Lewis Masonic, who sell a poster of the scroll, ask themselves:
why does the scroll appear to contain something very similar to the coat of arms of the Grand Lodge of England?
Thinking -of course- of this panel:
And this coat of arms:
What a weird question. This is the coat of arms of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1813. Before the union, the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster (later “Moderns”) had this coat of arms:
So Lewis Masonic on one hand suggests that the Kirkwall Scroll is Medieval and on the other hand that is is younger than 1813? A century ago, it already was suggested that the image on the Kirkwall Scroll was inspired by the coat of arms of the “Antients”:
Which makes a lot more sense. This image appeared in the first version of the Ahiman Rezon from 1764 (above). I haven’t yet found when when the seal (below) came in use.
I wondered if the coat of arms of the Grand Lodge of Ireland could be a/the inspiration for the Kirkwall scroll. Their coat of arms looks like this:
And the Grand Lodge of Ireland was founded in 1725.
It turns out (1) that this seal was designed by a W.S. Mossop and was in use from 1806 until 1846. Therefor this seal cannot be the inspiration for the image on the Kirkwall Scroll. It is more likely that both the scroll and the seal of the Grand Lodge of Ireland go back to the design of Dermott.
Later, many seals have been designed looking quite similar, either of “craft” Grand Lodges or “Royal Arch” or other systems. These can likely be traced back to the seal of the Grand Lodge of Ireland (and/or the “Antient” Grand Lodge).
Because lodges (domestic and abroad) were founded by both the “Moderns” and the “Antients” before their union in 1813, (Grand) lodges that go back on “Antient” lodges may still have similar looking coats of arms.
(1) mediastorehouse.com (accessed 1 March 2024)