[ANON.], AN EXPOSITION OF THE CAUSES WHICH HAVE PRODUCED THE LATE DISSENSIONS AMONG THE FREE MASONS OF SCOTLAND (1808)

It would be too convenient and simplistic to conclude that all Scottish Freemasons were bitterly divided along shades of political loyalty. During the early 1800s, however, a polarization of party allegiances occurred within the Grand Lodge of Scotland which ultimately spilled over into several Edinburgh lodges and resulted in the Masonic Secession of 1808. Peter Clark maintains that the discord which resulted from competing political ideologies during the eighteenth century created a ‘need for a neutral arena’.3 This came in the form of clubs and associations such as the Freemasons, where political discussions were in theory prohibited, although Clark asserts that ‘the sound of politics was not so much excluded from … societies as admitted with the volume turned down’.4 By 1802, Scottish Freemasonry was ‘fragmenting and reforming into contesting structures’, due largely to the politicisation of the Grand Lodge.5 Despite the leadership of distinguished loyalists such as Sir James Stirling6 and George Gordon, Earl of Aboyne,7 it is clear that the Grand Lodge was rapidly becoming a Whig body. Indeed, as Clark argues, associations without a clear political agenda

– especially the Freemasons – might easily ‘be drawn into political activity during periods of national upheaval’.8