England can produce an 1878 reference to skipping with double rope. Does America, the Netherlands or anyone else have an earlier dated source for two ropes turned around the same jumper?

skip-hop have been teaching double dutch skipping around the world for over a quarter of a century. Double dutch is one of our favourite things to teach, in part because the moment when somebody finally gets into the rope is usually accompanied by an expression that says, ‘I have absolutely no idea how I just did that.’

Where it all began is rather harder to teach. Ask enough people and you can travel from ancient Egypt to China, via Phoenician rope makers, Dutch settlers and New York, without anybody producing a dated picture of the actual game. Malcolm McLaren tends to get a mention too. He was good, but I’m fairly sure he wasn’t working in ancient Egypt.

My earlier article waved a small English flag over a Victorian book. Since then, some older sources have turned up, including American ones. Rather inconvenient for the flag, but much better for the history.

England can produce an 1878 reference to skipping with double rope. Does America, the Netherlands or anyone else have an earlier dated source for two ropes turned around the same jumper?

That is the challenge. I’m laying a skipping rope on the ground and inviting you to step over it. Bring a book, a newspaper, a drawing, a photograph or a family letter. This is the start of a conversation, not the end of one.

The English reference from 1878

On 7 September 1878, Punch published the first part of George du Maurier’s ‘The Rise and Fall of the Jack Spratts’. The Spratts are a fictional married couple living in a London suburb. Among their amusements, du Maurier says: ¹

‘but they skipped, with single and double rope’

There it is. Double rope. In England. In 1878. A useful little sentence for anyone inclined to give our American friends a gentle prod.

It is also presented alongside familiar old games, rather than explained as a startling new invention. To me, that suggests readers were expected to know what double-rope skipping meant. That is an interpretation, though, rather than something the sentence proves.

Was it Double Dutch as we know it? Quite possibly. It is a strong candidate. But du Maurier supplies no instructions, so we cannot see whether two turners held both ropes, whether the ropes turned in opposite directions or exactly how the Spratts jumped. The sentence is clear about double rope and vague about the technique.

I would happily put it forward in the debate. I wouldn’t put ‘Invented in England, case closed’ on a commemorative tea towel. Not yet.

The Victorian book that started the argument

My original article pointed to Alice Bertha Gomme’s The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Gomme describes two alternating ropes, calling inward turning ‘double dutch’ and outward turning ‘French dutch’. That is a wonderfully clear description. ²

There is a correction to make: the passage appears in volume II, published in 1898, on page 201. Volume I appeared in 1894, which explains the date that found its way into my earlier article. Right author and right game, but the wrong volume’s date. The page reference needs correcting too.

Gomme remains an important British witness. However, her Double Dutch paragraph does not name a particular English town or player. A London publisher’s address tells us where a book was published, not where a game was invented. Otherwise, publishers would deserve rather more Olympic medals.

America has brought some paperwork

In December 1891, a Boston school report reproduced a paper Carl Betz had presented earlier that year about physical education in Kansas City. Its list of girls’ exercises includes ‘double rope jumping’. There are no instructions in that list, but it is a dated American reference. ³

Then, on 12 March 1892, Britain’s Girl’s Own Paper described an American girls’ game called ‘Chicago’. Two turners each held a rope in either hand and turned the ropes alternately. The series places its observations in a New York suburb. It does not explicitly state inward counterrotation, but it sounds very much like the Double Dutch family. ⁴

This is a British magazine describing American play. Claiming it for England simply because it was printed here would be a little like claiming pizza because you found the recipe in a London cookbook.

Betz’s 1893 Popular Gymnastics is more precise. Under ‘Double-Rope’, he describes two pupils facing each other, a rope in each hand, turning the ropes towards each other so they strike the ground alternately. One pupil jumps between them. There is a drawing too. As a Double Dutch teacher, I recognise that arrangement immediately. It is the earliest fully explicit description of those mechanics located in this investigation. ⁵

In February 1895, Julian Ralph’s New York story in Harper’s names ‘double Dutch’ as a skipping game. The story was reprinted in his 1896 book People We Pass. These are our earliest located, directly checked uses of the actual skipping name, earlier than Gomme’s relevant volume. The reprint is the same witness wearing a different cover, not a second discovery. ^{6, 7}

So England currently has the older ‘double rope’ candidate. America has the earlier precise instructions and the earlier located printed game name. Nobody gets to quietly move the goalposts. Or the rope turners.

Two ropes do not always mean Double Dutch

My first reaction was much the same as yours might be: what else would anyone do with two skipping ropes? Quite a lot, apparently.

An American gymnastics book from 1828 describes two ropes working on opposite sides of a post. Pupils move round, encountering each rope in succession. It also uses ‘double skipping’ for passing one rope twice under the feet in a single jump. Neither arrangement is the overlapping pair of ropes in Double Dutch. ¹¹

Betz’s 1893 book also describes a jumper turning a short personal rope inside a long rope turned by two other people. Both ropes pass under the feet together. Gomme records the same general type of exercise. ^{2, 5}

A folklorist’s recollection published in 1969 distinguishes a solo trick called ‘double-rope’, in which the jumper turns two ropes, from another game with opposing ropes turned by assistants. It recalls the 1920s, so it cannot tell us what du Maurier meant in 1878. It does explain why the words alone cannot settle the matter. ¹²

That is why our challenge asks about two ropes turned around the same jumper. If you find an older source, please send it even if the game has another name. ‘Chicago’, ‘French’, ‘Dutch ropes’ and ‘Double-Rope’ are all worth investigating.

More English evidence from Spalding and London

A letter dated 21 July 1909 gives us a lovely English scene. Tressie Madden, an Australian visiting Spalding in Lincolnshire, describes children skipping at school sports in Ayscoughfee Gardens. She explicitly mentions two ropes and says, ‘French we used to call it’. ⁸

The published family transcription contains unreadable words, and the handwritten original has not been checked here. Nevertheless, it gives us a dated account of an actual event in a named English place. It also adds an Australian calling an English game ‘French’ to our growing international committee. Perhaps we should put the kettle on.

Norman Douglas lists ‘DOUBLE DUTCH’ among London girls’ skipping games in his 1916 London Street Games. In 1955, the Folkways booklet Skip Rope Games describes two-rope Double Dutch as popular in London and much of the United States. ^{9, 10}

These later sources cannot win the earliest-reference contest, but they help establish that this was a continuing tradition. Gomme, Douglas and the Folkways account all predate McLaren’s 1983 hit. His record reached number 3 in the UK, which is excellent work, but still not an invention certificate. ²³

What about the Netherlands and the ancient world

The Dutch have some splendid old skipping evidence. Jacob Cats wrote about rope skipping in 1618. Harmen ter Borch drew a boy with a personal rope in 1648 and three children using one long rope in 1651. These are genuine early records, but neither drawing shows Double Dutch. Two turners, yes. Two ropes, no. ^{14, 15, 16}

A local-history account from Cadier en Keer in the Netherlands does describe two-rope skipping, with skilled turners and faster jumping. It is a later recollection without a securely established early date for the activity, so it cannot currently beat Punch. It does give Dutch readers another thread to pull. ¹⁷

The familiar story that Dutch settlers brought Double Dutch to New Amsterdam is repeated by modern organisations, including the National Double Dutch League. So is the theory that ancient rope-making inspired the game. The problem is the missing dated witness: a colonial diary, an ancient image or a contemporary description of the actual two-rope technique. None has been located in this investigation. The stories remain possibilities, rather than demonstrated beginnings. ¹⁹

Older Chinese accounts are interesting for skipping more generally. One passage preserved in a later anthology describes a cord appearing to multiply as it turns, then expressly says it is actually one cord. ‘Hundred Rope Jumping’ sounds promising until you count the ropes. ¹⁸

And the name itself cannot award the prize. An older use of ‘double Dutch’ to mean incomprehensible speech is evidence about language, not evidence of children skipping. The two histories may connect, but that connection needs documenting. ³¹

America helped make the modern game extraordinary

An argument about Victorian dates should not flatten everything that happened afterwards. Black American girls and communities, particularly in New York, helped shape the rhythmic performance, footwork, songs and culture associated with modern Double Dutch. Performer interviews with the Fantastic Four and Kyra Gaunt’s scholarship are valuable places to explore that story. ^{21, 22}

The competitive sport has a clearer paper trail. A contemporary interview in Routes records David Walker and Ulysses Williams developing the competition in 1973, with the first tournament held in February 1974 at Intermediate School 10 in New York. This documents organised competition, rather than the invention of two-rope skipping. ²⁰

The distant beginnings may be uncertain. Those later achievements deserve their own credit, whatever turns up in a Victorian cupboard.

The other evidence and the gaps worth investigating

The source list also includes Bancroft’s American instructions for ‘Double Dodge’ or ‘Double Dutch’ in a work first published in 1909, inspected in a 1922 printing. A 1931 patent application, granted in 1933, describes a toy that imitates opposed alternating ropes with a jumping doll. Neither identifies the playground game’s inventor. ^{13, 27}

For visual evidence, the National Library of Scotland’s catalogue for The Singing Street, filmed in Edinburgh in 1951, identifies a two-rope skipping sequence at about 12 minutes. The footage still needs checking for the turning mechanics. Scotland is a useful British witness, but cannot simply be entered on England’s scorecard. ²⁴

The National Archives search produced older ordinary-skipping leads, including an 1843 ship surgeon’s journal and Victorian copyright photographs. The originals need inspection and none currently establishes early Double Dutch. Other promising leads include folklore studies, New York manuscripts and historical photographs whose rope counts or dates remain unresolved. They are retained in the evidence register rather than promoted into discoveries. ^{25, 32, 38, 39, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64}

What the evidence currently says

These are the earliest sources located and checked in this investigation, not a claim that every surviving archive has been searched. The earliest document we find can tell us that a game existed by then. It cannot, on its own, tell us who invented it.

Your turn to step over the rope

So, America, the Netherlands and everybody else: can you beat 7 September 1878 with a dated source for two ropes turned around the same jumper? And can anyone explain exactly what Punch meant by ‘double rope’?

I would love to hear from teachers, skippers, historians, librarians, museum staff or anyone whose family has a suspiciously interesting box in the attic. An earlier source could come from anywhere. There is no requirement for it to be in English, and absolutely no requirement for it to make my English argument stronger.

Please include the date, the place, a link or photograph of the source and the relevant page or passage. If it is a family memory, tell us roughly when and where you played, what you called it and how the ropes were turned. Memories and photographs are welcome even when they cannot settle the earliest date.

If you are sharing an old picture, check that there really are two ropes. If it is a childhood memory, tell us whether you remember both ropes turning around one jumper. And if all you have is ‘my grandad said’, tell us that too. Grandads are excellent company. They just occasionally need a footnote.

I’ll update the article when new evidence deserves a place in it. England has put its rope on the ground. Everyone else is welcome to jump in.

Scott Robert-Shaw
skip-hop