John Rattray

It has become a 20th century cliché that the best business contacts and opportunities for professional promotions may be made on the golf course. For one 18th century Edinburgh surgeon, however, it was his golfing connections which literally saved his life. John Rattray, who signed the first written rules of golf, and who was personal Physician to Bonnie Prince Charlie during the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, was famously saved from the gallows after the Battle of Culloden through the intervention of Scotland’s most senior judge and his golfing partner..

John Rattray’s father, an Episcopalian rector, became Bishop of Brechin, then Bishop of Dunkeld and Primus of Scotland. His son John began his surgical training by apprenticeship to John Semple, an Edinburgh surgeon. After completing the apprenticeship in 1735, he successfully passed the examination for Fellowship of Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1740.

Rattray was a keen sportsman and is one of the few Fellows of that era for whom records of sporting achievements are available. In 1731 he joined the Royal Company of Archers, the Sovereign’s bodyguard in Scotland to this day. He was a proficient archer winning the Archer’s Silver Bowl on four occasions. On two further occasions in 1735 and 1744 he won the Silver Arrow, presented each year to the champion archer.

Rattray was also a skilled golfer. James IV of Scotland, who gave the College its royal charter in 1505, in that same year made the first recorded purchase of golf equipment, buying clubs from a bowmaker in Perth. By the middle of the 18th century golf was regularly played on Leith Links where John Rattray proved to be a proficient golfer, and was the winner of the first recorded open golf championship in April 1744. He was mentioned in the first printed book devoted to golf, “The goff”, in which Thomas Mathison describes him as “for skill and corse for strength renowned”. Regular golfers at Leith Links established an annual golfing competition along the lines of the competitions held by the Royal Company of Archers. It was the tradition after the golf to retreat to Straiton’s Tavern at the head of the Kirkgate in Leith to discuss the game over several jugs of claret. (The port of Leith was a major importer of Bordeaux wines, which were copiously consumed by Edinburgh society). The claret jug is the prize awarded to the champion golfer in the Open Golf Championship to this day. From these discussions, lubricated by claret, the rules of golf emerged. Twelve rules (and one local rule, specific to Leith Links) were written down and signed by Rattray in 1744 – the first written rules of golf.

Like most Scottish Episcopalians the Rattray family were Jacobites and when Prince Charles Edward Stewart, the Young Pretender, raised the standard in 1745 Rattray joined the Jacobite army after their victory at Prestonpans in September 1745. At the Battle of Culloden he was surgeon general to the Jacobite army and personal Physician to the Prince. After the defeat at Culloden he surrendered to Cumberland’s forces and was imprisoned in Inverness. It was at this time that his golfing association arguably saved his life. One of his regular golfing partners at Leith Links, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, was Lord President of the Council, effectively the most senior Scottish judge. His intercession on Rattray’s behalf secured his release from prison and saved him from certain hanging, the fate of most Jacobite officers. He was re-arrested by the Hanoverians in Edinburgh and held under house arrest until the spring of 1747. Thereafter he returned to life in Edinburgh practicing as a surgeon and winning the Silver Club of the honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers in 1751. He continued to practice as a surgeon and died at his home in Leith Walk, Edinburgh, in July 1771.