William Van Cott

William Hathaway Van Cott

• Born September 26, 1821 in New York, NY USA
• Died June 30, 1908 in Mount Vernon, NY USA

Biographical Information

Judge William Van Cott was one of the founders of the Gotham Club of New York, NY in the early 1850s and a pioneer baseball executive as well as one of the members of one of baseball's first prominent families.

A lawyer by profession, William was a member of the Van Cott family, prominent for their stable of race horses. But the family had other sporting interests, as his brother Thomas Van Cott was an early star player of the New York game, a cousin, Gabriel Van Cott, was an umpire and the club secretary, and another family member, Cornelius Van Cott was one of the owners of the New York Giants in the 1890s. As for William, he was also a player, although not as prominent as his brother, then acted as the Gothams' official scorer and was a key executive with the club, serving as its president.

In 1854 he wrote a letter to the New York Times that was the first ever reference to the game mentioned in the venerable newspaper. On March 10, 1857, he was elected the first president of the National Association of Base Ball Players, the first formal governing body for baseball. The Association included 22 teams, bit they were all from New York's five boroughs at first. It grew steadily over the next few years, to include some 300 clubs representing all parts of the country within a decade.

He was a sitting judge in New York for sixteen years, culminating in serving on the New York State Supreme Court, and made it his mission to rid the city of the notorious criminal gangs that infested it at the time. This led to two attempts to burn down his house in retaliation.

Further Reading

• John Thorn: "New York’s First Base Ball Club", in New York, New York: Baseball in the Big Apple, The National Pastime, SABR, 2017. [1]

Related Sites

• Find-a-Grave Memorial for William Van Cott