Thanks to those who have recommended my book 'Eminent Victorian Chess Players'.
Certainly you will get a much more nuanced view from reading it, but I can suggest the following picture roughly. I am taking the initial question about this being England's number one player literally, assuming that we disregard for this purpose those who were Scottish, Irish, immigrants or only visiting.
(Otherwise Steinitz or Zukertort would be no 1 for many years, while Löwenthal only took out citizenship after his peak year of 1858. In some later years, Mason, and in several years Mackenzie and Gunsberg would complicate the picture).
While researching and writing, I interacted a lot with Canadian maths professor Rod Edwards whose edochess.ca site would give a slightly different picture.
Staunton first appears as top English player in 1838 on Edwards's ratings and retains that position until his last really active year of 1858 when Löwenthal defeated him 2-0 in Birmingham.
Between 1838 and 1840 Staunton was only developing and was possibly not a strong as, for instance, Slous but there is no direct evidence on which they can be compared.
From 1859 and over the next few years there is no clear leader.
Then in 1866 a formal British Challenge Cup is staged and De Vere wins. He is also the top British player at Dundee 1867 and the Edo ratings show De Vere still top up to and including 1869, but in March that year Blackburne beat him in the playoff for the Challenge Cup so JHB might now be number 1 for the purposes of this argument.
Amos Burn had long periods of inactivity and some distinct peaks, as Richard Forster showed in his biography, and which is more or less confirmed in the short chapter about him in my book.
To summarise, we can say:
1820s: William Lewis, John Cochrane (before he goes to India) and Donaldson of Edinburgh.
1829 (approx) to his death in 1835: Alexander McDonnell (but he was Irish), with Lewis the top English player but increasingly inactive.
Interregnum to 1840 with George Walker and Slous perhaps the strongest, Staunton rising.
1841-1853 clearly Staunton, and maybe still him to 1858.
Another interregnum (nb: Rev John Owen was top Englishman at London 1862).
1866-68 De Vere
1869-72 De Vere and Blackburne joint top;
1873-1895 Blackburne
EXCEPT for 1889-1891 when Burn is top.
(In the period 1885-1891 Gunsberg was top or close to it, if we counted him as English, as most of his contemporaries did, although he was not yet a citizen. From 1892-4 Burn was in America and Gunsberg was chiefly a journalist for reasons explained in my book.
So, almost by default, Blackburne is top again. No English player does well at Hastings 1895.)
1896-7 Atkins
1898-1901 Burn
1902-1911 (at least) Atkins
I won't offer an opinion after that.
However, when you consider that Blackburne came very close to winning the 1914 British Championship,
it is clear that overall he was the dominant English-born player for much of half a century, and I think
this also explains why he is to be my next book project.
If you think you may be able to assist with research, please look at:
http://www.chessmail.com/research/blackburne.html
Thank you.
)
(wot no Penrose-Tal?)
