Sir William Gage (1695 – 23 April 1744) of
Firle Place
Firle Place is a Manor house in Firle, Sussex, United Kingdom. The Gage family have owned the land at Firle since acquiring it from the Levett family in the 15th century. The manor house was first built in the late 15th century by Sir John Gage ...
was a British landowner and politician who sat in the
House of Commons from 1727 to 1744. He was an early patron of
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 ...
, in association with his friend
Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond.
Early life
Gage was born in
Firle,
East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...
, the third son of Sir John Gage, 4th Baronet, and his first wife Mary Stanley, daughter of Sir William Stanley, 1st Baronet, of Hooton, Cheshire. He succeeded his brother to the
Baronetcy in October 1713.
[George Edward Cokayne ''Complete Baronetage, Volume 1'' 1900]
/ref>
Parliamentary career
The Gage family were Roman Catholic recusants but Sir William chose to conform to the established Church so that he could become an MP in 1722. His seat was the former constituency of Seaford and where he remained until his death in 1744.
Cricket career
Sir William 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 and patron who led and backed teams. One of his teams has been credited with the earliest known innings victory. He was a close friend of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and it seems they had organised a number of cricket matches before 1725 when their involvement first becomes clear through a surviving letter that Gage wrote to Richmond in humorous terms about cricket:[Marshall, p.41.]
My Lord Duke,
I received this moment your Grace's letter and am extremely happy your Grace intends us ye honour of making one a Tuesday, and will without fail bring a gentleman with me to play against you, One that has played very seldom for these several years.
I am in great affliction with being shamefully beaten Yesterday, the first match I played this year. However I will muster up all my courage against Tuesday's engagement. I will trouble your Grace with nothing more than that I wish you Success in everything except ye Cricket Match and that I am etc. etc.
W. Gage
Firle July ye 16th 1725
Sir William's name appears in connection with a number of matches over the next few years. A game against Edwin Stead's XI on 28 August 1729 is regarded as the earliest innings victory on record.[Waghorn, p.7.] A contemporary report states that Sussex "got (within three) in one hand, as the former did in two hands, so the Kentish men threw it up".Thomas Waymark
Thomas Waymark (probably born 17 June 1705) was an English professional cricketer in the first half of the 18th century. He is one of the earliest known players on record and is widely accounted the sport's first great all-rounder.
Cricket car ...
"who turned the scale of victory".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 ...
team played a Kent team led by Lord John Philip Sackville
Lord John Philip Sackville (22 June 1713 – 3 December 1765) was the second son of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset. He was a keen cricketer who was closely connected with the sport in Kent.
He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamworth ...
in the earliest match recorded at Sevenoaks Vine. This was won by Kent.[McCann, p.15.] Apart from one minor fixture a few years later, that is the last record of Sir William in a cricketing context.
Death and legacy
Gage was unmarried and died without issue aged 49 on 23 April 1744. He was succeeded in the Baronetcy by his cousin Thomas Gage who, in 1754, was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Viscount Gage.[
Gage did much to develop Firle Place, including the external cladding of the building in the Georgian style, using Caen Stone.
]
References
Bibliography
* John Marshall, ''The Duke who was Cricket'', Muller, 1961
* Timothy J McCann
Timothy John McCann (4 June 1944 – 26 June 2022) was an English archivist.
Tim McCann joined the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester in 1967.
He wrote several books about the history of Sussex including a classic work on cricket: ''Suss ...
, ''Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century'', Sussex Record Society, 2004
* H T Waghorn, ''The Dawn of Cricket'', Electric Press, 1906
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gage, William Gage, 7th Baronet
1695 births
1744 deaths
Baronets in the Baronetage of England
English cricketers
English cricketers of 1701 to 1786
William
Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
Sussex cricketers
Cricket patrons
18th-century philanthropists