![[ANON.], THE INDICTMENT AND TRIAL OF JOHN ANDREW, SHOEMAKER IN MAYBOLE, SOMETIME TEACHER OF A PRIVATE SCHOOL THERE, AND ROBERT RAMSAY, CART WRIGHT THERE, BOTH MEMBERS OF A MASONIC LODGE AT MAYBOLE: CHARGED WITH THE CRIME OF SEDITION, AND ADMINISTERING UNLAWFUL OATHS (1800)](https://images.tandf.co.uk/common/jackets/crclarge/978113810/9781138100206.jpg "[ANON.], THE INDICTMENT AND TRIAL OF JOHN ANDREW, SHOEMAKER IN MAYBOLE, SOMETIME TEACHER OF A PRIVATE SCHOOL THERE, AND ROBERT RAMSAY, CART WRIGHT THERE, BOTH MEMBERS OF A MASONIC LODGE AT MAYBOLE: CHARGED WITH THE CRIME OF SEDITION, AND ADMINISTERING UNLAWFUL OATHS (1800)")
ABSTRACT
David Stevenson correctly reasons that frequent misuse of the word ‘masonic’ to describe ‘anything combining radical ideas and secrecy … was illogical and confusing’.4 This confusion ultimately allowed detractors of the Masons to formulate
conspiracy theories which asserted that ‘freemasonry was one of the great causes of the French Revolution’.5 Although there was little tangible evidence to substantiate such allegations, British Freemasonry became the object of much scrutiny and suspicion.
