SCOTTISH FREEMASONRY 1725-1810 ... - Lodge Prudentia

conflict which severely damaged the reputation of Scottish freemasonry and
exposed its vulnerable organizational structure.
There are four reasons for carrying out this study. David Stevenson, in
his books The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland’s Century 1590-1710 (1988)
and The First Freemasons: Scotland’s Early Lodge and their Members (1988),
precisely charts the gradual development and growth of both operative and
speculative freemasonry in Scotland. 2 These two histories are the first of their
kind to offer a definitive and historically sound starting point for the study of
eighteenth-century Scottish freemasonry in a wider historical environment.
Although he provides the first comprehensive listing of Scottish lodges, their
archival holdings, and a close examination of their histories from 1590 to 1710,
no extensive study of eighteenth-century lodge records has been attempted.
Following the example of Stevenson’s works, this study will endeavour to
illustrate the ways in which events such as the creation of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland in 1736 affected Scottish lodges.
Secondly, freemasonry has too often been viewed from a strictly
masonic context that frequently ignores its wider impact and influence on
Enlightenment sociability. A broader contextualization offers a clearer
representation of recruitment patterns among provincial and metropolitan
lodges, and reveals the similarities and differences existing among freemasonry
and other eighteenth-century clubs and societies. As such, analysis of masonic
membership, organisational characteristics, and ideological concerns will
2 David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland’s Century 1590-1710 (Cambridge,
1988) and The First Freemasons: Scotland’s Early Lodges and their Members (Aberdeen,
1988).
2