Hamfast Gamgee

Family

Hamfast was born in T.A. 2926 (S.R. 1326), the son of Hobson Gamgee, called Roper Gamgee, a rope-maker of Tighfield. His own name was an old word for a stay-at-home, and it suited him. He came to Hobbiton as a boy to learn gardening under his cousin Holman, the greenhanded, who kept the gardens of Bag End, and in time succeeded him, serving Bilbo Baggins for some forty years. He married Bell Goodchild and settled at Number 3 Bagshot Row, the little terrace of holes just under the Hill. Their children were Hamson, Halfred, Daisy, May, Samwise and Marigold; Hamson went to Tighfield to be a roper, Halfred to the Northfarthing, and Marigold married Tom Cotton, brother of Rose.

The Gaffer of Bagshot Row

By the time of Bilbo's Farewell Party the Gaffer was the acknowledged authority of the Ivy Bush on the affairs of the Hill: on the Bagginses, on the drowning of Drogo and Primula, on the Sackville-Bagginses, and above all on the growing of roots, potatoes in particular. He was proud of his place and of Bilbo's regard, and he did not approve of Frodo's uncle teaching Sam his letters, holding that Elves and dragons were no proper interest for a working hobbit and that cabbages and potatoes were. His sayings, on the disadvantages of borrowing trouble, on the need to finish what one starts, and on the value of a hobbit who knew his own mind, came back to Sam in Mordor more often than any Elvish lore.

In September 3018 a Black Rider rode up to his door and asked for Baggins. The Gaffer sent it on to Bucklebury, and Sam, listening at the bottom of the Hill, carried the news to Frodo. That was the Gaffer's only part in the great matters of the Age.

The Scouring

Under Lotho's rule Bagshot Row was dug out and its holes destroyed to make room for the new mill's sheds, and the Gaffer was moved into one of the ugly brick houses the ruffians had built. He was not consoled by Sam's tales of Elves and Kings, but he was pleased to have his son back and glad, in his gruff way, of the year that followed: Bagshot Row was rebuilt as New Row, and the Gaffer had Number 3 again, this time with the whole of the Hill's gardens under his son's care. He lived to see Sam Mayor and Elanor a child of seven, and died in S.R. 1428 at the age of a hundred and two.

Died at New Row, Hobbiton, in S.R. 1428, aged a hundred and two.