Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Unlike the earlier allegations made by McAdam, the accusations given
before the Justiciary Court included the overt dissemination of radical Irish
ideas. 121 Although Andrew and Ramsay denied being guilty of treason and
sedition, Wartski claims that based on their testimonies “they were guilty at
common law of administering unlawful oaths.” 122 Indeed, they told Lord Justice
Clerk Eskgrove 123 that while attending No. 14 Maybole they had joined the
Royal Arch at St. James’s Lodge in Newton Upon Ayr. Having been admitted,
they were informed by the Master of No.14 that “he had no objections to it” and
was “certain it could do no harm.” 124 Subsequently, Andrew and Ramsay
conferred the oaths and rituals of the Royal Arch degree upon several members
of No. 14, including Quintin Stewart and William Hamilton.
The conferral, however, may have involved a member of a radical club
in Kilmarnock. The transcripts for the Criminal Letters/His Majesty’s
Advocate/Against John Andrew September 1800 Ayr refer to one “Wm. Moor,
an Irishman then weaver in Maybole.” 125 Gallin’s list of radical clubs and
members includes a William Muir, a weaver in Kilmarnock. 126 Although at best
a tenuous connection, it does lend further weight to the arguments of McFarland
220
121 Ibid, 159.
122 Wartski, “Secret Societies,” 68. See also Appendix 8 for the Exculpation for John Andrew
and Robert Ramsay, which gives their sworn testimonies.
123 Sir David Rae of Eskgrove was elected Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Scotland
in 1807. See Lyon, Mary’s Chapel, 327. Rae would later be named counsel for the complainers
against the lodges seceding from the Grand Lodge of Scotland during the Masonic Secession of
1808.
124 Criminal Letters/His Majesty’s Advocate Against John Andrew, September 1800, JC26/305
NAS. See Appendix 8 for a full transcript.
125 See Appendix 8, p. 347.
126 Gallin, “Scottish Radicalism,” 251.