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Conventional wisdom has long held that the first American performing rider was Thomas Pool, who gave an exhibition in Philadelphia in 1785. In his ads this gentleman announced himself as “the first American that ever exhibited the following equestrian feats,” after which he noted the six parts of his program. (1)
He has been held to be the first native performer by Greenwood, Odell and Chindahl, an impressive corps of researchers, and no doubt the reason everyone has accepted Pool as such.
Recently, however, James Cole, of Orlando Florida, has unearthed the fact that there is an American rider who gave exhibitions. In the Rhode Island of 23 May 1774, appears the advertisement we reproduce here (Fig. 1) In it, Christopher H. Gardner said he would perform on one, two and three horses in Newport on May 24 and again on May 27.
On May 30, the Mercury printed a review of Gardner’s performance and from it we learn that he was the son of Captain Henry Gardner of Newport, that he excelled the “celebrated Mr. Bates” in several parts of his exhibition and that he was the first American to perform “in this way.” (Fig. 2)
Jacob Bates, an English rider, had appeared in New York in May, 1773, and in Newport in October and November of that same year. (2)
It is Cole’s contention that Bates returned to England some time that winter (1773-1774), but not before he taught Gardner to ride. Bates might well have sold his horses to the American.
Gardner performed in Newport on May 24 and 27 and June 16, 1774. These are the dates for which Cole found advertisements; there may have been other performances, of course. Then, in July, 1774, he advertised two appearances in Providence; on July 26 and August 2. (Fig. 3)
His ads read “Horsemanship by Christopher H. Gardner, the original American rider, who will perform all the parts which were exhibited in America by the celebrated Mr. Bates.” This seems to indicate that he was doing Mr. Bates’ routines, which enforces Cole’s assumption that Bates was his teacher.
After the Providence dates, Gardner returned to Newport. He gave exhibitions twice in August, 1774. In his notice of 29 August he said the “manage” (the enclosure) would be taken down. Further, he said he would perform in Providence during commencement week (Brown University was then twenty years old), but no proof of his appearance has been found.
Gardner then disappears. One reason for this must be the fact that in October, 1774, public amusements of any kind were banned by act of Congress, a situation that prevailed until the end of the Revolutionary War.
The research for this article was accomplished by James Cole, Robert Kitchen and Mrs. Peter Bolhouse of the Newport Historical Society.
Footnotes
1. Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), 20 August 1785.
2. New York Gazette, 31 May 1773.
CHS webmaster J. Griffin, last modified December 2005.