Mother Kilwinning.

fas far as is due from a grateful daughter to so worshiptill ancl ancient a mother . Meantime Ave have sent three pounds to your Box by your Avorshipful Master , as an acknowledgment of the favour you have done us , and the duty Ave OAve you . " Kilmarnock , Master .

Eo : Paterson , Sen . "Warden . "Wm : Eankin , Junior "Warden . " Nor is the Kilmarnock the only lodge erected in 1734 , of which no entry has been made , as may be gathered from documents Avhich Ave find in our researches among the feiv old MSS . belonging to our

venerable Mother , and of Avhich the following are copies . Their insertion here may serve as a guide to the condition of the Craft in the more remote districts of Ayrshire one hundred and thirty years ago : —•

" To The Eoyall Fraternity In Killwmning . " Moortoun of Garran of Morkirk , Anpril the Second day , 1734 . " Gentillmen , " "Wee being Convened a Certain Number of measons , Hath taken to a Concedreation the Dissadvanteg That Ave Sustaine Bbeing att Such a destanee

y from Aney Eoyall Compauey that hath a Legalle Eight , And Being up Braided by falles Brethren that hath No truee foundation Soe fare as wee Cane understand , And yett they will have uss to Joiyne with them , Which Avee Have Eefused , and they Being Soe Bolld that thej r Saey they will Compell uss and Ave to

Eeeceive ther Leese as oferd , we thought it proper to make this Suplication to the Eoyalle Compauey of meassons in Killwinning , Expecting you Avill assist uss in this matter , and houping youe will not refuse uss the previlledeg of having A Fratternite of our owne by obtaining a right from youe . So we hoop that youe will not disapoiyent uss of oure Expatiation , Avhereupon . wee subscribe This day and deate forsaid .

"Noe mor att presant but wee Eeinaine your humbell Serv aud weell Avishers , " " James Wilson [ and 16 brethren ] . " "To Eobert Gillmor , Dicken , and David Mure , Avardenin the Lodge of KilAvinning , andtheir Suckcessors in office .

" Gentelmen , —In Begaird that Ave have brought au Commission dated at Moortoun of Garran off Murkirk Apriell the 2 d 1734 , and signed by severalls of our brethren , wherin Ave ar 1 mpoAvered to bargan with you for an holding , Avhich Commission Ave have left in your handsand having ended Avith annent

, you the same and having Eeceved our holding of this date , Ave doo hearby oblidge our Selves ancl our Suckcessors that we shall once in tAvo years on off our number Shall attend your meeting upon the tiventie day of december , and pay to the Box tAvo nierks Scots Avhich is on merk Scots yearly , the Avhich soume ancl

attendance our holding from you Oblidges us to Pay . We ar Gentellmen youre humble sertts . "James Wilson John Weir . " Kilhvining , Apriell Sth , 1734 . " The year immediatelpreceding the institution of

y the Grand Lodge of Scotland was a period in Avhich a spirit of change seems in a high degree to have possessed the leading members of the Mother Lodge . For centuries before Deacon continued to be the name

given to the principal office-bearer in " ye masson court" of Kilwinning ,- —in January , 1735 , he is designated "Master of ye Freemasons , " — ere the year had closed " The Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Kilwinning " Avas the name by AA'hich the Fraternity desired henceforth to be known ; and as if to lete this transition from the primitive forms of

comp expression used to denote the lodge and their officers , in the succeeding year " Eight Worshipful " is prefixed to the Master ' s title : and a few years afterwards he is denominated " The Eight Worshipful the Grand Master "—a mode of address to Avhich , when speaking of the Master of Mother Kilwinningvery

, old Masons persistently cling , and which is that still in common use within the lodge itself . In matters of " precedency" the practice ot the Mother Lodge previous to the institution of Grand Lodge differed materially from that of our own time . In the absence of the Deacon or Master from his

place in the lodge , it fell to the meeting to appoint as " Chairman" pro tern ., one of their number ( not unfrequently an apprentice ) , who then acted in every Avay as the head of the lodge;—and not in any one case for more than a hundred years do we find the Warden to have in virtue of his rank next to the Master presided over the Lodge . The holding of a

plurality of offices Avas no uncommon thing among the officials of the Kihvinning" Lodge during the period Ave speak of : it often happens that the offices of Warden and Clerk are found conjoined , Fiscal and Warden , Secretary and Clerk , & e . 1735 also saw the introduction to the lodge of a

second Avarden designated the " Warden Junior ; " and Avith the erection of the Pillar of Beauty came the adoption of the present " dress" or apron , twenty such " dresses " being provided by the Lodge at a cost of 30 s . There had been several meetings of the "

Committee" held during the year , at which no doubt the innovations aboA e noted were agreed upon ; but of the thirty-three members of the lodge " lettered" to attend a " dyet" to be held in the house of the Clerk on St . Thomas ' s Day , 1735 , only thirteen met ; and

these , after the admission of Baillie of Monkton , proceeded to elect next year ' s office-bearers , and to amerce absentees in a fine of Is . each , " to be paid to the Physcall and applied for the use of the Lodge at the Master ' s discretion . " A lawyer usually filled the office of " Physcall , " Avho acted both as Prosecutor

and Treasurer to the Lodge . In March , 1736 , the Committee of the Lodge , having for their chairman the minister of the parish ( Eev . Alexander Fergusson ) , " met and received the Ii . W . M . Mr . Montgomerie , Fsqr ., of Bourtreehill , a gentleman who had only a feAv months previousl

y " entered himself" Avith the lodge , ancl been , though absent and AA'hile only au apprentice , elected to the mastership at the annual meeting immediately following . The Laird of Bourtreehill inaugurated his appointment to the chair by the presentation to the lodge of " a sett of JeAvels , viz ., the Compass , Square ,

Plummet , and LeA el . " These jewels , supposed to have been the first ever Avorn in the Lodge of Kilwinning , are still employed to distinguish the principal officebearers . The Master also , at the same meeting , " presented to the Lodge the ' Freemasons' Pocket Companion , ' sent in a complement from the Cannon-