Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Scotland.
arms or break up their organization . They still pursued their course , making Masons , receiving dues ^ and contributing to the support of their needy and distressed poor . In dealing with them , sharper measures were therefore thought necessary . The dignitaries of the Lodge and the incorporation of Wrights and Masons were incensed at the daring and determination of the humble Eellow
Crafts , and therefore resolved to have recourse to the arm of the civil magistrate to assist them in the contest on which they had entered . On a trifling pretenceto which I will afterwards allude—a warrant was obtained by which the books and papers of the journeymen were carried oft ) and two of their leaders , viz ., William Brodie and Robert Winram , were apprehended and placed in confinement in the city guard-house .
" These two journeymen , I may state , were Entered Apprentices in Mary ' s Chapel on St . John ' s-day , 1694 . At that period they were apprentices to the mason trade—Robert Winran being bound to William Milne , and William Brodie to James Hamilton . They were passed Eellow Crafts on St . John ' s Day , 1700 , most likely on the completion of their apprenticeship . At the time of their imprisonment they were burgesses and freemen of the city , and very probably h eld the office of Master and Warden in the newly-formed Lodge . It is nofc to
be supposed that they continued long under the durance of the town-guard . Their relatives , or their Masonic Brethren , would lose no time in taking steps to free them from the clutches of these veteran guardians of the city , of whom the poet Ferguson declared that there were '* nae sic savages elsewhere allowed to wear cockad . ' . The journeymen could not sit still on this forcible encroachment on what they must have regarded to be their rights and liberties . They plainly saw that they were driven to the necessity of either abandoning their society and
succumbing to the masters , or bringing the differences between them and the incorporation to a settlement by an appeal to the legal tribunals of the country . They resolved to adopt the latter course , and a subscription was entered into with the view of raising funds to carry on the process ; and as the contest had its origin and design principally in regard to the support of the poor , it was styled 'A fund for the defence at law of our poor / An action for wrongous imprisonment , and the unlawful abstraction of the books of the Lodge , was immediately
raised before the Lords of Council and Session , against James Browiihill , Deacon of the Wrights , and William Smellie , Deacon of the Masons , and president of the parent Lodge , and damages laid to a considerable amount . Their lordships , perhaps , found some difficulty in dealing with the case themselves , and therefore they proposed that it should be decided by arbitration . To this proposal both parties agreed . The two journeymen , on their part , chose , as judge arbiter and amicable compositor , Robert Inglis ( late deacon of the goldsmiths ) , and the two Deacons
chose Alexander Nisbet ( deacon of the surgeons ) as judge arbiter for themselves and the incorporation which they represented . In case of any difference arising between the two arbiters , it was mutually agreed that John Dunbar , deacon of the glovers , and convener of the incorporated crafts , should be appointed oversman . The arbiters were intrusted with the task of investigating and deciding on the whole case , not only of wrongous imprisonment , and the forcible seizure of the books , but of ' any other clag , claim , or righteous demand wherewith the one party can charge upon the other ; ' and for this purpose they had power to
summon witnesses to depone upon and prove the whole points of the process , claims , defences , objections , and answers made by either party . The individuals immediately interested in the case bound themselves to attend all the diets or meetings of the arbitrators , and also bound both themselves , and their heirs and executors , ' to stand to , and abyde at , and fulfil whatever the said judge arbitrators—or oversman , in case of variance—shall find , declair , or decerne / under a penalty of (£ 100 Scots , which the party that failed should be compelled to pay to the party that observed , or was willing to observe the terms of the decision , by and attour
peformance . ' '" The arbiters , after holding several meetings , examining a number of individuals , and giving the whole case a full and serious consideration , issued their decreet arbitral on the 3 th of January , 1715 . In the first place they decided that the Deacons acted justly in committing the two journeymen to custody in
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Scotland.
arms or break up their organization . They still pursued their course , making Masons , receiving dues ^ and contributing to the support of their needy and distressed poor . In dealing with them , sharper measures were therefore thought necessary . The dignitaries of the Lodge and the incorporation of Wrights and Masons were incensed at the daring and determination of the humble Eellow
Crafts , and therefore resolved to have recourse to the arm of the civil magistrate to assist them in the contest on which they had entered . On a trifling pretenceto which I will afterwards allude—a warrant was obtained by which the books and papers of the journeymen were carried oft ) and two of their leaders , viz ., William Brodie and Robert Winram , were apprehended and placed in confinement in the city guard-house .
" These two journeymen , I may state , were Entered Apprentices in Mary ' s Chapel on St . John ' s-day , 1694 . At that period they were apprentices to the mason trade—Robert Winran being bound to William Milne , and William Brodie to James Hamilton . They were passed Eellow Crafts on St . John ' s Day , 1700 , most likely on the completion of their apprenticeship . At the time of their imprisonment they were burgesses and freemen of the city , and very probably h eld the office of Master and Warden in the newly-formed Lodge . It is nofc to
be supposed that they continued long under the durance of the town-guard . Their relatives , or their Masonic Brethren , would lose no time in taking steps to free them from the clutches of these veteran guardians of the city , of whom the poet Ferguson declared that there were '* nae sic savages elsewhere allowed to wear cockad . ' . The journeymen could not sit still on this forcible encroachment on what they must have regarded to be their rights and liberties . They plainly saw that they were driven to the necessity of either abandoning their society and
succumbing to the masters , or bringing the differences between them and the incorporation to a settlement by an appeal to the legal tribunals of the country . They resolved to adopt the latter course , and a subscription was entered into with the view of raising funds to carry on the process ; and as the contest had its origin and design principally in regard to the support of the poor , it was styled 'A fund for the defence at law of our poor / An action for wrongous imprisonment , and the unlawful abstraction of the books of the Lodge , was immediately
raised before the Lords of Council and Session , against James Browiihill , Deacon of the Wrights , and William Smellie , Deacon of the Masons , and president of the parent Lodge , and damages laid to a considerable amount . Their lordships , perhaps , found some difficulty in dealing with the case themselves , and therefore they proposed that it should be decided by arbitration . To this proposal both parties agreed . The two journeymen , on their part , chose , as judge arbiter and amicable compositor , Robert Inglis ( late deacon of the goldsmiths ) , and the two Deacons
chose Alexander Nisbet ( deacon of the surgeons ) as judge arbiter for themselves and the incorporation which they represented . In case of any difference arising between the two arbiters , it was mutually agreed that John Dunbar , deacon of the glovers , and convener of the incorporated crafts , should be appointed oversman . The arbiters were intrusted with the task of investigating and deciding on the whole case , not only of wrongous imprisonment , and the forcible seizure of the books , but of ' any other clag , claim , or righteous demand wherewith the one party can charge upon the other ; ' and for this purpose they had power to
summon witnesses to depone upon and prove the whole points of the process , claims , defences , objections , and answers made by either party . The individuals immediately interested in the case bound themselves to attend all the diets or meetings of the arbitrators , and also bound both themselves , and their heirs and executors , ' to stand to , and abyde at , and fulfil whatever the said judge arbitrators—or oversman , in case of variance—shall find , declair , or decerne / under a penalty of (£ 100 Scots , which the party that failed should be compelled to pay to the party that observed , or was willing to observe the terms of the decision , by and attour
peformance . ' '" The arbiters , after holding several meetings , examining a number of individuals , and giving the whole case a full and serious consideration , issued their decreet arbitral on the 3 th of January , 1715 . In the first place they decided that the Deacons acted justly in committing the two journeymen to custody in