Q: "Earliest written reference to baseball"

[Joel S. Berson]

 From the New York Times, Sunday March 13, "Debate Over Baseball's
Origins Spills into Another Century" (p 9, New England Edition).  Also at
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/sports/baseball/13thorn.html?scp=1&sq=dbate%20baseball%27s%20origins&st=cse

Caption on photograph says:  "The baseball historian John Thorn,
[right] center, in 2004 presenting a 215-year-old document that is
the earliest written reference to baseball."

I plead too much on baseball in the ADS archives to search.  Do we
all know what this document from 1789 is, and does it use the word
"baseball"?  The OED of 1989 has the Austen a1817 quotation as its
earliest. A quick look into the archives says there is an instance,
with picture, from 1744.

Joel

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