The Marylebone Cricket Club Is Founded

During the late eighteenth century, members of London's fashionable White Conduit Club grew dissatisfied with playing at White Conduit Fields in Islington. The location was open to the wider public, attracting spectators whose vocal reactions disrupted matches. Seeking a private and enclosed ground, club leaders including George Finch, the ninth Earl of Winchilsea, and Colonel Charles Lennox engaged Thomas Lord, a professional bowler and wine merchant. They promised to protect Lord against any financial deficits if he secured and developed a dedicated site for their private use.

Lord obtained a lease on Dorset Fields from the Portman Estate in Marylebone, preparing an enclosed area known initially as the New Cricket Ground. According to MCC's own history, the first match on the new ground was played on 31 May 1787, when Middlesex beat Essex by 93 runs. By late July, the venue was commonly called Lord's. The aristocratic players who had relocated adopted the name Mary-le-bone Club, appearing under that identity in a match against Islington on 30 July. While the club's precise founding date went unrecorded, the organization dated its jubilee to 1787.