Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Lodge resolved that “all the Lodges…should be enrolled according to their
seniority, which should be determined from the authentic documents they
produced, and in accordance with this principle.” 66 This is significant as Mary’s
Chapel was a founding lodge of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. As it played such
an important role in the creation of the Grand Lodge, Mary’s Chapel was
seemingly safe as the oldest lodge on the Grand Roll of Scotland. The
questioning of the initial numbering further suggests an imbalance of power and
the inability of the core group to enforce judgments and rulings. Ultimately,
Mary’s Chapel – having produced minutes extant from 1599 – was designated as
the oldest lodge in Scotland and Lodge Kilwinning, having supplied records
from 1643, was relegated to number two.
Not satisfied with its ranking, Kilwinning objected on the grounds that
the Grand Lodge had failed to examine all the pertinent evidence attesting to its
precedence. 67 Kilwinning’s claims were based upon the assertion that it existed
at the erection of Kilwinning Abbey in c.1140, and partly on the First Schaw
Statutes, issued on 28 December 1598 by William Schaw, Master of Works for
King James VI. These regulations established a system of lodges, regulated the
trade and working practices of masons, and provided for the election of lodge
officials. In no uncertain terms, the statutes command obedience to “the hale
auld antient actis and statutes maid of befoir be ye predicessrs of ye maisonis of
Kilwynning.” 68
66 Gould, Concise History, 276.
67 See Lyon, Mary’s Chapel, 260-265.
68 David Stevenson, Origins, 34-44.
27