Andrew Michael Ramsay’s Oration in 1736/37. Ramsay was the first person to present the Order of Freemasons as a continuation of certain Crusader knights, effectively becoming the first source for Masonry’s legendary connection to the Knights Templar. Within years of his oration in 1736/37, we also find the first records of Templar Degrees among the various high degrees being invented in France and Germany. Such as the Templar Degree Baron Karl Fotthelf von Hund (1722-1776) claimed to be initiated into France in 1743. The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite would later absorb a version of the Templar Degrees into its thirty degrees, as of its founding in Charleston, South Carolina in 1801. -
