[2][3] It was presented to Ivo Bligh, the captain of the England cricket team, as a personal gift after a friendly match hosted at Rupertswood mansion in Sunbury during the 1882–83 tour in Australia.

The urn has come to be strongly associated with "The Ashes", the prize for which England and Australia are said to compete in Test series between the two countries.

There was a great deal of dismay felt by the English about this loss and a few days later a mock obituary notice written by Reginald Shirley Brooks appeared in the Sporting Times which read: In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances.

After the conclusion of the Test series, a match was played in Sydney in which a United Australian Eleven defeated The Hon.

[7] However, The Sydney Morning Herald made it very clear that this game was not part of the international "rubber" which had in fact been won by England.

There is also an associated red velvet bag with a Victor's Olive Crown embroidered on it in yellow silk cotton with the emblem "1883" in the middle of it.

[9] Reports have established that the estate of Rupertswood in Sunbury, Victoria, is the birthplace of the Ashes urn legend.

According to a 1908 newspaper report in the Hobart Mercury, an unnamed writer from the Westminster Gazette recalled that a group of Melbourne ladies which included Janet, Lady Clarke, and Florence Morphy, presented "a tiny silver urn, containing what they termed 'the ashes of Australian (sic) cricket.

[11] A divergent story about the presentation of the urn is that on Christmas Eve, prior to the start of the three-test series, and after a friendly match between the English cricketers and a combination of staff and guests held at Rupertswood, the urn was presented by Lady Clarke to Bligh in a joking fashion.

[12] Also present on this occasion was the Clarkes' music teacher, Florence Morphy, who was later to marry Ivo Bligh.

On this occasion Joy Munns says the verse was pasted on the urn, it was placed in the red velvet bag and given to Bligh.

Lord Darnley had an interview in 1921 with Montague Grover, a well-known Australian journalist, at his home in Cobham Hall.

He had numerous photos of the other team players on the wall as well as a leather-bound copy of the original account of the 1882–83 cricket tour of Australia.

[29] In December 2019 it returned to Australia for three months, where it was part of the "Velvet, Iron, Ashes" exhibition at the State Library Victoria.

[citation needed] Despite the Australian and English women's teams having first played against each other in 1934, until 1998 there was no trophy for the series between the two nations.

The brainchild of longterm manager of the English side, Norma Izard and inspired by the men's trophy.