Fred Lillywhite - Tour of The US and Canada (1859)

Tour of The US and Canada (1859)

The touring party of 1859 left Liverpool on the SS Nova Scotian on 7 September and returned on 11 November. Its members, in addition to Wisden and John Lillywhite, were the captain George Parr (1826–91), Julius Caesar (1830–78), William Caffyn (1828–1919), Robert Carpenter (1830–1901, Alfred Diver (1824–1876), James Grundy (1824–1873), Tom Hayward (1835–76), John Jackson (1833–1910), Tom Lockyer (1826–1869) and Heathfield Harman Stephenson (1833–1896), who later led the first private tour by an England XI to Australia in 1861.

Fred Lillywhite travelled with his groundside tent and printing press. His role on the tour has been described as that of "scorer, reporter, and mentor, not to say Nestor".

The team won all five official matches against a 22 of Lower Canada (by 8 wickets at Montreal, Quebec on 26–27 September), a 22 of the United States (by an innings and 64 runs at Hoboken, NJ on 3–5 October), a different 22 of the United States (by 7 wickets at Philadelphia on 10–12 October), a 22 of Lower Canada (by 10 wickets at Hamilton, Ontario on 17–19 October) and a further 22 of the United States (by an innings and 68 runs at Rochester, NY on 21–25 October).

There were also some exhibition matches and an impromptu game of baseball when a match in New York was interrupted by snow. The team made two excursions to view the Niagara Falls.

Lillywhite's detailed account of the tour, The English Cricketers' Trip to Canada and the United States, was published in 1860 and reprinted over a century later, in 1980. There was coverage also in the 13th edition of his Guide to Cricketers and Caffyn gave an account in a memoir, Seventy-one Not Out, published at the end of the century.