Benjamin Aislabie

Benjamin Aislabie (14 January 1774 – 2 June 1842) was an English wine merchant, slave plantation owner and cricket administrator. He was the first Honorary Secretary of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and was influential in its early development. He also played cricket between 1808 and 1841 as an amateur but was, statistically, one of the worst players on record. Early life Aislabie was descended from John Aislabie who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer during the South Sea Bubble. Aislabie's father, Rawson Aislabie, was a London soap and wine merchant who lived at Stoke Newington and owned plantations in Dominica in the British West Indies; he died around 1806 leaving a will worth £60,000. Aislabie was born at Newington Green in London in 1774, the youngest child of Rawson and Frances Aislabie. He was educated at Sevenoaks School and possibly at Eton College. It is not known if he played cricket at school, and he is first known to have played the sport for Homerton Cricket Club in 1795. Cricket Aislabie joined the MCC in 1802 and played for the club between 1808 and 1841. He was President of MCC in 1823 and was the first Honorary Secretary of the club, a role he fulfilled between 1822 and his death. He is often considered to have been a poor administrator with the club "lurching from crisis to crisis" during his time as Secretary, although he attempted to reduce the detrimental impacts of gambling on the sport during his tenure and, according to an obituary in The Sporting Magazine, was "universally respected" by the club's members. During his time as Secretary the membership of the club almost doubled from around 200 to close to 400.