Scottish Freemasonry and England 1700 to 1750

Scottish Freemasonry, the Lodges and the relationships with English Freemasonry 1700-1750.

By Iain D. McIntosh

Part Three

The Jacobite Uprisings/Rebellions and the Masons involved.

During this period, many continuing divisions existed within Scottish Society, and probably between Scottish and English Freemasonry. The various religious groupings of Presbyterianism, Episcopalianism and Catholicism resulted in a volatile mix of tension and rivalry. Cultural divisions also existed throughout Scotland with a big divide between the ancient feudal Clan society in the ‘Highlands’ with its Gaelic way of life and language, also a mix of Catholics, like the Camerons and Macdonalds, some clans Presbyterians or Episcopalian, an area which covered most of the North and West of the country, including the Western Isles. There was the Lowlands, an area which covered Central and Southern Scotland, the belt of land between Edinburgh and Glasgow, Ayrshire, Galloway, the South West and the Borders between Scotland and England, which was mostly of the Presbyterian faith. The Lowland area also encompassed the North-East of Scotland, Fife, Perthshire and the coastal counties of Angus, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Nairn, which took in the main trading ports of Perth, Dundee, Montrose and Aberdeen, also, but just bordering upon the Highland area, was Inverness, the Highland capital of mixed Jacobite/Hanoverian support. In this lowland area life and society was the same as the rest of Lowland Scotland, the language being mostly of the ‘Scots’ form of the English Language.

This North-east region was the largest area of Scotland to support the Jacobite cause. The reason being, that this was where the largest grouping of ‘non-juring’ Episcopalians, was to be found. A form of the Scottish Episcopalian Church which still looked upon the exiled ‘Stuart’ Royal line as the head of their church, and therefore natural supporters of the ‘King across the water’ and willing to rise up and support the 1715 and 1745 uprisings for the Stuarts. Scottish Freemasons and their Lodges were caught up in this upheaval. Much of it was down to where the Lodges were and who the main players were. In the predominantly ‘Presbyterian’ Central Belt, The Lothians, Borders and West Scotland, it was mostly government, Hanoverian supporting, most of whom did not support the exiled Stuart cause and the restoration of a Catholic monarchy.
However, there was support for both Jacobite and Hanoverian with masons and some Lodges. Some high profile Scottish Freemasons were involved in the 1715, the smaller 1719 (Battle of Glen Shiell) and the 1745 uprisings/rebellions. A Lodge in the center of Scotland that did show a Jacobite connection was the Lodge of Dunblane (Now No.9), this Lodge was first mentioned in 1696 and was in the heart of a strong Jacobite territory, members of the Lodge in that time were the Lords of Strathallan, the Camerons of Locheil, and also Alexander Drummond of Balhaldie, the Drummonds of Balhaldie had married into the McGregors and became Chiefs of the Clan when the ‘McGregor’ name was ‘proscribed by the king’ in 1603, the famous ‘Rob Roy McGregor’ was a strong Jacobite and was involved on the Jacobite side during the 1715 rebellion and also the 1719 Battle of Glenshiel.
Another member involved on the Jacobite side was William, Lord Strathallan in both the 1715 and 1745 uprisings. During the 1745 uprising, Lord Strathallan was Colonel of the Perthshire Horse (Strathallans).
The Lodge also had members who were involved in the 1745 uprising, Lord John Drummond, brother to the Duke of Perth, was one of them, in 1745 he commanded 800 men of the ‘Ecosssais Royal’ (Scots Guards) a unit of the French Army, and was at the Battle of Culloden.

Another high-profile Jacobite was William Boyd 4th Earl of Kilmarnock, member of various Lodges – Kilwinning, Falkirk and Kilmarnock. He was also the 7th Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland (1742-43). He was executed after Culloden. However, his sons, both Freemasons were on the government side of the Conflict, James, Lord Boyd (later 15th Earl of Errol) held a commission in the army and fought against his father at Culloden, his other son, William Boyd, held a commission in the Royal Navy. The Edinburgh Lodges also had Freemasons on the Jacobite side, John Murray of Broughton. Secretary of state to Bonnie Prince Charlie, also Colonel of the ‘Hussars’. He was educated in ‘Leiden’ after which he went to Rome to offer his services to the exiled James III (VII of Scotland). It was there that he first became a Freemason joining the Lodge in Rome on the 20th August 1737.
This Lodge ceased after the Papal Bull of May 1738, issued by Pope Clement XII. Murray was sent to Scotland to organize an association of Jacobite leaders, he joined the Lodge of Canongate Kilwinning on the 27th of December 1738, to maybe start that process. It is known that he travelled to England in 1743 in the company of a man just named as ‘Balhady’ where ‘Balhady’ compiled a list of all gentlemen who were the King’s friends, the King being the exiled James III. This ‘Balhady’ may be one of the Drummonds of Balhaldie, whose estates were near Dunblane and could have been a member of the Dunblane Lodge, one is mentioned in 1695. Murray was scornful of ‘Balhady’s’ list. In England, they met up with Lord Traquair (Charles Stewart, 4th Earl) and Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, who it was claimed had promised £10,000 to the funds. When captured after the Battle of Culloden Murray turned ‘Kings’ evidence and thus saved himself from being executed, his name was ‘expunged’ from the Lodge records. Interestingly, his name also appears on the membership list of the ‘Lodge in Rome’ for 1733 alongside that of another Jacobite supporter George Seton, Earl of Winton, a Jacobite who was convicted of ‘High Treason’ in 1716, escaped from the Tower of London and went to Rome. Wintoun was also brother to Alexander Seaton, master of the Lodge of Aitcheson’s Haven. Another Edinburgh Jacobite Mason was Brother Andrew Lumsden of the Lodge Edinburgh from Dunfermline who was Assistant private secretary to Prince Charles in 1745/46.

Another agent of the exiled Stuarts was James Drummond the 3rd Duke of Perth he is listed as a subscribing member of Lodge Dundee Kilwinning for circa 1735-41, the family estates of the Drummonds was at Drummond Castle, in Perthshire, not that far from Dundee, and also close to Creiff where he was the first Master of Lodge St Michael for 1739. He was a Catholic, but joined before the Pope issued the edict in 1738. He was stationed in York in March 1743, one of his reports assured the (Old Pretender) James III that the Mayor and Aldermen of York had opened their minds to the Stuart restoration.
The Duke of Perth was one of the Lieutenant Generals of the Jacobite army 1745-46, and commanded the ‘Duke of Perth’s Regiment, they fought at Prestonpans, and were part of the Jacobite force that invaded England, he died on board ship escaping. His name also appears on a list of men who attended a ‘Grand Feast’ At Haberdashers Hall, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, on the 19th March 1741 when James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton was installed as Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge: -

Those present included

• William Graeme, MD, FRS (Dep GM as GM)
• Martin Clare, MA, FRS (PGJW, as SGW)
• John Theophilus Desaguliers, DCL, FRS (GM, 1719-20)
• John Campbell, Earl of Loudon, FRS (GM 1736-37)
• Edward Bligh, 2 Earl of Darnley, FRS, (GM, 1737-38)
• Henry Brydges, Marquess of Carnarvon, KB, MP, later 2nd Duke of Chandos (GM 1738-39)
• John Ward, 6th Lord Ward of Birmingham, later 1st Viscount Dudley and Ward (DEP GM 1735-39, GM 1742-44)
• James Drummond (1713-1746), Earl of Perth, titular 6th Earl and 3rd Duke of Perth [his father attainted in 1716

Lodges especially in the north-east corner of Scotland had members who were on the Jacobite side during 1745-46 uprising. The Lodge named Kilwinning Dundee (from researches this was the same as the Lodge of Dundee which during the period 1741 to 1745 broke up into different ‘factions’ depending on the members ‘political’ and ‘religious’ persuasions.)
The minutes of the Lodge Dundee Kilwinning (Lodge of Dundee) in 1734 to 1735 record other ‘gentlemen’ freemasons, some Jacobite and some Hanoverian, from the list of about 47, about a third were active Jacobites. The prominent ones being – Sir Alexander Watson a Dundee Bailie; Thomas Blair of Glasclune, merchant; Sir John Wedderburn of Blackness; George Colvill, Surgeon; and many others , a full list is below. Sir John Wedderburn of Blackness raised taxes from the Counties of Perth and Angus for the Jacobite cause, he was captured and was hung, drawn and quartered at Southwark in 1746.
The Provost of Arbroath and his son, both named Patrick Wallace were active with the Jacobite Army during the 1745 uprising as were many lodge members from Arbroath and the surrounding towns of Brechin, Montrose, Forfar, Kirriemuir and Glamis.

An interesting Scottish Lodge of the period was The Lodge of Maryburgh (now Lodge Fort William No.43) Towards the end of the 17th Century a fort was constructed at the head of Loch Linnhe, at Inverlochy, to control that part of the highlands, in 1690 General Hugh MacKay (defeated by James Graham of Claverhouse (Bonnie Dundee) at the Battle of Killiecrankie) strengthened the Fort and changed its name from Inverlochy to Fort William (after King William I). The town that grew up beside it was named Maryburgh (after Queen Mary). At that time, it was a ‘frontier’ garrison town, but the town developed and in 1698 its merchants were protected by an Act of the Scottish Parliament, the town became the headquarters of a Customs post, with a ‘collector’. The governor of the Fort was Alexander Campbell, an elderly man ‘but a careful and good man’. It was said that he was also a Freemason. The master of the Lodge until 1743 was John MacLauchlan, a Bailie of Maryburgh who later in 1746 comforted Prince Charles with brandy and oatmeal, after his escape from Culloden

The years of 1745 to 1746 was only nine to ten years after the founding of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, a body that was still very much in its infancy with the control and regulation of the Lodges. Communication and transport around the country very slow and very difficult, so that many Lodges were still very much independent and autonomous in their workings and in how the members ran their own Lodges. Many still did not recognise the Grand Lodge and went their own way, like the “Honourable Company and Society of Masons belonging to the Lodge of Glammis.” The first minute of this Lodge was on the 27th Day of December 1738, it continued until 1744, and went dormant until 1760 when it applied for a charter from the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1765. The first Master to be appointed in 1738 was “the Right Honourable Thomas, Earle of Strathmore and a noble brother of said fraternity to be Grand Master and Governor of their Lodge and which office (to the great honour of the Constitution) was accepted by his Lordship.” It is interesting that the Lodge went dormant in 1744, the same year that the Earl became ‘Grand Master of England’. This area of Angus was strongly Jacobite and many men joined the Jacobite army in 1745, Thomas Lyon the 8th Earl was brother to the 5th, 6th, and 7th Earls, His older brother James Lyon (5th Earl) died fighting with the Jacobite Army at Sheriffmuir in 1712, the Old Pretender (James III) did visit Glamis Castle in 1715 before fleeing from Montrose to France after that uprising collapsed. The 6th Earl was killed in a ‘brawl’ with Carnegie of Finavon in 1728, The 7th Earl (14th GM of England 1733) died without issue in 1735. He was succeeded by Thomas as 8th Earl. His nearby neighbour was the Earl of Airlie a supporter of the Jacobites who managed to stop the Government forces from burning his castle in reprisal, his son being David, Lord Ogilvie who raised 2 battalions for the Jacobite Army in 1745, a regiment which attracted many of the members from the Angus and Dundee Lodges – Glamis, Forfar, Brechin, Arbroath, Montrose and Dundee itself.

The town of Montrose was important for the Jacobite forces as it was the main seaport for bringing in supplies from France, including soldiers of the ‘Irish Brigade’ and the ‘Ecossais Royal’. The minutes of the Lodges give proof of this. The Lodge of Montrose (The original lodge from 1714) records the admission of 2 men of ‘Dillond’s’ Regiment into the Lodge. Men of Dillonds were part of the ‘Irish Piquets’ from France. The Master of the Lodge ‘Entitled Montrose Kilwinning’ – John Cumming, an excise officer in Montrose was on the 27th December 1745 (St John’s Festival) entertaining visitors from the Irish Brigade. Interestingly he seems to have been playing on both sides of the conflict. Another member of the Lodge of Montrose was Sir James Carnegie of Pittarrow (MP for Kincardineshire 1741 to 1765 when he died), he joined in December 1735 , joined the British Army in 1737, fought for the Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy in May 1745 and then at Culloden in 1746. He was also de-jure 6th Earl of Southesk, his cousin James Carnegie the 5th Earl had fought on the Jacobite side at Sheriffmuir in 1715 and the estate and title had been forfeited. His nephew George Carnegie also of the Montrose Lodge fought on the Jacobite side at Culloden

There were also Freemasons on the Government/Hanoverian Side.

From the Lodge of Edinburgh there was George Drummond, former Provost of Edinburgh who was a strong supporter of the Church, in politics an ardent Whig and always strongly anti-Jacobite. When the Standard was raised on the Braes of Mar in 1715 he served under the Duke of Argyle who commanded the Government troops, and was present at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. He also raised volunteers to defend Edinburgh in 1745, fought with General Cope at the Battle of Prestonpans and afterwards fled to London

John Lindsay 20th Earl of Crawford. Lodge Edinburgh Kilwinning , Commanded the Black Watch (1739-40) at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 and during the 1745 uprising.
William Home, 8th Earl of Home, Lodge Edinburgh Kilwinning, fought at Prestonpans under General Cope and defended Glasgow from the Jacobites.
John Campbell, 4th Earl of Louden, 17th Grand Master of England, defended Inverness from Jacobites. He also fought with the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden.

George Drummond, Lord Provost of Edinburgh at various times, Lodge of Edinburgh, Fought at Sheriffmuir 1715, at Prestonpans at 1745 and defended Edinburgh against the Jacobite Forces in 1745. Grand Master of Scotland 1752-53. Sir James Carnegie of Pittarow, Lodge of Montrose, Joined British Army in 1737, fought at Fontenoy (1745) and at Culloden (1746). His Brother Carnegie of Balnamoon fought for the Jacobites.

The Freemasons on the side of Bonnie Prince Charlie were:

James Drummond, 3rd Duke of Perth, Lt. General, Duke of Perth’s Regiment, Lodge of Dundee and St Michaels Crieff, died on board ship whilst escaping.
William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock, Colonel Kilmarnock’s Regiment, Lodge Kilwinning, Falkirk and others, Past Grand Master of Scotland - Executed.
George McKenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromertie, Lodge Edinburgh Kilwinning, Past Grand Master of Scotland, Colonel, Cromartie’s Regiment, pardoned but died in poverty.
Lord John Drummond, Lt. General, ‘Ecossais Royal’, Lodge Dunblane, escaped, died at the siege of Bergen-op-zoom in 1747.
William Drummond, Viscount Strathallan, Major General, Colonel Perthshire Horse, (Strathallan’s), Lodge of Dunblane, Killed at Culloden.
Sir Alexander Bannerman of Elsick, Colonel, Bannerman’s of Elsick’ Regiment, Lodge of Aberdeen. He escaped to France via Sweden.
John Murray of Broughton, Secretary of State to Prince Charles, Colonel Hussars, Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, escaped, turned King’s evidence.

There were many others as listed in table below

After Culloden

Culloden destroyed forever the attempts and hopes of the Stuarts to re-claim the British thrones, after the reprisals of the redcoats throughout the highlands and Jacobite supporting counties, including Angus and Aberdeenshire.
The country eventually settled down, and within a generation there was the birth of the British Empire. The Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions were on the near horizon, the old way of life was changing rapidly and being swept away. The new partnership of Scottish and English society was now moving into the days of Empire where the fighting qualities of the Highland Scottish soldiers were harnessed and recruited to carve out the Empire. The Lodges ‘went quiet’, understandably so, some not re-emerging until two or three years after the end of the uprising, which is patently obvious with the gaps in the minutes. The repressions did not end with Culloden, the hunt for Jacobites went on for quite a while, even in Aberdeenshire and Angus. Many members of the Lodges who did support the uprising and joined the Jacobite army and were on the losing side were either dead, imprisoned, transported to the Caribbean and the North American colonies, as many hundreds were.

Transportation to the American Colonies.

The first sizable group of Scots to settle in America were Jacobite prisoners from the 1715 uprising. After the fight at Preston in November 1715, about 640 Jacobite soldiers, mostly consisting of men from Inverness (many of the Mackintosh Clan to South Carolina) and the North-East Counties of Scotland (the Angus/Aberdeen area where some Lodges were) were transported as indentured slaves to the American Colonies, to Virginia, in 1716 four ships – “Friendship”, “Godspeed”, “Elizabeth and Ann” and the “Ann” sailed from Liverpool with 290 Jacobites, bound for the ‘Chesapeake’ . Also around that same year 185 were transported on the ships “Suzannah” and the “Wakefield” bound for South Carolina . The movement of people from the highlands of Scotland is also recorded in 1730 with men, women and children emigrating to North Carolina, Georgia and New York.
After the 1745/46 Rebellion more Jacobite prisoners were transported as ‘indentured’ slaves to America. About 900 to 1000 men, women and children were captured after Culloden and transported to Maryland . 73 Scots prisoners were transported on the ‘Gildart’ to Port North on the Potomac, and 80 from the ‘Johnson’ were landed at Port Oxford in Maryland . Amongst some of the Jacobite prisoners sent to the colonies we find William Cargill from Montrose a 20-year-old Tobacconist who had fought in Ogilvie’s Regiment; George Baillie, Bonnetmaker from Dundee, a former Jacobite Captain; Dr. Hugh Mercer from Roseherty in Aberdeenshire who had graduated at Marischal College in Aberdeen but found it expedient to leave Scotland in 1746 as he was a Jacobite. He settled in Green Castle, Virginia and served in the British Army during the French and Indian Wars, He later joined the American Continental Army of George Washington, and as Brigadier General he led American forces against the British at the ‘Battle of Princeton’ in 1777, but died of his wounds.

Another man listed as a member of the Lodge of Dundee, (aka Dundee Kilwinning) but not a Jacobite, was James Abercrombie, born in Dundee on the 22nd December 1717, became a shipmaster who regularly sailed to Philadelphia, Charleston, and South Carolina. In 1742, he was the master of the ship ‘Lydia’ which was plundered by French ships in 1744, and in 1744 was captured by the Spanish, he was a prisoner until October 1744 when there was a transfer of prisoners at Havana in Cuba. From 1748 to 1753 he was master of the ship ‘St Andrew’ and then from 1754 to 1755 of the ‘Peggy’. In October1760 his ship and all the crew were lost in the North Sea just of the River Elbe. In 1758, he built a town house in Philadelphia at 270 South Second Street and was a member of the St Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia, founded in 1749.
Many Jacobites fled to the Continent, France, Holland, Norway and Sweden, they were the lucky ones, many were captured, held prisoner or executed. Others who had escaped Culloden and the ‘Redcoats’ quietly merged back into their communities and were just lying quiet until the time was right for the Lodges to re-emerge. Brother Patrick Wallace of the Lodge of Arbroath who had been held in the Tower of London was able to secure his release and settled back in Arbroath. The whole of the Highlands and the North-east counties of Scotland were under martial law for about a year after Culloden as the redcoats of the Duke of Cumberland pursued Jacobite soldiers.

The Lodges went ‘quiet’ some took 12 to 18 months to re-start. In the minutes of many Lodge, like that of St Thomas in Arbroath there is the entry St John’s Day (27th Dec) 1748 and opens with the words: -
“By reason of the troubles that of late happened in the County there has not been any regular meeting of the Lodge of St. Thomas of Arbroath held since St John’s Day 1744.”
But the balance, the emphasis and structure within the Lodges had now probably changed with the survivors being mostly Presbyterian, Hanoverian supporters, of a more pragmatic and maybe realistic view. The hopes of the Stuarts were finished and gone, the remaining members, maybe more Presbyterian than the pre-1745 membership, and this seems to be borne out in the Montrose and Inverness membership lists both pre, and post Culloden where there is a noticeable disappearance of certain members. This aspect still needs some more research and re-appraisal. It is the surviving brethren who now eventually restart the Lodges, and the Lodges did re-form, of that there is no doubt. With the removal of the uncertainty of uprisings and rebellions the Scottish Enlightenment can now really take hold in Scotland and the Scottish Lodges are all part of that, coming into existence and following in the truly independent way in which Scots like to be. But Scotland and her Lodges followed their own Scottish way or working. The newer foreign rituals seeping into the workings of the older Scottish two-degree system and the eventual adoption of a three-degree system. Then there were also the new so called ‘higher degrees’ those of Knight Templar, and Royal Arch and all the rest of that genre, were brought in from Europe and America to become distinct and separate parts of the wider Scottish Masonic Family.

Go to next Part 4- The Scottish and English Grand Masters of the Period

©Research by Iain D. McIntosh, 2014