‘Call for papers: The Scottish Enlightenment’

    

A productive and eventful meeting of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 yesterday morning. I can’t even complain about the commute, which passed without much aggravation—a singular occurrence! Two very engaging papers were presented, both of which successfully threaded the needle of speculative theses supported by research.

Before all that, though, was a lengthy conversation in support of an initiative unique to New Jersey Freemasonry. For several years, brethren of the research lodge, acting independently, have been memorializing John Skene, the seventeenth century Scottish Mason from the lodge in Aberdeen, who emigrated to West Jersey in 1682, becoming the first Mason in the New World. (Click here to learn about the first such event in 2022.)

Last year, the Skene celebration matured into an academic conference (click here). This year, the conference will continue, and the call for papers went out just days ago. From the publicity:

Conference Theme: The Scottish Enlightenment

Date: Saturday, August 24

Location: Crescent Shriners, 700 Highland Dr., Westampton, New Jersey

Submission via email: click here

Subject Fields: American History/Studies; Atlantic History/Studies; British History/Studies; Cultural History/Studies; Humanities; Immigration & Migration History/Studies; Intellectual History; Philosophy; Religious Studies and Theology; Social History/Studies

Call for Papers: John Skene, the conference’s namesake and first known Freemason in the New World, arrived at a time of great intellectual change. The 2024 John Skene Masonic Conference theme is “The Scottish Enlightenment” and seeks to investigate the links between the Scottish Enlightenment, the Atlantic World, the American Revolution, and the Enlightenment more broadly. With the 1707 Acts of Union, Scottish elites followed the power to London, leaving space for the emerging middle class to take the cultural, political, and social reins. The intellectual movement that resulted included key concepts that would come to have an underappreciated impact on the modern world. Key to understanding this is the concurrent growth of Freemasonry, emerging in 1717 as English Freemasons established the first Grand Lodge.

Deadline: Friday, May 3.

Our annual conference seeks to explore the ways in which the Enlightenment in Scotland brought new ideas to the forefront and expanded the movement more broadly. Freemasonry’s concurrent expansion provided a network that shared a common cultural and intellectual lineage. How did these two movements interact? How did the Enlightenment in Scotland spread during the Scottish diaspora? And how did Freemasonry draw from Scottish intellectual roots to become a center of cosmopolitan colonial life in British North America?

Specifically we are looking for proposals that will fit into panels on:

▸ The Scottish Enlightenment

▸ The Scottish Enlightenment in America

▸ The Enlightenment in America

Magpie file photo

With this broad theme we hope to explore the connections between the Enlightenment and Freemasonry, and the Scottish Enlightenment as a specific movement spread by the Scottish diaspora. While papers dealing directly with Freemasonry are encouraged, the committee is seeking out speakers on broad topics of the Enlightenment in these contexts, particularly if the papers touch on prominent Masons/Masonic Lodges/networks.

Papers may be published in a possible joint volume of conference transactions.

The committee is looking for broad/introductory research on the following areas: Scottish Enlightenment, the Scottish Enlightenment in America, New Jersey and the Enlightenment.

Conference Mission: The John Skene Masonic Conference is an annual event crossover conversation between Masons and those who study our gentle craft. Held in commemoration of John Skene, the first known Freemason in the New World, who settled in West Jersey at the end of the seventeenth century. Along with a memorial held at Peachfield, his plantation home outside Burlington, New Jersey, the conference aims to serve as an annual venue for research and conversation on the broader historical role Freemasonry has played within the New Jersey, colonial, American, and Atlantic contexts.

Regarding publication of the papers presented, part of the long conversation at our meeting yesterday culminated in the agreement to share these papers in the lodge’s book of transactions. In fact, the research lodge will serve as a sponsor of the August 24 event to help clear the legal, financial, etc. hurdles of organizing a complicated day. Of course, The Magpie Mason will keep you updated, including a notice when tickets go on sale.

But about the research lodge meeting: Bro. Glenn presented The Meaning of the Three Ruffians, which explored psychological, etymological, and other facets of the identities of You Know Who. Bro. Howard returned to the lectern in his usual style with Who Was the Widow’s Son? A Discourse on Confusion, which also delved into word origins, plus Biblical and ancient histories, excursions to Greece and Graceland, and even a mention of Groucho Marx. Well done!

      

‘Don’t be the guy who misses this’

    

It’s almost here!

A dedicated cadre of New Jersey brethren have planned a well rounded celebration of Scottish Masonic history for Saturday the 19th. All the details are contained in the graphics. Click to enlarge.

See you there.

     

‘John Skene conference registration is open’

   

Registration is open for the John Skene conference in New Jersey! The event last year was something of a rehearsal, but this time will be the real thing. Click here for tickets information. Send email here for more info. From the publicity:

John Skene:

Masonic Influences

on the Development

of Early America

August 18-19

New Jersey

Friday, August 18

6:30 p.m. Meet & Greet

Courtyard by Marriott

30 Western Drive, Westampton

Attire: Tastefully Casual

Saturday, August 19

9:30 Memorial Service

Peachfield

180 Burrs Road, Westampton

Attire: Tastefully Casual for guests; Jacket & Tie for hosts/staff

11 a.m. Lunch

Crescent Shriners International

700 Highland Drive, Westampton

Attire: Tastefully Casual for guests; Jacket & Tie for hosts/staff

Following Lunch: Seminar

Speakers include:

Robert L.D. Cooper is a Scottish Freemason as well as a recognized historian and expert on Scottish Freemasonry. He has authored numerous books and articles on Freemasonry and lectured in Masonic lodges and other venues across the world.

Steven Bullock is professor of history at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is the author of Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840. Professor Bullock has spoken widely to academic and public groups; commented on Masonry and American history on ABC and NPR; and appeared in documentaries airing on History and National Geographic channels, Channel Four (France), and elsewhere.

Robert Johnson is the host of Whence Came You?, a Masonic podcast, and is co-author of It’s Business Time: Adapting a Corporate Path for Freemasonry. He serves on the Grand Lodge of Illinois Masonic Education Committee.

Robert Howard is a student of history, served (2016) as Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, and is a Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786. He has written a number of articles for the New Jersey Freemason, facilitated the Grand Lodge’s mentoring program, and has made a number of Masonic presentations to lodges around the state.

Erich M. Huhn is Secretary of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786. He is the author of New Jersey’s Masonic Lodges, and is a Ph.D. Candidate in History and Culture at Drew University in New Jersey.

7 p.m. Dinner

     

'Remembering John Skene from Aberdeen'

      

Bob Howard photo

The Masonic Kitties of New Jersey were well represented at this memorial. The Kilties is a degree team that confers the Second Section of Master Mason Degree, upon request, and does so in Scottish regalia and with bagpipes. A memorable experience, I can tell you.

I have to catch up on my reporting of a few terrific events here and there recently. The following is a recap of a celebration of Masonic history that took place in New Jersey on August 27.

Brethren from around New Jersey and beyond converged on the Peachfield historic site in Westampton on the afternoon of August 27 to honor the memory of the first Speculative Mason to arrive in North America.

Bro. Robert Howard

The elaborate ceremonies were arranged by RW Bro. Bob Howard, Past Grand Historian and Past Master of the research lodge, acting on behalf of Eclipse Lodge 67 in Rutherford; Beverly-Riverside Lodge 107 in Riverside; and the Masonic Kilties of New Jersey. John Skene was made a Mason in his native Aberdeen, Scotland, a fact recorded in the lodge’s archives one of the very few things known of his life—and he emigrated to West Jersey in 1682. What we know today as New Jersey was at that time two English colonies, West Jersey and East Jersey. Burlington was the capital of West Jersey, and it was there where Skene settled. The reasons for his leaving Scotland are not recorded, although he was a Quaker who left religiously inhospitable Scotland and made a home in an area inhabited by many Quaker families, very near the sect’s stronghold in Pennsylvania.

“Coming of age when religious turmoil was the norm, John Skene’s membership in the Society of Friends provided him anything but the peaceful and pacifist existence that we associate with Quakerism today,” said Bro. Erich Huhn, of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 and a candidate for a doctorate in history at Drew University. “The Friends were persecuted throughout his childhood, and, as Skene reached adulthood, he held true to his convictions. As a Quaker, he was persecuted and imprisoned throughout his life in Scotland. In the typical ebbs and flows of seventeenth century religious turmoil, he faced various periods of imprisonment, freedom, house arrest, and discrimination.”

A wreath was sent by Skene’s lodge, still at labor in Aberdeen.

Yet, the seventeenth century also was the age of the Accepted Mason, when lodges of operative builders began welcoming men who had no connection either to the art of architecture or to the trade of stone construction. Robert Moray in 1641 and Elias Ashmole in 1646 probably are the best known, but lodge minutes from 1590s Scotland also record the making of Speculative Masons. Skene was initiated into the lodge at Aberdeen approximately in 1670 possibly on account of his being a merchant and a citizen prominent enough to be made a burgess there. His being a Quaker raises the question of his taking a Masonic oath, but again history is silent on details.

Bro. Bob Cooper

Among the distinguished visitors to New Jersey that day was Bro. Robert L.D. Cooper, recently retired as curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland’s museum and one who has been frequenting New Jersey lodges this year delivering talks on early Scottish Freemasonry. Cooper said he is aware of correspondence being exchanged between West Jerseyan Skene and his family in Aberdeenshire, likely urging emigration to the colony, but availability of any letters cannot be ascertained. Skene’s lodge isn’t as mysterious, however. Cooper described it as a “mixed lodge” consisting of “stone masons and dukes and porridge-makers.” As for life in West Jersey, Cooper said that Skene, as a businessman, partnered with the second Mason to reach North America, Bro. John Coburn, a stonemason, in a construction enterprise that might even be credited with some of the oldest buildings on Staten Island.

Arriving in West Jersey, Skene purchased 500 acres from Governor Edward Byllynge and founded his plantation, which he named Peachfield. Not long thereafter, Byllynge appointed Skene the Deputy Governor. Seventeenth century colonial records being what they are, it is not known how Skene earned the appointment, but the land acquisition preceding it could not have been meaningless. Another quirk of history emerges when Byllynge was succeeded as Governor by Dr. Daniel Coxe, the father of Provincial Grand Master Daniel Coxe, who was appointed by the Grand Lodge of England in 1730 to govern Masonic affairs in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Dedicated in 1984 by the grand lodge, this stone stands on the land John Skene owned, Peachfield. A different calendar was in use during the seventeenth century, so to commemorate Skene's death, you have to play along.

After Skene’s death circa 1690 (accounts of the year vary), his widow gradually sold off tracts of the Peachfield plantation. All that remains today is a stone house built 1725-32, which was damaged by fire in 1929 and restored in the early 1930s, situated on 120 acres. The property is only three miles from the Masonic Village at Burlington. In 1984, the local grand lodge dedicated a headstone memorializing this historic Brother Mason. The exact location of his burial place is unknown, but August 27, 1690 is the date of death engraved in the stone.

Bro. Mark and Bro. Glenn.
Look for them on YouTube.

The event on August 27 featured many participants. Assisting emcee Bob Howard was W. Bro. Christian Stebbins. Leading prayers were RW Glenn Visscher and RW Eugene Margroff, with RW Mark Megee reading from Scripture. Bro. David Palladino-Sinclair of the Kilties serenaded the group with his bagpipes, performing “Flower of Scotland,” “Scotland the Brave,” and “Amazing Grace.” A wreath was placed at the gravestone by Cooper and the Worshipful Masters of both Eclipse and Beverly-Riverside, Patrick Glover and Frederick T. Ocansey, respectively. In his closing remarks, RW Bro. David Tucker, Deputy Grand Master, told the assemblage that looking to the past for role models helps take our focus off ourselves, and that it is fitting to salute John Skene for being the earliest Freemason who deserves credit for helping establish the fraternity in New Jersey.

Bro. David Palladino-Sinclair

Also traveling some distance was Mark Tabbert of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Virginia, who told us of the Scottish Freemasons in America conference there in November.

The celebration of Skene was not over yet. The group caravanned to Mt. Holly Lodge 14 for a catered dinner replete with Masonic toasts following a tour of the historic building.

Peachfield is owned and operated by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of New Jersey, which makes the site its headquarters. Tours, including for groups, can be arranged by phoning 609.267.6996.

     

‘On this date in 1741’

This edition of The Magpie Mason is another crosspost with our friends at American Creation, the blogosphere’s premier site of thoughtful debate of historical facts and legends concerning the Founding of the United States.





Long before Freemasonry in Boston became – or allegedly became – a base of revolution in New England, the Craft consisted of Masons contentedly loyal to the Crown and its colonial governors. Remember, these are Masons descending from the Premier Grand Lodge (the “Moderns”), which cultivated close relationships with England’s nobility.

Bro. Jonathan Belcher (1682-1757) was made a Mason in London in 1704, and within a year had returned to Boston (he graduated Harvard in 1699) to live and pursue work as a merchant, making him the first known Speculative Mason in the Americas. (In 1682, a Scottish Mason named John Skene had emigrated to what is now Burlington, New Jersey, but he is remembered as an Operative Mason.) Belcher was from a prominent family, was successful in business, and was appointed by George II as governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1730, a position he held until 1741.



Which brings us to this date in 1741.

While there are clues pointing to Masonic activity in Boston c.1720, the first known Masonic lodge in Boston was named, appropriately enough, First Lodge, and was set to labor on August 31, 1733 at the Royal Exchange Tavern on King Street. It remains at labor today under the name St. John’s Lodge, and it is the oldest lodge continuously at labor in North America. (It is distinguished from Tun Tavern Lodge in Philadelphia in that it possessed a charter from the proper authorities in London, whereas the Tun Tavern brethren (Benjamin Franklin, et al.) were operating a few years earlier, but as “according to the Old Customs,” meaning without a charter or warrant.)

Governor Belcher was a member of First Lodge; I cannot find a date of his acception into the lodge, but his name appears on the lodge’s membership rolls dated 1736. As noted, Belcher exited the governor’s office in 1741. He later would become governor of the Jerseys, today’s State of New Jersey, settling, like Skene, in Burlington, and would establish Princeton University. Belcher Lodge No. 180 was chartered by the Grand Lodge of New Jersey in 1904. He was succeeded as Royal Governor by William Shirley (1694-1771) who was not a Freemason.

Which brings us to this date in 1741!

Of course the separation of Bro. Belcher from First Lodge did not go unnoticed by the brethren. The lodge records dated September 23, 1741 state (spelling hereby modernized):

Our Right Worshipful Master recommended to the Brethren that it was his opinion some particular order should be observed in toasting the health of our Right Worshipful Brother, the Honorable Mr. Belcher, and that a committee might be appointed as soon as possible to wait upon him, with acknowledgements from the Lodge of his past favors, and to return our thanks, etc.

Voted, that next after the Grand Master, the late Governor of this Province, is to be toasted in the following manner, viz: To our Right Worshipful Brother, the Honorable Mr. Belcher, Late Governor of New England with.... (There follows a shorthand description of a certain thrice hailed battery with which Masons are familiar.)

Voted, that our Right Worshipful Bro. [Thomas] Oxnard, Deputy Grand Master, [and] Brothers Phillips, Row, Price, Hallowell, Forbes, McDaniel, and Pelham, be a committee to form a speech, and wait upon the Honorable Mr. Belcher on behalf of this Society, and to make report of their proceeding the next Lodge.

The lodge records dated September 25, 1741 state (again with spelling hereby modernized):

On Friday, September 25, 1741, the Committee appointed by this Lodge waited upon the Honorable Mr. Belcher, etc., and made the following speech:

Thrice Worthy Brother,

We, being a Committee by the Mother Lodge of New England held in Boston to wait on You, take this opportunity to acknowledge the many favors You have always shown (when in power) to Masonry in general, but in a more especial manner to the brethren of this Lodge, of which we shall ever retain a most grateful remembrance.

As we have had your protection when in the most exalted station here, so we think it is incumbent on us to make this acknowledgement, having no other means to testify our gratitude but this; and to wish for Your future health and prosperity which is the sincere desire of us, and those in whose behalf we appear, and permit us to assure You we shall ever remain

Honored Sir
Your most affectionate Brethren
and humble servants.

Peter Pelham, Secretary
on behalf of the Committee.

First Lodge’s records go on to show Governor Belcher’s answer (with spelling again hereby modernized):

Worthy Brothers,

I take very kindly this mark of your respect. It is now thirty-seven years since I was admitted into the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons, to whom I have been a faithful Brother and well wisher to the Art of Masonry.

I shall ever maintain a strict friendship for the whole Fraternity, and always glad when it may fall in my power to do them any services.

J. Belcher.

This reply was printed in the Boston Gazette of September 28, 1741.

Bro. Belcher has descendants who are active in New Jersey Freemasonry today.

Which brings us to this date in 1741!

First Lodge met on Friday, October 23, 1741, and the minutes of this meeting show how a new address had been drafted for the new governor. (With spelling again hereby modernized):

May it please your Excellency,

We being a Committee appointed by the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons of the Mother Lodge of America held in Boston, presume to wait upon you with the utmost sincerity, to congratulate your advancement to the Government of this Province, and to assure your Excellency that our desire is that your Administration may be successful and easy.

We have had hitherto the honor of His Majesty’s Governor being one of our ancient Society, who was ever a well wisher and faithful Brother to the Royal Art of Masonry.

And as it has been the custom for men in the most exalted station to have had the door of our Society’s Constitutions always opened to them (when desired) we think it our duty to acquaint your Excellency with that custom, and assure you, that we shall cheerfully attend your Excellency’s pleasure therein, and as we are conscious that our Society are loyal and faithful Subjects to His Majesty, so we may reasonably hope for your Excellency’s favor and protection, which is the request of

Your Excellency’s
most obedient humble servants.
Peter Pelham, Secretary
on behalf of the Society.

Governor Shirley replied to the lodge. The lodge records show:

I Return the ancient and honorable Society my Thanks for their Address, and Invitation of me to the Mother Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in America. And they may rest assur’d that their Loyalty and Fidelity to his Majesty will always recommend the Society to my Favour and Protection.

W. Shirley.

This reply was printed in the Boston Gazette of November 3, 1741.

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The Freemasonry of the Colonial era was a very complicated institution. The lodges existing in America at this particular time were spin-offs of the Grand Lodge of England founded June 24, 1717. As noted above in the Philadelphia instance, where Masons did not possess a lodge charter (or warrant) from that authority in London, they met anyway, as was done in the British Isles prior to 1717. However, in 1751 a second grand lodge was formed in England, and its membership was open to a wider segment of English society, including not only the elites of nobility, academia, and the military, but also successful professionals, artisans, and merchants. These were the so-called “Ancient Masons,” a nickname they gave themselves to describe their adherence to the rituals and laws of Masonry as they existed before 1717, when those Masons they dubbed the “Moderns” arose and made themselves known to the public.

By the time of the American Revolution, both of the English grand lodges were in competition throughout the colonies (indeed around the globe). The Ancients, with their more inclusive membership, grew larger and, in America, became recognized with the patriot cause, where the Moderns were firmly allied with the Tories/Loyalists. As the War of Independence ebbed and flowed throughout the colonies, lodges met in accord with the political fortunes of the moment. When British forces took New York City in 1776, Masonic lodges of Patriot sympathies ceased meeting, and lodges of “Moderns” flourished. Conversely, upon the British evacuation of New York, the Modern Masons were supplanted by Ancients. Arguably the most dramatic example of this rift arose upon the death of Benjamin Franklin in 1790. Ten thousand citizens paid their respects to this Founding Father, who was elected Grand Master of Masons of Pennsylvania on June 24, 1734. But the Freemasons of Pennsylvania declined to give Bro. Franklin any Masonic funerary rites. You see, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania by the time of Franklin’s death had become Ancient Masonry. Alas, Benjamin Franklin was of Moderns stock.

The point of all this is to demonstrate that Freemasonry has a long history of courting the favor of civil government, and that the common association of Freemasonry with revolution (American or otherwise) is not as simple as some claim. Masonry’s professed obedience to civil authority is not cynicism, but is a desire to enjoy the freedom of association necessary for Masons to meet in their lodges. Some historians trace this to 1425, when Henry VI (age three!) and Parliament enacted the Statutes of Laborers. These post-Plague laws regulated both the wages to be paid laborers and merchants and, in the case of Masons in particular, their ability to meet together. Excerpted:

“First, whereas by the yearly Congregations and Confederacies made by Masons in their general Chapiters assembled, the good Course and Effect of the Statutes of Laborers be openly violated and broken, in Subversion of the Law, and to the Great Damage of all the Commons; our said Lord the King willing in this Case to provide a Remedy, by the Advice and Assent foresaid, and at the special Request of said Commons, hath ordained and established that such Chapiters and Congregations shall not be hereafter holden; and if any such be made, they that cause such Chapiters and Congregations to be assembled and holden, if they thereof be convicted, shall be judged for Felons; and that all other Masons that come to such Chapiters and Congregations, be punished by Imprisonment of their Bodies, and make Fine and Ransome at the King’s Will.”

I, for one, would not want to see the inside of a 15th century English “gaol.” This statute was repealed during the reign of Elizabeth I, but its legacy lived on as late as 1723, when the Rev. James Anderson authored Freemasonry’s first Book of Constitutions, which admonishes Masons:

“A Mason is a peaceable Subject to the Civil Powers, wherever he resides or works, and is never to be concern’d in Plots and Conspiracies against the Peace and Welfare of the Nation, nor to behave himself undutifully to inferior Magistrates....”

Submitted for your approval.

It’s Saint Andrew’s Day

DATE: November 30th, 2008 Feast of Saint Andrew
WEATHER: A most glittering starlight sky
OUTLOOK: No suffering

On this day in 1736, the Grand Lodge of Scotland was formed when about a third of the approximately 100 known lodges sent representatives to Edinburgh to settle the matter. Despite being the native land of the earliest known Masonic lodges, Scotland was not the first to form a national body. The 30th of November was selected because it is the Feast Day of St. Andrew, who is the patron saint of Scotland and of Scottish Freemasonry. It is his Feast Day because on this date in 60 C.E., during the reign of Nero, he was martyred.

There was that Hellenic period in Jewish history when Jews had Greek names, and the name Andrew indeed derives from the Greek word for “manly.” (Somehow, “Andrew Palmer Hall” just sounds bland.) Considering he was one of the 12 chosen to be Apostles, it is odd that Scripture doesn’t offer much information on him. What little I know is found here.

“St. Andrew is said to have been crucified on an X-shaped cross, although there is no historical evidence to support this claim,” writes Rex Hutchens in his book A Bridge to Light. “The cross bearing his name appears on the Scottish flag. He is said to have appeared to Hungus, King of the Picts in the ninth century, promising him victory in a battle with the English King Athelstan who sought to conquer Scotland. In the sky that night St. Andrew placed the shape of the cross on which he was crucified as a token of this promise or covenant. The Picts defeated Athelstan and thereby maintained their liberty, for a while.”

Scotland figures significantly in the history of American Freemasonry. “It has been established that the first Freemason known to have been in America was John Skene,” says Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia, “whose name appears on the roll of Lodge of Aberdeen and who settled at Burlington, New Jersey in 1682.” (The lodge in Aberdeen itself can be traced to the year 1483, according to this same reference book.) Chartered Nov. 30, 1756, St. Andrew’s Lodge in Boston would distinguish itself several times during the colonial era. In 1764 it became the first Masonic lodge anywhere to possess its own hall upon purchasing the Green Dragon Tavern. On Dec. 16, 1773, this lodge became linked, accurately or otherwise, to the Boston Tea Party when some of its members – enough to prevent the lodge from holding its meeting scheduled for that evening – involved themselves in the Tea Party.

St. Andrew’s Masons are found around the world. In Scandinavia, where the Swedish Rite continues Scottish traditions (incidentally, the GL of Scotland warranted St. Magnus Lodge No. 199 at Gothenburg in 1780), there are St. John’s lodges that confer the three Craft degrees, from which the deserving may be allowed to progress to the St. Andrew’s lodges, which work three subsequent degrees.



Aprons of the V° and VI° of St. Andrew's Masonry in Norway. (Courtesy of the Museum of Masonic Culture, Lincoln Park, New Jersey)

Today, American Masons must look to the Scottish Rite for remnants of St. Andrew’s Masonry or Scotch Masonry. It is the 29° in that system of degrees that still holds the title Knight of St. Andrew. (Plus, there is a fraternity of this name within the Scottish Rite.) There being two Scottish Rite jurisdictions in the mainstream of the fraternity, it should be noted that more than one version of this degree is extant, and that both versions have undergone many changes over the years. The form of this degree circa 1804 is of interest to students of the history of “High Degrees.” In it, the Grand Master of Ceremonies explains to the candidate the differences between the three degrees of St. John’s lodges and this degree:

An Elder Scottish Master is a high Priestly Order, my Brother, and highly different from the Blue Master. A Master of the three lower degrees, wherein until now you was only taught to venerate the Godhead, under the name of the Most Great, Most Wise and Almighty Architect of the Universe. But an Elder Scottish Master must pay a more deep and feeling veneration to the Almighty God. That due veneration we are taught by the teacher and declarer of our Holy Order, when he says “The true worshippers will worship him in spirit and in truth.” The first veneration is common to all men and Brethren, as directed by common sense, but the latter belongs to those who dedicate their hearts for the dwelling of the Most High and Merciful God, the Grand Architect of the Universe.

The candidate then is informed that his current working knowledge of the use of the Square and Compasses, which is “only” for “mathematical geometry,” merely hints at their purpose in the Scottish work. He then receives the Signs, Tokens and Words of the degree. “The first part of the Grand Scottish Sign alludes to the Priests in the Temple, who always put their hands to their foreheads… as if to keep off the rays, whenever they gave the benediction.” Then comes a lesson in alchemical matters, followed by the knighting. (Source: Ordo Ab Chao. Illustration courtesy of Scottish Rite Research Society.)

This degree today, as worked in the A&ASR Southern Jurisdiction, instructs in nine virtues, presented in three groupings of three. Hutchens writes: “Humility, Patience and Self-Denial are the three essential qualities of a Knight of St. Andrew of Scotland.” Charity, Generosity and Clemency must be enlisted in the defense of “all orphans, maidens, and widows of good family, and wherever they heard of murderers, robbers, or masterful thieves who oppressed the people, to bring them to the laws, to the best of their power.” Virtue, Truth and Honor “protects us when we are unarmed, and is an armor that we cannot lose, unless we be false to ourselves…. Nor is there wisdom without virtue, but only a cunning way of procuring our own undoing.”

(This mention of armor may be a link to the alchemical symbolism of the 1804 ritual, which speaks pointedly of seven planets and seven metals. I’ll have to read up on that.)

In his encyclopedic Scottish Rite Ritual: Monitor and Guide, Ill. Art de Hoyos describes the degree as one “intended to inculcate equality, representing the poor knight equal to the monarch…. The beautiful Masonic doctrine of Toleration is exemplified in this.”


The apron of the 29°
depicts
the St. Andrew's cross,
thistle
and stars.
(Courtesy of the Museum
of Masonic Culture,
Lincoln Park,
New Jersey.)





One virtue that first comes to the minds of many Masons when asked to define Freemasonry is Toleration, and in fact that is the key purpose of the 29° here in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the AASR. In the mid 19th century, the NMJ’s ritual of this degree was similar in philosophy to the ritual the Southern Jurisdiction uses today. The Knight of St. Andrew had the missions of rebuilding churches destroyed in the Holy Land by the Saracens; of protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land; and of performing other duties of knighthood. In the years following, it underwent many changes, and was set in the court of a Turkish sultan.

As the historical notes prefacing the ritual say:

The Knights of Saint Andrew appear before him loaded with chains. The Sultan discusses ransom for the captives. He asks concerning the Order of Knighthood and requests an invitation. He is at first refused until Knights learn from the Koran that the essentials of belief are the same. The Sultan and two Emirs are received into the Order. Ransom is paid by the Sultan and Emirs. A lengthy lecture on “Toleration” concludes the Degree.

In 1896 the degree took the form the NMJ knows today, although other rewritings would arise until 2003. It takes place in 1396 at Patras (ancient Patrae), in Achaia, Western Greece, and inside the Cathedral of St. Andrew, temporary military headquarters of Sultan Bayazid I.

“Masonic equality is not an artificial leveling of wealth or outward conditions,” says the Prologue of the degree. “It is the true equality which should exist between men of virtue and high ideals, regardless of such conditions. In the code of chivalry, the poorest Knight and the greatest King were equal as Knights. Masonic toleration is respect for the opinions of others. No one man, no one church, no one religion has a monopoly on truth. We should be true and faithful to our own opinions, and we should extend to the opinions of others the same respect we demand for our own.”

S.M.I.B.

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Regalia of the 29°. (Courtesy Scottish Rite Research Society)

“The Cross of St. Andrew is an ancient symbol, far older than Christianity,” writes Ill. Jim Tresner, author of Vested in Glory. “It is formed in the heavens by the point at which the celestial equator crosses the plane of the eliptic. Seeming to have symbolized the idea of change from very early times, it appears on ancient statues of the Mithraic deity Kronos, the lion-headed, winged human figure often shown standing on a globe marked with that cross, probably suggesting change as a function of time.”

The thistle is the national emblem of Scotland.

“The Danes invaded Scotland and stealthily surrounded Staines Castle,” according to A Bridge to Light. “They took off their shoes to wade the moat, only to find it dry and filled with thistles. The resultant yells and curses roused the garrison, and the Danes were soundly defeated.”



Regalia of the 29°. (Courtesy Scottish Rite Research Society)

The aprons shown below are among the many Scottish Masonic aprons on display at the Museum of Masonic Culture, located at the Valley of Northern New Jersey.



Grand Lodge of Scotland apron highlighting the MacQueen tartan.



The apron of the Grand Lodge of Scotland's Provincial GL of Bermuda, featuring the Black Watch tartan.



An apron from Scotland's District Grand Lodge of South Africa.



This apron is from Scotland's District Grand Lodge of the Middle East, which includes Lebanon, which is also ground zero in the current feud between the grand lodges of New York and Washington, DC.