Early Aberdeen Masonry

The first recorded non-operative Master of a Lodge, that is one who is, one who is not a stonemason, was that of Lodge Aberdeen No.1 ter, or third No.1, Scotland. when Harry Elphinstone, Tutor of Art and Collector of Customs in 1650, presided over 10 operative Masons, 4 Nobleman, 2 members of county families, 3 ministers, 2 glaziers, an advocate, a professor of mathematics, 9 merchants, 2 surgeons, a blacksmith, 2 peri-wig makers, 4 carpenters, 3 slaters and 4 other tradesmen. This record is signed in the following manner: “Wreattin be James Anderson. Glassier and Meason and Clerk to our honorable Lodge.”

The above named James Anderson was the father of Rev. James Anderson, who, along with Dr. Desaguliers, wrote the first Constitution of Speculative Masonry in 1723.

The example of having a non-operative Master was followed by Mother Kilwinning in 1678. Lodge of Dunblane in 1696, and by Edinburgh No.1 in 1725. The fusion of Operative Masonry probably commencing in Scotland about the time of, and to some extent in consequence of, the Reformation and the invention of the printing press.

Old Aberdeen Lodge No.1 ter, was closely identified with the early settlement of New Jersey. The booking agent at Aberdeen was the first non-operative Master, Harry Elphinstone. Associated with him in that enterprise was Robert Gordon, card maker; George Alexander, advocate; John Forbes, merchant; and John Skene, merchant. These names are recorded in the book of Marks of the Lodge dated 1670, said to be the oldest role of members of a lodge in existence. The writer has had the privilege of seeing it.

John Skene was the only one to bring his family out and make a permanent settlement here. He sailed from Aberdeen on the ship “Golden Lion”, arrived in Delaware in October 1682, and settled at Burlington New Jersey where he became a member of the Assembly that following year. In 1685 he was appointed Deputy Governor of West Jersey and continued as such nominally until his death in 1690. He was the first known Mason resident in America, coming to this country the same year that Johnathan Belcher was born, who our brethren in Massachusetts claim was the first native-born Mason.

A Masonic medallion bearing the date 1516 which, though discovered in Ireland some years ago, was unknown to the Masonic authorities until recently, when it was handed over to the Provincial Grand Secretary of Tyrone and Fermanagh, was found by the caretaker in the wall of an old country house in Derganyneville, County Tyrone. It was covered with soot and had evidently been hidden in the chimney of the house. the members of the Dublin Masonic Lodge of Research believe that it is one of the oldest Masonic emblems in Ireland, and the date it bears is 101 years prior to the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England the mother Grand Lodge of the world, in 1717.

Brother Craighead was member of St. George Lodge No.190, Aberdeen, Scotland and PM Thistle Lodge No.900, Yonkers, New York.