Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Maybole Royal Arch, was included among the names in the Perth Radical
Association; 72 and James Boyd, member of Maybole Operative Lodge in 1792,
is listed as a member of the Dunfermline Radical Club. 73
Interestingly, the name William McTier appears in 1793 among the
members of Maybole Royal Arch. This is significant, for William Drennan
exchanged letters with his sister Martha McTier and her husband Samuel
McTier; it was in these letters that he intimated his admiration for the principles
of freemasonry. 74 It is possible that in order to avoid detection, he did join
207
Maybole Royal Arch under the name William McTier, adopting the namesake of
Samuel, his close friend and confidante.
Despite these tenuous connections, it is relatively clear that few masons
were members of revolutionary clubs, thus seriously preventing the
advancement of a radical agenda within masonic lodges. Furthermore, the
overall United movement in Scotland was inherently weak, a testament to the
“relative political, economic and social stability prevailing in Scotland.” 75 As a
result, the reform movement in Scotland – although possessed of some localized
and insular pockets of revolutionary activity – was not as effective at mobilizing
support as in Ireland. By late 1792, many of the initial participants of the
inaugural Friends of the People meeting in Edinburgh began to have “second
thoughts.” 76 Concerned with the ability of the society to control “the plebeian
72
See Gallin, “Scottish Radicalism,” 248; 252.
73
Ibid, 249.
74
See above, page 201.
75
MacLeod, “Scottish Responses,” 131.
76
John Brims, “Scottish Radicalism and the United Irishmen,” in The United
Irishmen: Republicanism, Radicalism and Rebellion, ed. Kevin Whelan (Dublin, 1993), 153.