Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

cohesiveness between the lodges by establishing common regulations
which all joining lodges were required to follow. 37
Although the lion’s share of the forty-nine lodges were actually self-
serving, operative institutions, others were either making the transition to or
exclusively practising speculative freemasonry. Stevenson maintains that “the
great majority of Scottish lodges until the early eighteenth century (and in many
cases long beyond that)…were stonemasons.” 38 This argument is echoed by
Kahler, who writes that “the primary business of the operative lodges had been
to control the trade and regulate the working lives of their members.” 39
Rules and regulations were also particular to individual lodges and
occasionally specified with whom the members could or could not work. No.
1(3) Aberdeen Lodge, in a minute dated 23 September 1730, stated that a local
journeyman mason,
notwithstanding of the kindness shown him by the Masters of our Lodge,
hath engaged work of his own which is highly prejudicial to our publick
concern. Therefore we the under subscribers doe hereby unanimously
consent and agree that none of our fraternity shall work with him as
journeyman, nor employ him as such when we can be served by our
own, or work conjunctly with him in any work. 40
The Grand Lodge of Scotland was also presented with another
formidable problem: as lodges were spread across a wide geographical area and
often isolated from one another, there was “nothing at all to act as a
link…except the visitation of Brethren from one Lodge to another,” and the
37 Kahler, “The Grand Lodge of Scotland,” 108;114
38 Stevenson, Origins, 215.
39 Kahler, “The Grand Lodge of Scotland,” 114.
40 No. 1(3) Aberdeen Lodge Minutes, 23 September 1730.
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