Difference between revisions of "The St Clair Charters"
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The charters are useful sources for craft government, noble patronage and the distribution of [[Early Scottish lodges|early lodges]]. Their claims should be read alongside [[The Schaw Statutes]] and contemporary lodge minutes, rather than treated as proof of an unbroken hereditary Grand Mastership from the Middle Ages. | The charters are useful sources for craft government, noble patronage and the distribution of [[Early Scottish lodges|early lodges]]. Their claims should be read alongside [[The Schaw Statutes]] and contemporary lodge minutes, rather than treated as proof of an unbroken hereditary Grand Mastership from the Middle Ages. | ||
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| + | == See also == | ||
| + | * [[The formation of the Grand Lodge of Scotland]] | ||
== References == | == References == | ||
Latest revision as of 12:12, 30 September 2026
The St Clair Charters are two documents recording agreements by Scottish craftsmen to recognise members of the Sinclair, or St Clair, family of Roslin as patrons and protectors. The first is usually dated to 1600–1601 and the second to 1627–1628. Both originals are undated. Despite their conventional name, they were issued by craftsmen and were not themselves royal grants.[1]
The first charter
The first document was made with the consent of William Schaw, the king's master of works. It supported William Sinclair of Roslin and his heirs as patrons and judges of the craft. Its authors complained about disorder within the trade and the expense and delay of taking disputes to the ordinary courts.[2]
The wording proposed that Sinclair obtain authority from the sovereign. It therefore records an effort to secure royal jurisdiction, rather than proof that the king had already granted it. Schaw signed as master of works. Representatives associated with Edinburgh, Haddington, Aitchison's Haven, Dunfermline and St Andrews appear among the signatories; notaries assisted men unable to write.[2] Stevenson dates the agreement through the office-holders named in it.[1]
The second charter
The second document renewed the arrangement for Sir William Sinclair, son of the earlier beneficiary. It referred to masons and hammermen and claimed powers to appoint deputies, hold meetings and judge craft disputes. Its geographical support was wider, including Glasgow, Stirling and Dundee. The mixture of lodges and craft representatives cautions against treating it as the constitution of a modern national Grand Lodge.[1]
The date 1630 sometimes attached to this charter comes from a later copy. Stevenson favours 1627–1628 on the evidence of the named officers and an Edinburgh lodge minute recording a meeting with Sinclair at Roslin in May 1628.[1]
Claims about earlier patronage
Both documents appealed to established custom. The second additionally asserted that earlier royal grants had been destroyed in a fire at Roslin. These statements are evidence of the claims being made in the seventeenth century; they do not independently establish the contents or date of a lost medieval grant. Stevenson questions the account, noting that the first document does not mention those royal grants and that the second leaves the year of the fire blank.[1]
The charters are useful sources for craft government, noble patronage and the distribution of early lodges. Their claims should be read alongside The Schaw Statutes and contemporary lodge minutes, rather than treated as proof of an unbroken hereditary Grand Mastership from the Middle Ages.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590–1710 (Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 52–60.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Transcriptions of the two St Clair Charters, hosted by the Freemasonry Research Forum. The editorial headings give the dates 1601 and 1628; neither date forms part of the original text.
Chronology: Timeline of early Freemasonry
Documents: The Old Charges · The Regius manuscript · The Cooke manuscript · The Schaw Statutes · The St Clair Charters · The 1723 Constitutions
Scottish lodges and ideas: William Schaw · Early Scottish lodges · Lodge Mother Kilwinning · Mary's Chapel · Canongate Kilwinning · Haughfoot Lodge · Operative and speculative Freemasonry · The art of memory and Freemasonry · Freemasonry and the Royal Society · The Templar theory of Masonic origins
People: Robert Moray · John Theophilus Desaguliers · James Anderson · William Preston · Andrew Michael Ramsay
Chivalric systems: The Strict Observance · Karl Gotthelf von Hund · Lyon (1778) · Wilhelmsbad (1782) · Jean-Baptiste Willermoz · Rectified Scottish Rite
English Grand Lodges: Formation of the first Grand Lodge · Antients and Moderns · Laurence Dermott · Ahiman Rezon · The Union of 1813
Ireland, Scotland and overseas: Early Irish Freemasonry · Grand Lodge of Scotland · Military and travelling lodges
France and the Jacobites: Early French Freemasonry · Freemasonry and the Jacobites
Atlantic connections: Benjamin Franklin · The Lodge of the Nine Sisters · George Washington · Paul Revere · African Lodge No. 459 · Prince Hall
Research: Sources for studying early Freemasonry · Masonic museums and libraries
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