The Grand Lodge of Scotland was formed in the year 1736 by some thirty-three Lodges then working in Scotland. Some of these thirty-three Lodges were old at that time - at least three of them were at work in 1598. There are now over one thousand Lodges on the Roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and nearly as many which used to be under the Grand Lodge of Scotland now form part of other Grand Lodges all over the world.

The Grand Lodge of Scotland is composed of the Grand Master Mason, its Office-bearers and the Master and Wardens of every Lodge under its authority. It is the supreme masonic authority, legislative, executive and judicial within Scotland and has exclusive jurisdiction over the degree of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft (including the Mark) and Master Mason.

The presiding Officer in our Grand Lodge is the Grand Master Mason. He is assisted by Grand Wardens and other Grand Office-bearers. Like every Lodge, Grand Lodge has its committees and benevolent Funds. The day-to-day administration of Grand Lodge is carried out by the Grand Secretary and his staff. The headquarters of Grand Lodge are in Edinburgh, and four Meetings (called Quarterly Communications) are held every year. While only members of Grand Lodge can speak or vote at a meeting, visitors are always welcome and once a person has been admitted to the degree of Master Mason they will be free to attend Grand Lodge as a Visitor.

From Little Acorns Do Mighty Oaks Grow

A Historical Sketch of the

GRAND LODGE of ANTIENT FREE and

ACCEPTED MASONS of SCOTLAND

It was an Englishman, the late Brother Harry Carr, who said that "Masonry is indebted to the Scots for the oldest Lodge Minutes in the world, the oldest codes of official regulations for the management of Operative Lodges and the oldest complete ritual texts with descriptions of the admission ceremonies of their day. It is no exaggeration to say the clearest light on our beginnings in operative Masonry is drawn from these priceless relics".

The oldest existing Lodge Minute in the world, is that of Lodge of Aitchison's Haven dated January 9, 1598. The minute book covers the period from 1598 to 1764.

Second in age to that minute, but equally important, are the Minutes of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel), No. 1 from 1599 which covers in great detail, the early operative times right through the period of transition and right down to the present day.

It was in 1717 that the Grand Lodge of England was formed followed in 1720 by the Grand Lodge of Ireland and it is not suprising that by 1735 four Scottish Lodges discussed the possibility of forming a Grand Lodge of Scotland. After some informal meetings the first formal meeting was held on October 15th, 1736 and the Lodges represented by their Masters and Wardens were, Canongate Kilwinning, The Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel), Kilwinning Scots Arms and Leith Kilwinning. The purpose of the meeting being to decide upon the method of electing a Grand Master and also various procedural decisions were made. It was decided that a circular letter be sent to all known Lodges in Scotland informing them of the decision to elect a Grand Master and requesting participation of the Lodges in the process.

The four Lodges held several other meetings to report progress and on November 25th, 1736, a very few weeks after the first formal meeting, called the election meeting for St. Andrews Day on November 30th, 1736. On that day 32 Lodges were represented and conveened in Mary's Chapel.

Considerable points of procedure were raised and resolved before the election of a Grand Master was decided in favour of William St. Clair of Roslin.

From 1736, Grand Lodge chartered a steady stream of Lodges and it is suprising even during the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745, five Charters were issued despite the unsettled conditions,

On August 5th, 1747, Grand Lodge issued the first Charter to an overseas Lodge with the title of "Union Lodge from Drummond Kilwinning from Greenock" situated at Aleppo, Syria.

Many such Charters were granted, but the position now is that the oldest Lodge abroad under the jurisdiction of Grand Lodge is St. George No. 200 in Bermuda, 1797. An older Lodge, which was chartered in 1758 and later transferred to the Grand Lodge of Virginia is still active and was George Washington's Mother Lodge.

During the first twenty years no less than 107 Lodges were chartered.

Diplomas were first issued to Intrants by Grand Lodge in 1768 becoming mandatory in 1862.

There were no formal relations with other Grand Lodges until 1772 with the Grand Lodge of England (Ancients). This was followed in 1785 and 1796 by the opening of fraternal correspondence with Berlin and the Grand Lodge of Ireland.

With the development and expansion of the cities and towns in Scotland at this time, Masons were involved in the laying of foundation stones at numerous buildings, bridges and the like, and this was a feature of Masonic life until the middle of the following century.

It is sometimes forgotten that the first hundred years of the existance of the Grand Lodge a considerable army was required to deal with the constantly recurring unrest and insurrections at home and abroad which led to the issuance of travelling Charters or warrants from all three Grand Lodges. The first being issued by the Grand Lodge of Ireland to the 1st Regiment of Foot, later the Royal Scots in 1732.

Some of the travelling Charters to regiments changed when hostilities ceased from travelling to stationary. Today some Lodges are still working as such for example Edinburgh Defensive Band No. 151.

These travelling Charters or warrants can rightly be given credit for spreading Freemasonry in countries where the army served and not merely among members of the regiments.

Grand Committee has been developed over the years. From 1736 to 1752 the "Committee of the Grand Lodge" met under the Deputy Grand Master and consisted of twelve to fourteen of those present at each Quarterly Communication and were chosen by him. This "Committee of Grand Lodge" became the Standing Committee in 1754 and its composition was varied periodically but settled eventually as the Grand Office-bearers and the Master of the Lodges in and about Edinburgh. In 1837 it was renamed Grand Committee and was composed of seven Edinburgh Masters and eighteen Proxy Masters. This also varied frequently until 1878 the ex-officio membership of Edinburgh Masters was abolished and eighteen elected members retired by rotation each year. Today the Grand Committee consists of the Grand Master Mason as Chairman with a number of senior Grand Lodge Office-bearers and Past Office-bearers and the Provincial Grand Masters plus forty eight elective members of whom sixteen retire annually. Grand Committee appoints several Standing Committees to supervise their special subjects.

Acording to the Grand Lodge of Scotland 1998 Yearbook, there are 1,164 Lodges which owe allegiance to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, of which 665 are in Scotland and the the remaining 499 abroad in countries throughout the world. In addition there are over 300 Lodges which were orginally chartered by Scotland and have since formed or are part of other Grand Lodges abroad.

We are indebted to the Grand Lodge of Scotland as much of this information came from the Bi-Centenary booklet "Historical Sketch".

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