1600-1754: Sports and Recreation: Chronology

IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 1600-1754

IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 1600-1754

1618

• James I issues what becomes known as the Book of Sports, which allows various sports and recreations after church on Sundays; this ruling infuriates English Puritans.

1619

• Virginia passes laws prohibiting dice and cards.

1621

• Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth confiscates the sports equipment of settlers found playing on Christmas Day instead of working.

1631

• Massachusetts passes a law outlawing card playing.

1650

• Kolven, a popular game in the Netherlands somewhat akin to golf and hockey, is played at Rensselaerswyck.

1654

• By this year bowling greens are established at Fort Orange (Albany, New York) and New Amsterdam (New York City).

1656

• A New Netherland Sabbatarian law prohibits “idle and forbidden exercises and plays” on Sunday.

1665

• Gov. Richard Nicolls of New York establishes the first organized horse race on Hempstead Plain, Long Island.

1668

• Gov. Richard Nicolls awards the winners of the horse races at Hempstead Plain a silver, engraved porringer—the first sports trophy in British North America.

1680

• Throwing the cock, a game which involves tossing a stick at a cock tied to a stake, becomes popular in New England.

1682

• Pennsylvania adopts William Penn’s Body of Laws, which forbids recreation on the Sabbath as well as the “rude and riotous sports” of animal fighting, cards, and dice.

1686

• A game similar to football is played at Rowley, Massachusetts.

1700

• Pennsylvania officials pass new laws against “Riotous Sports, Plays and Games”; Queen Anne, however, “disallows” the statutes, making them null and void.

1706

• Pennsylvania passes another series of laws against sports, but Queen Anne again disallows the statutes.

1711

• For the third time Pennsylvania attempts to enforce laws against sports and recreation, but they are again revoked by royal authorities.

1715

• Horse racing is advertised in the Boston News-Letter.

1730

• Bulle-Rocke arrives in North America, the first blooded horse to be imported from England for stud purposes.

1732

• New York City’s Common Council leases land for a public bowling green.
• The Colony in Schuylkill, an elite fishing club, is organized in Philadelphia.

1735

• The first jockey club in America is organized in South Carolina.

1739

• The first mile track is laid out in Williamsburg, Virginia, for horse races.

1752

• The stallion Janus is brought to America.