We are pleased to have permission to reproduce “Sons of the Soil and old Countrymen – cricket in 19th Century PEI” by Richard Raiswell, just published in The Island Magazine, issue 71 (Spring/Summer 2012). Many thanks to The Island and to Richard.
“On Tuesday 9 April 1850 at the Masonic Hall on the second floor of 121 Grafton Street, 29 men met to form the Charlottetown Cricket Club (CCC). These were some of the social elite of Prince Edward Island, men who had influence not just at the high- est political levels, but who had the leisure time to form the nucleus of what would become a new enjoy- ing class. The bylaws laid down that evening decreed that CCC was to be an exclusive club with never more than 35 full members, all of whom were to pay a one-time membership fee of three shillings, and an annual subscription of a another five. But to ensure that no upstart rustic or trumped-up labourer aspire to join the club, the bylaws decreed that all members meet twice a week, at three o’clock sharp every Monday and Thursday, effectively excluding all those unfortunates whose business interests could not be structured around their recreation. The president of the new club was the crusty, 61-year old William Swabey, veteran of the Battle of Waterloo.”