J McCann, ''Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century'', Sussex Record Society, 2004 *

, ''Cricket Scores, Notes, etc.'' (1730–1773), Blackwood, 1899

External links

SACKVILLE, Lord John Philip (1713–65
Published in ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715–1754'', ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sackville, John Philip 1713 births 1765 deaths Cricket patrons English cricketers English cricketers of 1701 to 1786 Kent cricketers Younger sons of dukes Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1734–1741 British MPs 1741–1747

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 * Secon ...

18th-century philanthropists 37th Regiment of Foot officers Coldstream Guards officers