Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond

Early life

Lennox was styled Earl of March from his birth in 1701 as heir to his father's dukedom. He also inherited his father's love of sports, particularly cricket. He had a serious accident at the age of 12 when he was thrown from a horse during a hunt, but he recovered and it did not deter him from horsemanship.

March entered into an arranged marriage in December 1719 when he was still only 18 and his bride, Lady Sarah Cadogan, was just 13,in order to use Lady Sarah's vast dowry as a means of repaying the Earl of March's heavy debts.They were married at The Hague.

In 1722, March became Member of Parliament for Chichester as first member with Sir Thomas Miller as his second. He gave up his seat after his father died in May 1723 and he succeeded to the title of 2nd Duke of Richmond. A feature of Richmond's career was the support he received from his wife Sarah, her interest being evident in surviving letters. Their marriage was a great success, especially by Georgian standards.

Their grandson who became the 4th Duke is known to cricket history as the Hon. Col. Charles Lennox, a noted amateur batsman of the late 18th century who was one of Thomas Lord's main guarantors when he established his new ground in Marylebone.

The Duke of Richmond's XI

The 2nd Duke of Richmond has been described as early cricket's greatest patron. Although he had played cricket as a boy, his real involvement began after he succeeded to the dukedom. He captained his own team and his players included some of the earliest known professionals, such as his groom Thomas Waymark. Later, when he patronised Slindon Cricket Club, Richmond was associated with the Newland brothers. His earliest recorded match is the one against Sir William Gage's XI on 20 July 1725, which is mentioned in a surviving letter from Sir William to the Duke.

Records have survived of four matches played by Richmond's team in the 1727 season. Two were against Gage's XI and two against an XI raised by the Surrey patron Alan Brodrick. These last two games are highly significant because Richmond and Brodrick drew up Articles of Agreement beforehand to determine the rules that must apply in their contests. These were itemised in sixteen points. It is believed that this was the first time that rules (or some part of the rules as in this case) were formally agreed, although rules as such definitely existed. The first full codification of the Laws of Cricket was done in 1744. In early times, the rules would be agreed upon orally and were subject to local variations; this syndrome was also evident in football until the FA was founded, especially regarding the question of handling the ball. Essentially the articles of agreement focused on residential qualifications and ensuring that there was no dissent by any player other than the two captains.

In 1728, Richmond's Sussex played twice against Edwin Stead's Kent and lost both matches, with Kent effectively claiming the Champion County title as "(its) men have been too expert for those of Sussex". In 1730, Richmond's team played two matches against Gage's XI and another match against a Surrey XI backed by a Mr Andrews of Sunbury. Richmond lost to Andrews. The second of his matches against Gage, due to be played at The Dripping Pan, near Lewes, was "put off on account of Waymark, the Duke's man, being ill".

In 1731, Richmond was involved in one of the most controversial matches recorded in the early history of cricket. On 16 August, his Sussex team played a Middlesex XI backed by a Mr Chambers at a venue in Chichester. Mr Chambers' team won this match, which had a prize of 100 guineas, and a return was arranged to take place at Richmond Green on 23 August. The return match was played for 200 guineas and it is notable as the earliest match of which the team scores are known: Duke of Richmond 79, Mr Chambers 119; Duke of Richmond 72, Mr Chambers 23–5 (approx.). The game ended promptly at a pre-agreed time although Mr Chambers with "four or five more to have come in" and needing "about 8 to 10 notches" clearly had the upper hand. The end result caused a fracas among the crowd at Richmond Green, who were incensed by the prompt finish because the Duke of Richmond had arrived late and delayed the start of the game. The riot resulted in some of the Sussex players "having the shirts torn off their backs" and it was said "a law suit would commence about the play". In a note about another match involving Mr Chambers' team in September, G. B. Buckley has recorded that Richmond may have conceded the result to Chambers, presumably to stop the threat of litigation.

Richmond is not mentioned in cricket sources again for ten years. He may have stepped aside after the 1731 fracas but it is more likely that he terminated his Duke of Richmond's XI after he broke his leg in 1733 and could no longer play himself. Instead, he channelled his enthusiasm for cricket through a team from the small village of Slindon, which bordered on his Goodwood estate.

Slindon

The rise to fame of Slindon Cricket Club was based on the play of Richard Newland and the patronage of Richmond. On Thursday, 9 July 1741, in a letter to her husband, the Duchess of Richmond mentions a conversation with John Newland regarding a Slindon v. East Dean match at Long Down, near Eartham, a week earlier. This is the earliest recorded mention of any of the Newland family. Then, on 28 July, Richmond sent two letters to the Duke of Newcastle to tell him about a game that day which had resulted in a brawl with "hearty blows" and "broken heads". The game was at Portslade between Slindon, who won, and unnamed opponents.

On Monday 7 September 1741, Slindon played Surrey at Merrow Down, near Guildford. Richmond, in a letter to the Duke of Newcastle before the game, spoke of "poor little Slyndon against almost your whole county of Surrey". Next day he wrote again, saying that "wee (sic) have beat Surrey almost in one innings".

The Duchess wrote to him on Wednesday 9 September and said she "wish'd..... that the Sussex mobb (sic) had thrash'd the Surrey mob". She had "a grudge to those fellows ever since they mob'd you" (apparently a reference to the Richmond Green fiasco in August 1731). She then said she wished the Duke "had won more of their moneys".

In 1744, Richmond created what is now the world's oldest known scorecard for the match between London and Slindon at the Artillery Ground on 2 June. Slindon won by 55 runs and the original scorecard is now among Richmond's papers in the possession of the West Sussex Records Office.

In August 1745, Richmond backed a Sussex XI against Surrey in a match at Berry Hill, near Arundel. It appears that Surrey won the game in view of a comment made by Lord John Philip Sackville in a letter to Richmond dated Saturday 14 September: "I wish you had let Ridgeway play instead of your stopper behind it might have turned the match in our favour".

Single wicket

When single wicket became the dominant form of cricket in the late 1740s, Richmond entered a number of teams mostly centred on Stephen Dingate, who was in his employ at the time. For example, a number of matches were played by a "threes" team of Dingate, Joseph Rudd and Pye. Richmond often found himself opposed by his former groom Thomas Waymark, still an outstanding player but now resident in Berkshire.

Richmond died on 8 August 1750. He had been arguably the greatest of the game's early patrons, particularly of the Slindon club and of Sussex cricket in general. His death was followed by a slump in the fortunes of Sussex cricket, which featured few matches of significance until the rise of Brighton Cricket Club in the 1790s.

Career in the peerage

Richmond held many titles, including the Order of the Garter (KG), Order of the Bath (KCB), Privy Counsellor (PC) and Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).

He served as Lord of the Bedchamber to King George II from 1727 and, in 1735, he was appointed Master of the Horse.

He was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society on 6 February 1724. Later that year, he followed his father, the 1st Duke, into freemasonry and was an early Grand Master Mason shortly after the formation of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. His father had been a master mason in Chichester in 1696. As Duke of Aubigny, he also assisted in introducing freemasonry into France. In 1734, he created a masonic lodge in the Chateau d'Aubigny, and a year later, with another past Grand Master, John Theophilus Desaguliers, assisted in inaugurating a lodge in the hotel at Rue Bussy, in Paris.

Richmond was one of the founding Governors of London's Foundling Hospital, which received its Royal Charter from George II in 1739. The Foundling Hospital was a charity dedicated to saving London's abandoned children. Both the Duke and the Duchess took great interest in the project. The Duke attended committee meetings and both took part in the baptism and naming of the first children accepted by the hospital in March 1741.

Richmond was a Lieutenant-General in the British Army and served under the notorious Duke of Cumberland in the Hanoverian campaign against the Jacobite rising of 1745.

Marriage and issue

Richmond married Lady Sarah Cadogan (1705–1751), daughter of William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan, on 4 December 1719 at The Hague, Netherlands. They had twelve children:

Richmond's interment was at Chichester Cathedral. His wife Sarah survived him by only one year.