Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

masonic matters. Unfortunately, his involvement would ultimately result in the
failure of the Grand Lodge to prevent The Masonic Secession of 1808. 104
The Downfall of the Grand Lodge
Scottish lodges reacted differently to the actions of the Grand Lodge.
No. 25 St Andrew, for example, recorded on 27 June 1808 that “from all
Circumstances of the case taken together, this meeting cannot help regretting
much that ever this Strife and Contention should have been meddled with or that
it had been checked effectually in its Origin…It would have saved the waste of a
considerable sum of the public money…and it would have tended to the peace
and harmony of all the Lodges in Scotland.” 105 Other lodges, however, such as
No. 27 St Mungo’s, supported the Grand Lodge. In a minute dated 27 July
1808, No. 27 expressed its approval of the
conduct of the Grand Lodge, in Suppressing every thing that may tend to
prejudice the Brotherhood & most Cordially agree with them in all their
late transactions and resolutions, as far as they have been communicated
to us; and are determined to adhere to, and stand by our Mother Lodge,
in support of her rights, which go hand and hand with our own. As On
Our Admission we are all bound to Support the Grand Lodge & of
course must do it. 106
261
104 According to O’Gorman, “it was during these years that the party and the heir to the throne
began to drift apart. The watershed was the ‘Talents’ ministry, when the Prince resented what he
took to be the ministers’ neglect of him. Grenville, in particular, disliked and distrusted him and
was unwilling to fawn over him. After the death of Fox relations between the Whig party and
the heir were never the same. Consequently, the Whigs were unable to take advantage of no
fewer than four opportunities to enter governments between 1809 and 1812. The events
of…1806-07, and the mythology to which they had given rise, had taught the Whigs that they
should never again be victims of the court that, therefore, they should only serve in a completely
new administration; that the old one must be declared at an end; and that they should have
ultimate control over men and measures in the new one,” The Long Eighteenth Century: British
Political & Social History 1688-1832 (London, 1997), 265.
105 No. 25 St Andrew Lodge Minutes, 27 June 1808.
106 No. 27 St Mungo’s Lodge Minutes, 27 July 1808. The Master all stated, “Sir & Brother, The
Communications from the Grand Lodge of the 10 th of March, 10 th May, 17 th June & 16 th July
1808, intimating their proceedings, I duly received and beg leave to return my grateful thanks for