Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

fact, the criminal information accusations against the Master and Senior Warden
of No. 264 and the charges handed in to Grand Lodge were made at the same
time, signalling a concerted effort to “deal a fatal blow at the Royal Arch
Lodge.” 146 It is clear that Maybole Lodge No. 14 did not view the Grand Lodge
of Scotland as the only source of authority or the final voice in masonic
matters. 147 Similar to the inconsequential presence of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland during the struggle to regain its charter-granting privileges, it was
effectively silenced during the hearing in Ayr.
Despite these shortcomings, it was able to argue a plausible defence of
its actions. Prior to the delivery of any judgements, Grand Lodge had
established several provisions to protect itself against suspicion from the
government and the public. Even more alarming is the rapid manner in which
the Grand Lodge severed connections with the Royal Arch degree, admonishing
all members who practiced any other forms of freemasonry than the three
sanctioned degrees and threatening non-compliant lodges with exclusion from
the Grand Roll. 148
The Unlawful Oaths and Secret Societies Acts were indirectly
responsible for the Maybole Trial of Sedition and, as we shall see in Chapter 6,
227
146 Wartski, “Secret Societies,” 66.
147 Notably, the Grand Lodge was absent from the court proceedings in Ayr, and mentioned only
twice in the criminal letters against John Andrew. The records note only that No. 264 Lodge
Royal Arch Maybole obtained a charter from the Grand Lodge of Scotland. No mention is made
of the trial held at the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
148 On 3 November 1800, the Grand Lodge considered a letter from St. Andrews Lodge Cree
Bridge, “regarding their being Knights Templars, and craving the Grand Lodge to take off the
prohibition against that order, being practiced in their Lodge, and having been read and
deliberately considered, The Grand Lodge directed their Secretary to write the Lodge of St.
Andrews Cree Bridge, referring them to the resolutions of the Grand Lodge on that subject,
Intimating to them at the same time, that if they did not mean strictly to adhere to these
Resolutions, the Grand Lodge would not…consider them as worthy of their countenance and
protection,” Grand Lodge of Scotland Minutes, 3 November 1800.