A Freemason in the Family This Article was first published in the 'Family Tree Magazine' Issue of April 2019. Their Editor has kindly given her permission for it to be reprinted here. www.family-tree.co.uk Last Spring, I completed the online Future Learn course ‘Genealogy: Researching your family tree,’ delivered by the University of Strathclyde. Apart from some excellent teaching and guidance, the course also promotes and encourages online debate and discussion among students and one or two contributors sought guidance for finding out more about a relative who was understood to be a Freemason. There were very few replies to these queries so I thought I’d explain the background to this subject. Origins of Freemasonry Scottish freemasonry has its origins in the Stonemasons ‘Incorporations’ (the equivalent of English ‘Guilds): organisations set up in the mid-to late 15th century to establish standards of competence, fix wages and regulate performances. Unlike the Incorporations for bakers, bonnet-makers, butchers, weavers and leather workers and so on, stonemasons tended to move round the country and they developed a system of signs and ‘grips’ (handshakes) – the equivalent of today’s certificates, diplomas, references etc, so that potential employers (usually senior stonemasons) would know immediately how competent and proficient they were at working in stone When a large stone edifice was being built (for example the great abbeys across central and southern Scotland in the 12th and 13th centuries that attracted continental craftsmen) the stonemasons would be allocated a building nearby (called a ‘Lodge’) where they could store their tools, hold examinations to see how far the competence of their apprentices had progressed and if satisfied, initiate them into the next phase of their training, as well as testing the skills and credentials of visiting craftsmen who claimed to be journeymen masons.
(afterwards James l of the United Kingdom) and Schaw set about formally organising the Stonemasons’ Lodges in Scotland, including a requirement in 1598 that they had to start keeping records. Over time, Stonemasons’ Lodges began to admit men (known as Freemasons) who weren’t stonemasons (the first in Scotland was in 1634) and that custom increased exponentially over the years until a time when the main credentials for admission to a Lodge were that the individual was ‘of good character’ and could attest to a ‘belief in a Supreme Being’. This allowed Christians (of all denominations), Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and all other faiths to join Lodges. Religion and politics were the only two topics on which discussion was (and is) forbidden in a Masonic Lodge. New entrants would be proposed and seconded for membership by two Brethren of the Lodge. That arrangement continues to this day. Although freemasonry in Scotland appears to have grown out of the practices of working Stonemasons’ Lodges, it has been argued that it was in part at least ‘exported’ to England possibly after James Vl acceded the English throne as James l in 1603 with the first Lodges there being created by gentlemen for gentlemen. Scotland has the earliest evidence of Lodges, Lodge Records and minute books. In 1736 it was agreed that all the Scottish Lodges be organised under a new Grand Lodge (they were following an English example) and grouped into ‘Provinces’ based more or less on the areas of the existing counties at the time. Lodges were also numbered in order of seniority devised from their (assumed) date of formation. At the time this caused a lot of controversy in Scotland (that wasn’t fully resolved until 1807). Freemasonry today
In recent years, freemasonry has been the subject of controversy with allegations of ‘favouritism’, ‘bias’ and ‘secrecy’. However today, the Grand Lodges of Scotland, Ireland In 1583, William Schaw (1550-1602) was ap- and England maintain websites that advance pointed Master of Works to King James Vl Cross Keys January 2022
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