Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Chapter Five
‘I Dub Thee In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost’:
The Unlawful Oaths Act and the Maybole Trial of Sedition
During the masonic controversy surrounding the Secret Societies Act,
one figure in particular was responsible for securing the exemption clause for
the freemasons. According to Hamill, Lord Moira – representing the Grand
Lodge of England and acting on behalf of the Grand Lodge of Scotland –
ultimately “saved Freemasonry from extinction.” 1 Moira led a delegation which
met with William Pitt to discuss the masonic exemption clause; ultimately, the
deputation influenced the Prime Minister to introduce a series of stipulations
exempting freemasonry from the Act. 2 Emphasising the impending
consequences of the legislation, more specifically the loss of charitable funds,
the Earl of Moira “was able to point out to the Prime Minister the implications
of the proposed Act, and brought persuasion to bear upon Pitt to amend it.” 3
Despite Moira’s successes, he nevertheless initiated a series of events
that would further aggravate the continuing power struggles among Scottish
freemasons. Moira wanted to extend the scope of the amendment to make
Grand Lodge’s control over granting charters “legally binding rather than
merely constitutionally binding.” 4 In a letter of 1808 to the Sheriff Depute of
Edinburgh, Moira stated that
the exemption in favour of Masonic meetings was admitted into the Act
in consequence of my assurances to Mr. Pitt that nothing could be
1 J. M. Hamill, “The Earl of Moira, Acting Grand Master 1790-1813,” AQC, 93(1980), 34.
2 Ibid.
3 Wartski, “Secret Societies Act,” 22.
4 Ibid, 34.