ABSTRACT
The author of this pamphlet,2 James Steven, describes himself as a merchant in Glasgow, though he was not a merchant burgess and therefore would have had only limited rights to trade in the city. He was a member of the Antiburgher congregation in Glasgow3 and a regular attender at a ‘fellowship meeting’ at which members discussed worship and beliefs. He was absent from the meetings for two months in 1753, and on his return he explained that he had been away as he had been ‘concerned in building a house belonging to a company of free masons, being collector’. Steven claims that he did not expect this to be controversial, but his colleagues at the meeting expressed their horror at him being involved in that ‘abominable thing’ – Freemasonry. The Kirk Session was informed of the matter, and declared his association with the masons devilish. He was then questioned as to whether he had ‘sworn’ (an oath) when made collector, and the money he had collected was declared abominable and unlawful. Steven argued that the session was wrong to question him, and pointed out that William Imbrie – who was present at the session meeting – had previously been the masons’ collector and had not been denounced. It was presumably at this point that the questioning of Imbrie (author of the previous text, The Poor Man’s Complaint) began.
