Famous Cricketers No 64 - Jas. Lillywhite, Jun.

James Lillywhite James Lillywhite was born on 23rd February 1842 at Westhampnett in Sussex and baptised in the church there on 20th March. He was the son of John Lillywhite (1800-1880), a bricklayer, and his wife Frances (neé Hayler, 1806-1868). The Lillywhite family came to Sussex from Hampshire in 1651 and James’s grandfather came to Westhampnett to work in the Duke of Richmond’s brickyards there near to the Duke’s seat at Goodwood. By 1783 he was in charge of the brickworks and his family continued to work there for generations. James came from a renowned cricketing family, being the nephew of Frederick William Lillywhite (1792-1854) who played a total of 237 first-class matches for Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Middlesex. Frederick’s son, and therefore James’s cousin, who was known as James senior (1825-1882), was born on 29th October 1825 and became a senior partner in the London sporting firm of Lillywhite, Frowd and Co, of the Haymarket. James senior’s son was Fred Lillywhite, a well-known cricket reporter and editor of the Lillywhite Cricket Annuals. His younger brother John (1848-1915) played for Sussex and Middlesex. When he was 32 James junior married Ada Mary Lawrence, a twenty-year-old spinster, the daughter of a local schoolmaster, at St. Andrew’s Church in Chichester on 12th January 1875. His wife bore him seven children. One son, James, played for Goodwood and Westerton, another, named William Gilbert after Dr. Grace, emigrated to Kenya and a third, Sydney Lawrence, went to America. One of his two daughters became Head Mistress of the Chichester School of Art. James, William Gilbert and Sydney Lawrence all played for Goodwood and Priory Park. Ada died in 1915. James junior claimed to have learned his cricket in Goodwood Park, which has a cricket history stretching back to the early years of the eighteenth-century because of the patronage of successive Dukes of Richmond. He came to notice as a promising cricketer at the age of 17 when he played for the local clubs Chichester Priory Park and Goodwood. He made his debut for Priory Park in the Town v Gown match in September 1858 and was promptly selected for XXII of Priory Park in their next fixture He was selected for the Sussex Colts and shortly thereafter played his debut first-class match for Sussex in June 1862 at the age of 20. He held various engagements as a professional: 1863 at Oxford, 1864 at Oxford and at Harrow, 1865-1868 at Cheltenham College, 1869 at Trinity College, Dublin and in 1870 with Lord Stamford at Enville. In the 1871 Census he described himself as ‘a professional cricketer’. In 1872 he became secretary, on the resignation of Willsher, of the United South of England Eleven and remained in this position until 1879. At the height of his career in the mid 1870s he was said to be 5ft 7in tall and weighed 12st 7lbs. He toured abroad in the U.S.A. in 1868 under E.Willsher and took 18 wickets in a match against Eighteen of New South Wales and Victoria in 1872. He was also a member of W.G.Grace’s side that toured Australia in 1873/74 and played only non-first-class matches. On his retirement as a first-class player he became a first-class umpire and continued umpiring for a further twenty years. Together with Shaw and Shrewsbury he managed the 1881/82 tour of the United States, Australia and New Zealand, each of them putting up £300. He umpired in the four Test matches played by England on the 1881/82 tour and in one Test match in Melbourne in 1885/86 on the tour led by Arthur Shrewsbury. On this tour he served in an administrative capacity. He also umpired in the England v Australia Test match at Old Trafford in 1899. He became involved generally in cricket administration and helped arrange the fixtures for the 1878 and 1880 tours to England by the Australians. 3