Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

103
in some department of the Public service. But Graduates in Medicine, or
Licentiates in Medicine or surgery, resident in the Country, may be
admitted. 80
Beginning in 1770, however, there was a general move away from
unincorporated to incorporated societies such as the Royal Society of
Antiquaries, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Highland and Agricultural
Society of Scotland. 81 As a consequence, organizations became much more
stratified, and the jejune affairs which once proved to be so entertaining now
gave way to societies gaining in cachet:
…there was a natural and unpreventable drawing away from the
egalitarianism of such unincorporated societies…which drew members
from the middle and upper ranks of society and all the professions
[resulting in] an unmistakable division upwards: aristocrats, intellectuals,
and scholars separated themselves and gathered together in societies
which were no longer open to those in the middle ranks of society. This
threw the middle ranks on their own resources insofar as literary
societies were concerned. Moreover this division was accompanied by a
growing democratization of the Scots middle class. 82
As masonic occupational returns and lists show, however, lodge
memberships were often a fusion of tradesmen, professionals, and gentlemen.
Indeed, Canongate Kilwinning is a prime example of this, as it preserved a
cultural and social balance throughout the eighteenth century. Thus two major
questions emerge: during a period when clubs and societies failed and others
restricted membership, how did Scottish freemasonry endure the ebb and flow of
lodges and members, and what attracted elite patronage to a traditionally middle
class organization?
80 Harveian Society, Laws of the Harveian Society (Edinburgh, 1782).
81 McElroy, Age of Improvement, 87.
82 Ibid.