Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Chapter Four
‘Behind Closed and Guarded Doors:’
Political Suspicion, Masonic Suppression and
The French Revolution
According to F.R. Worts, British freemasonry from the years 1717 to
1780 has long been regarded as weak, “not only in its organization but in the
more important fundamental principles on which to build an enduring
structure.” 1 These values, claims Worts, were belief in God and a constant
emphasis on order and stability. 2 Subsequently, freemasonry became “primarily
a social institution which provided good fellowship.” 3
As we have seen, however, Scottish lodges established and enforced
rules and regulations to ensure proper organization and became a popular
destination for all members of society. Worts’ generalized description also
hides three very distinct and divergent periods in the history of Scottish
freemasonry: 1700-1735, the pre-Grand Lodge era; 1736-1789, the formal
establishment of the Grand Lodge, the emergence of freemasonry as a popular
Enlightenment society, and the consolidation of Grand Lodge power; and 1790-
1808, an era defined by the national impact of the French Revolution and the
increased presence of a central governing masonic institution. 4 Similar to
Money’s classification of English freemasonry, this final period was
characterized by a “complex balance between ultimately conflicting tendencies
1
F. R. Worts, “The Development of the Content of Masonry During the Eighteenth Century,”
AQC, (78) 1965, 1.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid, 2; 14.
4
These classifications are based on my research and reflect four important and influential
periods in the development of eighteenth-century Scottish freemasonry.