The First Freemasons: Scotland's Early Lodges and Their Members Book

Freemasonry has long been a controversial subject. This book sets out to place the early history of freemasonry on a sound footing by undertaking a comprehensive survey of the earliest of all masonic lodges, those of Scotland, in the first century of their existence. Most of these early Scottish lodges still exist today, and many of them have records dating from the seventeenth century-and indeed in two cases, from 1599. Yet no previous attempt has been made to use this evidence systematically in order to analyse the lodges, their activities, and their members.The picture that emerges is of the Medieval mythology of the mason craft being blended in Scotland in the closing years of the sixteenth century with a rich mix of late Renaissance intellectual developments to create a movement unique in its ideals and organisation. The secret societies (the very existence of the lodges was at first kept secret) were at first confined largely to craftsmen, but in time men from other ranks of society began to join so that they could share in the ideals of brotherhood and the rituals of initiation. By the early eighteenth century, Scotland had developed freemasonry to the point where it began to spread fast in England and then round the world.As well as being a contribution to the history of freemasonry, this book opens up a new dimension of social and cultural history in Scotland by revealing the existence in the seventeenth century of a network of social institutions, the lodges, where men of different ranks could meet and share ideals and love of ritual.David Stevenson is Reader in Scottish History and Director of the Centre for Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. He holds degrees from the universities of Dublin and Glasgow, and has published a number of books on aspects of seventeenth century Scottish history.Read More