Social Victorians/People/Laing

Also Known As

• Family name: Laing

Cecilia MacRae

• Mrs. Cecilia MacRae
• Cecilia Mary Bruce Laing Macrae (Davis)
• Mrs. Cecilia M. B. Macrae (Küntz 200)
• Golden Dawn Outer-order motto: Macte Virtute — "Grow in virtue" (M.V.) (Alastor; Küntz 200)
• Golden Dawn Inner-order motto: Vincit Qui Se Vincit (V.Q.S.V.) — "She conquers who conquers herself"

Florence Kennedy

• Mrs. Florence Kennedy
• Mrs. Florence E. S. Kennedy (Küntz 196)
• Golden Dawn motto: Volo — "I will" (V.) (Alastor; Küntz 196)

Louisa Macrae

• Miss Louisa Ida Macrae
• Golden Dawn motto:

Demographics

• Nationality:

Residences

• Cecilia Laing Macrae and Louisa Ida Macrae: 26 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea Embankment, London S.W.

Family

• Samuel Laing (4 October 1780 – 1868)
• Agnes Kelly ( – November 1812)

1. Elizabeth Dorothy Laing Baxter ()
2. Samuel Laing (12 December 1812 – 6 August 1897)

• Elizabeth Dorothy Laing Baxter ()
• Henry Baxter of Idvies ( – August 1837)

1. Agnes Baxter ()
2. Mary Baxter ()

• Samuel Laing (12 December 1812 – 6 August 1897)
• Mary Dickson Cowan (1819–1902)

1. Samuel (1843–1870)
2. Malcolm (1846–1918)
3. Robert (probably late 1847/early 1848 – prior to 1861, probably 1858)
4. Cecilia Mary Bruce Laing Macrae (1848–)
5. Mary Eliza Laing (1850–1936)
6. Agnes (1851–1933)
7. Florence Elizabeth Laing Kennedy (1853/54-1952)
8. Francis Kelly (1854–1874)
9. Theresa Margaret (later Theresa Uzielli) (1855–1943)
10. Henry Rudolph (1858–)

• Cecilia Mary Bruce Laing Macrae (1848–)
• Charles Colin Macrae

1. Frank Laing Macrae

• Mary Eliza Laing (1850–1936)
• Edward Kennard ( – Summer 1910)

1. Lionel Edward (1872 – December 1919)
2. Malcolm Alfred (1876–1934)

• Florence Elizabeth Laing Kennedy (1853–)
• Edward Sherard Calcraft Kennedy ( – by 1902?)
• Ioannes Gennadius ()

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Friends

Cecilia Laing Macrae

• Grace Aurelia Murray
• Annie Horniman? -- see Macrae's 19 October 1897 letter to Frederick Gardner

Florence Laing Kennedy

• Annie Horniman

Organizations

Cecilia Laing Macrae

• Macrae was in the original Sphere Group.

Timeline

1891 May, Cecilia Macrae, her sister in law Louisa Ida Macrae, and her sister Florence Laing Kennedy joined the Golden Dawn, the Isis-Urania Temple (Küntz 200).

1892 September 29, Kenndy joined the Inner Order of the Golden Dawn (Küntz 196).

1892 October 3, Cecilia Macrae joined the Inner Order of the Golden Dawn (Küntz 200).

1896 January 27, MacGregor Mathers wrote "a long letter" to Florence Farr, as she put it, "in reply to a letter of mine sending a charged drawing of the Egyptian and asking him if I were not grossly deceived by her claiming to be equal in rank to an 8-3 of our Order at the same time giving me numbers which I afterwards calculated to be correct for that grade. I still [on 17 January 1901] possess his letter approving altogether of my working with her, and saying it was necessary to make offerings & then all would be well -- &c &c" (Harper 74 221).

1896 November 23, Annie Horniman wrote Frederick Gardner: "Care 'Daffodil'" -- "What a time of it you must give S.S.D.D. [Farr]. She wants me to study Egyptian too, but I find one new language enough at a time and am hard at work at Italian" (Harper 74 225).

1896, end of, Kennedy was, like Horniman, threatened with explusion.

1897 December 21 or 22, circa, Cecilia Macrae signed Frederick Gardner's petition in support of Annie Horniman (Howe 143).

1901 January 17, Farr wrote to John Brodie-Innes:

• On Jan 27th 1896 I received a long letter from DDCF. [MacGregor Mathers] in reply to a letter of mine sending a charged drawing of the Egyptian and asking him if I were not grossly deceived by her claiming to be equal in rank to an 8-3 of our Order at the same time giving me numbers which I afterwards calculated to be correct for that grade. I still possess his letter approving altogether of my working with her, and saying it was necessary to make offerings & then all would be well - &c &c. I soon found there was a considerable prejudice against Egyptian Symbolism amongst the members of the Order and I began to hold my tongue after having recommended the various clearly marked groups of thinkers (such as Indian, Christian and so on) to work steadily and regularly by themselves each under some more advanced person. To you and to those who were not antipathetic I spoke more freely. When the splits in the Order itself became more and more pronounced my work with 3 others having become extremely interesting we resolved to carry out a plan suggested by an Egyptian for the holding together of a strong nucleus on purely Order lines. (Harper 74 221)
• One of the prejudiced ones was Frederick Gardner? In the 23 November 1896 "Care 'Daffodil'" letter, Horniman says, "What a time of it you must give S.S.D.D. [Farr]. She wants me to study Egyptian too, but I find one new language enough at a time and am hard at work at Italian" (Harper 74 225).
• One of the "3 others" was Robert Felkin, I think. Another was "Volo"? (Florence Kennedy)

Questions and Notes

1. See Cecilia Macrae's residential address and Aleister Crowley's Moonchild.
2. Apparently some people believe that Samuel Laing, the son, was the father of Mary Eliza Laing's children, but she is his daughter. It seems clear that she and Edward Kennard married.
3. Louisa Ida Macrae was Charles Colin Macrae's sister, so Cecilia Laing Macrae's sister in law.

Bibliography

• Davis, Sally. "The Laings." http://www.wrightanddavis.co.uk/GD/LAINGFAMILY.htm 26 July 2018 (accessed July 2020).
• Davis, Sally. "The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn." http://wrightanddavis.co.uk/GD/index.html February 2019? (accessed July 2020).
• "Rigg, James McMullen." "Samuel Laing." Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900. Vol. 31. 1892. Wikisource https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Laing,_Samuel_(DNB00) (accessed July 2020).
• "Samuel Laing (science writer)." Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Laing_(science_writer) (accessed July 2020).
• "Samuel Laing (travel writer)." Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Laing_(travel_writer) (accessed July 2020).