One of the founders of the Kirkwall lodge is said to be from the “Stirline” lodge. That lodge has a “brass” mentioning an a “Redd Cros or Ark”. Unfortunately, the brass is not dated. Since there is also a “Night Templer” and the oldest Templar reference that I know is from 1769, the “brass” could be about the same age as the Kirkwall Scoll.
I see no similarities between the “brass” and panel 3, yet Day says that this panel does display the degrees of Ark Mariner and Red Cross (by lack of better suggestions I think).
The more I look into the Red Cross degree, the more confused I get. Obviously, it isn’t just a degree. There are several degrees which had/have the words “Red Cross” in the title. Red Cross of Babylon, Red Cross of Daniel, Order of the Red Cross, Prince Mason Knights of the Red Cross (Dublin 1782), Knight of the Red Cross (Ireland 1806) and probably more. Also frustrating, I have consulted several monitors (which usually have quite some images) and “Red Cross” is usually one of the Royal Arch degrees, but also the degree with the least images. The only image I found so far, is an arched bridge:
The image comes from Shibboleth Templar Monitor by George Cooper Connor (Order Of The Red Cross!) (1894), so only if in 1894 the symbolism was still similar to 1780, this is a ‘lead’ (the letters stand for justice, duty, truth and liberty, by the way). There are Red Cross references since the 1760’ies (London), that that wouldn’t really narrow down the dating, but I would like some more comparisons to back up the claim of Red Cross symbolism.
Taking that the “Red Cross” “[…] is obviously a translation of a French ritual for the degree of Chevalier de l’épée et de l’Orient (Knight of the Sword and/or of the East)” (Snoek British Freemasonry part 3, p. 475, talking about the Irish Red Cross degree), the degree might originate in France and be known by different names.
About the same ritual Snoek also writes on the next page:
There can be little doubt where this ritual of ‘Knight of the Red Cross’ came from. Pierre Lambert de Lintot worked his Rite of Seven Degrees in London from the 1760s to the end of the 1780s.
Thus dating the degree to the 1760. We could also look at the Rose Croix (Rosy-cross) degrees that have become popular since the same time, but there are also no obvious Rosycross images on panel 3.
Ark Mariner then.
This degree seems to be from 1790. Some say that there might have been an Ark degree part of early (1740’ies) Royal Arch, but there is not much to go on there. It would be crucial to know for the dating of the scroll, because 1790 is after the scroll was given to the Kirkwall lodge.
And what are the Ark Mariner symbols here? The (possible) ark on the top right? Are the three arches actually rainbows? Anything else?
