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The Secret of St. Andrews podcast is for golf enthusiasts, history buffs and patriots.
You're listening to the Secret of St. Andrews podcast. Visit us at thesecretofstandrews.com, and while you're there, feel free to talk with Hamish, our AI-powered caddy.
Episode 16, Part 1: Clandestine Golf
In 1759, Ben Franklin became an unofficial Scottish ally and began secretive communications with his hosts in St. Andrews. Part one of this episode explains why golfers in Edinburgh were so important to this effort. And part two will explain how this clandestine intelligence-gathering network worked.
Edinburgh is the home of golf, not St. Andrews. In fact, the first documented mention of golf ever being played was in Edinburgh, and it was about 100 years prior to golf in St. Andrews. You might say that's one of the many secrets of St. Andrews. The private golf club was invented in Edinburgh. The Royal Burgess Golfing Society was established in 1735, and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers was founded in 1744.
Both clubs were formed before the Jacobite uprising of 1745, and their memberships were forged during these turbulent times. The clubs were founded by Freemasons and adopted the very selective membership practices and secretive nature of Masonic Lodges. The clubs were small, with only a few dozen members, and their meetings were very private.
Edinburgh had two public lands set aside for golf. One was on Leith Links, where the Honourable Company played, and one was on Bruntsfield Links, where the Royal Burgess played. Members of these clubs would mix with other golfers across these public courses. Golf was a popular pursuit of noblemen, landed gentry, merchants, and military officers, and they mixed with caddies, club makers, and publicans to create Edinburgh's burgeoning golf community.
Edinburgh is where the first open golf competitions were conducted, and in 1744, the Honourable Company published the original 13 rules of golf that were endorsed by John Rattray. The most notable Scottish golfers of the time were all based in Edinburgh. William St. Clair, Duncan Forbes, and James Leslie joined Rattray as members of the Honourable Company.
St. Clair went on to become captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, and James Leslie, along with his brother Thomas, were founding members of the Royal and Ancient. Nine years passed between the formation of the Honourable Company and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, which was formed in 1754.
The next two Scottish golf clubs to form were also based in Edinburgh. Bruntsfield Links formed in 1761, and Royal Musselburgh in 1774. Edinburgh introduced the first clubhouse for golfers, called Golf Hall, which opened on Bruntsfield Links in 1717. Golf Hall was open to all golfers and was used by the Royal Burgess for their meetings.
It also housed the most sought-after club maker of the era, George Nielsen. Edinburgh also gave birth to the professional caddy, where they formed their own society in 1711 with self-imposed rules and published fees, much like taxi cabs. Golf in 18th-century Scotland, and especially Edinburgh, was set against a backdrop of nearly constant war.
There were the Jacobite uprisings in 1711 and 1745, followed by the Seven Years' War and then the Revolutionary War in America. As one might expect, members of Edinburgh's golfing societies were actively involved in wartime politics and economics, and news, gossip, and information flowed freely on the golf courses and in the pubs set beside them.
Edinburgh's golf community was perfectly suited for intelligence gathering, counterintelligence, and covert communications because it included influential politicians, merchants, and military officers who were engaged in the war efforts. When Franklin visited St. Andrews in 1759, the only three private clubs in existence were the Royal Burgess, the Honourable Company, and the Royal and Ancient, and these clubs shared very close connections.
They shared many of the same members, adopted similar practices, and organized matches together. Franklin and his hosts agreed to begin sharing information, and this grew into a secretive diplomatic alliance that helped America win the Revolutionary War. The Edinburgh golfers were at the center of this information-gathering campaign and provided the framework for private communications with Franklin.
What emerged was a very sophisticated intelligence-gathering network run by John Rattray. Rattray was the natural leader, as he was managing the communication with Hugh Mercer and David Weems, and his close ties to St. Clair, Forbes, and Leslie provided him wise counsel. Rattray and his advisors organized the Edinburgh golfing community into discrete cells, and this compartmentalization ensured that if one cell was compromised, the rest of the network would be protected.
Golfers who participated did so at great personal risk, but as Scottish patriots, they did so freely. Up next, we explain how these cells operated.