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The Secret of St. Andrews podcast is for golf enthusiasts, history buffs and patriots.
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Episode 15, Part Two: The Golf Connection
When Ben Franklin visited St. Andrews, his hosts provided him with an intelligence briefing on military activities in his home of Pennsylvania. The information was much more timely and detailed than he had ever received in London, demonstrating Scotland's advantage in transatlantic communication.
It also showed how sensitive information could bypass the British government's surveillance. His hosts thought this would be of interest to Franklin, and they were right. The information was filtered through a member of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers and secretly passed through a network of golfers to Franklin's hosts, who were members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.
These secrets traveled from the links of Leith and Brunsfield to the links of St. Andrews through a series of carefully arranged matches among golfers who participated in this clandestine network. The game of golf provided both the means and the men willing to carry out what, at the time, was a very dangerous and risky bit of counter-espionage.
This links-based communication network, developed in advance of Franklin's visit, would be used throughout America's war for independence. Here's how the network worked: The Scots had many vested interests in the colonies, which they took very seriously. Many Scots had immigrated to the colonies, and most of the men served in the local militia.
For Scotsmen, the French and Indian War was top of mind, as it impacted many of their friends and family and their trade with colonial tobacco plantations. Former Jacobites serving in the colonial militia were under British military command and were often critical of their British officers, but these weren't opinions that could be shared freely.
The Scots also competed with the English for North American trade, and the tobacco lords in Glasgow were winning this battle. The Scots received better and faster information from the colonies, including crop yields and import needs, giving them a huge advantage over their English counterparts.
Most Scottish citizens used the British Postal Service for transatlantic mail delivery, but the British government still monitored and read much of the correspondence. The Jacobite Civil War was over, but the Scots were still viewed with suspicion. This is why the secretive transatlantic communication system was so important to the Scots.
Hugh Mercer and John Rattray were friends and used this transatlantic channel to communicate. They were both surgeons and Jacobite rebels who served under Bonnie Prince Charlie and fought together at the Battle of Culloden. After the Jacobite defeat, Mercer escaped capture and fled to Pennsylvania to avoid prison.
Rattray, however, was captured and imprisoned, but he was later released and returned to his home in Edinburgh. In Pennsylvania, Mercer became good friends with George Washington. In 1759, Mercer was a colonel in the Pennsylvania Militia and would later serve as a brigadier general in Washington's Continental Army.
Back in Edinburgh, John Rattray returned to his medical practice and his golf club, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Rattray was one of the best-known golfers of the day. In addition to winning multiple championships, he was given the honor of endorsing the original Thirteen Rules of Golf.
Rattray and Mercer were highly regarded Scottish patriots. Mercer was the perfect source for colonial military intelligence, and Rattray the perfect filter for this intelligence back in Edinburgh. However, they shared information at great personal risk. Rattray was under constant British surveillance, and their secretive correspondence would be viewed by the government as an act of treason.
Mercer's correspondence with Rattray arrived in Glasgow on merchant ships managed by the Tobacco Lords and was then delivered by courier to Rattray. Rattray would then commit the information to memory and immediately destroy any documents he received. Rattray would share the updates on a need-to-know basis through word of mouth, and he'd use the golf course to do so.
Rattray was close friends with William St. Clair and James Leslie. All were founders of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. St. Clair and Leslie were also members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. These men often played together, and the golf course provided a sanctuary from British surveillance.
It was during these rounds of golf that intelligence updates were passed to their friends in St. Andrews. Rattray would arrange matches with members of this communication network and, to avoid suspicion, include fellow members who supported the Hanoverian government. One of Rattray's closest friends was Duncan Forbes, Scotland's most senior judge and a staunch supporter of the Hanoverian government.
In fact, it was Forbes who helped gain Rattray's release from prison after the Battle of Culloden. The matches were played as foursomes using the alternate shot format. Each team had two players who would play only one ball between them, taking turns to hit shots until the hole was completed. This allowed the playing partners plenty of privacy between the tee box and greens, and this is when much of the sensitive information was shared.
For added privacy, the players used four caddies who would walk ahead of their players instead of alongside them. In the months leading up to Franklin's visit, valuable information was sent from Mercer, filtered through Rattray, and delivered by intermediaries like St. Clair and Leslie to Lumsdane on the links of St. Andrews. As a precaution, Mercer's identity was never shared with St. Clair or Leslie, and Rattray's identity was never shared with Lumsdane and St. Andrews.
The game of golf provided perfect cover for this clandestine communication. In Edinburgh, golf was played across public land on Leith and Brunsfield links, and the same was true with the links of St. Andrews. These golfing societies didn't own their private courses but shared courses with the public. They didn't even have their own clubhouses yet and used pubs as meeting places like Lucky Cliffins in Leith and Bailey Glasses Inn in St. Andrews. Golf allowed these men to associate in public without raising suspicion but also provided the privacy needed to communicate freely.
Up next, Episode 15, Part 3: The French Connection.