CULLODEN and STOCKHOLM, 1745–1747 Since December 1744, a Small Group of Scottish Masons Maintained a Lodge
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CHAPTER TWELVE LOSING THE TEMPLE: CULLODEN AND STOCKHOLM, 1745–1747 Since December 1744, a small group of Scottish Masons maintained a lodge within Holyrood Palace, the traditional residence of the Stuart kings in Edinburgh.1 In September 1745, when Charles Edward arrived in the city after his sensational victories against George II’s army, he and his fellow Mason, George Kelly, moved into the palace. Kelly had earlier been chosen by Ramsay to make an English translation of his Masonic oration, which Charles Edward yearned to read in 1737. Infused with the chivalric mysticism of the crusaders who recaptured Jerusalem, Ramsay’s history circulated in manuscript throughout the Écossais network. In late September, the Holyrood lodge arranged a ceremony that seemed to fulfill not only Ramsay’s but Swedenborg’s vision of the restored Temple of Jerusalem. During his last months in London, Swedenborg quoted scripture in a way that seemed to demonstrate his newly-acquired clairvoyance— or his access to secret Masonic planning. “They shall build a temple,” and afterward, “returning from the places of exile, they shall build up Jerusalem gloriously”; an architect will “show the throne” and “the prince he shall settle in the sanctuary—the northern gate.”2 Now those visions were fulfilled in the real world when the Stuart prince under- went a private initiation ceremony. On 30 September the Duke of Perth wrote from Edinburgh to his kinsman Lord Ogilvy: It is truly a proud thing to see our Prince in the palace of his Fathers, with all the best blood of Scotland around him. He is much beloved of all sorts, and we cannot fail to make the pestilent England smoke for it. Upon Monday last, there was a great ball at the Palace, and on Tuesday, by appointment, there was a solemn Chapter of the ancient chivalry of the Temple of Jerusalem, held in the audience room—not more than ten Knights were present, for since my Lord of Mar demitted the Office of 1 Lisa Kahler, “Freemasonry in Edinburgh, 1721–1746: Institutions and Context” (St. Andrews University, Ph.D. Dissertation, 1998), 207–14. 2 Swedenborg, Messiah, 93, 67. culloden and stockholm, 1745–1747 397 G Master, no general meeting has been called, save in your North Convent. Our noble Prince looked most gallantly in the white robe of the Order, and took his profession like a worthy Knight; and, after receiving congratulations from all present, did vow that he would restore the Temple higher than it was in the days of William the Lyon. Then my Lord Athol did demitt as Regent, and his Rl Highess was elected G Master. I write you this knowing how you love the Order . .3 Though some Whig-oriented historians of English Masonry rejected the letter as a forgery, others who were better-informed about Scottish history and international Jacobite Freemasonry (such as J.E.S. Tuckett and André Kervella) have vouched for its authenticity.4 Kervella argues that the Order of the Temple was founded in 1722 by the Earl of Mar, with assistance from Ramsay. Approved by James III, it was defined as “a new military order of knighthood,” to be called “the restora- tion order,” and dedicated to reward “the chiefs of the clans” who “act heartily” in the Stuart cause.5 After Mar fell from favor, due to Bishop Atterbury’s vendetta against him, the order went underground and survived only among Mar’s strongest supporters in Scotland. But the most compelling and most enduring belief in the Templar ceremony emerged in Sweden, where the story was brought to the Hats by Swedish soldiers who fought with Prince Charles and by Scottish Masons who found refuge in Sweden.6 David, Lord Ogilvy, the recipi- ent of Perth’s letter, fled to Gothenburg, where he was assisted by local Masons, some of whom subsequently joined his regiment in France.7 In 1763 a Swedish member of a French military lodge revealed that the “Scotch Degree usual in England . which resembles what the French call the Royal Arch degree . was first known in France from 3 Transcript of full letter in Grand Lodge of Scotland; I am grateful to the librarian Robert Cooper for sending me a copy. 4 Tuckett, “Origin,” 5–31, and “Dr. Begemann and the Alleged Templar Chapter of Edinburgh in 1745,” AQC, 33 (1920), 40–62. Perth’s letter to Ogilvy was published in Statutes of the Religious and Military Order of the Temple (Edinburgh, 1843),and in James Denistoun, Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange (Edinburgh, 1855), I, 81–82. Strange had accompanied the prince in Holyrood, and he engraved the plates for the new Jacobite money. 5 Kervella, Mystère, 279–93; also, Schuchard, “Rivalités,” 9–10. 6 Nordmann, Gustave III, 219–20. 7 Arne Odd Johnsen, “Jacobite Officers at Bergen, Norway, after the Battle of Culloden,” Scottish Historical Review, 57 (1978), 189..