Thomas Lord (23 November 1755 – 13 January 1832) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1787 to 1802. He made a brief comeback, playing in one further match in 1815. Overall, Lord made 90 known appearances in first-class cricket. He was mostly associated with Middlesex and with Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) as a ground staff bowler. Lord is best remembered as the founder of Lord's Cricket Ground. Early life Lord was born in Thirsk, Yorkshire, in what is now the town museum. His father was a Roman Catholic yeoman, who had his lands sequestered for supporting the Jacobite rising in 1745 and afterwards he had to work as a labourer. The Lord family later moved to Diss, Norfolk, where Thomas Lord was brought up. Once he was out of childhood, Lord moved to London and got a job as a bowler and general attendant at the White Conduit Club in Islington. Career Lord is known to have begun playing about 1780 but his first recorded game was on his "own ground", now referred to as Lord's Old Ground, at the current site of Dorset Square on 31 May 1787 when he played for Middlesex v. Essex. Lord has never been given much credit as a player but the match records of the 1790s indicate that he was a very good bowler, although it is true that his opposition was not always of the highest standard. In 1786 Thomas Lord was approached by George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, and Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, who were the leading members of the White Conduit Club. They wanted Lord to find a more private venue for their club and offered him a guarantee against any losses he might suffer. In May 1787, Lord acquired seven acres (28,000 m2) off Dorset Square and started his first ground. White Conduit relocated there and soon afterwards formed, or merged into, the new Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The lease on the first ground ended in 1810 and Lord obtained an eighty-year lease on two fields, the Brick and Great Fields at North Bank, St John's Wood. The second venue, now referred to as Lord's Middle Ground, was built by 1809 when the first games were played there by St John's Wood Cricket Club. This was later merged into MCC who relocated to the Middle Ground in 1811. In 1813 Parliament requisitioned