Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

on 30 November 1803 – St Andrews Day – and following the installation of the
newly chosen officers, everyone in attendance “walked in procession from the
New Church Aisle to the Tron Church where an Excellent and appropriate
Sermon was preached to them by the Reverend Mr. David Ritchie one of the
ministers of St Andrews Church Edinburgh from a passage in the Hebrews ‘Let
Brotherly Love continue.’” 104 Messages expounded upon the virtues of
freemasons, and the foregoing sermon title reflects themes and tenets of the
fraternity, such as harmony and brotherly love.
Eighteenth-century freemasons also ventured into other areas of
entertainment, including the theatre. Minutes and records refer to members
attending plays as well as dramas specifically written for and about freemasons.
For example, on 27 December 1768 Inverness No. 6, after the conclusion of a
procession involving several other Lodges, discussed a plan of “going to the
Play tomorrow night…when they took one hundred forty half Crown Tickets
and are to meet at the Lodge by 4 o’clock [and proceed] therefrom to the Play
House in Procession with Musick and Flambeaus.” 105
Masonic plays appeared in Edinburgh towards the end of the eighteenth
century, and the Grand Lodge of Scotland recorded on 4 February 1793 that “it
was proposed by Right Worshipful Brother Inglis Master of St Luke’s Lodge,
that there should be a Mason’s Play in the New Theatre…Right Worshipful
Substitute Grand Master Brother Thomas Hay…named Wednesday evening
104 Grand Lodge of Scotland Minutes, 30 November 1803
105 No. 6 Inverness Lodge Minutes, 27 December 1768.
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