Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Political Exploitation and Masonic Compromise
After the dispute over precedence in 1737, Lodge Kilwinning refused to
relinquish its power to grant charters, thus creating a rift between itself and the
Grand Lodge. These differences, though not a central issue for almost fifty
years, resurfaced in 1794. On 4 August of that same year, the Grand Lodge –
perceiving Kilwinning to be in contempt of its authority and “pretending to have
an equal right of Granting Charters” 26 – adopted a policy of “non-recognition
and extrusion.” 27 In no uncertain terms, it was resolved that “none of the
Lodges holding of them ought either to visit or receive visits…from any of the
Lodges holding of the Kilwinning Lodge; although at the same time an
individual member may visit a Lodge holding of the Grand Lodge [but] no
compliment ought either to be paid to or received from such members.” 28
236
By 1802, the Grand Lodge renewed its effort to “compell the Kilwinning
Lodge to return to her duty as a Constituent Member of the Grand Lodge and in
future to desist from granting Charters and other acts and deeds which none but
the Grand Lodge herself is intitled to exercise.” 29 Appendix 9 reveals that – at
least initially – the Grand Officers were quite adamant in their demands: forcing
Kilwinning to relinquish any powers solely reserved for the Grand Lodge,
namely the right to grant charters. Such claims were based on the argument that
26 Ibid, 2 August 1802.
27 Lindsay, Holyrood House, 294.
28 Grand Lodge of Scotland Minutes, 3 August 1794.
29 Ibid. The minutes further stated that “it is evident that it would be a matter of the greatest
importance to the Grand Lodge as well as honourable and advantageous to the Kilwinning
Lodge were the Lodges holding of her received into and under the protection of the Grand Lodge
of Scotland concurring as we must do that it would be for the honor, the dignity and the welfare
of the Craft in general that Masonry in Scotland should be only practised in the Bosom of the
Grand Lodge.”