John Jefferys

John Jefferys, is the first game designer to whom a game design can be definitively ascribed (in the Anglophone world).[1]

For the clockmaker of the same name (1701-1754), see John Jefferys (clockmaker).

Life

He is the designer of A Journey Through Europe, published in 1759.[2] The game is inscribed "Invented and sold by the Proprietor, John Jefferys, at his house in Chapel Street, near the Broad Way, Westmr. Writing Master, Accompt. Geographer, etc. Printed for Carrington Bowles, Map & Printseller, No 69 in St. Paul's Church Yard, London. Price 8s. Published as the Act directs, September 14th, 1759."[3]

As with most 18th century British original board games, it is a track game, with the kind of game mechanics familiar in track games today (e.g., landing on certain spaces advances you or sends you back to other spaces). Rather than using dice, players used a teetotum, a multi-sided top, with a number on each side, players moving the number of spaces indicated by the uppermost side when the top falls. (Dice were considered gambling instruments, and not appropriate in Christian households.)

References
  1. Marsden, Rhodri (13 September 2014). "Rhodri Marsden's Interesting Objects: The first British board game". Indy/Life: Independent Print Limited. The Independent. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  2. Margaret Drabble (September 2010). The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 107. ISBN 0-547-38609-5. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  3. FRB Whitehouse: Table Games of Georgian and Victorian Days, London, 1951, revised 2nd edition Priory House (Herfortshire) 1971, p. 6f.
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