Scotland

After the death of King William III his memory and the sentiments of the Glorious Revolution were kept alive in Scotland by the Old Revolution Club and the Boyne Society until Orangeism, as we know it, came to Scotland at the end of the 18th Centaury. Scottish Orangeism had a military foundation. The first warrants were granted to regiments serving in Ireland to counter the threats of rebellion. In 1798 the Dumfries Militia was granted warrant 573. Another was given to Captain McFadzen of the Dumbarton Fencibles. The duke of York's own Highlanders got warrant 841, then 677 went to the North Lowland Fencibles and 915 to the Argyllshire Fencibles.

It was known that other warrants were granted or as in England duplicate lodges operated on the one warrant. The Ayr Militia spawned a civilian lodge on Maybole in 1799 with Captain John Ramsay from that Regiment as its first Master. The Fencible Regiments were formed for emergency only; then they were discharged and it is understood that is how the first warrant was brought to Scotland in '98. A Grand Lodge opened in Manchester in 1808 known as the Grand Protestant Association of England and later as the Orange Institution of Great Britain. Irish Warrants were replaced by the new mainland Grand Lodge over two years. Early warrants from this source held by Lodges in Scotland were 29 by the Ayr Militia and 85 om Ayrshire in 1809 and 106 in Glasgow in 1813. This Lodge is still in operation in Scotland's 24 District. Glasgow has become the centre of growth drawing new citizens from the lowlands, highlands and Ireland. The first record of a Walk in the land's largest City was on Thursday July 12th 1812 when a procession with three flags flying and a band playing God Save the King assembled at the Lyccum in nelson Street leaving at noon to parade several of the main streets surrounded by an immense concourse of spectators. The next year the parade was larger comprising seven lodge including one from Pollokshaws and one from Paisley. When Grand Lodge moved to London for its meeting to be chaired by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, styled Grand Master of the Empire, the Duke of Gordon became Deputy Grand Master of Scotland. While other Scots were named as Grand Lodge Officers the only other ever to attend one of these Grand Lodge meetings was Samuel Thompson, District Master of Ayr. 

Irish Brethren were joining Lodges though there is evidence that their number was not so great at this period as has often been stated. An exception to this was in the Maybole and Dalry area of Ayrshire which had attracted a great many Ulster men into jobs in cotton waving. In January 1830, the Grand Lodge of Ireland granted seven warrants to Lodges in this area. The Brethren in these Lodges were in harmony with the existing ones but trouble broke out the following year. In April when the feelings of the radicals were running high as the parliamentary election dew near, the town lads paraded in the Orange part of Givan headed by a French tricolour and were driven out by the residents. When July came the Maybole and Dalry Lodges decided to walk to Girvan and parade the town to meet the local lodges to celebrate the twelfth. The magistrates tried to avert trouble and eventually posted special constables on the direct road into the town to divert the procession round the back and into the demonstration field at the far end. As the parade from Maybole was passing the barrier of special constables it was stoned. The Brethren retaliated, chasing the constables and locals. They then paraded the main street taking no prisoners. In those turbuulent days this might have blown over but an Orangeman called Waugh, an ex-soldier shot dead a special constable called McIntyre. This is the only occasion that there has been violence between Scottish Protestants and Orangemen. It set the Order back considerably. When the London Grand Lodge sent an Officer in 1833 to visit Scotland he was royally received. When he visited Airdire, his open carriage dressed in Orange Ribbon, he was met outside the town and paraded through its main streets. He was treated in the same manner when he visited Stranraer. During this visit the Royal Gordon Lodge was formed in Glasgow. Its members belonged to some of the most influential families in the city. It had an Dennistoun from the banking family that the Dennistoun area of the city is named after, A Stirling if Kenmure, also Archibkand McLellan who was not only a very wealth individual but gave the city its first art colleciton, and the gallery on which it has built its internationally famous collection, and William Motherwell the poet who also took on the role of District Master of Glasgow. There is evidence that the London Grand Lodge was out of touch with the rank and file for requiring Grand Lodge dues of two shillings per year per member when an average weekly wage for six days was 12 shillings. When the enemies of the Order and its Imperial Grand Master, Duke of  Cumberland , headed a parliamentary select committee into the Orange Institution which in 1836 reported unfavorably on the Institution, Cumberland took steps to dissolve the Order in Great Britain. Royal Prince he may have been, but Orangemen don't disappear so easily.

According to a Grand Lodge Minute the reaction of the local Brethren was that representatives of the various lodges assembled in Edinburgh formed themselves into a Grand Lodge. The warrant which is contained in a very massive frame was not received from Ireland but was the product of a small committee appointed at the above meetingIt was decided the title would be the Grand Orange Association of Scotland. The headquarters of the new Grand Lodge was the King William Tavern at the Gallowgate in Glasgow. There is evidence that indicates that Lodges have been operating in Scotland without the authority of the London Grand Lodge and the Grand Lodge of Ireland which seems to be underlined by the fact that of the first ten  warrants issued by the new Grand Lodge, five went to Airdrie District Number 1 and four of these went to places where there was no previous lodge returned namely, Moodiesburn, Chryston, Gartsherie and Shotts.  In the 38 years since Scots were first initiated into the Order, control had gone from Ireland to Manchester to the establishment in London, and it was now firmly in their own hands. The Order's ranks in Scotland increased dramatically with the migration of Ulster shipyard and engineering workers to Clydesdale at the end of the 19th Century and early 20th Century

Today in Scotland Orangeism is a large vibrant movement with a combined membership of around 50,000 spread over more than 900 Lodges. Two-thirds of these Lodges are seniors - the rest woman's and juniors operating in four regions : Glasgow; Ayrshire (including Renfrewshire, Argyll and Wigtownshire); Central(Lanarkshire), and Eastern Scotland (incuding Edinburgh, Fife, Aberdeenshire, Perthsire and Inverness). The Orange family in Scotland is complements by 150 bands (two thirds flute and one third accordion), many of whom travel across to Northern ireladn for the Twelfth celebrations. Every year the Scottish Brethren hold four separate major demonstrations on the two Saturdays before the Twelfth. The Politics of the average Scottish Orangemen is all-embracing with Labour, Tory, Scottish Nationalist and Lib Dem members in its ranks. Indeed, because of the working calls roots of the Scottish order, Labour has a broad appeal to many Brethren.