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Masonic Historians. No. V.
VI . ) to be an " evidence of the antiquity of speculative Masonry , of the early admission into lodges of persons unconnected with the building fraternity , or ofthe sovereign ' s interference with Craftsmen in their choice of office bearers , either in lodges or incorporations . " We cannot
quite follow our brother in this belief . Certainly the appointment of Copland does not prove him to have been a Master Mason ; but we must not forget that the grant , dated 25 th September , 1590 , provides for the gentleman exercising the office of Warden , " alse frieli in all respectis as ony uther Wardane of the said Crafte within this real me
dois or may do . Hence it appears to us a most likely occurrence for Sir Patrick Copland to have been an accepted as well as speculative Mason , seeing also that " old charges" prior to that period allude to similar initiations .
In chapter 2 nd we are informed as to the number and character of the volumes of records of the Lodge of Edinburgh . 1 vol ., thin folio , 72 leaves . 159 8 to 1686 . ( The " Vardene booke . " ) 2 vol ., folio , bound in vellum . 1687 to 1761 . ( Has valuable list of members . )
C List of members from 3 vol ., 1761 to 1781 \ 1781 commenced in vol . 4 vol ., 1781 to 18141 3 , and continued in next ( vol . to 1814 .
( A hiatus in the years 5 vol ., 181410 1844 ) 1816-18 , 1832-33 , and 6 vol ., 184410 1869 ) 1834-35 is explained subsequently . 7 vol . contains the subsequent transactions .
The preservation of these books is certainly creditable to the brethren of the lodge , and must be a source of commendable pride to the present members , especially when so many other old lodges have lost all their valuable records , or , like
the Grand Lodge of Scotland , are minus seY'eral years of minutes . The Lodge of Edinburgh Records are unequalled in importance and antiquity , hence their perusal by all anxious to be informed of the customs of our ancient
brethren is most desirable . Without particularising the several chapters , we may state that the " Schaw Statutes of 1598 " are carefully considered in a series of most able and extensive
researches and their application not only to the Lodge of Edinburgh , but to all the other old lodges is noted , and compared with the records . The chapter respecting the " trial of skill in his Craft , " the production of an " essay-piece , " and
the tutors for the apprentices is full of interest , as also those which have special reference to the office of Master Mason and its privileges . Bro . Lyon is of the opinion that " the absence from the Kilwinning and Mary ' s Chapel archives
of any certification of a Craftman ' s ability to serve the lieges in the station of a Master Mason , strengthens the supposition that lodges did not , in the seventeenth century , possess the power of raising FCIIOYV Crafts to the position of
Masters in Operative Masonry . " We quite concur in this opinion , and wonder the subject has not received attention before . So far as our memory serves us , we believe it is the first time such a custom has been alluded to , but now that Bro . Lyon has , in his clear style ,
exhibited the proof that the prescription of a Master Mason ' s essay really lay Yvith the incorporation , we can see p lenty of confirmatory evidence therefor , when the lodges were in connection with incorporations . We believe however that in the instance of
the Aberdeen Lodge the " Essays' when presented by vote of the members attending at the ordinary meetings , and we know for a fact such YY as the custom during the last century in that old lodge , which possesses records fron , 1670 . We are also informed in this chapter
that " applications from parties desirous of being admitted to the privileges of Master Masons within the burghs of Edinburgh and Leith required to be accompanied by evidence of their having been passed as Fellow Crafts by the Lodge of Edinburgh . "
This and similar regulations during the sixteenth century , at once explains why the monoply of the Mason-trade in Edinburgh was in the hands of this ancient lodge . That Masonic initiation was formerly of a very simple character is evidenced by the fact
Masonic Historians. No. V.
" that a century after the promulgation of the Schaw Statutes the Mason word Yvas wont occasionally to be imparted by individual brethren in a csremony extemporised according to the ability of the initiator . The word is the only secret that is ever alluded to in the minutes
of Mary ' s Chapel , or in those of Kilwinning , Atchesan-Haven , or Dunblane , or any other that we have examined , of a date prior to the erection of the Grand Lodge . " This curious circumstance , mentioned by Bro . Lyon , would appear to be peculiar toj Scotland ,
for we have several allusions to " Signs " prior to the institution of the Grand Lodge of England A . D . 1717 , and therefore , simple as the ceremony of initiation may have been in North Britain , evidently in England something more than the "Mason ' s Word" was communicated
to entrants . A little farther on in the fourth chapter hoYVever , we find that the " Secrets of the Mason Word" is referred to in the minute-book of the Lodge of Dunblane , and we also remember that in a series of valuable articles in the Freemason ' s
Magazine , the Prov . Grand Secretary of Selkirkshire stated that thc word was accompanied with a grip at Haughfoot Lodge in 1707 . A still more important statement is made b y Bro . Lyon , viz . r— " Secret modes of recognition among other than Masonic Craftsmen are
traceable through several generations . The 'Squaremen Word' Yvas given in conclaves of journeymen and apprentice * wrights , slaters , & c , in a ceremony in which the aspirant was blindfolded and otherwise ' prepared , ' he was SYvorn to secrecy , had word , grip , and sign communicated
to him , and was afterwards invested with a leather apron . . . The entrance to the apartment was guarded , and all who passed had to g ive the grip . . . Like the Masons , the Squaremen admitted non-operatives . Squaremen were represented in the St . Clair Charter of
1628 . " We should feel much indebted to our excellent brother , if he would favour us through the columns of The Freemason with the date , and a transcript of the " Squaremen Records" in which the foregoing particulars occur .
We have often seen it stated that the Freemasons alone had signs , grips and words , before the last century , and hence the fact of the " Wrig hts and Slaters" being the conservators of " word , grip , and sign" in their secret meetings would certainly prove the distinction claimed for
the Mason Craft to be an erroneous one . Respecting thc question of Masonic degrees , Bro . D . ' Murray Lyon is particularly clear and emphatic in asserting that " in primitive times there Yvere no secrets communicated by lodges to either Fellows of Craft or Masters that were not
known to apprentices . " About the middle of the seventeenth century apprentices actually filled the offices of the Deacon and Warden in the Lodge of Kilwinning , and in 1693 that old lodge recognised " passing" simply as an " honour and dignity . "
We thoroughly believe the foregoing , and also support the following happy illustration of the fact . " If the communication by Mason lodges of secret words or signs constituted a degree—a term of modern application to the esoteric observances of the Masonic body—then
there was , under the purely operative regi me only one known to Scotch lodges , —viz . that in which , under an oath , apprentices obtained a knowledge of the Mason word and all that was implied in the expression , and that this was the germ whence has sprung Symbolical Masonry ,
is rendered more than probable by the traces which have been left upon the more ancient four Iodge records ( especially those of Mary ' s Chapel ) of the gradual introduction , during the seventeenth and the first quarter of the eighteenth century , of that element in Iodge membership which at first modified , and afterwards
annihilated the original constitution of these ancient courts of operative Masonry . " The earliest minute of the Lodge of Edinburgh ( Mary ' s Chapel ) records its deliverance on a breach of the statute against the employment of a " cowane . " Evidently the term meant then , as it did in
Masonic Historians. No. V.
lateryears , an " uninitiated craftsmen , " oramason " without the word" and not as some have fancied merel y "eavesdroppers , or listeners outside the lodge . " We should like to glance at the various resolutions passed b y the Lodge of Edinburgh in
early days , respecting operative Masons and Masonry , but we must forbear , especially as the curious regulations and minutes are so numerous and valuable that one would be embarrassed in in making a selection . Their value , however , to archaeological Freemasons cannot well be overestimated .
The Lodge of Edinburgh ( we are told ) seems , for ' 120 years from the revivification of the Scotch Lodges in Schaw ' s time , to have existed chiefly as an auxiliary to the Masonic section of the Incorporation of Mary ' s Chapel . "
It appears to have been the custom in the early experience of the Lodge of Edinburgh , ( and so of all the Scottish Lodges ) to " initiate notaries with a view to their acting as lodge Clerks" It is well to note that the Clerk of the Lodge of Edinburgh ( Bro . ' Robert Alison ,
Writer ) , initiated and elected on St . John ' s day 1709 was also elected Clerk to the Grand Lodge of Scotland on its institution in 1736 , without however resigning his former office , for his connection with that lodge terminated only with his decease in 1752 .
Though we agree with Bro . Lyon that "Mri Allison held the office during what may be called the transition period of the lodge ' s history , and by the guarded style in which he recorded its transactions has contributed to veil in a hitherto impenetrable secrecy details ofthe most important
epoch in the history of Scottish Freemasonry , " yet we think no intelligent brother could re . id the records presented in the history of the Lodge of Edinburgh from the sixteenth century to the institution of the Grand Lodge of Scotland 1736 without being struck with the gradual progress
of the speculative element , and that the alterations or additions known as the " Revival period " were more of the character of slow transitions from the operative to the speculative experience of Freemasonry , rather than a violent and radical change , or an entirely new creation . In
reality the Freemasonry after 1736 in Scotland was virtually a continuation of that which previously existed as respects the esoteric customs , and a combination of the old " signs , words , and grips" with others of a more elaborate style , cording to the evidence of these ancient minutes .
We think our co-labourers Bros , the Rev . A . F . A . Woodford and D . Murray Lyon , will support us in this view . The admission of Elias Ashmole in 1646 is shown not to be the first instance ofthe initiation of a non-operative , for John Boswell , Esq ., the
Laird of Auchinlech , YY as present at one of the lodge meetings of Mary ' s Chapel as early as A . D . 1600 . In chapter viii . are given the celebrate St . Clair Charters of 1600 and ifoSfeirca ) and their
history is sketched by a masterl y hand , indeed we knoiv not where else such interesting particulars are obtainable , their elucidation and collation being one of Bro . Lyon ' s most important works . The next chapter , on craftsmen ' s marks , deserves a most careful perusal .
In chapter xi . there is much that requires consideration , especially the excerpts of minutes from 1634 , f ° "they afford authentic instances of Speculative Masons having been admitted to to the fellowship of the Lodge of Edinburgh 12 years prior to the reception of Colonel
Mainwaring and Elias Ashmole in the Lodge of Warrington , and 38 years before the date at which the presence of gentlemen Masons is first described in the Lodge of Kilwinning by the election of Lord Cassilles to the Deaconship . "
Surely this statement sufficiently demonstrates the value ofthe Records of the Lodge of Edinburgh , and how pleased YVC should be that they are at last published . ) ( To be continued . )
Ar01103
A BOON TO EVERY HOUSEHOLD . —Boots , with the celebrated wire-quilted soles , wearing twice as long asordinary leather , for all ages ; and children ' s boots with metallic tips , which never wear out at the toes , may be had at most shoe dealers . Insist on giving these a trial , and juds ; e on their merits .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Historians. No. V.
VI . ) to be an " evidence of the antiquity of speculative Masonry , of the early admission into lodges of persons unconnected with the building fraternity , or ofthe sovereign ' s interference with Craftsmen in their choice of office bearers , either in lodges or incorporations . " We cannot
quite follow our brother in this belief . Certainly the appointment of Copland does not prove him to have been a Master Mason ; but we must not forget that the grant , dated 25 th September , 1590 , provides for the gentleman exercising the office of Warden , " alse frieli in all respectis as ony uther Wardane of the said Crafte within this real me
dois or may do . Hence it appears to us a most likely occurrence for Sir Patrick Copland to have been an accepted as well as speculative Mason , seeing also that " old charges" prior to that period allude to similar initiations .
In chapter 2 nd we are informed as to the number and character of the volumes of records of the Lodge of Edinburgh . 1 vol ., thin folio , 72 leaves . 159 8 to 1686 . ( The " Vardene booke . " ) 2 vol ., folio , bound in vellum . 1687 to 1761 . ( Has valuable list of members . )
C List of members from 3 vol ., 1761 to 1781 \ 1781 commenced in vol . 4 vol ., 1781 to 18141 3 , and continued in next ( vol . to 1814 .
( A hiatus in the years 5 vol ., 181410 1844 ) 1816-18 , 1832-33 , and 6 vol ., 184410 1869 ) 1834-35 is explained subsequently . 7 vol . contains the subsequent transactions .
The preservation of these books is certainly creditable to the brethren of the lodge , and must be a source of commendable pride to the present members , especially when so many other old lodges have lost all their valuable records , or , like
the Grand Lodge of Scotland , are minus seY'eral years of minutes . The Lodge of Edinburgh Records are unequalled in importance and antiquity , hence their perusal by all anxious to be informed of the customs of our ancient
brethren is most desirable . Without particularising the several chapters , we may state that the " Schaw Statutes of 1598 " are carefully considered in a series of most able and extensive
researches and their application not only to the Lodge of Edinburgh , but to all the other old lodges is noted , and compared with the records . The chapter respecting the " trial of skill in his Craft , " the production of an " essay-piece , " and
the tutors for the apprentices is full of interest , as also those which have special reference to the office of Master Mason and its privileges . Bro . Lyon is of the opinion that " the absence from the Kilwinning and Mary ' s Chapel archives
of any certification of a Craftman ' s ability to serve the lieges in the station of a Master Mason , strengthens the supposition that lodges did not , in the seventeenth century , possess the power of raising FCIIOYV Crafts to the position of
Masters in Operative Masonry . " We quite concur in this opinion , and wonder the subject has not received attention before . So far as our memory serves us , we believe it is the first time such a custom has been alluded to , but now that Bro . Lyon has , in his clear style ,
exhibited the proof that the prescription of a Master Mason ' s essay really lay Yvith the incorporation , we can see p lenty of confirmatory evidence therefor , when the lodges were in connection with incorporations . We believe however that in the instance of
the Aberdeen Lodge the " Essays' when presented by vote of the members attending at the ordinary meetings , and we know for a fact such YY as the custom during the last century in that old lodge , which possesses records fron , 1670 . We are also informed in this chapter
that " applications from parties desirous of being admitted to the privileges of Master Masons within the burghs of Edinburgh and Leith required to be accompanied by evidence of their having been passed as Fellow Crafts by the Lodge of Edinburgh . "
This and similar regulations during the sixteenth century , at once explains why the monoply of the Mason-trade in Edinburgh was in the hands of this ancient lodge . That Masonic initiation was formerly of a very simple character is evidenced by the fact
Masonic Historians. No. V.
" that a century after the promulgation of the Schaw Statutes the Mason word Yvas wont occasionally to be imparted by individual brethren in a csremony extemporised according to the ability of the initiator . The word is the only secret that is ever alluded to in the minutes
of Mary ' s Chapel , or in those of Kilwinning , Atchesan-Haven , or Dunblane , or any other that we have examined , of a date prior to the erection of the Grand Lodge . " This curious circumstance , mentioned by Bro . Lyon , would appear to be peculiar toj Scotland ,
for we have several allusions to " Signs " prior to the institution of the Grand Lodge of England A . D . 1717 , and therefore , simple as the ceremony of initiation may have been in North Britain , evidently in England something more than the "Mason ' s Word" was communicated
to entrants . A little farther on in the fourth chapter hoYVever , we find that the " Secrets of the Mason Word" is referred to in the minute-book of the Lodge of Dunblane , and we also remember that in a series of valuable articles in the Freemason ' s
Magazine , the Prov . Grand Secretary of Selkirkshire stated that thc word was accompanied with a grip at Haughfoot Lodge in 1707 . A still more important statement is made b y Bro . Lyon , viz . r— " Secret modes of recognition among other than Masonic Craftsmen are
traceable through several generations . The 'Squaremen Word' Yvas given in conclaves of journeymen and apprentice * wrights , slaters , & c , in a ceremony in which the aspirant was blindfolded and otherwise ' prepared , ' he was SYvorn to secrecy , had word , grip , and sign communicated
to him , and was afterwards invested with a leather apron . . . The entrance to the apartment was guarded , and all who passed had to g ive the grip . . . Like the Masons , the Squaremen admitted non-operatives . Squaremen were represented in the St . Clair Charter of
1628 . " We should feel much indebted to our excellent brother , if he would favour us through the columns of The Freemason with the date , and a transcript of the " Squaremen Records" in which the foregoing particulars occur .
We have often seen it stated that the Freemasons alone had signs , grips and words , before the last century , and hence the fact of the " Wrig hts and Slaters" being the conservators of " word , grip , and sign" in their secret meetings would certainly prove the distinction claimed for
the Mason Craft to be an erroneous one . Respecting thc question of Masonic degrees , Bro . D . ' Murray Lyon is particularly clear and emphatic in asserting that " in primitive times there Yvere no secrets communicated by lodges to either Fellows of Craft or Masters that were not
known to apprentices . " About the middle of the seventeenth century apprentices actually filled the offices of the Deacon and Warden in the Lodge of Kilwinning , and in 1693 that old lodge recognised " passing" simply as an " honour and dignity . "
We thoroughly believe the foregoing , and also support the following happy illustration of the fact . " If the communication by Mason lodges of secret words or signs constituted a degree—a term of modern application to the esoteric observances of the Masonic body—then
there was , under the purely operative regi me only one known to Scotch lodges , —viz . that in which , under an oath , apprentices obtained a knowledge of the Mason word and all that was implied in the expression , and that this was the germ whence has sprung Symbolical Masonry ,
is rendered more than probable by the traces which have been left upon the more ancient four Iodge records ( especially those of Mary ' s Chapel ) of the gradual introduction , during the seventeenth and the first quarter of the eighteenth century , of that element in Iodge membership which at first modified , and afterwards
annihilated the original constitution of these ancient courts of operative Masonry . " The earliest minute of the Lodge of Edinburgh ( Mary ' s Chapel ) records its deliverance on a breach of the statute against the employment of a " cowane . " Evidently the term meant then , as it did in
Masonic Historians. No. V.
lateryears , an " uninitiated craftsmen , " oramason " without the word" and not as some have fancied merel y "eavesdroppers , or listeners outside the lodge . " We should like to glance at the various resolutions passed b y the Lodge of Edinburgh in
early days , respecting operative Masons and Masonry , but we must forbear , especially as the curious regulations and minutes are so numerous and valuable that one would be embarrassed in in making a selection . Their value , however , to archaeological Freemasons cannot well be overestimated .
The Lodge of Edinburgh ( we are told ) seems , for ' 120 years from the revivification of the Scotch Lodges in Schaw ' s time , to have existed chiefly as an auxiliary to the Masonic section of the Incorporation of Mary ' s Chapel . "
It appears to have been the custom in the early experience of the Lodge of Edinburgh , ( and so of all the Scottish Lodges ) to " initiate notaries with a view to their acting as lodge Clerks" It is well to note that the Clerk of the Lodge of Edinburgh ( Bro . ' Robert Alison ,
Writer ) , initiated and elected on St . John ' s day 1709 was also elected Clerk to the Grand Lodge of Scotland on its institution in 1736 , without however resigning his former office , for his connection with that lodge terminated only with his decease in 1752 .
Though we agree with Bro . Lyon that "Mri Allison held the office during what may be called the transition period of the lodge ' s history , and by the guarded style in which he recorded its transactions has contributed to veil in a hitherto impenetrable secrecy details ofthe most important
epoch in the history of Scottish Freemasonry , " yet we think no intelligent brother could re . id the records presented in the history of the Lodge of Edinburgh from the sixteenth century to the institution of the Grand Lodge of Scotland 1736 without being struck with the gradual progress
of the speculative element , and that the alterations or additions known as the " Revival period " were more of the character of slow transitions from the operative to the speculative experience of Freemasonry , rather than a violent and radical change , or an entirely new creation . In
reality the Freemasonry after 1736 in Scotland was virtually a continuation of that which previously existed as respects the esoteric customs , and a combination of the old " signs , words , and grips" with others of a more elaborate style , cording to the evidence of these ancient minutes .
We think our co-labourers Bros , the Rev . A . F . A . Woodford and D . Murray Lyon , will support us in this view . The admission of Elias Ashmole in 1646 is shown not to be the first instance ofthe initiation of a non-operative , for John Boswell , Esq ., the
Laird of Auchinlech , YY as present at one of the lodge meetings of Mary ' s Chapel as early as A . D . 1600 . In chapter viii . are given the celebrate St . Clair Charters of 1600 and ifoSfeirca ) and their
history is sketched by a masterl y hand , indeed we knoiv not where else such interesting particulars are obtainable , their elucidation and collation being one of Bro . Lyon ' s most important works . The next chapter , on craftsmen ' s marks , deserves a most careful perusal .
In chapter xi . there is much that requires consideration , especially the excerpts of minutes from 1634 , f ° "they afford authentic instances of Speculative Masons having been admitted to to the fellowship of the Lodge of Edinburgh 12 years prior to the reception of Colonel
Mainwaring and Elias Ashmole in the Lodge of Warrington , and 38 years before the date at which the presence of gentlemen Masons is first described in the Lodge of Kilwinning by the election of Lord Cassilles to the Deaconship . "
Surely this statement sufficiently demonstrates the value ofthe Records of the Lodge of Edinburgh , and how pleased YVC should be that they are at last published . ) ( To be continued . )
Ar01103
A BOON TO EVERY HOUSEHOLD . —Boots , with the celebrated wire-quilted soles , wearing twice as long asordinary leather , for all ages ; and children ' s boots with metallic tips , which never wear out at the toes , may be had at most shoe dealers . Insist on giving these a trial , and juds ; e on their merits .