did chevalier ramsay invent the royal arch or was it english

Chevalier Ramsay did not invent the Royal Arch degree itself, though he introduced the high-degree doctrines and theories that inspired English Masons to create it 1. Ramsay’s own system consisted of the degrees of Ecossais, Novice, and Knight Templar, leaving no trace of a degree under the name of the Royal Arch 1.

English Masons acted upon Ramsay's idea that the Master's part required expansion 1. They took the Word—which had existed in the original Third Degree ritual—and transferred its placement to a Fourth degree 1. They discarded Ramsay’s legend and nomenclature, avoiding French or Scottish titles like *Ecossais*, and fabricated a new legend partly drawn from Talmudic tradition under the title of the Royal Arch 1.

Historical records place the emergence and early practice of the degree within the British Isles: - The earliest known occurrence of the term appears in a December 1743 report from Youghal Lodge in Ireland 2. - Fifield Dassigny’s 1744 treatise notes that an assembly of Royal Arch Masons met in York and indicates the degree was conferred in London as early as 1740 12. - Retrospective entries in the minute books of Vernon Lodge in Coleraine, Ireland, list members made Royal Arch Masons as early as March 1745 2. - The earliest known minute recording the degree actually being conferred sits in the records of Fredericksburg Lodge in Virginia, dated December 22, 1753 2.

While Ramsay provided the concept of expanding symbolic Masonry beyond the primitive degrees 1, the Royal Arch ritual and system were fabricated and organized in England and Ireland 12.

William James Hughan maintains that the Royal Arch degree is far more ancient than 1740, rejecting assertions that it was a modern invention or fabrication around that period 3.

In evaluating the origins of the degree, he explicitly demurs from Dr. George Oliver's claim that Chevalier Ramsay was involved in its fabrication 3. Hughan points out that there is no evidence Ramsay's degree inventions were ever presented to or rejected by any Masonic body in Great Britain or Ireland 3. Furthermore, Ramsay died at least three years before Laurence Dermott was exalted as a Royal Arch Mason, and the "Atholl" Grand Lodge was not formed until roughly seven years after Ramsay's death 3. Hughan concurs with Jacob Norton that any visit by Ramsay to England or Ireland around 1740 was for political rather than Masonic reasons 3.

Hughan also addresses the views of contemporaneous writers such as Whytehead, Mackey, Oliver, and Woodford, who variously theorized that the degree originated as the concluding portion or second part of the Master Mason degree, or was concocted by the Ancients to widen the schism 3. While he considers Oliver's characterization of the degree as an English fabrication to be "possibly nearer the truth" than Ramsay's involvement—given that continental degrees under that name differ from the English degree—he firmly holds that the facts demonstrate a far earlier antiquity 3.

Laurence Dermott characterized the Holy Royal Arch as "the root, heart, and marrow of Masonry", maintaining that Antient Masonry comprised four degrees, with the Holy Royal Arch standing as the fourth degree and the completion of the Master's degree. An article on the site notes that Dermott restricted the degree to brethren who had passed the Chair in regular form as Masters of lodges.

To frame the degree as an ancient institution rather than a modern invention, Dermott inserted the prayer *Ahabath Olam* into *Ahiman Rezon*, presenting it under the title of "A Prayer repeated in the Royal Arch Lodge at Jerusalem" 2. Mackey notes that Dermott adopted this prayer—originally used by Jews dispersed throughout the Roman Empire—in reference to its allusion to the holy and mighty name of God 2.

The earliest documented mention of the Royal Arch appears in an account of a Saint John's Day procession held by Lodge No. 21 in Youghal, Ireland, on December 27, 1743 2. This was followed by Fifield Dassigny's printed treatise in 1744, which described Royal Arch Masons assembling in York, Dublin, and London 2.

In lodge minute books, a 1767 roster from Vernon Lodge No. 123 in Coleraine, Ireland, lists a member as having received the degree on March 11, 1745 2. The same lodge provides the earliest contemporary minute entry referring to a Royal Arch Mason, dated April 16, 1752 2.

For the actual conferral of the degree, the earliest surviving minute recording candidates being raised to the Royal Arch comes from Fredericksburg Lodge in Virginia, dated December 22, 1753 2. In England, the earliest traced minute entry documenting the conferral of the degree dates to 1758 at a lodge meeting in Bristol 2.