Annotation:Free and Accepted Mason

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 FREE AND ACCEPTED MASON, THE. AKA and see "Clegg Lane," "Free Masons (2)." Scottish, Jig. D Major: G Major (Aird). Standard tuning (fiddle). The title is obviously taken from the Masonic organization. The melody appears in the (James) Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768, p. 105), and in Glasgow publisher James Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (where the alternate title "Free Mason's March" is also given). It was used in Charles Maclaurin's The Philosopher's Opera, published in Edinburgh in 1757. The jig also appears in the music manuscript collections of violin player George White, of Cherry Valley, New York, who compiled entries from c. 1790-1830, and of clarinet player J. Williams, of Salem, New York, who started his collection around 1799.  Source for notated version:  Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; No. 175.  Recorded sources:

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