The following report on the history of the St. Andrew’s Society of Washington, D.C. was developed by the Society’s Heritage Committee in 2013 and approved by the Board of Managers on March 13, 2013. See the full report with illustrations in PDF format.
Background
For over 130 years, the St. Andrew’s Society of Washington, D.C., promoted itself as being founded in 1855 by William Robertson Smith. In or around 1990, the Society Board of Managers approved a recommendation to accept 1760 as a founding date for the Society. Since that time, research has determined that the first annual gathering of the St. Andrew’s Society of Alexandria most likely occurred in 1788 but has uncovered no evidence of direct organizational lineage.
At a Board of Managers meeting in 2012, former President and current Community Relations Chairman John Bellassai expressed concerned that the possibility of returning to a founding date of 1855 would ignore the first century of Scottish-American history in the area, thereby “diluting” the Society brand. The matter was referred to the Heritage Committee to determine an appropriate course of action.
Timeline
Analysis
Scots and Scottish-Americans have clearly been a strong and vibrant influence in the National Capital Area for over 250 years. The challenge is to reflect that tradition within the current identity of the St. Andrew’s Society of Washington, D.C.
As a matter of law, the origin of the Society as a corporation is May 18, 1908, when its Articles of Incorporation were signed and recognized by the U.S. federal government.
As a matter of tradition, Society members have recognized (until circa 1990) that William Robertson Smith founded the “St. Andrew’s Society of Washington, D.C.” in 1855.
As a matter of spiritual connection, current members have felt a strong link to the St. Andrew’s Society founded in Alexandria, which was part of the District of Columbia from 1791 to 1846.
The chief mystery is why the Washington D.C. Society was founded at all. According to the Alexandria Gazette on December 2, 1852, the Alexandria Society convened its 64th anniversary assembly and “unanimously re-elected” eleven individuals to their posts. A mere three years later, W.R. Smith establishes his own St. Andrew’s Society less than ten miles away.
The founding of the Washington Society may well have been intended as an alternative to the Alexandria Society. An example of a modern-day parallel may well be the Clans of Scotland, USA, which was founded in the Washington, D.C., area in 1962 which included both men and women and did not require Scottish lineage, in contrast to the Washington Society.
The era of post-Civil War Reconstruction may well have seen the demise of the Alexandria Society and the ascendency of the Washington Society. As a former part of the Confederacy, Alexandria’s Scottish and Scottish-American merchants may have suffered, and certainly the Washington Society prospered with its association with members of the American federal government. Thus, the last member of the Alexandria Society may have passed away by 1880 (as noted by the article in the Alexandria Gazette on December 1, 1900, Figure 4) while the Washington Society flourished during the same period, as noted by the ticket to the “Twenty-first Festival of the St. Andrew’s Society” in 1885.
Additional research may shed more light on this mystery.
The actual “founding” date or direct organizational lineage does not appear to affect the status of the Society’s Coat of Arms or Letters Patent issued by the Lord Lyon. According to Dick Badger, former Society president who lead the efforts to secure the Coat of Arms, “The date on the grant of arms is of zero importance in our ability to maintain the grant. Any Scottish society deemed worthy, willing to write an appropriate check may apply for a grant.”
The Society has published conflicting information and assumptions over the years. The founding date has been established as 1760, 1885, and 1908. The founder has been identified as both William Hunter and William Robertson Smith. If all the known facts are presented accurately, “polishing the brand” of the Society could order this seemingly contradictory information and encompass over 250 years of the activities of Scots in colonial Georgetown and Alexandria, the St. Andrew’s Society of Alexandria, and the St. Andrew’s Society of Washington, D.C.
Respectfully submitted,
Heritage Committee
| Bart Forbes, Chairman | Dick Badger | Lisle Bean |
| Andrew Bell | John Bellassai | Jim Campbell |
| Dan Dowd | T.J. Holland | Kirk Jenne |
| Dick Libby | Brian Mabry | David McKenzie |
| Scott Stephens | Ewan Watt |