On March 6th 1457 an act of Parliament saw Football and Golf banned in Scotland.
King James II decree in the Act that there should be regular target practice and military parades and that football and golf shouldn't be played. This was the first time that the games had been mentioned in Scottish documents.
The act was as seen in the first pic, principally intended to encourage archery practice but decreed that football, and also golf, should be simultaneously discouraged. It read
"It is ordanyt and decretyt that Wapinschawing be haldin be the lordis and baronys spirituale and temporale four tymes in the yeir. And that the futebawe and the golf be uterly cryt done and not usyt."
or in translation,
"It is ordained and decreed that weapon shows be held by the Lords and Barons, Spiritual and Temporal, four times a year and that football and golf be utterly cried down and not used."
An important source for the Scots literature of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries The Maitland Manuscripts is another early source of football being mentioned, although in this case the author isn't know, it describes
"The Bewties Of The Fute-ball" this time in verse.....
Brissit, brawnis and broken banis,
Strife, discord and waistit wanis,
Crookit in eild, syn halt withal –
These are the bewteis of the fute-ball
Translated to....
Torn muscles and broken bones,
Strife, discord and impoverished homes
.Stooping in old age then lameness too,
Those are the beauties of football.
It is not clear whether the poem is genuinely criticising the game for its roughness or praising it ironically for the same reason, the author of the piece is also unknown..
Going back to the act of parliament, which was repeated in 1471 and added to .......
"'It is thocht expedient [th]at … ye futebal and golf be abusit in tym cumyng and ye buttes maid up and schot usit efter ye tenor of ye act of parlyament.'"
Translation
'It is thought necessary that ... football and golf be abandoned in future and that targets should be made up and shooting practised according to the meaning of the Act of Parliament.'
A third time the act was added to was May 18th 1491
'Item it is Statut and ordanit ... that in na place of the realme be usit fut bawis gouff or uther sic unprofitable sportes bot for common gud and defence of the realme be hantit bowis schuting and markis therefore ordnait in ilke paraochin under ye pane of xl [forty] sh[illings] to be rasit be the schref and bailzies forsaid.
' Translation
'Item it is Statute and ordained ... that no part of the country should football, golf, or other such pointless sports be practised but, for the common good and for the defence of the country, archery should be practised and targets made up in each parish under penalty of 40 shillings to be collected by the Sheriffs and Bailiffs as previously ordained.'
This was the first time a specific penalty was mentioned for breaking the law. Of course these were laws of the land, but every parish also had their own laws, often laid down by the Kirk.
The complaints about people playing golf when they should have been at church.
The Perth Kirk Session minute book, seen in the second pic, tells of 6 boys caught playing golf at Perth. The ringleader was fined and all were ordered to make public repentance before the congregation.
'January 2nd 1604
Sabbath
'The Visitors report that good order was keeped [kept] the last Sabbath, except that they found some young Boys playing at the Gowf [Golf] in the North Inch in Time of Preaching after noon; who were warend then by the Officiars [officers] to compeat [appear] before the Session this Day.
'Ibid [same] Cempears [appears] Robert Robertson, William Stenis, Andrew Donaldson, Alexander Niving, Adam Paul, Robert Meling, all warned to this Day, who were convicted of profaning the Lord's Sabbath by absenting themselves from hearing of the Word, & playing at the Gowf in Time of Preaching. And therefore the Session ordained first, Robert Robertson who was Ringleader to the rest to pay an Mark to the poor, and, secondly, or dains him & the rest to compear the next Sabbath into the Place of public Repentance, there to declare their Repentance in Presence of the whole Congregation.'
Of course there are still places out in the Western Isles where, although not illegal, it is still frowned upon to play sports on a Sunday or any type of enjoyment as seen in the third pic from only last year protesters picketed the showing of The Last Jedi, the latest instalment of the space saga, at the An Lanntair arts venue in Stornoway on a Sunday. It is only ten years since the first ferries sailed on the sabbath on the Sabbath.
The Loch Portain ferry sailed into South Harris on September 16th 2011 to be met by protest....well they would have except protests as such were banned on the Sabbath, they were actually met by - a line of tape emblazoned with the words "Caution Keep Out" and a dockside devoid of humanity. There was also uproar from the church just three years ago when it was suggested council sports facilities, like swimming pools opened on a Sunday.
Donald MacDonald, a South Harris councillor for whom the sight of a ferry on the Sabbath was so dispiriting that he went away for a week. At the time a family member said: "He is very disillusioned and extremely disappointed. He's probably taken a break to get away from it all."
The islands remain one of the last bastions of strict Sabbatarian observance, with the majority of the 1,950 people on South Harris accepting the rigours of a Sunday of church, prayer and no work. The ban on activity extends from children playing with toys to using public transport.
The Rev Andrew Coghill, of the Lord's Day Observance Society, which had led the campaign against the ferry sailings, claimed that the opposition of a large majority of South Harris residents had been "trampled" by the introduction of the ferry service.
He said: "Of those who expressed any opinion, 90 per cent are against the sailing. It has caused division. The notion that we need to move into the 21st century is a patronising stance that we're quite familiar with."
