[ANON.], PETITION AND COMPLAINT AT BROTHER GIBSON’S INSTANCE AGAINST BROTHER MITCHELL, AND HIS ANSWERS THERETO; WITH THE PROCEDURE OF THE GRAND LODGE THEREON AND PROOF ADDUCED (1808)

The Whig presence within the Grand Lodge had forced through the union with Kilwinning2 and had effectively guaranteed that any Tory candidate nominated for the office of Grand Master would be defeated. Leaving aside the problem of a disgruntled Mary’s Chapel, the Grand Lodge of Scotland alone controlled the right to grant charters. Victory, however, was short-lived. During the negotiations, ‘a fresh trouble was developing’ which became ‘commingled with the issues of the Kilwinning business’.3 As Lindsay argues, the key to this ‘fresh trouble is to be found in the particular manner in which politics entered into the daily life of the time.’4