Royal Black Preceptory

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The Imperial Grand Black Chapter of the British Commonwealth
Formation1797 (1797)
HeadquartersLoughall, County Armagh
Areas found:
United Kingdom (based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland),
Republic of Ireland (almost exclusively in County Donegal),
United States,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand
other Commonwealth countries
William Anderson
Imperial Grand Registrar
Robert Dane
Websiteroyalblack.org
Members of the Royal Black Preceptory 241, photographed in 1948
Token from a Canadian lodge of the RBI, with various symbols pertaining to the society
Symbol of the Institution, and logo — In Hoc Signo Vinces

The Imperial Grand Black Chapter of the British Commonwealth, or simply the Royal Black Institution,[1] is a Protestant fraternal society.

Royal Black Preceptory branches participate in key Royal Black events and parades, including Scarva Parade and Sham Fight and the Royal Black Parade, also known as the "Last Saturday in August".[2][3]

In 2016, a theological working group set up by the Church of Ireland was informed by the organisation's leadership that it had a membership of around 17,000, of whom around 16,000 lived in the British Isles.[4] It has a growing presence in the United States and Canada.[5] There are also preceptories in West Africa and Oceania.[6][7]

History

The Royal Black Institution was formed in Ireland in 1797, two years after the formation of the Orange Order in Daniel Winter's cottage, Loughgall, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.[8]

The society is formed from Orangemen, who hold the Royal Arch Purple Degree, and can be seen as a progression of those Orders, although they are three separate institutions. Anyone wishing to be admitted to the Royal Black Institution must first become a member of an Orange Order Lodge, and complete the Royal Arch Purple Degree. Members are expected to accept the doctrine of the Trinity and confess a personal faith in Christ.[4]

The Royal Black is often referred to as "the senior of the loyal orders".[9]

Members wear a sash or collarette of which the predominant colour is black.

The word "Royal" in the title is allegedly a reference to 1 Peter 2:9 'You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people...’, not to politics or the British monarchy. The word "Black" allegedly refers to mortality, and is a symbol of mourning.[4]

In 2023, The Royal Black Institution held its first annual conference outside of the British Isles. It took place in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and was hosted by the reformed Grand Black Chapter of the United States of America.[10]

Organisation and events

Its headquarters is in Loughgall, County Armagh. Members refer to each other as "Sir Knight", whereas in the Orange Order members are referred to as "Brother" or "Brethren".[11]

The organisation is structured with the Imperial Grand Black Chapter as the presiding body, and which comprises representatives from County Chapters. Counties are sub-divided into districts, which are formed by groups of preceptories.

Royal Black institution partake in charity for communities around the world. In 2011, 17 members travelled to Uganda to carry out projects, and provided a hospital with £90,000 in aid.[12]

The RBI claim that their basis is the promotion of scripture and the principles of the Protestant Reformation.[13][14] It has preceptories throughout the world, mainly in the major English-speaking countries, and is particularly strong in Newfoundland and Labrador.[15]

In 1931, on the day before a planned demonstration by members of the Royal Black Institution, crossing the border from Northern Ireland and into the then Irish Free State, the IRA occupied Cootehill in County Cavan, as a counter protest.[16] The Ulster Protestants responded with a boost in membership in the loyal orders. Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Lord Craigavon condemned it, and resulted in a hardened border and helped push the cause of the existence of Northern Ireland.[17][18]

In Northern Ireland it holds an annual parade in the village of Scarva, County Down, on 13 July (the day after the Orange Order's 12 July celebrations). It is commonly referred to as "The Sham Fight" as it involves a mock fight between actors reenacting the Battle of the Boyne.[11]The other major parade of the year is "Black Saturday", also known as "The Black Parade" and "Last Saturday", held on the last Saturday in August at several locations throughout Ulster (including a major parade in Raphoe in the Laggan district of East Donegal, Ireland).[11]: 480  The event is attended by senior Royal Black members from other country's Black Chapters, including, Togo, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States. [19]

Regional Black Chapters

Grand Black Chapter of Scotland

The society is also popular in Scotland, where 60 preceptories exist organised into 11 districts across the country.[20] Twenty-six marches by the Black Institution have taken place in Glasgow alone between 2009 and 2010.[1]

Evidence exists for Black organizations in Scotland before the modern Royal Black Institution was fully consolidated in Ireland. A "Royal Black Association" certificate dated 1821 and a "Loyal Black Association Lodge No. 24" meeting in Glasgow in 1828.[21]

Towns with a strong local history like Larkhall, Linlithgow, and Glasgow regularly host the Black Saturday parade.[22]

Grand Black Chapter of the United States of America

The Royal Black Institution has a growing presence in the United States of America. The United States has an established Ulster-Scots heritage and long history of the Orange Order's influence in the United States, through Ulster-Scots immigration to the country in the 18th and 19th centuries.[23] The Supreme Grand Orange Lodge of the United States was established in 1870, and the Royal Black Institution followed.[24]

In the mid-1800s, Royal Black members began meeting informally in private homes and local Orange Halls mainly in New York and Pennsylvania, but they weren't officially established as an independent chartered Royal Black Chapter. In 1873, the first official local chapters was established.[25][26]

The country's national division is known as the Grand Black Chapter of the United States of America, and was reformed in 2014. This campaign seen a resurgence in numbers in the Chapters. The four American preceptories are: Carolina RBP 1670 in South Carolina; Sons of Liberty RBP 1776 in Pennsylvania; Old Dominion RBP 1607 in Virginia; and McKinley RBP 1690 in California.[5]

Grand Black Chapter of Canada

The Grand Black Chapter of Canada was firstly registered as the Grand Black Chapter of British America, when it was established in 1874 in Toronto, Canada.[27]

The Royal Black Institution were brought to British North America by Irish and Scottish immigrants. The earliest recorded footprint of the order in Canada dates back to 1829, when individual immigrant waves carried independent "Black Knight" warrants into the colonies, predating a cohesive national governance.[28]

Grand Black Chapter of England

The Grand Black Chapter of England oversees the 25 preceptories throughout England.[29][30] The Institution made its way to England in 1845.[31] They are split into the following districts

  • Liverpool District No 1 (3 Preceptories)
  • Liverpool District No 2 (8 Preceptories)
  • Manchester District No 4 (3 Preceptories)
  • Liverpool North End and Bootle District No 6 (3 Preceptories)
  • South of England District No 11 (6 Preceptories)

Two English preceptories, due to their location report to the Grand Black Chapter of England.[32]

Oceania

In New Zealand, there are eight preceptories, that are under the Provincial Grand Black Chapter of New Zealand.[33]

In Australia, there are seven preceptories under Royal Black Association of Australia. The preceptories one of the two provincial Chapters, known as the Provincial Grand Black Chapter of New South Wales and the Provincial Grand Black Chapter of Victoria.[34][35]

West Africa

Black Chapters from Togo and Ghana report to the Grand Black Chapter of West Africa. Both of these countries have two preceptories.[6]

2012 apology

The Royal Black Institution has adopted a more conciliatory attitude to contentious parades than the Orange Order, and is less overtly political, though not without political influence.

After loyalist bands defied a Parades Commission ruling on Black Saturday by playing music outside St Patrick's Catholic Church on Donegall Street, Belfast, the Royal Black Institution issued an apology to the clergy and parishioners of the church for any offence caused. The parish priest, Father Michael Sheehan, welcomed the apology and "the sincere Christian spirit behind it".[36]

Degrees

The society's members are assigned one of eleven degrees, as follows, in descending order:

  1. Royal Black Degree
  2. Royal Scarlet Degree
  3. Royal Mark Degree
  4. Apron and Royal Blue Degree
  5. Royal White Degree
  6. Royal Green Degree
  7. Gold Degree
  8. Star and Garter Degree
  9. Crimson Arrow Degree
  10. Link and Chain Degree
  11. Red Cross Degree

The Institution also possesses a final retrospective overview degree, which is essentially an overview of the eleven.

Sovereign Grand Masters

A chronological list of Sovereign Grand Masters of the Royal Black Preceptory:

Notes and references

  1. "Orange Parades to be limited in Glasgow City Centre", BBC News, 9 December 2010
  2. "Tens of thousands attend Scarva parade and Sham Fight". BBC. 14 July 2025. Retrieved 9 April 2026.
  3. "Scarva 2025: Feast your eyes on selection of photos from today's parade". Belfast News Letter. 14 July 2025. Retrieved 9 April 2026.
  4. "A Theological Report to the Bishop of Down and Dromore" (PDF). Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  5. "Royal Black sees US membership growing". Belfast News Letter. 28 November 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2026.
  6. "Ulster-Scots & Irish Unionist Resource - Locations of The Royal Black Institution". ulster-scots.co.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2026.
  7. "Royal Black Institution holds 2025 Last Saturday parades". BBC News. 30 August 2025. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  8. on, Choyaa (11 June 2026). "An insiders guide to the Royal Black Institution and the Fermanagh Black Twelfth…". Slugger O'Toole. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  9. Beattie, Jilly (26 August 2017). "Royal Black's Last Saturday parades in pictures". BelfastLive.
  10. "Royal Black Institution to hold major conference in USA in autumn 2023". Belfast News Letter. 27 March 2023. Retrieved 9 April 2026.
  11. Haddick-Flynn, Kevin (2019). Orangeism, a Historical Profile. Troubador Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781838592004.
  12. "Royal Black team out to Africa". NorthernIrelandWorld. 6 September 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  13. Bryan, Dominic (30 November 2015). Orange Parades: The Politics of Ritual, Tradition and Control. Pluto Books. doi:10.2307/j.ctt18fs351. ISBN 978-1-84964-046-6.
  14. "House of Commons - Northern Ireland Affairs - Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence". publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2026.
  15. "Ulster-Scots & Irish Unionist Resource - Locations of The Royal Black Institution". ulster-scots.co.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2026.
  16. "Southern Orange commemorations, past and present". History Ireland. 6 March 2013.
  17. Staff, Reporter (22 September 1931). "The Cootehill Outrage: Protest Meetings Held in Border Districts". The Northern Whig. Belfast. p. 7.
  18. Parliamentary Debates (Northern Ireland), House of Commons. Vol. 16. H.M. Stationery Office. 24 April 1934. p. 1095. All I boast is that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State.
  19. "Thousands at Scarva for annual Sham Fight pageant". Belfast Telegraph. 14 July 1997.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. "Locations of The Royal Black Institution". The Royal Black Institution. Archived from the original on 28 September 2010 – via Internet Archive.
  21. "History of the Royal Black Institution |". www.evangelicaltruth.com. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  22. Ross, Colin. "Provincial Grand Black Chapter of Scotland - 12 August 2023 (010/2023)". www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  23. Wells, Cory D. (2018). “Tie the Flags Together”: Migration, Nativism, and the Orange Order in the United States, 1840-1930 (History Dissertations thesis). University of Texas at Arlington.
  24. "Orangemen". www.stichtingargus.nl. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  25. "ROYAL BLACK INSTITUTION OF ROYAL BLACK KNIGHTS OF THE CAMP OF ISRAEL IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ROYAL BLACK PRECEPTORY". www2.hsp.org. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  26. "SCOTCH IRISH". www2.hsp.org. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  27. "Royal Black District Chapter No 5". www.portadownrbdcno5.co.uk. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  28. "Fraternal and Benevolent Societies in Ontario". dunford.ca. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  29. https://www.orangecumbria.co.uk/
  30. "Royal Black Institution holds 2025 Last Saturday parades". BBC News. 30 August 2025. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  31. "History of the Royal Black Institution |". www.evangelicaltruth.com. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  32. "Ulster-Scots & Irish Unionist Resource - Locations of The Royal Black Institution". www.ulster-scots.co.uk. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  33. "Royal Black Institution". natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  34. "All Irish Tokens by Barry Woodside". www.irish-tokens.co.uk. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  35. "Royal Black Association of Australia, Orange, NSW, 1943". Living Histories. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  36. "Royal Black Institution apology to St Patrick's Church over march". BBC News. 6 September 2012.