Isaac Spratt (1799 – 1876) was a

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

toy dealer who wrote pamphlets describing the games of

croquet Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Its international governing body is the W ...

and

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

and was influential in the early development of both. It is known he was born in

Ibsley Ibsley is a village in Hampshire, England. It is about 2.5 miles (4 km) north of the town of Ringwood. It is in the civil parish of Ellingham, Harbridge and Ibsley. Overview The village of Ibsley lies to the east of the River Avon on the m ...

, Hampshire and was married with four children. From 1840 he had a toy shop in 1, Brook Street (later no 18) in London's West End. In 1856 he registered the first printed set of rules for the game of croquet and in 1860 printed a pamphlet called 'Badminton Battledore' a description of the ancient game of battledores and shuttlecocks as played competitively at Badminton House, the Duke of Beaufort's estate in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

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 ...

External links

Isaac Spratt, a Forgotten Pioneer of Croquet
1799 births 1876 deaths Sportspeople from London People from New Forest District Badminton in England Croquet English croquet players 19th-century English businesspeople {{England-sport-bio-stub