Author: James Gardner

Born: 22 March 1823

Died: 1 Jan 1873

Buried: 6 Jan 1873 St Francis Hospital Burial Ground

The Life of Edward Sopp

Edward Sopp was born in Petworth on 22^nd September, 1823. His parents were Richard Sopp, a labourer, and mother Hannah, nee Harrington. He was baptized in the Parish of Petworth on 30^th November that year. He had eleven siblings although they didn’t always appear on the censuses. By 1841, his father is described as a farmer of Westland Farm and Edmund’s age is given as 20 when, in reality, he was only eighteen. (In fact, in all of the census up to the time he died in January 1871, they seem to have got his age wrong!).

Edmund was a talented batsman, bowler and wicketkeeper and soon came to the notice of Sussex County Cricket Club, the oldest county cricket club in the country. It was founded in 1839 as a successor to the various county cricket teams which had been playing since the 1720s. Edmund made his first-class debut for Sussex against Kent at the Royal New Ground, Brighton in 1843. He made seventeen further first-class matches for the county, the last of which was against the MCC at Lord’s in 1847. In his eighteen matches for Sussex, he scored 276 runs at an average of 9.20 with a high score of 30. With the ball he took 7 wickets at a bowling average of 10.66, with best figures of 4 for 16. (Other stats suggest that he played 24 times for Sussex, scoring 313 runs at an average of 8.45; and took 19 wickets at an average of 8.63. Perhaps they were not all classified as first class matches). One of them was Sussex v England at Brighton on 16^th August 1846.

Edmund also made five first class appearances for Petworth making his debut for the team against the MCC at Petworth Park New Ground in 1844. His final appearance for Petworth came the following season against Hampshire. In his five matches there he scored 37 runs at an average of 5.28, with a high score of 19. With the ball, he took 12 wickets at an average of 11.11, with best figures of 3 for 20. He also made a single first-class appearance for the Players v The Gentleman in 1845; indicating that he was a professional cricketer and played for a living. 

That same year in November, he was charged at Petworth Petty Sessions with using a gun to shoot a pheasant on land belonging to a Colonel Wyndham. Edmund pleaded ignorance of what animal he had shot at until he had killed it. He was fined the full penalty of five pounds – £776.92 in today’s money, so quite a stiff fine. (Brighton Gazette 20/11/1845). The following month, he was on a coroner’s jury inquiring into the death of a poacher, Benjamin Remnant, shot by Thomas Denyer, a head-keeper in the employ of Richard Hasler of Barkfold House in Kirdford.  The jury charged Denyer with “Manslaughter” and he was sent to trial in Lewes the following March. (Brighton Gazette 4/12/1845). Denyer claimed self-defence and the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty as it was an “excusable homicide”.

Edmund played his last cricket for Sussex in 1847. Why did he leave the club and what happened to his career then? A clue can be found in a long-lost weekly journal Ben Brierley’s Journal of Literature, Science & Arts. The following article appeared on 27^th September 1884:

Edmund Sopp was a good batter, bowler and wicket keeper, and played for his county until 1847, when in a match between Sussex and the MCC, he went after a ball of Clarke’s and missing it was stumped out. An influential member of the Sussex County Club immediately uttered a declaration that “Edmund Sopp should play for the County of Sussex no more” and he proved sufficiently powerful to carry the unjust determination into effect. Sopp, who was then only 23 years of age afterwards fulfilled professional duties and engagements all over England, but his name never again appeared in the Sussex eleven.

What a crushing blow this must have been to this young sportsman, not being able to play for his local county. However, we do have corroboration that he did travel the country to play cricket. In 1848, a year after leaving the Sussex team he turned up in the Midland town of Walsall for what the Birmingham Sports Argus (2/8/1919) described as “the first great cricket match played in the town. It was for the benefit of Edmund Sopp, the Sussex cricketer, then engaged by the Walsall club”. It was a match between a Walsall & District XX11 (twenty-two players!) versus an England X1. The England team included James Dean of Sussex who Edmund must have played with. The national team won easily by ten wickets. It’s unclear whether Edmund played in it or merely organised the game.

Later that year, Edmund is back at the Petworth cricket ground in “a concluding match of the season between sides chosen by Mr H Orsborn and Edmund Sopp”. The former side scored 39 in the first innings and 68 jn the second; whilst Sopp’s side scored 60 and 22 respectively. Although Edmund’s side lost, he was undoubtedly their star player scoring 27 in the first innings, 5 in the second and taking nine wickets including that of his brother, Samuel, who played against him. “After the match about 30 sat down to an excellent supper provided by Mr C Dempster of the Swan Inn, where mirth and good fellowship reigned until a late hour”. (Bell’s Life in London 15/10/1848).

By 1851, we know he was back in Sussex for the census form had him at Westland Farm. He was described as his “Farmer’s Son” for his father had managed to elevate himself from labourer to farmer, farming 95 acres of land, employing five men and two boys. In the 1861 census, Edmund, still, living at home, is described as a “farm labourer” so its pretty clear that he was no longer a professional cricketer. Eight years later his mental condition seems to have deteriorated. On 19^th January, 1869, the Petersfield Express reported:

EDMUND SOPP, THE CRICKETER MISSING

         We regret to learn that Mr Edmund Sopp, whose name is well known in the cricketing world, has been missing from his home (Westland Farm, Petworth) ever since Friday, the 8^th inst. For some time past he has been suffering from mental aberration. When last seen he was going towards the river near Lee Farm, and as a hat was found in the river a few days since, it is feared he has been drowned. The river has been searched in the neighbourhood of Lede Farm and Stopham, but at the time we write (Saturday afternoon) we believe without success. As may be supposed his absence causes the greatest anxiety to his friends.

We know that on 25^th January 1869 he was admitted into the Sussex Asylum as a pauper lunatic.

Treatment

When the Sussex Lunatic Asylum opened in 1859 there had been great optimism that treating the mentally ill with dignity, kindness and respect would produce positive results. And in the beginning under the progressive management of its first Superintendent, Charles Lockhart Robertson, there was some success. The asylum started with 250 residents but by the time Edmund was admitted in January 1869, there were over 650 patients and it was vastly overcrowded. This completely undermined the treatment. This meant that according to the figures, Edmund only had a 30% chance of leaving the institution alive. The year before he arrived there was more and more evidence that patients were being physically abused by staff. Roberston left the asylum in 1870 but his successor Samuel Duckworth Williams was soon threatening to fine attendants if he found bruises on the patients they were meant to be looking after.

In the early days, the Asylum had their own cricket team, which the patients themselves played in alongside a couple of male attendants. In June 1870, they played Cuckfield Cricket Club, probably on a pitch on Ditchling Common and one wonders if Edmund played in that match. He died on 1^st January 1871 and was buried within the grounds of the Asylum on 5^th January, consequentially in an unnamed and today unmarked grave like 99% of the 4,000 patients buried there. Edmund’s Death Certificate has his Cause of Death as “Brain Disease”. The burial was conducted by the Asylum chaplain, Thomas Crallan. The Chichester Express & West Sussex Journal lamented the passing of someone who was “well-known in the cricketing world, of considerable excellence.”