Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

spurned the ignoble bondage…[and] most just, my friends, is the
punishment which has overtaken the destroyers of the order. 131
It is clear that the Seceders felt that the Grand Lodge had overstepped its
authority. Although all expulsions were eventually revoked on 31 March 1813,
with the exception of Dr. Mitchell’s, the Associated Lodges achieved their goal
of preventing the Grand Lodge of Scotland from gaining complete masonic
authority over Scottish lodges. Ultimately, the Grand Lodge had been “defeated
on every point.” 132
Conclusion
The court finally ruled that the entire dispute was a “mere controversy in
Masonry and, being the chief subject discussed by the complainers, was
sufficient to satisfy the Court that the whole of this business, in its form and
merits, was a mere Masonic dispute, which never should have been made the
subject of a discussion at law.” 133 Fortunately, the Seceders returned to the
Grand Lodge and, according to Lyon, this decision avoided the “erection of a
multiplicity of rival Grand Lodges.” 134
The political address intended for the King was ultimately transmitted to
the Secretary of State for the Home Department, but the King refused to accept
it. 135 Had the Grand Lodge of Scotland sanctioned the address, it is likely that
131
Mary’s Chapel Lodge Minutes, 14 February 1809.
132
Lindsay, Holyrood House1, 310.
133
Printed in the Petition and Complaint, and quoted in the Edinburgh Star, 5-6.
134
Lyon, Mary’s Chapel, 309.
135
As argued in Chapter 4, “all public bodies of any standing were urged to send in loyal
addresses to George III. More than 400 immediately did so, and many continued to at every
270