>From the website http://www.tulbol.demon.co.uk/dunfermline/annals10.htm :
>1630. - WILLIAM SCHAW and the Mason Craft. - William (son of Willaim Schaw,
>Master of Works to James VI.), and himself Master of Works to Charles I.,
>granted a charter to the general lodge, recognising Sir William Sinclair of
>Roslin as patron and protector from age to age of their craft. This
>charter is attested by names of deacons and masters of the lodges of
>several of the Royal burghs in 1630. Among the signatures appears that of
>Robert Alisone, one of the Masters of the Lodge of Dunfermline. (Chal.
>Hist. Dunf. vol. ii. p. 156.)
- but don't be fooled into thinking things were civilised then...... here's
another:
>SIX WITCHES BURNT AT THE WITCH-LOAN, and Two others Die in Prison. - >This
was a great witch-catching and witch-burning year in Dunfermline.
>A staff of officials called, "witch-watchers" and "witch-catchers," had been
>appointed early in 1643 to seize and put in ward (prison) all reputed
>witches, in order that they might be tried for their "horrid and abominable
>crime of witchcraft." Accordingly, "a great many old shrivelled-up women,
>with woe-begone countenances, were warded, and if any of them used the
>long staff in walking, so much the better for the catchers."
- gulp!
Cheers,
Ian Newman
Perth, Western Australia
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