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  • Aug. 29, 1863
  • Page 4
  • MOTHER KILWINNING.
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Aug. 29, 1863: Page 4

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Mother Kilwinning.

favourable to the Order of which he was about to become a member , and pointing out the glaring inconsistency of exalting a libertine to the seat of a teacher of religion and morality , he begged to be excused from becoming a Ereeemason—a resolution which , to the deep regret of the brethren of the

province of Ayr , his lordship . ever afterwards adhered to : and thus , through the inadvertent ignoring on the part of one lodge of an important Masonic principle , Ereemasonry was deprived of the support of a nobleman whose virtues and high attainments would have increased its lustre and widened its influence for good in the neutral world as well as within the mystic itself .

1685-89 , the apprentice fee is raised from . 20 s . scots to 23 s . 4 > d ., which sum continued to be exacted for entry till 1704-5 , when three members' sons are found to be admitted on payment of four shillings scots of entry-money each ; while other two persons are noted as having paid at entry 30 s . 4 < d . and 40 s . 4 < d . respectively . There is a complete hiatus in the minutes

from 1689 to 1695 , in which year objections are taken to the election to office of brethren who had not paid for their marks ; and the meetings of the court in the remaining five years of the century seem to have been occupied in the reception of members , the regulation of the ways and means of the lodge , and the reiteration of the most grievous lamentation for the " great loss " the lodge continued to sustain " for the want of ordour amang them . "

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Lodge of Kilwinning is found to be existing under a new regime , and at a low ebb as to numerical strength : and at the annual meeting of 1704 only nine brethren convene , and " with consent of the Trade" elect "Thomas Hamilton deacon of the

Masons belonging to the Lodge of Kilwinning , William Cowan Warden of the same society , and Andrew Cowan Clark . " This is the first mention of the election by a vote of the lodge of a clerk—an official , who , according to " ancient statutte " should be " ane famous notar" receiving his appointment as

, " ordiuar dark " of the lodge from the warden and deacon , irrespective of the vote of the brethren ; and judging from the illiterate manner in which many' of the previous minutes are drawn up , we think this is not the first occasion on which the the services of an

operative have been secured to record the proceedings of the lodge . In tbe minute of December 20 , 1705 , it is again noted that the lodge " met with consent of the Trade , " and proceed to the election of a deacon , warden , clerk ; and officer ; and " the same day , by consent of the meeting , it was agreed that no ineasson shall iinploy no cowanwhich is to

with-, say out the word , to work . If there be ane Measson to be found within 15 miles he is not to employ ane cowan , under the pain of 40 shillings , scots . " . This definition of " cowan" proves the absurdity of the attempt made by certain anti-masonic writers to derive the word from the " chouans" of the Erencb

Eevolution . Mackay , to shew that the word was Masonically in use long before the Erench Eevolution was every meditated , quotes from an edition of Anderson ' s Constitution , printed in 1769 , a sentence in which " cowan " occurs ; but here we find it in use by Mother Kilwinning in 1705 to denote irregular or unintiated operative Masons , —and its application

as above proves also the Mother Lodge to have been at that period a society incorporated for trade purposes . During tbe next fifteen years the minutes are meagre and commonplace : and in 1720 we find a " hyschall" added to the staff of officebearers 2 s .

p , given to tbe poor , and 20 s . lent out on interest . A tax upon the officebearers of the lodge is imposed in the following proportions , viz ., the deacon to pay to the old and decayed members Ss , scots money , warden 4 .., officer and j > hyschalle 2 s . each yearly—an authoritative precedent in favour of the compulsory

subscription to the Masonic Eund of Benevolence by members of the Grand Lodge of Scotland . It is often remarked of Grand Lodges that they possess a keener eye to tbe replenishment of their exchecquer than to the proper discharge of other and more important duties belonging to them as

executive and governing bodies . Without attempting to defend our Masonic legislators from the charge of over-anxiety for the procuring of " remittances " from the daughter lodges , it may serve as some palliation of their weakness in this respect when we state that in the olden time the prompt payment of

the prescribed " dues , " seems like charity to have " hid a multitude of sins " against the laws and constitution of the Order , and to have in the eyes of the Kilwinning fraternity constituted one of the highest graces . More like members of a joint-stock company than the trustees of funds contributed for benevolent purposes , the brethren in the cradle-land of Scottish Masonry , contenting themselves with the disbursement of the merest pittance to the poor and

indigent , continued for a period of one hundred and fifty years to make to one artother liberal advances of money from the lodge's funds , for which bills were accepted , but which in numerous cases were destined never to be retired . So great was the loss to the lodge from this cause , that in 1728 it was " enacted that when any money is to be lent out of the box the

borrower shall give a cautioner which is not entered with the lodge ; and if the cautioner shall enter with the lodge , the borrower shall be obhged at the first meeting to give a new cautioner that is not entered . " This enactment , not a very complimentary one to the commercial integrity of the fraternity in these times ,

was followed up by another to the effect that " he who enters an apprentice is to cause him to pay his entrymoney , —him failing , to pay it himself , "—another precedent which continues to be followed in the case of intrants by more than one Masonic grand body in our own time . The same year the " eorum of members

to regulate the books and affairs of the lodge " were successful in neutralizing the repudiation principle so largely permeating the granters of bills for value received— -several members having returned their borrowed money in exchange for their bills . Again and again , however , is the poverty of tbe lodge

identified with the subject of protested bills : and to such a degree had they relapsed into the bill-trade that in 1743 so many as ten protested bills are handed to a member of the lodge , a writer by profession , with instructions to " opperate payment the best way he can . " At the annual meeting following his receipt of these bills the writer reported that he had not been able to recover any of the " money contained in tbe ten bills ; " but others were given him , upon all of

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1863-08-29, Page 4” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 15 May 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_29081863/page/4/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
MASONIC SAYINGS AND DOINGS ABROAD. Article 1
MOTHER KILWINNING. Article 2
MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 6
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 8
GRAND LODGE. Article 8
THE FREEMASONS' SCHOOLS. Article 10
METROPOLITAN. Article 11
PROVINCIAL. Article 12
AUSTRALIA. Article 13
WESTERN INDIA. Article 14
INDIA. Article 17
ROYAL ARCH. Article 18
MARK MASONRY. Article 18
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR. Article 18
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED RITE. Article 18
THE WEEK. Article 18
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 20
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Mother Kilwinning.

favourable to the Order of which he was about to become a member , and pointing out the glaring inconsistency of exalting a libertine to the seat of a teacher of religion and morality , he begged to be excused from becoming a Ereeemason—a resolution which , to the deep regret of the brethren of the

province of Ayr , his lordship . ever afterwards adhered to : and thus , through the inadvertent ignoring on the part of one lodge of an important Masonic principle , Ereemasonry was deprived of the support of a nobleman whose virtues and high attainments would have increased its lustre and widened its influence for good in the neutral world as well as within the mystic itself .

1685-89 , the apprentice fee is raised from . 20 s . scots to 23 s . 4 > d ., which sum continued to be exacted for entry till 1704-5 , when three members' sons are found to be admitted on payment of four shillings scots of entry-money each ; while other two persons are noted as having paid at entry 30 s . 4 < d . and 40 s . 4 < d . respectively . There is a complete hiatus in the minutes

from 1689 to 1695 , in which year objections are taken to the election to office of brethren who had not paid for their marks ; and the meetings of the court in the remaining five years of the century seem to have been occupied in the reception of members , the regulation of the ways and means of the lodge , and the reiteration of the most grievous lamentation for the " great loss " the lodge continued to sustain " for the want of ordour amang them . "

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Lodge of Kilwinning is found to be existing under a new regime , and at a low ebb as to numerical strength : and at the annual meeting of 1704 only nine brethren convene , and " with consent of the Trade" elect "Thomas Hamilton deacon of the

Masons belonging to the Lodge of Kilwinning , William Cowan Warden of the same society , and Andrew Cowan Clark . " This is the first mention of the election by a vote of the lodge of a clerk—an official , who , according to " ancient statutte " should be " ane famous notar" receiving his appointment as

, " ordiuar dark " of the lodge from the warden and deacon , irrespective of the vote of the brethren ; and judging from the illiterate manner in which many' of the previous minutes are drawn up , we think this is not the first occasion on which the the services of an

operative have been secured to record the proceedings of the lodge . In tbe minute of December 20 , 1705 , it is again noted that the lodge " met with consent of the Trade , " and proceed to the election of a deacon , warden , clerk ; and officer ; and " the same day , by consent of the meeting , it was agreed that no ineasson shall iinploy no cowanwhich is to

with-, say out the word , to work . If there be ane Measson to be found within 15 miles he is not to employ ane cowan , under the pain of 40 shillings , scots . " . This definition of " cowan" proves the absurdity of the attempt made by certain anti-masonic writers to derive the word from the " chouans" of the Erencb

Eevolution . Mackay , to shew that the word was Masonically in use long before the Erench Eevolution was every meditated , quotes from an edition of Anderson ' s Constitution , printed in 1769 , a sentence in which " cowan " occurs ; but here we find it in use by Mother Kilwinning in 1705 to denote irregular or unintiated operative Masons , —and its application

as above proves also the Mother Lodge to have been at that period a society incorporated for trade purposes . During tbe next fifteen years the minutes are meagre and commonplace : and in 1720 we find a " hyschall" added to the staff of officebearers 2 s .

p , given to tbe poor , and 20 s . lent out on interest . A tax upon the officebearers of the lodge is imposed in the following proportions , viz ., the deacon to pay to the old and decayed members Ss , scots money , warden 4 .., officer and j > hyschalle 2 s . each yearly—an authoritative precedent in favour of the compulsory

subscription to the Masonic Eund of Benevolence by members of the Grand Lodge of Scotland . It is often remarked of Grand Lodges that they possess a keener eye to tbe replenishment of their exchecquer than to the proper discharge of other and more important duties belonging to them as

executive and governing bodies . Without attempting to defend our Masonic legislators from the charge of over-anxiety for the procuring of " remittances " from the daughter lodges , it may serve as some palliation of their weakness in this respect when we state that in the olden time the prompt payment of

the prescribed " dues , " seems like charity to have " hid a multitude of sins " against the laws and constitution of the Order , and to have in the eyes of the Kilwinning fraternity constituted one of the highest graces . More like members of a joint-stock company than the trustees of funds contributed for benevolent purposes , the brethren in the cradle-land of Scottish Masonry , contenting themselves with the disbursement of the merest pittance to the poor and

indigent , continued for a period of one hundred and fifty years to make to one artother liberal advances of money from the lodge's funds , for which bills were accepted , but which in numerous cases were destined never to be retired . So great was the loss to the lodge from this cause , that in 1728 it was " enacted that when any money is to be lent out of the box the

borrower shall give a cautioner which is not entered with the lodge ; and if the cautioner shall enter with the lodge , the borrower shall be obhged at the first meeting to give a new cautioner that is not entered . " This enactment , not a very complimentary one to the commercial integrity of the fraternity in these times ,

was followed up by another to the effect that " he who enters an apprentice is to cause him to pay his entrymoney , —him failing , to pay it himself , "—another precedent which continues to be followed in the case of intrants by more than one Masonic grand body in our own time . The same year the " eorum of members

to regulate the books and affairs of the lodge " were successful in neutralizing the repudiation principle so largely permeating the granters of bills for value received— -several members having returned their borrowed money in exchange for their bills . Again and again , however , is the poverty of tbe lodge

identified with the subject of protested bills : and to such a degree had they relapsed into the bill-trade that in 1743 so many as ten protested bills are handed to a member of the lodge , a writer by profession , with instructions to " opperate payment the best way he can . " At the annual meeting following his receipt of these bills the writer reported that he had not been able to recover any of the " money contained in tbe ten bills ; " but others were given him , upon all of

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