Early cricket detailed timeline

Year Event
PREHISTORY
673 Life of Cuthbert by The Venerable Bede includes an illustration of a youth playing with a curved stick
c1180 Joseph of Exeter, writing in Latin, is quoted in translation as saying; ‘The youths at cricks did play / Throughout the merry day.
c1250 A youth holding some kind of sports stick in the Six Ages of Man Window, Canterbury Cathedral
c1250 A bat-and-ball game illustrated in a 13th-century manuscript of the Galician Cantigas de Santa Maria.
1300 ‘creag’ – an unknown pastime referred to in Latin, in the Wardrobe Accounts of Prince Edward, later Edward I.
c1340 Pictorial reference on the border of an illuminated manuscript of the Romance of Alexander.
c1350 A bat and ball game appears on a stained-glass window in Gloucester Cathedral – most likely a version of hockey called Bandyball
1477 ‘Handyn and Handoute’ among pastimes listed in a statute of Edward IV.
1478 ‘criquet’ mentioned in a French manuscript, referring to a place in the district of St Omer, north-east France.
THE FOLK CRICKET ERA
1562 ‘Clyckett’ mentioned as an unlawful game played in Malden, Essex.
1593 St Omer College for English Catholics opens in France, taking with it seems, a version of cricket apparently popular at the time – Stoneyhurst Cricket
1598 Sgrillare defined as ‘to make a noise as a cricket, to play cricket-a-wicket and be merry’ in Florio’s Italian-English Dictionary. The first reference to cricket as a game.
1598 Creckett’ referred to in a court ease in Guildford during an argument over a piece of land” A witness, John Derrick, stated that when a schoolboy he and his friends played ‘creckett’ on the land about 50 years previously.
1611 Two young men fined for playing cricket on Sunday in Sidlesham, West Sussex.
1611 ‘Crosse’ is defined in Randle Cotgrave’s French-English Dictionary as ‘a cricket staffe’ or the ‘crooked staff wherein boyes play at cricket’. Cotgrave went to St John’s College, Cambridge, in I587, and was in the Inner Temple ln 1591.
1613 An assault with a ‘cricket staffe’ in a court ease. the assault taking place at Wanborough, near Guildford.
1617 Oliver Cromwell, then aged 18, went to London and trained for a time at one of the Inns of Court. William Dugdale later recorded that Cromwell played cricket and football there. This is the earliest known reference to cricket in London. Somewhat ironic, given Cromwell’s later objection to sports of all kinds.
1622 A number of youths ‘playing at cricket in the churchyard’ at Boxgrove, West Sussex
1624 Inquest on Jasper Vinall, accidentally hit with a ‘cricket batt’ while trying to catch the ball – a group were playing cricket on Horsted Green, Sussex
1629 Henry Cuffin brought before the Archdeacon’s court for ‘playing at cricketts’ immediately after divine service. Cuffin was curate of Ruckinge, Kent and claimed that several of his fellow players were ‘persons of quality’
1636 Henry Mabbinck stated he played cricket ‘in the parke’, West Horsley, Surrey – a Court case re a tithe dispute.
1640 A court case involving land at Chevening, Kent, mentions cricket being played there ‘about 10 years since’.
1640 The Revd Thomas Wilson charged some cricketers with playing on a Sunday, smashing a window, endangering the life of a child, Maidstone, Kent.
1646 A court ease at Coxheath, near Maidstone, involving a match and betting on cricket,
1648 Court case about the death of Thomas Hatter, wounded when struck by a cricket bat at Selsey, West Sussex
1652 Court ease involving the playing of cricket in Cranbrook, Kent, involving John Rabson esq.
1654 Money received for misdemeanours by ‘Cricket players’ on the Lord’s Day, Eltham, Kent.
1656 Cricket banned in Ireland – Cromwell’s Commissioners very likely mistook hurling or another game for cricket.
1658 Cricket-ball referred to as such for the first time, in a book by Edward Phillips (1630-1696), nephew of Milton. The book was published in London. Phillips was tutor to the son of the diarist John Evelyn, when the latter was living in Deptford.
1665 There is a reference to John Churchill, later the first Duke of Marlborough, playing cricket at St Paul’s school, London.
1666 ‘He saw your son very well engaged in a game at cricquett on Richmond Green”‘ Letter from Sir Robert Paston, Richmond ln Surrey
1666 St Alban’s cricket club said to be formed. No evidence; probably a misread date – 1666 should be 1806.
1668 Reference to the sale of drink at cricket matches in Maidstone.
1668 Court case concerning the ‘playinge at crickett and strokebase, at Shoreham’ Kent.
1668 Landlord of the Ram Inn, Smithfield, rated for a Cricket Field – this is probably a misreading of the Clerkenwell Rate Book.
1671 Edward Bound charged with playing cricket on Sunday – ‘exonerated’. Surrey.
1677 ‘Pd to my Lord when his Lordship went to the crekitt match at ye Dicker.’ Dicker ln East Sussex. From the Earl of Sussex’s Accounts
1678 The first edition of Dr Adam Littleton’s Linguae Latinae Liber Dictlionarus’ Quadripartitus: A Latin Dictionary in Four Parts defines cricket as ‘a play’ ludus, Ludus baculi & pilae (game of stick and ball). He also defines the Latin word ,vibia’ as: ‘A pole or stick laid across on Forks, like the cricket-bar at bat-play” Littleton was educated at Westminster (and Christ Church, Oxford) and later taught at the school.
1694 ‘2/6 pald for a wagger about a cricket match at Lewis,’ steward’s Accounts of Sir John Pelham, who lived at Halland, West Sussex’. The first solid evidence of gambling on cricket.
1697 ‘The middle of last week a great match at Cricket was played in Sussex there were eleven of a side, and they played for fifty guineas apiece” Foreign Post,7 July. The first record of a match that we know was eleven-a-side.
1700 A cricket match announced on Clapham Common.  
1705 Eleven-a-side match, west of Kent vs, Chatham, arranged for Malling.
1706 Publication of William Goldwyn’s Latin poem describing a cricket match – In Certamen Pilae (About a ball-game).
1707 Two matches between Croydon and London, one at Croydon and one at Lamb’s Conduit Fields, Holborn.
1708 “We beat Ash street at Crickets” Diary of Thomas Minter of Canterbury (manuscript in Brittsh Museum).
1709 First nominally inter-county match Kent v Surrey at Dartford for £50.
1710 First mention of cricket at Cambridge University, noted by Thomas Blomer, Fellow of Trinity College, in a dispute about undergraduates.
1712 Political tract featuring cricket published ln London.
1717 Numerous references to inter-village cricket between 1717 and 1727 by Thomas Marchant of Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, in his diary.
1718 Law suit between two cricket teams, Rochester Punch Club Society and the London Gamesters.
ELITE CRICKET EMERGES
1722 Long letter published regarding a match between London and Dartford.
1724 Probable first reference to cricket in Essex. Chingford vs. Dartford.
1725 References to matches between the Duke of Richmond‘s team and Sir William Gage‘s team.
1726 Single wicket match advertised between Perry of London and Piper of Hampton, Middlesex, to be played at Moulsey Hurst.
1727 Articles of Agreement between the Duke of Richmond and Alan Brodrick of Peper Harow, Surrey
1728 French traveler César-François de Saussure refers to cricket in his journal.
1729 Probable first reference to cricket at Oxford University, (Dr Samuel Johnson stated he played at the University. He was only there one year.)
1729 First reference to cricket in Gloucestershire, in Gloucester.
1729 Earliest surviving bat. John Chitty of Knaphill, Surrey, was the original owner. It is now kept in The Oval pavilion.
1730 First mention of a match on the Artillery Ground, London v Surrey.
1730 First mention of cricket ln Buchinghamshire – at Datchet.
1731 Prince of Wales attends a match.
1735 London v Kent: teams chosen respectively by the Prince of Wales and the Earl of Middlesex. Advertised to be played for £1,000.
1737 First mention in Hertfordshire – Hertford vs. Stansted.
1739 First pictorial representation of cricket.
1741 Bedfordshire vs. Northamptonshire, home and away, at Woburn and Northampton; first mention in both those counties.
1743 Stradbroke vs. Finningham; first mention in Suffolk.
1744 First full score preserved. First extant Laws. First recorded charge for admission.
1744 The year of the Slidon Challenge, when a Sussex village offered to play any team in the country.
1745 First recorded women’s cricket match: at Gosden Common, Surrey, between Bramley and Hambleton (of Surrey).
1745 Setting up of a club in Norwich; first mention in Norfolk.
1748 Cricket bats being made at Welbeck first mention of cricket in Nottinghamshire.
1749 Portsmouth vs. Fareham & Titchfield; first match in Hampshire.
1751 First mentions ln Somerset (Saltford, Bath), Warwickshire (Aston, Birmingham), Yorkshire (Standwick) and Berkshtre (near Windsor).
1754-56 Several references to cricket in the diary of Thomas Turner of East Hoathly, Sussex.
1755 First edition of Dr Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary defines cricket as ‘A sport, at which the contenders drive a ball with sticks in opposition to each other.’ Johnson then quotes the poet Alexander Pope’s use of the word ‘cricket’ in The Dunciad, Book IV, which Pope published 13 years earlier.
1756 First recorded use of Broadhalfpenny Down as a cricket field.
1757 Wirksworth vs, Sheffield at Brampton Moor first mention in Derbyshire.
1766 Cricket played on ice in Hexham – first mention of the game in Northumberland.
1767 The Revd Charles Powlett establishes the Hambledon Club.
1768 Hambledon play the Caterham Club at Croydon who under the patronage of Henry Rowed, Caterham became a powerful club in the 1760s, essentially representing Surrey.
1769 First individual century – 107 by John Minshull.
1769 First mention of cricket in Wiltshire, at Upford.
1771 First recorded match in Nottingham – v Sheffield.
1773 First mention of cricket in Devon, at Teignmouth.
1773 Likely date of the Large bat incident – bat width set at four and a quarter inches, when laws revised at Star and Garter.
1775 William Waterfall was convicted of manslaughter at Derby Assizes for “unlawfully killing George Twigg at a cricket match”.
1775 Royal patent issued by King George IV to Dukes for their cricket balls
1775 Cricket at Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire – first mention in that county.
1776 First mention of cricket ln Dorset (Poole) and Leicestershire (Mount Sorrel vs, Barrow on Soar).
1777 John Aylward makes a record score of 167.
1785 The first match in Scotland for which records are available was played in September 1785 at Schaw Park, Alloa.
1785 White Conduit Club play Gentlemen of Kent.
1787 Foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), opening of first Lord’s ground.
1788 MCC publishes revised code of Laws
1789 Proposed visit to Paris by an England team.
1791 Lord Frederick Beauclerk makes his first appearance.
1792 A military match is known to have been played at Dublin, the first cricket known to have been played in Ireland.
1797 Richard Nyren, the General of Hambledon , died in April.
1798 The Laws of Cricket were revised by MCC during the year. Significant changes saw the height of the stumps raised by two inches to 24 inches and the width increased by an inch to 7 inches and the bowling side able to ask for a new ball at the start of every innings.