*Please note- This site search does not include the Vic. & Tas. BMD's, Lots o' Links & Worth a Look Books
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ALEXANDER REID
AUSTRALIA'S OLDEST GOLF COURSE, BOTHWELL
1783-1858
Alexander Reid (1783-1858) landowner, was born in August 1783 in the village of Humbie, East Lothian, Scotland, the son of Alexander Reid, master brewer and Mary Gray. His father farmed the old family property of Ratho, 9.6 km from Edinburgh. There were ten other children in the family so Alexander had to fend for himself. By August 1805 he was a partner in the Leith mercantile firm of Liddell & Reid.
In Dec 1809 he married Mary Muirhead & their first daughter, Jane, was born within a month of the firm's bankruptcy in mid-1814. After this failure Reid continued on his own with aid from relations and by Feb 1820 he considered emigration, his son Alexander born 1820 also.
August 1821 he sailed from Leith with his wife and two children & arrived in Hobart Town Mar 1822. They
lived there for a short time until Reid was granted land on the Clyde River, nearly 80 km from Hobart. The land was in two sections: 1400 acres he called Ratho, and 600 acres downstream, he named Humbie.
They moved to Ratho living in a mud cottage for 3 years until a permanent homestead was built. At the cottage Mrs Reid had been held up by bushrangers while her husband was absent, showing self-control she handed over her keys to save damage to her furniture.
Alexander Reid had a keen interest in Golf before leaving Scotland, so after settling in Van Dieman's land, The Ratho Golf Links were first laid out around 1822 by the Reid family. It is Australia's oldest golf course, and the oldest remaining outside of Scotland.
Their daughter Elizabeth we born in 1825 and then Mary born in 1829 at Ratho. In mid-1837 Ratho was let for seven years & in April 1838 the Reids left Ratho & sailed for Scotland, their daughter Elizabeth, died a few weeks beforehand & Mary dying at sea on the voyage to Scotland, making a double tragedy for the family. They settled in Edinburgh & Reid prospered raising sheep and was active in the social life. The family was happy in Scotland but after lengthy consideration they returned to Van Diemen's Land to their own Ratho in 1842. In 1858 Reid died, having suffered from chronic illnesses for about ten years.
Reid was popular, tolerant, kind & very emotional, masking his strong feelings by wit and drollery. His main interests were always economics and politics, he was honest but shrewd in business. He was always active in public affairs, as a justice of the peace, chairman of public meetings, and owner of horses in local races.
The Ratho Golf Links were first laid out & played on by the Reid family. It is claimed to be Australia’s oldest golf course & the oldest remaining outside of Scotland.
Reference
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/reid-alexander-2584
In Dec 1809 he married Mary Muirhead & their first daughter, Jane, was born within a month of the firm's bankruptcy in mid-1814. After this failure Reid continued on his own with aid from relations and by Feb 1820 he considered emigration, his son Alexander born 1820 also.
August 1821 he sailed from Leith with his wife and two children & arrived in Hobart Town Mar 1822. They
lived there for a short time until Reid was granted land on the Clyde River, nearly 80 km from Hobart. The land was in two sections: 1400 acres he called Ratho, and 600 acres downstream, he named Humbie.
They moved to Ratho living in a mud cottage for 3 years until a permanent homestead was built. At the cottage Mrs Reid had been held up by bushrangers while her husband was absent, showing self-control she handed over her keys to save damage to her furniture.
Alexander Reid had a keen interest in Golf before leaving Scotland, so after settling in Van Dieman's land, The Ratho Golf Links were first laid out around 1822 by the Reid family. It is Australia's oldest golf course, and the oldest remaining outside of Scotland.
Their daughter Elizabeth we born in 1825 and then Mary born in 1829 at Ratho. In mid-1837 Ratho was let for seven years & in April 1838 the Reids left Ratho & sailed for Scotland, their daughter Elizabeth, died a few weeks beforehand & Mary dying at sea on the voyage to Scotland, making a double tragedy for the family. They settled in Edinburgh & Reid prospered raising sheep and was active in the social life. The family was happy in Scotland but after lengthy consideration they returned to Van Diemen's Land to their own Ratho in 1842. In 1858 Reid died, having suffered from chronic illnesses for about ten years.
Reid was popular, tolerant, kind & very emotional, masking his strong feelings by wit and drollery. His main interests were always economics and politics, he was honest but shrewd in business. He was always active in public affairs, as a justice of the peace, chairman of public meetings, and owner of horses in local races.
The Ratho Golf Links were first laid out & played on by the Reid family. It is claimed to be Australia’s oldest golf course & the oldest remaining outside of Scotland.
Reference
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/reid-alexander-2584
1. Bothwell
2. Convicts
3. Tartan Street Signs
4. Ratho
5. Golf History
6. The Gentlemen Golfers of Leith (1744)
7. George Augustus Robinson (protector of the Aboriginal people)
2. Convicts
3. Tartan Street Signs
4. Ratho
5. Golf History
6. The Gentlemen Golfers of Leith (1744)
7. George Augustus Robinson (protector of the Aboriginal people)
Bothwell
Bothwell, Tasmania
Early land in Tassie
https://www.tasmap.tas.gov.au/do/category/HISTCHART
https://www.tasmap.tas.gov.au/do/category/HISTCHART
Reid's main interests were always economics and politics
he was honest but shrewd in business
he was honest but shrewd in business
Bothwell Tasmania
Is named after the town of Bothwell in Lanarkshire, Scotland. http://www.think-tasmania.com/name/ As the near-by settlement of Bothwell grew, the Reids became active in the social life of the area. In May 1830 Reid laid the foundation stone of the Bothwell Presbyterian Church among other contributions to the community.
Gravesites of Tasmania http://www.gravesoftas.com.au/ |
St Luke's Presbyterian Church, now St Luke's Uniting Church, is located in Market Place. It was designed in 1828 and completed in 1831. Of particular interest are the carvings above the main doorway. Daniel Herbert, the genius convict stonemason-sculptor who carved the images on the sides of the bridge at Ross, is credited with creating these strange images which may depict a Celtic pagan god and goddess. Herbert was known for his droll sense of humour. If they are pagan it is amusing to note that Governor Arthur upon inspecting the church ordered the architect, John Lee Archer, to change the rounded windows because they were 'unchristian'. The church was shared by Presbyterians and Anglicans until around 1880 when the Anglicans built their own church
http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/bothwell-tas
http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/bothwell-tas
The Australasian Golf Museum
Located in the market place at Bothwell village, tells the story of how golf evolved from a crude game played by a handful of villages on Scotland's east coast, to now being a truly international game, and Australia's most popular participation sport. It was instigated by legendary Tasmanian golfer Peter Toogood. Peter has been collecting a range of significant golf memorabilia throughout his acclaimed golfing career. Together with the Bothwell community and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Peter was able to display his collection in Bothwell's historic sandstone school house, and not far from the Ratho Golf Links, Australia's Oldest Golf Course. http://www.ausgolfmuseum.com/ |
LINC Tasmania
There is a wonderful selection of records on the linc.tas site, check it out- http://www.linc.tas.gov.au/archive-heritage/guides Copies of land grants issued
http://stors.tas.gov.au/LSD354-1-1 |
Bothwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Bothwell is a conservation village in the South Lanarkshire council area of Scotland. It lies on the north bank of the River Clyde and is 9 miles east-south-east of Glasgow city centre. Historic Lanarkshire: Bothwell Castle
3:48 OLD Maps of Scotland
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ |
Bothwell castle, Lanarkshire
Bothwell Castle Golf Club
Bothwell Castle Golf Course is a flat 18 hole Scottish parkland golf course. The Castle changed hands between the Scots & the English many times in the 14th century falling into disrepair. Bothwell Castle is Scotland's largest & finest 13th century castle and is operated by Historic Scotland.
Common use of the links in Edinburgh were archery, markets, horseracing and Military drills also, the stick-and-ball game known as 'goff' or 'gouff' and it was at the Leith Links that the world's first organised golf clubs were formed & the first rules of the game in 1745. http://golf.visitscotland.com/home_of_golf/history |
Convicts
Thomas J. Nevin Tasmanian Photographer
Professional photographers Alfred Bock, Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin visited the prison at Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula on several occasions between 1866 and 1874. Bock photographed the prison's officers, Clifford photographed visiting dignitaries and the scenery, and Nevin photographed day-trippers, buildings and the handful of prisoners still located there between 1872-74 before they were transferred back to the city prison in Hobart. The bulk of the extant 300+ police photographs in public collections of prisoners taken in the 1870s he took at the Hobart Gaol and Mayor's Court, Hobart Town Hall. At Port Arthur, these three photographers Alfred Bock, Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin made use of makeshift arrangements in the Officers' Library and the Police Court washroom. On day trips they used a photographer's tent. http://tasmanianphotographer.blogspot.com.au/2016 19th Century Prisoner photographs, Tasmania
Taken by, Thomas J. Nevin http://prisonerpics.blogspot.com.au/p/archives The Young Irelanders in
Van Diemen's Land For a group of Irish nationalists Van Diemen's Land was the last place they would choose to waste precious years of their life. In Van Diemen's Land convicts living under a ticket-of-leave could normally live where they liked in relative freedom on the condition that they report to government authorities twice a year, although this did not have to be done personally. However, because the Young Irelanders were political prisoners & they were given conditional tickets-of-leave, which required them to observe additional conditions. http://www.utas.edu.au/young-irelanders/their |
Convict uniform and two caps 1830–1849
Tasmanian Convicts Main Index
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~austashs/con Convicts Tasmania
Between 1803 and 1853 approximately 75,000 convicts served time in Van Diemen's Land. Of these 67,000 were shipped from British & Irish ports the remainder were either locally convicted, or transported from other British colonies. http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tas Bothwell: History, Convicts & Bushrangers Settlement of Van Dieman’s Land was progressing & with New Norfolk settled in 1807, new settlers began to move North. http://www.think-tasmania.com/bothwell/ List of immigrants to Van Demons Land / Tasmania before 1905 with country of departure or ancestry beyond the UK & Ireland (ongoing draft) http://vdlworldimmigrants.wordpress.com/listing-of |
Tartan Street Signs
The tiny island community is paying permanent homage to some of its original Scots settlers by decking the town in tartan. The 500 residents have decorated street signs and rubbish bins to honour its Scottish roots.
Ratho
The Ratho Golf Links is a time capsule, among the best preserved of all the world's early golf courses. Its apparent uniqueness is the sheep, which graze and keep the playing areas short, with fences to keep them from the square greens. This appears to be little more than a backwards blend of farming and recreation outside a small country town & so it is. But so golf began.
http://www.think-tasmania.com/bothwell/ As well as the Reids at Ratho, three other settlers around the predominantly Scottish valley laid out golf courses on their farms. In a rare arrangement, the Bothwell Golf Club initially rotated its events around all four courses.
As well as the rest of their proud Scottish culture which they transplanted into the Upper Clyde valley, they brought the game of golf with them.
http://www.rathogolf.com |
Ratho is still a working farm with "grazing sheep maintaining the fairways and fences to keep them from the square greens, the course is a time capsule of how the game began and the way it was played during its first 500 years."
'Ratho', built by Andrew Bell, the stonemason, is home to the oldest golf course in Australia. It is therefore understandable that Bothwell should be classified as one of Australia's historic towns. The Ratho Golf Links is a time capsule, among the best preserved of all the world's early golf courses. Its uniqueness is the sheep, which graze to keep the playing areas short, with fences to keep them from the square greens. Just as golf began, Ratho is a blend of farming & recreation outside of a small country town.
http://www.think-tasmania.com/bothwell/ |
Golf
Some people think the word "golf" originated as an acronym for- gentlemen only, ladies forbidden? That's an old wives' tale. 'Golf', like most words, derives from older languages & dialects. In this case, the languages in question are medieval Dutch and old Scots. The medieval Dutch word 'kolf'/'kolve' meant "club." It is believed that word passed to the Scots, whose old Scots dialect transformed the word into 'golve', 'gowl' or 'gouf'. By the 16th Century, the word "golf" had emerged.
http://golf.about.com/cs/historyofgolf/a/hist_golf |
Golf History Timeline
http://www.igfgolf.org/about-golf/history/ Club heads were made from beech or the wood of fruit trees such as apple. Some club heads for were made from hand-forged iron. Shafts were usually ash or hazel. 'Featherie' Golf Balls were made from tightly compressed feathers wrapped in a stitched horse hide sphere.
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Records show that golf was played at the world’s oldest course- Musselburgh Links in Scotland as early as 1672. However it is claimed that Mary Queen of Scots played the game as early as 1567.
http://www.scotland.org/features/making-the-links/
http://www.scotland.org/features/making-the-links/
Mary Stuart, who was beheaded in 1587 by her rival, Elizabeth I, kept a cottage at St. Andrews. The Queen of Scots was an avid golfer. She bestowed a necklace to her lady-in-waiting after losing a match. She's thought to have originated the term caddy. She was ridiculed for playing a round just a few days after her husband, the English Lord Darnley, was strangled. That very golf game came back to haunt her.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php Mary Stuart interesting facts
http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/facts.htm |
In 1568, Mary was forced to flee to England, where murder charges were brought against her. Her accusers said the fact that she went out on the links instead of staying in to mourn her husband was evidence of guilt.
Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Earl of Bothwell
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/mary_queenscots_bothwell_01.shtml
Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Earl of Bothwell
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/mary_queenscots_bothwell_01.shtml
Golf Banned As far back as the 15th century when, the game of ‘gowf’, as it was known in those days, was banned by Parliament under King James II as a distraction from military training. Fortunately the ban was lifted when the Treaty of Glasgow came into effect in 1502. The game has gone from strength to strength ever since. http://digital.nls.uk/golf-in-scot |
King Charles I was on the course when given the news of the Irish rebellion of 1641.
http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/kingcharles Treaty of Glasgow
As part of the treaty, a marriage was agreed between James IV & Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty The Online Depositions Website
Fully searchable digital edition of the 1641 Depositions at Trinity College Dublin Library comprising transcripts and images of all 8,000 depositions (You need to register to view) http://1641.tcd.ie/index.php |
James IV removed the ban on golf in 1491, that his grandfather had instigated. In 1502, James IV signed a peace treaty with England, something he had sought for many years. The same year, he bought some golf clubs for 13 shillings. He died in 1513 in battle against England, who had invaded France.
James IV's final resting place
The fairway of a Home Counties golf course may be the king's last resting place. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain Golf went down through the family. King James VI's Perthshire golf club
The King James VI Golf Club was established in 1858 and takes its name from the tradition that King James VI had learned to play golf as a youth on the "Inches" - large public park lands along the River Tay provided for common use. |
Mary Queen of Scots, who was French, introduced the game to France while she studied there. Indeed the term 'caddie stems from the name given to her helpers who were the French Military, known in french as cadets.
http://www.golfeurope.com/almanac/history/history After buying his first set of clubs in Perth, Scotland in 1502, King James IV spent February 1503 in Edinburgh and he purchased golf clubs & balls while there.
http://lorespot.com/lore-moment/2013/2/13/james Flodden 1513 Club, from Coldstream in the Scottish Borders, have arranged to mark King James IV's grave with a commemorative plaque on the 14th tee – an ironic twist given the dead king's grandfather, James II, banned the sport in 1457 for being "dangerous and a nuisance". How the course, which is on land owned by the Queen, came to be the dead monarch's final home is shrouded in mystery. He was defeated and killed at Flodden Field in Northumberland in 1513, along with 10,000 of his fellow Scots, in one of the biggest and bloodiest battles ever fought between the two nations. After the battle, King James IV's body was taken to Sheen Priory in Richmond, Surrey, where it remained until the dissolution of the monasteries later in the 16th century. Thereafter events become more murky, with rumours that his head was used as a football by some Elizabethan workmen. With no historical record of his body being buried, the plaque simply states: "Dedicated to James IV, King of Scots, who fell at the battle of Flodden, 1513, and whose remains were last seen here in the Carthusian monastery of Sheen."
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The Gentlemen Golfers
of Leith (1744)
of Leith (1744)
The Gentlemen Golfers of Leith (1744) was the first golf club and was formed to promote an annual competition with a silver golf club as the prize. Some drafted rules by Ducan Forbes were-
If your ball comes among water, or any watery filth, you are at liberty to take out your ball and bringing it behind the hazard and teeing it, you may play it with any club and allow your adversary a stroke for so getting out your ball.
Neither trench, ditch or dyke made for the preservation of the links, nor the Scholar's Holes or the soldier's lines shall be accounted a hazard but the ball is to be taken out, teed and played with
any iron club. |
You are not to remove stones, bones or any break club for the sake of playing your ball, except on the fair green, and that only within a club's length of your ball.
If a ball be stopped by any person, horse or dog, or anything else, the ball so stopped must be played where it lyes.
http://www.golfingtime.online/wp/original |
George Augustus Robinson
Silver Cup presented to George A. Robinson, by the inhabitants of Bothwell 1835, to acknowledge the benefit that the Colony has derived from the successful conciliation of the Aboriginal people. As Chief Protector of the Aboriginal people in the early 1800s, George Augustus Robinson recorded the deaths of dozens of Indigenous people and because of this remained a man deeply concerned with their plight.
http://www.jbhawkinsantiques.com/uploads/articles/GAR George Augustus Robinson - Protector of Aborigines http://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/discover_collections |
Cup made by Silversmith David Barclay.
The Blanket List
In 1814, Governor Macquarie initiated the official distribution of blankets to Aboriginal people. http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation |
Batman's Treaty With the
Aboriginal People On 6 June 1835, just under two years before Melbourne was officially recognised as a settlement, John Batman, the leader of the Port Phillip Association presented Wurundjeri Elders with a land use agreement. This document, now referred to as the Batman treaty, was later given to the British government to claim that local Aboriginal people had given Batman access to their land in exchange for goods and rations. Today, the meaning and interpretation of this treaty is contested. Some argue it was pretence for taking Aboriginal land in exchange for trinkets, while others argue it was significant in that it sought to recognise Aboriginal land rights. http://aboriginalhistoryofyarra.com.au/4 |
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal & Torres Srait Islander Studies
Family History Unit http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/fhu/about.html Records about Indigenous Australians http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/a-z Centre for Indigenous Family History Studies http://www.cifhs.com/ Guides and Indexes for Aboriginal History http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/aboriginal/ Koorie Heritage – Aboriginal Records at PROV http://prov.vic.gov.au/provguide-65 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders http://www.coraweb.com.au/abor.htm |
The Conciliation, 1835 by Benjamin Duterrau
http://www.brunyislandferry.com/Tasmanian |
Batman's treaty with the aborigines [sic] at Merri Creek, 6th June 1835, John Wesley Burtt, picture collection, State Library of Victoria, Accession Number H92.196
Electoral Rolls
Although most Indigenous people did not vote until the 1960’s, some Indigenous people are listed on earlier electoral rolls which are can be a good source for family history information. Electoral rolls, although only containing information on name, address and occupation (omitted after 1983), can be more useful than telephone directories.
www.aec.gov.au/Voting/indigenous_vote/aborigin.htm
http://www.aec.gov.au/indigenous/indigenous-vote.htm
Although most Indigenous people did not vote until the 1960’s, some Indigenous people are listed on earlier electoral rolls which are can be a good source for family history information. Electoral rolls, although only containing information on name, address and occupation (omitted after 1983), can be more useful than telephone directories.
www.aec.gov.au/Voting/indigenous_vote/aborigin.htm
http://www.aec.gov.au/indigenous/indigenous-vote.htm