MORAY, ROBERT [SSNE 6599]

Surname: MORAY, MURRAY
First name: ROBERT
Title/rank: SIR
Nationality: SCOT

Text source

Sir Robert Moray (1608-1673) was a Scot who was both educated and served as an officer in France for Louis XIII. Richelieu sent Moray to Scotland in 1638 either to recruit or to intrigue with the Scottish Covenanters whom the French were known to have sympathies despite the distance between the confessions of faith in the two countries. During the Bishops Wars, Moray served in the Army of the Covenant in Alexander Leslie's 1640 campaign in England. In 1641 he was made a Freemason in Newcastle under the auspices of the Edinburgh Lodge of Mary's Chapel. The minute recording Moray's induction into Freemasonry records "At Neucastell the 20 day off May 1641. The qwilk day ane serten nomber off Mester and others being lafule conveined, doeth admit Mr the Right Honerabell Mr Robert Moray, General quarter Mr to the Armie off Scotlan, and the same bing aproven be the hell Mester off the Mesone off the Log off Edenbroth, quherto they heaue set to ther handes or merkes. A. Hamilton, R. Moray, Johne Mylln, James Hamilton". The A. Hamilton referred to is General of Artillery Alexander 'Dear Sandy' Hamilton [SSNE 380], a veteran of Swedish service. Manmy scholars have previously argued both men were initiated on the same Day in England, but Hamilton was certainly made a mason the year before and more on that can be found in his entry in this database. Suffice to say that the normal conclusions drawn from the admittance of soldiers because they were abroad in 1641 cannot stand up once it is clear that Hamilton had been initiated in Scotland the year before. During the period of the Solemn League and Covenant, Moray served Charles I and was knighted by him in 1643, though on the collapse of the Royalist side he returned to France. That same year, in French service, Moray was captured and imprisoned by the Duke of Bavaria. While in prison (1643-1645) he corresponded with 'Kircherus' (Athanasius Kircher), a Jesuit scholar, philosopher and author of several books on ancient Egypt. After his release, Moray returned to Britain and attended the Masonic Lodge in Edinburgh again in 1647 where he was a signatory to the initiation of the Doctor of Fisek, William Maxwell. Sir Robert took part in the failed Royalist uprising of Glencairn and Middleton and left Scotland for the continent as a refugee where he sought refuge in the Dutch Republic. Once there, he maintained his masonic interests. In 1659, Moray joined an operative masonic lodge in Maastricht and is thought to have been one of the negotiators for the return of Charles II in 1660. He certainly travelled to France on his behalf in January 1660. During this time, Moray communicated often with his friend Alexander Bruce [SSNE 6623], 2nd Earl of Kincardine, including much about his Mason's Mark of the five pointed star. Moray went on to become one of the founders of the Royal Society and was its President or Secretary between 1661-1662. He also developed close relations with Constantijn and Christiaan Huygens as well as Sir William Davidson [SSNE 5382]. Moray was also apparently visited several times by Charles II. Thereafter Sir Robert took on a role as an agent, some might say spy, for John Maitland, 2nd Earl of Lauderdale in Scotland in 1667 where he used his Masonic symbol as a code that he he had used invisible ink, a subject Stevenson has expounded greatly upon noting that "Moray thus plays the secret agent with evident enjoyment and in doing so associates the pentacle, and the stars with which it is equated, with secrecy and hidden mysteries. It symbolises invisibility, which was a major theme in Rosicrucian literature, and which is bracketed with both the Rosicrucians and Masonry in the 1620s poem previously quoted - 'second sight' consists of 'seeing' events in the future". Moray has been described as the proto-link between Scottish and Swedish Freemasonry. Anthony Wood described him as 'a renowned chymist, a great patron of the Rosie-Crucians [Rosicrucians] and an excellent mathematician' while Samuel Pepys also spoke highly of him in his diary.

A. Robertson, The Life of Sir Robert Moray: Soldier, Statesman and Man of Science, 1608-1673 (London, 1922); The details of Moray's initiation into Freemasonry are reproduced and transcribed in D. Murray-Lyon, The History of Freemasonry in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1873), p.96; A.J. Haddow, 'Sir Robert Moray's Mark in Grand Lodge of Scotland Year Book (Edinburgh, 1970), pp.76-80; D. Stevenson, Masonry, symbolism and ethics in the life of Sir Robert Moray, FRS in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, no.114 (1984), pp.405-431 [particularly pp.407-408 where the error about Hamilton's admission is repeated]; D. Stevenson, The First Freemasons; Scotland's Early Lodges and their Members (Aberdeen, 1988), p.28; A.C.F. Jackson, 'Rosecrucianism and its effect on Craft Masonry' in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol. 97 (1995), pp.124 and 149-150. See also the reponse to the article by George Draffen, p.142; M. Baigent, 'Freemasonry, Hermetic Thought and the Royal Society of London' in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol.109, 1996, pp.159-160; F.L. Pick and G. Norman Knight, The Pocket History of Freemasonry' (London, 1992 edition), p.44 - here the two authors merge Hamilton and Moray's initiation documents into one!; M. K. Scuchard "Leibniz, Benzelius, and the Kabbalistic Roots of Swedish Illuminism" in A. P. Coudert et al (eds), Leibniz, Mysticism and Religion (Dordrecht, 1998), pp.89-92.

Bishops Wars

Service record

FRANCE, HEPBURN'S REGIMENT: Arrived 1634-01-01, as OFFICER; Departed 1638-12-31, as LIEUTENANT-COLONEL; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
STUART KINGDOMS, SCOTLAND, ARMY OF THE COVENANT IN NEWCASTLE: Arrived 1640-05-20, as QUARTERMASTER GENERAL; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
FRANCE, SCOTTISH REGIMENTS: Arrived 1642-01-01, as COLONEL; Departed 1650-12-31, as COLONEL; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
FRANCE, SPANISH FLANDERS, GERMANY, PARIS, BRUGGE, BREMEN: Arrived 1655-05-01; Departed 1656-06-30; Capacity REFUGEE, purpose EXILE
THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, THE HAGUE, MAASTRICHT: Arrived 1659-07-03; Departed 1660-01-10; Capacity EXILE, REFUGEE, DIPLOMAT, purpose EXILE, MISC.
FRANCE,: Arrived 1660-01-10; Capacity DIPLOMATIC ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY
ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, LONDON: Arrived 1661-03-01; Departed 1663-12-31; Purpose MISC.
ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, SCOTLAND: Arrived 1667-01-01; Capacity SECRET AGENT, SPY, purpose ESPIONAGE