Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

allusions in turn may well relate to an event which had occurred in Maybole in
Ayrshire as recently as 1797.
The United Irishmen and ‘Black Masonry’
Two nascent degrees of freemasonry, the Royal Arch and Knights
Templar, had appeared on the West Coast of Scotland in Maybole during the
1790s and at the time were not sanctioned by the Grand Lodge of Scotland as
official masonic degrees. The Royal Arch and Knights Templar degrees were
extensions of the three sanctioned degrees of freemasonry – Entered Apprentice,
Fellow Craft, Master Mason – and were based upon legends of the Knights of St
John and the Holy Royal Arch located in Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.
Members of the Royal Arch and Knights Templar professed an interest in the
higher degrees of masonry; McFarland explains that these degrees, “under a
pretended connection with Freemasonry,” sought to “propagate the infidelity of
the French Revolution, and to evoke sympathy for the democrats in Ireland.” 36
Clark is correct in arguing that although Royal Arch and Knights
Templar ceremonies were introduced in Britain, “they never developed the
baroquely elaborate hierarchy of ritual degrees which became widespread in
Germany, France, and other parts of Europe.” 37 According to Jones, however, it
198
36 McFarland, Ireland and Scotland, 59. See Jones, Guide and Compendium, 511-512;
Chetwode Crawley, “The Templar Legends in Freemasonry,” AQC, 26(1913), 45-70; 146-181;
221-236; C.A. Cameron, “On the Origin and Progress of the Chivalric Freemasonry in the
British Isles,” AQC, 19(1906), 209-228; W.J. Hughan, “Origin of Masonic Knight Templary in
the United Kingdom,” AQC, 18(1905), 91-93; E.J. Castle, “Enquiry Into the Charge of
Gnosticism Brought Against the Freemasons and Templars,” AQC, 19(1906), 209-228; F.R.
Radice, “Reflections on the Antiquity of the Order of the Royal Arch,” AQC, 77(1964), 201-210;
W.R. Kelly, “The Advent of Royal Arch Masonry,” AQC, 30(1917), 7-55.
37 Clark, British Clubs, 334.