Tom morris of st andrews, p.37
Tom Morris of St Andrews, page 37
In July 2004, the Royal Bank of Scotland issued a £5 note commemorating the 250th anniversary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, and this bears an image of Tom Morris, the first time a golfer has appeared on a British banknote. It is also entirely fitting that his name lives on today in a very practical and tangible way. Tom Morris is the spiritual head and guiding force behind ‘Keepers of The Green’, a charity founded in 1995 and based in St Andrews, that provides powered wheelchairs to needy people, both young and old.
Few golf clubs in the world are without a picture of him on the wall. His features remain instantly recognisable to everyone who plays the game that he, more than anyone, made great.
Notes to Chapters
1 Roots in the Links
1. The earliest recorded antecedent of Tom Morris is George Morris whose son, Thomas, was born in 1649. Thomas married Susannah Flemyng and their second son, Alexander, was father to John Morris, born 1722, the great grandfather of Tom Morris. All the Morris families were of some substance in the Town, having their purchase of properties and title deeds registered in the Burgh records.
2. Until the Reformation in the middle of the sixteenth century, St Andrews was a prosperous and powerful place. Not only was it the religious capital of Scotland, but also the country’s premier seat of learning. The University, founded in 1413, is the third oldest in the English-speaking world. Additionally, the Town was a thriving centre of trade and commerce.
3. The Robertson golf ball-making family derives from the marriage in 1640 of one David Robertson to Agnes, the daughter of Thomas Buddo, golf ball-maker in St Andrews. From David and Agnes came generations of golf ball-making Robertsons, ending with the great Allan Robertson and the era of the feathery ball and craftsmanship in ball-making.
4. One of the objects of this initiative of providing a Silver Club for competition was to promote and strengthen the position of St Andrews in the golfing firmament. In this, the 22 ‘Noblemen and Gentlemen’ certainly succeeded, for St Andrews continued to be the ‘Alma Mater’ of golf, with all gentlemen golfers in the country aspiring to membership of the St Andrews Society and thereby becoming eligible to compete for it.
5. The following is an extract from Reminiscences of St Andrews Bay by George Bruce, 1884:
Mr (Cathcart) Dempster, like his father, was a pompous, self-interested, opinionative official. His father, Charles Dempster, was at one time Provost, and about the year 1760 farmed the farm of St Nicholas . . . His son, this Cathcart, erected a factory near the foot of Abbey Street . . . and manufactured what was extensively known as ‘Dempster’s Duck’, or Dempster’s canvas, for which he got a patent, and was recognised as one of the principal manufacturers of canvas, in Scotland, for the British Navy. But he lost both his reputation and his trade by one fatal mistake, viz., allowing the yarn to lie too long exposed on the East Bents, or St Nicholas, before it was converted into ‘duck’ or canvas; it was, to use a Scotch phrase, ‘fusionless’, partly rotten. Two men-of-war were supplied with it, and the first gale of wind blew the sails from the spars to ribbons, which also blew away his patent, and closed his factory.
6. Feu is a Scottish legal term for tenure of the right to the use of land, houses etc., in perpetuity, for a stipulated annual payment.
3 The Kirk, the School and the Apprenticeship
1. The given names ‘Thomas’ and ‘Mitchell’ are anomalies, for neither had been used in the Morris family for nearly two hundred years. Tom may have been named after friends of their parents in the Town and whilst there are two such possibilities, it is most likely that he was named after a weaver living close to the Morris home in North Street. Like Tom’s father John, this Thomas Mitchell was a stalwart of the Weavers Trade Guild, being Deacon at the same time as John was Boxmaster (Treasurer). That the two men were close in friendship as well as in their craft can be deduced from their stances and agreements on every issue in the guild. They appeared to form a triumvirate with another Thomas Morris, who was also an office-bearer in the craft guild and of like mind on every issue. Tom was most probably named after both of these close family friends.
2. Dr Buist was a golfer, although his name has come down to us because of his fierce support of the established Church of Scotland and his vociferous attacks upon the reformers of the breakaway Free Church. The ‘Wee Frees’, led by Robert Chalmers of Anstruther, sought the abolition of patronage in the Church. In St Andrews the leading ‘Wee Free’ was Professor Brewster, one of the most distinguished men of learning in Scotland. Buist conducted a relentless, intellectual hounding exercise against Brewster, calling for his resignation from the University Court, which persisted until Brewster left to become the Principal of Edinburgh University. John Morris and his family were staunch Established Church, as his forefathers had been for centuries and as his family would be for years to come.
3. W. W. Tulloch, author of The Life of Tom Morris, published in 1908, states that Tom Morris attended Madras College. This could only be correct if Tom’s schooling had extended beyond the normal age of ten or eleven as Madras College was not opened until 1 October 1833. The first pupils of Madras were from the English School where Tom would have gone, (so named because no Latin was taught), followed a year later by those of the (Latin) Grammar School. Other pupils from the numerous private schools in St Andrews also no doubt were sent to Madras College. It was initially endowed by a bequest of £60,000 from Dr. Andrew Bell, the founder of the Madras monitorial system of education, and was greatly supported by the indefatigable Hugh Lyon Playfair. It is written in 1861 that ‘a first-rate elementary education may be obtained for a shilling a quarter’ and that a higher grade cost two shillings a quarter.
4. Robert Chambers first rented a house before substantially rebuilding and renovating Abbey Park around 1830, turning it into a fine building at the end of Abbey Street. It was in Abbey Park, unbeknown to the rest of the world, that Robert Chambers wrote his Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Published anonymously in London in 1844, this was the first popular and easily accessible work to question the origin of life on earth and in particular the origin of man. It was a Victorian sensation that fired and inspired the great debate on evolution that came to its height with the later publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859.
Chambers maintained a deep affection for St Andrews, where he took up golf and, despite obvious business disadvantages, made his permanent home in the Town after the death of his first wife and marriage to his second. In Abbey Park and subsequently in the house that he built on The Scores, Robert Chambers did most of his greatest work. After his death he found a permanent resting place within the ruined chapel of St Rule in the Cathedral burial ground.
5. With the 1839 report of Allan Robertson winning the ‘inputs’, and that of Tom Morris doing so two years later, we have the first public notices of the two most important historical figures in golf, each winning the only ‘professional’ competition in existence at the time.
Golf did not warrant a routine mention in the newspapers of the day. The results of the Autumn Meeting of The Royal and Ancient were recorded, together with listings of the gentry present. In addition there was a full report given of the great social event of the year, the Club Ball in the Town Hall. These events were reported in the newspapers because they were of interest to the gentry. It was only when the big money matches came about in the 1850s and ’60s that golf caught the public imagination and the outcome of events was regularly reported.
4 ‘A Kind of King Amongst Them’
1. Allan was a short, stocky man with reddish whiskers and an open, alert countenance. He wore a red coat and an almost perpetual smile when playing. He appears to have been quick-witted, expressing a droll sense of humour with a characteristic pawky way of address. The word ‘pawky’ is very expressive to those who have been brought up with it. It implies innate geniality with diplomacy and clever charm. A ‘pawky’ person is immediately likeable and enjoyed by all. If a golfer were to choose a playing partner, he would be well-advised to choose a skilled and pawky one; skilled to partner him through the game and pawky to support, encourage and companionably entertain.
2. Hugh Philp obtained William Fairful’s lease for the links end of a feu at Pilmuir, by this time spelled Pilmour. Fairful had built a cart shed and stable on this plot overlooking the 18th hole soon after the Council’s sale of the land in 1820. It was Fairful’s very modest shed that would evolve, firstly into Hugh Philp’s workshop, and ultimately the Tom Morris shop which stands by the Home Green of the Old Course to this day.
Hugh Philp was one of three master joiners at the time running well-established workshops in St Andrews and employing a number of men. He was said to be ‘a lad o’ pairts’, in other words, a very talented man. His early training was as a wright, the doyens of the craft guilds. The Wrights Guild comprised carpenters, wheelwrights, joiners, cabinet makers and the early architects. It is from the wrights that all of the great Scots architects emerged, notably the Adams family. In St Andrews, George Rae, the City Architect who designed The Royal and Ancient Clubhouse in 1853 and Jesse Hall who succeeded him, started out as wrights. Machine-makers, the inventors who drove the Industrial Revolution with their originality, were in the main wrights by training. As a crafts guild, they were the most fiercely protective of their standards and qualifications for membership.
Little is known of Philp’s success as a joiner, carpenter, wheelwright or cabinet maker and, in different places and at different times he was referred to as one or other of these. He and his workmen, however, must have had a good reputation, for he was awarded the contract for the woodwork in Mr Cheape’s grand new house at Strathtyrum and he had been responsible for work on the Union Club’s Parlour, at that time accommodating The Royal and Ancient Golf Club. Hugh Philp was also becoming recognised as a maker of very fine golf clubs.
3. The Piries were regarded as the best players of their day in St Andrews. When David Pirie died in March 1854 his obituary read:
[He] was one of the ‘old guard’ of St. Andrews golfers, and upheld the celebrity of the Links some twenty or twenty-five years ago. The family of Pirie has contributed a respectable quota to the ranks and renown of St. Andrews professionals, and David was, we believe, the first who made the name famous in a generation now past or passing away. He and his brothers were the ‘crack’ men of our Links before Allan Robertson and the modern race of notables were known, or at least had acquired repute. The Piries figured frequently in grand matches during their period, against the heroes of the golfing grounds, singly as well as in ‘foursomes’ with amateurs.
The story is told of Tom Alexander of Musselburgh, in the early 1830s, on ‘a fly-away’ and unexpected visit to this cold, grey town [St Andrews]. There were no regular professionals at that time and most players had some trade or other. The only man considered capable of tackling the formidable Alexander was Sandy Pirie, the wabster (weaver) and he was away working in the harvest-field! However, they sent for him post-haste; and he came into St. Andrews on pony-back, beat his man and went back to work!
To emphasize their superiority, Sandy and Davie Pirie defeated Robert Oliphant and Tom Alexander by 7 holes over 2 rounds of the St Andrews Green in September 1835. The Pirie brothers were undoubtedly the leading players of their day before the emergence of Allan Robertson.
4. This conclusion is contradicted by Thomas Hodge, an artist, doyen of the St Andrews Links and The Royal and Ancient from the early 1850s until the 1890s. Hodge was adamant that Allan was not responsible for the general increase in the use of iron clubs. In his own presentation copy from the publishers of The Badminton Library, Golf of 1890, he annotated the references to Allan’s increased use of irons in the following terms: ‘Quite incorrect! Allan never played an iron through the green’, scoring out the relevant sentences with ‘Not correct’. There is, however, evidence from the private manuscript notes of H.S.C. Everard relating a conversation he had with Robert Clark, the author and golf historian, in the Big Room of The Royal and Ancient in 1893. In these notes, Everard writes that Clark recalled watching Allan playing in a match that included Col. Playfair. Allan’s ball had come to rest near the Scholars Bunker, the last bunker on the left before the Road Bunker in front of the 17th green. Allan lofted his ball over the Road Bunker to within a yard of the hole. When Playfair said, ‘a fine shot Allan – you won’t do that again’, Allan replied, ‘bet ye a ba’ I do it three times; mind ye, I’ll no say that I’ll be so close, but I’ll stay on the green’. Playfair took the bet and Allan dropped three balls and did it every time. Clearly, Allan was playing with a lofting iron and Hodge was referring to iron clubs in general that were becoming increasingly commonplace in general play.
5. Allan’s personal clubs came out of Hugh Philp’s shop until James Wilson left Philp in 1852 to set up on his own account as a club-maker. After this time, Allan would appear to have played with clubs made mainly by Wilson. He invariably had the heads of his clubs stamped ‘ALLAN’ below that of the club-maker.
6. Although no better or worse educated than others of his class in the Town, Allan doubtless saw himself as a ‘cut above’ most, constantly alert to self-improvement and perhaps even self-promotion. He certainly relished signing his name and address on his possessions wherever possible. In his personal copy of The History of the Robertsons (i.e. the Clan Robertson) he signed his name no less than 4 times. The case containing his gold and pearl tie-pin is signed and inscribed, ‘Allan Robertson, Links, St. Andrews, 1832’. This design, of two crossed golf clubs and a pearl hanging between them representing a golf ball, would appear to have been adopted by Allan as his emblem, and it is perpetuated in stone on the obelisk over his grave in the Cathedral burial ground.
When he bequeathed an unusual penknife in the shape of a hare to his brother David in Australia, by way of a codicil to his will dated 9th Dec. 1852, he attached a label proclaiming: ‘A knife that belonged to Peter Robertson Golf Ball Maker North Street St Andrews in the year 1800 Grandfather to Allan Robertson, Links, St Andrews’. Additionally his snuffbox is emblazoned with the Coat of Arms of the Clan Robertson. Allan was clearly aware of his own importance and certainly proud of his heritage.
If he was conscious of his family’s historical connections with golf and St Andrews, he was equally aware of the importance of learning and education. Allan was 17 years old in 1832 when William and Robert Chambers first published the Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal. This was a weekly publication of interesting and diverse articles, being the first national attempt to bring affordable literature to the masses. Allan was clearly an early subscriber for, in December 1843, he had 49 of the weekly editions bound into book-form, the earliest dated October 1832. Each contained articles that interested him, of which only three related to golf, one of them being a flattering reference to himself. The others covered broad and diverse subjects, showing that his interests extended far beyond the Links. He numbered each page of the volume and wrote an index of these 57 articles at the front, as well as signing, with his address and date, Dec 11 1843, both internal back and front covers. It is, however, in the 5 August 1843 edition that he gives us a poignant reminder of the sadness and heartache he himself was experiencing at that time. In this, Allan outlined in ink a poem entitled ‘Separation’, a sad and melancholy elegy on the parting of a loved one. The poem must have struck a chord in him, for his wife, Helen, was at the time gravely ill and within a few weeks she was dead.
In May 1854, Allan also compiled a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings, scorecards, photographs and other material, dating from 1835, which he continued until his death in 1859. The large leather-bound volume is inscribed in gilt lettering, ‘Allan Robertson’s Golf Album’, and contains newspaper reports of the meetings of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club and of his own and his contemporaries’ important matches, together with other articles that captured his attention. Most of the items are annotated and dated in his hand. Not only do they provide us with a picture of golfing life in St Andrews during his lifetime, but they also permit a glimpse into the character of the man himself. This scrapbook was later donated by Allan’s second wife to The Royal and Ancient Golf Club and is today one of its most prized possessions.
The personalising of these belongings illustrates the importance that Allan attached to them. It is somewhat difficult today to comprehend how few possessions people had in those days and, of those that they did have, the value they attached to them. Allan’s book, The History of the Robertsons, his heraldic snuff box, and his grandfather’s ornate and unusual knife, would be of the utmost value and attachment to him. The gold and pearl stick-pin (tie or cravat-pin) was a treasure far beyond the wildest dreams of the ordinary man, and particularly of the youth who acquired it at the early age of 17 years.
7. All previous attempts at renovating the infrastructure of St Andrews had foundered for lack of both money and commitment. Hugh Lyon Playfair certainly had the commitment and also the will to raise the necessary funds. His nephew, Lyon, Lord Playfair, noted: ‘He laboured with the will and authority of an autocrat, and forced money by subscription with the audacity of a highwayman. Naturally he constantly gave offence, but as his reforms were always justified by their good results, the Major’s tyrannies were condoned.’
Playfair’s renovations were only made possible, however, by the Police Act of 1833, which was passed by the first Whig Government of Earl Grey. This Act enabled towns to levy rates (local taxes) to improve street lighting and paving as well as water and sewage systems. St Andrews adopted the Act in three stages between 1833 and 1861, ultimately giving the Town Council the right to make householders responsible for pavements outside their properties and removing projections into the streets. Playfair would appear to have enforced this Act with rather more zeal than the Provosts of nearby boroughs. St Andrews’ rates were 11 pence in the £1 in 1861, by which time the Gas Company had been established (1835) and the water supply improved. Despite the unsanitary state of the Town, there was much opposition to the rates increase in 1849 when the sewage system was renovated. Indeed, Playfair was forced to fight for every penny he could raise from the Town’s rates even although they were low compared to many burghs of similar size.
