Charles T. McClenachan
Charles T. McClenachan (1829–1896) was an American lawyer, municipal official and Masonic writer. His The Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, first published in 1867, is a source for nineteenth-century American Scottish Rite history and symbolism.[1][2]
Life and public work
McClenachan was born in Washington, D.C., on 13 April 1829. He was educated at Germantown College and subsequently settled in New York. His occupations included teaching at the Institute for the Blind, serving as clerk to the city's Board of Councilmen, and working as an accountant in the Street Department and Department of Public Works. During the American Civil War he served as quartermaster of the 7th New York Regiment.[1]
His publications extended beyond Freemasonry. They included compilations on the New York fire department, municipal legal opinions, ferry leases and railway grants. He also wrote about the Atlantic telegraph cable of 1858.[1]
Masonic publications
The title page of the revised 1885 edition of his Scottish Rite book identifies McClenachan as Grand Master of Ceremonies of the Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States. In its introductory Proem, he describes his task as compilation and arrangement. He acknowledges Northern Jurisdiction authorities and Albert Pike where Northern and Southern materials coincided.[3]
The book includes explanations, selected readings and illustrations of regalia. Its table of bodies groups degrees 4–14 in a Lodge of Perfection, 15–16 in a Council of Princes of Jerusalem, and 17–18 in a Rose Croix Chapter. This arrangement supplies the framework for this wiki's articles on Scottish Rite degrees 4 to 17.[3]
McClenachan also prepared an addendum to Albert G. Mackey's Masonic encyclopaedia in 1884. His History of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons in New York began publication in 1888.[1][4]
Reading the Scottish Rite book in context
Masonic historian Arturo de Hoyos identifies the book as a monitor: a selection of explanatory and publicly printable material intended for readers already familiar with the degrees. It is not a complete script. De Hoyos traces it to a resolution adopted by the Hays–Raymond Supreme Council in 1864 and connects the first edition with the Northern union of 1867.[5]
The Northern Jurisdiction began further revisions in 1870. McClenachan's book therefore needs to be read as evidence of an earlier form of the Rite; its later reprinting does not make it a description of present practice. Different Supreme Councils have also developed different versions of the degrees.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, eds., Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography, vol. 4 (1900), p. 86, entry “McClenachan, Charles Thomson”. Digitised page.
- ↑ Library of Congress, Catalogue record for The Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1899 edition), including the author authority heading and life dates. Accessed 24 September 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Charles T. McClenachan, The Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, revised and enlarged edition (New York: Author's Edition, 1885), title page and pp. 7–10. Digitised copy.
- ↑ University of Pennsylvania, The Online Books Page, Books by Charles T. McClenachan. Accessed 24 September 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Art de Hoyos, False Accusations: Anti-Masonic Abuse of Scottish Rite Literature, Short Talk Bulletin, vol. 76, no. 6 (June 1998), reprinted in part from The Northern Light (May 1998).