Sir Horatio Mann, the Kent baronet who had been one of the great patrons of late-eighteenth-century cricket, raised his last full England-strength match at Bishopsbourne in July 1802. His finances had collapsed after years of cricket spending; the 1802 fixture was effectively a farewell. Mann died twelve years later largely forgotten, but the Bishopsbourne match marks the close of an era of lordly cricket patronage that had begun in the 1760s.
Mann had been the second great patron of Kent cricket after the third Duke of Dorset. His personal expenditure on the game ran into tens of thousands of pounds.
Mann had inherited the Linton Park estate in 1763 and had spent vast sums on cricket — raising England XIs, paying retainer fees to Hambledon professionals, and laying out three private grounds on his estates. By 1802 his estates were mortgaged and his patronage was ending. The July 1802 Bishopsbourne match was his last full-strength fixture: Kent, supplemented by London professionals, against an England side raised by Winchilsea. England won easily; Mann paid the stakes, sold his Linton Park library that autumn, and never raised another England XI.
1763
Mann inherits Linton Park
1770s-1790s
Active patron of Kent and England cricket
7-8 Jul 1802
Last patron-funded major match at Bishopsbourne
1814
Mann dies
Mann sold the Linton estate in 1815 and died in straitened circumstances in 1814.
The end of Mann's three-decade run as a leading cricket patron — and effectively the end of the patron era of Kent cricket.
Mann is the model patron of late-eighteenth-century cricket. The 1802 match closes his active patronage and, with it, an era.
n/a
1811-07-04
The 1811 Lord's season was the leanest of the Middle Ground years. With the Napoleonic blockade at its tightest, willow scarce, professionals diverted to militia service and the betting public's purses thin, only fourteen major matches were played at Lord's all summer. The 1811 season is the clearest measure of cricket's wartime contraction.
Officers vs Civilians
1812-12-15
By the close of 1812 cricket was being played regularly in both Madras and Bombay — the earliest documented fixtures in either Presidency. Garrison officers and civilian East India Company servants ran the matches; the Madras Gazette and Bombay Courier preserved the earliest scoresheets. The Calcutta game (documented 1804) had been joined by all three Presidency capitals.
Kent vs MCC
1813-09-09
On 9-10 September 1813 Kent played the MCC at the Vine, Sevenoaks — the first post-war major match at the historic Kent ground and the start of the Vine's revival as a regular major venue. The Vine had hosted little major cricket since 1808; the September 1813 fixture marked its return to the front rank.