The Masonic Book Club, Vol. 37

There is some historical support for the involvement of these Royales in freemasonry (each may have been a freemason). The Duke of Kent was titular head of the Craft in England (in a tradition continued to this day); Frederick was proud of his philosophical bent (though his famous friendship with the Frenchman Voltaire seems to have broken over the former’s love of marital exploits) and a recent biographer of Charles Edward Stuart (the historical 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'-in hard times during the late 1700’s) claimed that the Stuart sold the hereditary right to be 'Grand Master of Masons' to King Gustav III, father of Charles of Sweden, in 1783.However, the image of the Duke of Kent (by heredity, an enemy through his German home in Hanover, of the rising power of the Brandenburg Elector who just happened to be Prussian King Frederick) sitting down with Frederick and Charles (who regarded, with good reason, Frederick as a threat to Swedish Pomerania) to speculate on freemasonry is a bit absurd. Still, history should not stop a good Masonic lesson. Where would the world be today had these influential Royales actually come together? One doesn’t need to know about the 'Butterfly Effect' to imagine the possibilities.But who are we to argue? In 1803 and again in 1804, Dr. Dalcho, a leader of St. Michael’s Church in Charleston and destined to become Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of South Carolina, presented 'orations' to the Grand Lodge. In these orations he talked about some of the inconsistencies between historical fact and the legend in the 'Blue' degrees and how, as a student of the Bible, he resolved these in his own mind. He also took the opportunity to describe the origins of the Sublime Degrees or Scottish Degrees. As a founder of the Rite in America he should have known. He would become the second Grand Commander in 1816. From these orations and his appendices, we learn Dalcho’s statement as to where the Scottish Rite came.Dr. Dalcho (a surgeon by training) was born in England but studied medicine in Baltimore. He served in the American Army as a surgeon and as a line officer before moving to Charleston in 1800 to practice medicine. He would head the Supreme Council in Charleston from 1816 until his death in 1836.Before we can determine if Dr. Dalcho is relating the historical truth as to the origins of the Scottish Rite or not, we need to read his work and do some 'speculating' of our own. At the very least, reading Dalcho’s Orations provides more grist for the mills of endless debate on the origins of freemasonry. As such, it is an important work, even two hundred years after first publication.