Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

conventions in Edinburgh and the arrest and trial of Thomas Muir was a much-
publicized event in the city.
The actions of No. 8 also illustrate that operative lodges had embraced a
much more liberal and broader view of the craft. The admission of non-
operative masons became more frequent and, in some cases, fees owed by
operative masons upon their admission to a lodge were now actually higher than
those monies owed by speculative masons. For example, No. 1(3) Lodge
Aberdeen recorded on 27 December 1790 that the
Entry money to be paid in future by Geomatic Masons, including
cloathing, shall be Two pounds Ten shillings sterling, besides the usual
contribution to the Mortification fund, Clerk and officers Fees. And
That the Money Appropriate for drink and entertainments to the
Candidates shall be Abolished and done away – And That there shall be
an additional sum of Five shillings upon every Operative Mason to be
paid on his being entered an Apprentice And that the usual money
Appropriate for Entertainment to the Lodge by Operatives, shall be
applied to the Funds of the Lodge, on their going through the different
steps; And That Members of other Lodges shall pay, when Initiated into
this Lodge whither Geomatics or Operatives, the respective dues as
above – which motion was readily and unanimously agreed to by the
Lodge and ordained to be entered and Recorded as a Rule to be
Observed in time coming, in this Lodge. 64
155
Moreover, operative minutes were no longer dominated by the regulation
of labour and trade, financial matters, and the election of officers. Rather,
operative lodges began to record detailed descriptions of public processions,
correspondence from the Grand Lodge and, as we have seen, controversial
political issues.
This altercation typifies the tensions present between the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, its lodges, and the government during the final years of the eighteenth
64 No. 1(3) Lodge Aberdeen Minutes, 27 December 1790.