John Seaton, born in Nottingham on 15 January 1844, played just four First-Class matches, all for Nottinghamshire and all in 1872. He had previously played for the XXII Colts, in 1867 and 1869; a score of 23 in the latter was matched in his first county game. In fact Seaton made more than half of his 80 First-Class runs in that first match, against Yorkshire at the Prince's ground in Chelsea - scoring 27 and 23. Given that his average finished at 11.43, he must have done very little in the other three games.
He had professional engagements with Nottingham Commercial, Bradford, Lockwood, Grantham and Werneth (Lancashire). In May 1892, a match was played between Lancashire and XVI of Werneth for his benefit.
He played against the touring Australians for club sides in 1878 and 1880 and in 1886 was in the Werneth side that hosted the Parsee cricket tourists, the first team from India to visit the UK. In that game he gave an impressive all-round performance, taking 11 wickets and making the highest score of the match, 49, in an innings victory for the hosts.
He died at Oldham, Lancashire on 14 October 1918
December 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 136
See John Seaton's career stats here