The Order of Free Gardeners

Freemasonry is special and unique but this was not always so. Scotland, with its different history (English history is not British history – a trap that many fall into), was not only the place where Freemasonry is first revealed in the written record but it is also the place that many other, similar, Orders first came into existence.

It is noticeable, that whilst England was the home of ‘invented’ Orders (e.g. the Odd fellows, the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffalos and the Foresters), Scotland gave rise to Orders whose ceremonies were (and are) grounded on the practical experience of ‘ordinary’ working men (e.g. the Hammermen, the Free Wrights, the Horsemen, etc.)

This lecture will outline the history and demise of one of the largest of these pseudo-Masonic Orders – The Free Gardeners. Parallels with Freemasonry will be explored and the reason for the Order’s collapse will be explained. Lessons possible lessons for the Craft will be highlighted.