Robert Moray

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Sir Robert Moray (* 1608 or 1609 - † July 4, 1673 ) was a Scottish polymonic , Freemason and founding member and President of the Royal Society .

Life

"Drops" drawing of a glass drop by Robert Moray (a gift to the Royal Society around 1661)

According to Burke's History of the Landed Gentry , he was the son of Sir Mungo Murray. After attending St Andrews University , he continued his education in France, where he joined the army of Louis XIII. entered and attained the rank of colonel. There he was friends with Cardinal Richelieu .

After Scotland returned, he was general of artillery in the Covenanter army that in 1641 in England remembered where he at Newcastle upon Tyne was responsible for the Scottish army. There he was on May 20, 1641 by Freemasons in a deputation box of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) No. 1 initiated. Although initiated in a Scottish lodge - the event took place on the south of the Scottish border - the account is believed to be the earliest record of any person initiated into speculative Freemasonry on English soil. In future, he regularly used the five-pointed star as a Masonic symbol in his correspondence .

On January 10, 1643 he was raised in Oxford by Charles I to Knight Bachelor ("Sir").

In Germany he fought in Cardinal Mazarin's army and was imprisoned in Bavaria . As an appointed colonel of the Scottish regiment, he was also a negotiator for France. As soon as his release in Bavaria was secured, he returned to England.

Around 1646 he was with Charles I and the Scottish Army in Newcastle, where he arranged the escape of the king in disguise. But Charles I backed down at the last minute because he feared he would be discovered in a ridiculous situation.

At the time of the Commonwealth of England , Moray lived abroad; In 1656 he was in Bruges , later in Maastricht until 1659.

Sir Robert Moray presided over the inaugural meeting of the Royal Society and a week later announced at the second meeting that King Charles II had officially approved their meetings. He was just as significantly involved in the awarding of the Royal Charter as in the formulation of its statutes.

He married Sophia Lindsay, daughter of Sir David Lindsay, 12th Earl of Crawford. After her death he lived in seclusion, except for attending philosophical meetings, and devoted himself mainly to his chemical experiments.

Moray had a number of notable friends such as B. Samuel Pepys , Thomas Vaughan (1621-1665 / 1666), Andrew Marvell , John Evelyn and Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.lodgeofedinburgh.org.uk/index.html
  2. ↑ Secret society and funny handshakes or brotherhood of man? Article by Steven Brocklehurst on BBC Scotland News website March 18, 2019 (accessed September 16, 2019)
  3. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 215.
personal data
SURNAME Moray, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish polymonic, Freemason and member of the Royal Society
DATE OF BIRTH 1608 or 1609
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1673