William Schaw

William Schaw (c. 1550 – 1602) was Master of Works to James VI of Scotland, and was an important figure in the development of freemasonry.

Biography

William Schaw was the second son of John Schaw of Broich, and grandson of Sir James Schaw of Sauchie. The family had links to the Royal Court, principally through being keepers of the King's wine cellar. However, the family was involved in a scandal in 1560, when John Schaw was accused of murdering the servant of another laird. William was denounced as a rebel when he and his family failed to appear at court, but matters were later cleared up after a certain quantity of goods were made available.

William first appears on his own account in the records on 21 December 1583, when James VI appointed him principal Master of Works in Scotland for life, with responsibility for all royal castles and palaces. This took place following the Ruthven Raid, and the replacement of the incumbent, Robert Drummond of Carnock, with Schaw, a Roman Catholic, may have been a reaction to it. In January 1584 he travelled on a diplomatic trip to France with Alexander Seton, a fellow Catholic with an interest in architecture. He returned later that year, and in 1585 was one of three courtiers who entertained Danish ambassadors visiting the court. Then he became involved in building work for the Seton family. In 1588 Schaw was amongst a group of Catholics ordered to appear before the Edinburgh Presbytery, and English agents reported him as being a suspected Jesuit and holding anti-English views during the 1590s. By this time he had acquired the barony of Sauchie.

He was amongst the courtiers who accompanied James VI to Denmark to fetch his new queen Anne of Denmark. He returned in early 1590, ahead of the rest of the party in order to prepare for their subsequent return. He busied himself repairing Holyrood Palace and Dunfermline Palace which had been assigned to the queen. He was also responsible for the elaborate ceremony greeting her arrival at Leith, and he subsequently became master of ceremonies to the court.

By 1593 he was appointed as Chamberlain to the lordship of Dunfermline, i.e. the household of Queen Anne, were he worked closely with Alexander Seton and William Fowler. The Queen gave him a hat badge in the form of a golden salamander at New Year 1594-5. The badge was supplied by the jeweller Thomas Foulis. In 1598 he accompanied the Queen's brother in-law, the Duke of Holstein on a trip to the Bass Rock.

James VI built a new Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle in 1594, which has no documented association with Schaw, but was probably built under his direction. The Italianate building was used for the christening of James' son.

His niece married Robert Mowbray, and following his death remarried Sir James Colville of Easter Wemyss in 1601, occasioning a family feud between Francis Mowbray, Robert's brother, and Schaw and Colville. Mowbray, an erstwhile English agent, killed Schaw with a rapier in a quarrel, but was subsequently arrested for plotting against the king, and died following an escape attempt from Edinburgh Castle.

He was succeeded as King's Master of Works by David Cunninghame of Robertland.

Masonic Statutes

First Schaw Statutes

On 28 December 1598 Schaw, in his capacity of Master of Works and General Warden of the master masons, issued "The Statutis and ordinananceis to be obseruit by all the maister maoissounis within this realme". The preamble states that the statutes were issued with the consent of a craft convention, simply specified as all the master masons gathered that day. Schaw's first statutes root themselves in the Old Charges, with additional material to describe a hierarchy of wardens, deacons and masters. This structure would ensure that masons did not take on work which they were not competent to complete, and ensured a lodge warden would be elected by the master masons, through whom the general warden could keep in touch with each particular lodge. Master masons were only permitted to take on three apprentices during their lifetime (without special dispensation), and they would be bound to their masters for seven years. A further seven years would have to elapse before they could be taken into the craft, and a book-keeping arrangement was set up to keep track of this. Six master masons and two entered apprentices had to be present for a master or fellow of the craft to be admitted. Various other rules were laid out for the running of the lodge, supervision of work, and fines for non-attendance at lodge meetings.

The statutes were agreed by all the master masons present, and arrangements were made to send a copy to every lodge in Scotland. These statutes indicate a significant advance in the organisation of the craft, with shires constituting an intermediate level of organisation. These "territorial" lodges ran parallel to another set of civic organisations, incorporations, often linking masons with other workers in the building trades, such as wrights. While in some places (Stirling and Dundee), the lodges and incorporations became indistinguishable, in other places the incorporation linked the trade to the burgh, and became a mechanism whereby the merchants exercised some control over the wages of the building trades. In places like Edinburgh, where the proliferation of wooden buildings meant a predominace of wrights, the territorial lodge offered a form of craft self-governance distinct from the incorporation. Also, the masons and wrights used differing ceremonial motifs, at the respective events. The role of deacon provided a link between these incorporations and the lodges.

Copies of these statutes were written into the minutes of Aitchison's Haven (Newbattle) and Edinburgh Lodges.

Second Schaw Statutes

The Second Schaw Statutes were signed on 28 December at Holyroodhouse and consisted of fourteen separate stautes. Some of these were addressed specifically to Lodge Mother Kilwinning, others to the lodges of Scotland in general. Kilwinning Lodge was given regional authority for west Scotland, its previous practices were confirmed, various administrative functions were specified and the officials of the lodge were enjoined to ensure that all craft fellows and apprentices "tah tryall of the art of memorie". More generally, rules were laid down for proper record keeping of the lodges, with specific fees being laid down.

The statutes state that Kilwinning was the head and second lodge in Scotland. This seems to relate to the fact that Kilwinning claimed predence as the first lodge in Scotland, but that in Schaw's scheme of things, the Edinburgh Lodge would be most important followed by Kilwinning and then Stirling. David Stevenson argues that the Second Schaw statutes dealt with the response from within the craft to his first statutes, whereby various traditions were mobilised against his innovations, particularly from Kilwinning.

The reference to the art of memory may be taken as a direct reference to renaissance esotericism. William Fowler, who had been a colleague of Schaw both in his trip to Denmark and at Dunfermline, had instructed Queen Anne of Denmark in the technique. Indeed he had met Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno at the house of Michel de Castelnau in London in the 1580's. The art of memory constituted an important element of Bruno's magical system.

First Sinclair Statutes

These statutes were drawn up in 1600 or 1601 and involved the lodges of Dunfermline, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Aitchison's Haven and Haddington, and were signed by Schaw himself in his capacity of Master of Works (but not General Warden). They are known as the First Sinclair Statutes as they confirm the role of the lairds of Roslin as patrons and protectors of the craft. Once again it would suggest that Schaw's proposed reorganisation of the craft had encountered some problems. Indeed, it presaged an ongoing struggle between the Master of Works and the Sinclairs, which Schaw's successors in the post continued, following his death in 1602.

References

Bibliography

• Chalmers, Robert (1874). "Domestic Annals of Scotland: Reign of James VI. 1591 - 1603 Part H". Electric Scotland. Retrieved 2007-05-30.
• Glendinning, Miles, and McKechnie, Aonghus, Scottish Architecture, Thames & Hudson, 2004
• Reid-Baxter, Jamie "Politics, Passion and Poetry in the Court of James VI: John Burel and his surviving works", in Mapstone, S, Houwen, L.A.J.R., and MacDonald, A.A. (eds.) A Palace in the Wind: Essays on Vernacular Culture and Humanism in Late-Medieval and Renaissance, Peeters, 2000
• Stevenson, David The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's century 1590 - 1710, Cambridge University Press, 1988