The Oldest RA Chapters

The oldest of the Scottish chapters are given here in the order of their official numbers, but not, unfortunately, in the order of the dates of their founding. As from the early nineteenth century, however, Scottish chapters, with but few exceptions, are numbered in accordance with their priority of date:

No. 1 is Edinburgh, founded in 1779 (F); No. 2, Stirling Rock, Stirling, 1743 (F); No. 3, Enoch, Montrose, 1765 (F); No. 4, Operative, Banff, 1766 (F); No. 5, Linlithgow, 1768 (F); No.6, Union, Dundee, 1773 (F); No. 7, Noah, Brechin, 1774 (F); No. 8, Haran, Laurencekirk, 1774 (F); No. 9, Hope, Arbroath, 1779 (F); No. 10, Josiah, St Andrews, 1780 (F); St Luke, Aberdeen, 1782 (F); No. 12, Elijah, Forfar, 1783 (F); No. 13, Macduff, Banffshire, 1784 (F); No. 14, St Andrew, Buckie, 1787 (F); No. 15, Land of Cakes, Eyemouth, 1787 (F); Old Aberdeen, 1788 (F); No. 17, Greenock, Greenock, 1789 (F); No. 18, Ayr St Paul, Ayr, 1789 (F); No. 19, Strathmore, Glamis. 1789 (F); St James', Aberdeen, 1789 (F); No. 21, St George, Aberdeen, 1795 (F); Royal Caledonian, Annan, 1796; No. 22, Banks of Douglas Water, Douglas, 1797 (F); Loyal Scots, Langholm, 1797; St Albans, Lanark, 1797 (F); No. 23, Horeb, Stonehaven, 1799 (F); Military, Ayrshire Militia, 1799 (F); Grand Assembly, Kilmarnock, 1798; No. 41, Operative, Aberdeen, 1792.

Names in italics are of chapters no longer in existence. ‘F' indicates founding chapters of the Grand Chapter. The distinction as to the oldest Chapter currently lies with Stirling Rock Royal Arch, which recorded in 1743, that “Mungo Nicol, shoemaker and brother James McEwan, Student of Divinity at Stirling, and being found qualified, they were admitted Royal Arch Masons. ”

The R.A. ceremonial is believed to have been introduced from England, and in the case of one chapter, the Union, No. 6, Dundee, is known definitely to have been brought by a military lodge warranted by the ‘Antients' Grand Lodge of England. An early chapter, Land of Cakes, of Eyemouth, a coast town less than ten miles north of Berwick, has two charters, an English one of 1787 and a Scottish one of 1817, and was, of course, working on the English charter when Robert Burns was exalted in that chapter on 19th May, 1787.

The oldest minute is from Fredericksburg Lodge No.4 in Virginia from December 1753 which mentioned three MMs being “ raised to the degree of Royal Arch Mason. The RA lodge being shut, Entered Apprentice Lodge opened.” This is George Washington’s lodge which was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Scotland!