Home Page
Registration
Edit profile

catalogue
auction
shopping cart
shipping

history
makers

search
faq
news
links
about
contact
Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland
Clubmakers
John Walker
Musselburgh
These clubmakers are hard enough to track down due to the paucity of historical data. When they have decided during their lifetime that they don’t want to be found, it’s a damn sight harder.

So, with John Walker, we’ll start at the end. In April 1899, a man walks into a bar, Craig’s Restaurant in Fleet Street, London, asks to see the boss, and drops dead. A coroner’s inquest is held. The dead man is a clubmaker from Musselburgh by the name of John Walker and a witness from a local infirmary said he had been in hospital until recently but wanted to get back to Edinburgh and so left the infirmary. He testified he had known the man for several years as John Walker and could offer no explanation as to why the dead man had written his last signature as John Wilson. The coroner had asked the dead man’s age and the witness replied “70”. The coroner added that he had a letter from relatives in Musselburgh via a police telegram (Walker’s wife and children who could not attend the inquest but were satisfied this was their man) that he was only 52. The witness replied, ‘one only need look at the body to see different’.

Alexander Macnaughton, a collector and visitor for the Royal Scottish Hospital, a charity by which Scotsmen were assisted home, also gave evidence. The deceased man had visited, explained that he had had no contact with his wife and children for 15 years which he had spent in London and wanted to reconcile with them. He was beyond work, thought his days were nearly over and wanted to die in his native Edinburgh. He asked for help to get home and signed the application form in the name of John Wilson. The charity required a recommendation before providing assistance which is why Walker had gone to Craig’s Restaurant to speak to the owner. The policeman who attended the restaurant found papers on the deceased which confirmed the reconciliation with his family, concluded he was over-exerting himself as an old man and the strain was too much. The post mortem confirmed heart failure and could be accounted for by over-excitement according to the testimony of a doctor.

Back to the beginning, John Walker was born to William, a currier, (curer of leather) and wife, Helen, in the centre of Edinburgh. This was probably in 1833 or 1834 judging by the earliest censuses covering his life. Once he was in charge of providing the census data he started to get younger! By 1841 the family was established in Musselburgh. John was the oldest child and has left home and his seven siblings by the 1851 census. I would not be surprised if he is the John Walker living with another Walker family, and listed as a son though probably a nephew, as an apprentice cabinetmaker at Covenant Close just off the High Street in Edinburgh.

In any event, when he married Isabella Brown in Musselburgh in May 1857 he is still described as a journeyman cabinetmaker. By the 1861 census, when he and Isabella and first daughter Mary Ann, are living by the Links in Musselburgh, he is a wright.

The 1871 census, with him, Isabella, and five daughters, at 52 High Street is the first mention of him as a clubmaker. Unfortunately it is only the later censuses which show whether someone is an employer, employee or working on their own account. The couple of clubs marked with his name I have seen seem to date from the mid-1870s so he must have established his own business at some point around this time. Whether he worked for Willie Park, as the story goes, cannot be determined from this data. The claim that he was making clubs in Aberdeen, which came from a Bonhams auction catalogue and taught Bob Ferguson there can safely be dismissed. His clubmaking business in the 1870s was not large enough to be listed in either the Post Office directory or in Slater’s but that is not wholly unusual.

No clubmaking in 1881. In that census he is described as a General Labourer. His birthdate has leapt forward to 1841 and he is suddenly younger than his wife. The family is living at Dam Brae with three daughters and a son remaining at home. By March 1883 he was a clubmaker again, whether by employment or by repute. He appeared before Provost Keir at the Musselburgh Police Court and fined 10 shillings, with the option of twelve days incarceration, for ‘a savage assault on his wife within their house’ the previous day. I’m a reluctant feminist but I note the following two cases before the bench were for cruelty to horses by the owning carters. They received twice and three times the punishment meted out to John Walker.

Whether he paid the fine, did the time or just high-tailed it out of Dodge I do not know but it explains the disappearance to London. I can find no record of him in London before his demise but assume he had no contact with Musselburgh. By the 1891 census Isabella has a son and two daughters at home and is described as a widow. The widow status may betoken lack of contact, wishful thinking or both on her part. Other than illuminating some rather sad family history this story emphasises the short time John Walker was making clubs which would have his own mark on them.

Catalogue Search the catalogue for clubs by this maker