The most valuable, and certainly the most interesting, insights into any individual’s day to day activities, the contemporary world in which he lived, and even his innermost thoughts come from diaries. Diarists who record every detail of their daily life, no matter how mundane, and who share thoughts and ideas with the diary, offer a unique window into their life and times. Thomas Kincaid the younger wrote just such a diary for the years 1687 and 1688 during the time of his medical studies. The diaries outline his activities, the books he read, and his thoughts on an almost bewildering variety of topics. Yet the prime historical significance of these diaries lies in the fact that they provide the first known account of how the game of golf should be played. Kincaid’s detailed description of the grip, the address, the stance and the swing have won him a place in history as providing the first written account of these all-important aspects of the game.
Thomas Kincaid’s diaries are held in the National Library of Scotland (adv.MS.32.7.7) and cover the period January 1687 to 31 December 1688. These were turbulent years in Scotland. Twenty years before the Covenanters had ruled the country. After the civil war, King Charles continued to try to impose Bishops on a staunchly presyterian Scotland which resulted in illegal open-air services or Coventicles, guarded by military piquets. This friction resulted in a series of military conflicts culminating in the early 1680s in what came to be known in Scotland as “the killing time”. In 1685, the Catholic King James VII of Scotland and II of England, was returned to the throne and announced a general religious amnesty. It was during these years of official religious tolerance that Kincaid was writing his diary, a time when the influence of the Covenanters was declining. The year after the diary ended, the English Parliament asked James II’s Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange to become joint rulers. This “Glorious Revolution” in England was a bloodless accession but, in 1689, the beginnings of the Jacobite movement to restore a Catholic to the throne of Britain, resulted in continued fighting in Scotland. The diaries were therefore written during a relative lull in a half century of conflict.
Thomas Kincaid’s father, Thomas Kincaid the elder (qv) was the first to have been admitted into the Incorporation without first serving an apprenticeship, and went on to become Deacon of the Incorporation. It seems likely that he wished his son to follow this career path. It is probable that Thomas junior was intending to take a medical degree in Europe, probably in Leiden as he describes his studies of French and Dutch, and indeed, his brother James had already moved to Holland.
Kincaid’s choice of medical books reflect the great contemporary works of the day including Thomas Willis (1621 – 1675) who, in addition to gaining eponymous fame by describing the circle of Willis, described the features and courses of several common illnesses. He also read the works of the physician, Thomas Sydenham (1624 – 1689) who applied a rational method to the study of disease and first described the course of Malaria, Measles and Bronchial Pneumonia. As a trainee surgeon-apothecary Thomas’s required reading included Nicholas Culpeper, the English apothecary whose book on herbal medicine was to become the standard work for the next two centuries. Like any student his reading also included non-medical books like Sir Thomas Hope’s “Scotch Fencing Master” and Gilbert Burnett’s “Travels” ,and of course, he read novels.
Like most of his contemporaries in Scotland, he was religious, and the diary records his regular attendance at the Tron, the parish church, but from July 1687 he begins to attend the Magdalene Chapel which had been a meeting place for Coventicles which suggests that he was a Presbyterian who sympathised with the Covenanters. Only one of that religious persuasion would be likely to read the Westminster Confession of Faith and the works of Calvin.
Although he had a serious side he had a variety of worldly interests. There is an almost daily entry in the diary “I thought upon……..”. The topics he thought about were many and varied. For the month of January 1687 his thoughts included the principle of “Chymien” (chemistry), fighting robbers, different “humours”, how to play at golf, the best posture for throwing a stone, and voting in Parliament. Other thoughts in this remarkably diverse series include ways of shooting at the butts, billiards, building a meeting house, the best way of making a smiths vice, and breeding horses to run swiftly.
He had an inventive mind and loved to experiment. He made Plaster of Paris moulds of the face of his brother and his friend Henry Legatt but one of his favourite topics, and one to which he constantly returns is golf. On the 20 January after reading “Chirurgia” till lunchtime he analysed the stance, the address and swing which he reckoned would produce the best result, writing “1. Stand as you do at fencing……..bending your legs a little and holding the muscles of your legs and back and arms exceedingly bent but fixed and stiff. 2. The ball must be straight before your breast a little towards the left foot. 3. Your left foot must stand but a little before the right or rather it must be even with it and at a convenient distance from it”. He goes on in 13 such notes to describe the detail of the swing the best type of club and the best type of ball. He clearly thought long and hard about this topic and the following day arose at four in the morning to write about some detailed modifications including “…….the ball must lie upon a line that is perpendicular to that line that passeth between the one foot and the other”. With his friend Leggat he played golf on Leith Links, and probably also nearer home on Bruntsfield Links.
In the summer archery began to take up more of his time. Like his father he became a member of the Royal Company of Archers, taking part in many competitions including the official contests at Leith and Musselburgh. His friend Leggat won the Silver Arrow in 1688 as champion archer at Musselburgh.
Archery provided the opportunity for socialising, as the butts where they practised were often attached to a tavern. After shooting they would go to a tavern for the evening and he mentions no fewer than 12 of these in the two years of the diary. Ale and Claret were the most popular drinks with Sack for special occasions.
His everyday life would include walks with friends or family around Edinburgh visiting the physic garden, visiting Holyrood Abbey to see “the pictures” – portraits of the Scottish Kings or the Surgeons yard. At home he would discuss medicine with his father, write to his brother James in Holland or visit his married sisters. He would often spend a morning or afternoon playing the violin. On 6 November 1688, he notes in his diary that “the Prince of Orange landed the day”.
The latter pages of the diary are missing and little detail is known about his later life. We do however know that in 1709 he donated his late father’s very large library to the Incorporation. The following year Thomas Kincaid was admitted to the Incorporation, probably the first to be admitted without examination. The admission note in the Fellows register reads that he was admitted “In regard of good deeds done by him…….. without payment of any upsett (entrance) money”.
He does not ever seem to have practised as a surgeon but rather became a gentleman of leisure. In later life he is frequently mentioned in the minutes of the Royal Company of Archers, on one occasion winning the Silver Arrow. His poems, both in English and in Latin, published in later life, won him a degree of contemporary fame. He died in 1726.
