Lives in Cricket No 7 - Richard Daft

Chapter Five More at Home Meanwhile, an increasing influence on Richard’s life was Butler Parr, the brewer and a respected figure in Radcliffe-on-Trent. He had been a first-class cricketer who made his debut for Notts against Sussex in 1835, playing up to 1842, and then again for them from 1851 to 1854. When the Nottingham Commercial Club was formed, he scored heavily for them. Later, he was a member of the Notts Committee, from 1865 until his death in 1872. In September 1862, Richard married Mary, aged 19, and the only daughter of Butler Parr, who had only one other living child, a son, also named Butler, who in 1862 was only three years old. There may have been other children but they had not survived. The existence of this little son and heir was to have unfortunate repercussions for Richard many years later, but as time went by the situation should have become clear to him. In 1856, Butler Parr senior had inherited a long-established brewery in Walker’s Yard in the village, where Richard started work for him sometime before his marriage – he described himself as ‘Agent’ on his marriage certificate. In October 1863, when Mary registered the birth of their elder son, Richard Parr Daft, she described her husband as a ‘Beer Agent’, as did Richard himself when he registered the birth of Harry Butler Daft in 1866. 31 Daft’s wife Mary, aged nineteen, painted at about the time of their marriage in 1862.