Although its website disclaims all connection with the world of Freemasonry, the first masonic arms recorded in the Register are those of the Incorporation of Masons in Glasgow:
Azure on a chevron between two cotises
and accompanied by three towers, two in chief and one in base all Argent, the
last masoned
Sable, a pair of compasses proper.
Grant: February 19th 1917
The next in this family is that of the Trades House Lodge of Glasgow:
The third set of arms to be recorded set the pattern for most of its successors:
When the Grand Lodge recorded arms in
1927, the thinking would appear to have been that there should be a generic
masonic coat impaled with the national flag of Scotland. Of course, it might be
thought disrespectful to place the national flag anywhere other than in the
place of honour. The perhaps unintended result of this was
that for subsequent grants all but one put the parent body, the Grand Lodge’s
chevron, compasses and castles, on the sinister side
and the individual lodge’s distinguishing arms on the dexter.
