THE POCKET HISTORY
OF FREEMASONRY
By
FRED L. PICK
(P.A.G.D.C., P.P.G.W., P.M. of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 2076
Manchester Lodge for Masonic Research, 5502).
and
G. NORMAN KNIGHT
(M.A., Oxon., Barrister-at-Law, P.M. of Old Bradfield Lodge Member of Correspondence Circle, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, Manchester Association for Masonic Research).
FREDERICK MULLER LIMITED
London
(Scanned at the Phoenixmasonry Research Society by Brother Ralph W. Omholt, January 2007)
FIRST PUBLISHED BY FREDERICK MULLER LTD.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY BESLEY AND COPP LTD., EXETER
BOUND BY THE LEIGHTON STRAKER BOOKBINDING CO. LTD.
LONDON
First Impression, September, 1953
Second Impression, October, 1953
Third Impression, March, 1954
CONTENTS
I The Origin of Freemasonry - - - 9
II Medieval Operative Masonry - - - 16
III The Old Charges - - - - 28
IV Pre-Grand Lodge Freemasonry - - - 44
V Grand Lodge Period until 1750 - - - 73
VI English Freemasonry, 1751 to 1813 - - - 94
VII United Grand Lodge Freemasonry, 1813 to 1952 - 116
VIII History of Irish Freemasonry - - - 136
IX History of Scottish Freemasonry - - - 164
X Freemasonry in the Forces - - - 188
XI Freemasonry Overseas, other than in U.S.A. - - 199
XII Freemasonry in the U.S.A. - - - 218
XIII The Holy Royal Arch - - - - 250
XIV Mark and Royal Ark Freemasonry - - - 259
XV The Additional Degrees - - - - 268
Short List of Books Recommended - - - 280
Some Useful Masonic Dates - - - - 281
Index - - - - - - 285
PREFACE
In its inception this little work was to have been undertaken by the Rev. Herbert Poole in collaboration with the present junior author. On Brother Poole's premature passing on the 14th February 1951, which deprived Masonic research of one of its foremost lights, he had completes only a few rough notes towards the project. Fortunately Brother Pick was willing to step into the breach.
In condensing the whole of the history of Freemasonry in all its aspects into 283 pages, the chief difficulty has beer this very task of compression and much fascinating detail has perforce had to be omitted. The Pocket History is in no sense a mere epitome of any of the larger histories. Although in its compilation all the standard authorities and records have been consulted. A principal aim has beer to achieve accuracy of statement; with the many doubt: and uncertainties in which the earlier part of the story is shrouded it has been impossible to avoid the use of "probably," "possibly" and “it may have been that. .. " The authors believe that their work will prove especially useful to the young Master Mason, for whom, should h be tempted to pursue his studies further, they have prepares é a short list of recommended books.
They wish most gratefully to acknowledge the help they have received from Brother R. E. Parkinson of Downpatrick, N. Ireland, and Brother Ward St. Clair of New York. Brother Parkinson very kindly read through the Chapter on Irish Freemasonry and made several valuably suggestions. It is good news to learn that he is no' engaged in preparing a sequel to Lepper and Crossle's History of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, the only published volume of which stopped short at 1813.
Brother St. Clair, who performed a similar service for the Chapter on the U.S.A., is a well-known American student and a Past District Deputy Grand Master of New York. He has a remarkable collection of transcripts of Rituals, many of which are no longer worked. His interest in present day Freemasonry is none the less practical.
The authors would like also to express their indebtedness to Brother J. Heron Lepper, late Librarian of the Grand Lodge of England, and his Staff, and to Brother J. R. Dashwood, Secretary of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research, No. 2076. The death of Bro. Lepper while this work was in the press has robbed Freemasonry of one of its greatest students.
In sending out this brief history the authors trust that they have done justice to their subject—the story of an Order which has numbered among its members monarchs such as Francis I (of the Holy Roman Empire), Frederick the Great, the Emperor Napoleon I, Their Majesties Kings George IV and VI, William IV and Edward VII and VIII: such soldiers as the 2nd Earl of Moira, the 1st Marquess of Wellesley and the 1st Duke of Wellington, Marshal Blucher, General Garibaldi, Lord Garnet Wolseley, Lieut.-General Sir Charles Warren, Field Marshals Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, Earl Haig of Bemersyde and Earl Alexander of Tunis as well as General MacArthur: such statesmen as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Bolivar the Liberator, Daniel O'Connell, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman: with politicians like John Wilkes: men of letters such as Alexander Pope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Goethe, Boswell, Horace Walpole, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Rudyard Kipling: architects like Sir Christopher Wren: composers like Samuel Wesley, Mozart and Joseph Haydn: antiquaries such as Elias Ashmole and the Randle Holmes: such artists as William Hogarth, "Old Crome" and John Sell Cotman: such doctors as Sir Bernard Spilsbury and Sir Alexander Fleming: with a host of other celebrities who have adorned and been adorned by the Ancient and Accepted Craft of Freemasonry.
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY
An immense amount of ingenuity has been expended on the exploration of possible origins of Freemasonry, a good deal of which is now fairly generally admitted to have been wasted.
In a system, fundamentally ethical, which makes a wide use of symbolism in its manner of imparting instruction, it would be surprising if there were not many points of contact with a variety of religions, old and new, in addition to the classical "Mysteries," and even ancient Chinese philosophy, in which, for example, the Square is known to have been employed as an illustration or emblem of morality.
Many of the doctrines or tenets inculcated in Freemasonry belong to the vast traditions of humanity of all ages and all parts of the world. Nevertheless, not only has no convincing evidence yet been brought forward to prove the lineal descent of our Craft from any ancient organization which is known to have, or even suspected of having, taught any similar system of morality, but also, from what we know of the Craft in the few centuries prior to the formation of the first Grand Lodge in 1717, it is excessively unlikely that there was any such parentage. Indeed, it can be very plausibly argued that a great deal of the symbolism which we find in the Craft today is actually a comparatively modern feature and that some was not introduced until after the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Without attempting to give an exhaustive list of ancient bodies or organizations which have at various times been claimed as the ancestors of Freemasonry, it may be said
A * 9
THE ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY
that, roughly, they fall into three groups, which will be shortly reviewed in what appears to be the order of increasing plausibility.
Druids, Culdees and Rosicrucians.
First come certain bodies such as the Druids and the Culdees, of whom we know nothing, or next to nothing, as to what rites or ceremonies they may have practised; and who thus provide admirable opportunities for guesswork as to any possible or probable ancestorship. Of both these it need only be said that they certainly existed and functioned in the British Isles, but that our knowledge of neither justifies any attempt at establishing a relationship to Freemasonry.
Again the Rosicrucians, no less mysterious, have been claimed as among our ancestors. But, whether there ever was such a body at all, and, if so, whether it possessed any peculiar ritual or secrets, are extremely doubtful; and in any case there can have scarcely have been such a fraternity until after the beginning of the seventeenth century, and by that date Freemasonry was widely distributed over Scotland, and probably over England.
The Essenes and the Ancient Mysteries.
Next must come the "esoteric" moral systems of the past, such as that of the Essenes (who flourished from an early date in brew history until well into our era), the ancient Mysteries of Egypt and Greece, and the Mithraic cult. These, undoubtedly taught morality through symbolism, used elaborate rituals and inculcated such doctrines as that of the immortality of the soul.
Here we do in some cases know rather more regarding their tenets and practices; but the differences are more pronounced than the resemblances, and the latter are in such details as might well have developed quite independently in widely separated places or ages.
10
COLLEGIA, ARCHITECTS & COMACINE MASTERS
The Collegia, Travelling Architects and Comacine Masters.
Thirdly, there are several known or fancied bodies of operative builders or architects, who have been suspected of having handed down and propagated moral teachings and symbolism which finally came into the possession of the medieval operative Masons, to blossom at last into the Craft as we have it today. There are three main "theories" (if such a term is permissible); and, as the technique of operative masonry has undoubtedly been handed down from generation to generation for perhaps several thousand years2 we cannot ignore entirely the possibility that some esoteric teaching has come to us through the same channels. The three main theories will be dealt with separately.
The "Collegia" were part-religious, part-social and part-craft "clubs" which flourished, encouraged by the Roman authorities, at the height of the Empire. It is quite likely (but there is no evidence) that such bodies, 7 primarily devoted to the craft of building, accompanied or followed the Roman armies to Britain in mid-first century; and that when the Romans withdrew from this country towards the end of the fourth century, some of the personnel remained behind, so that their teaching survived and was handed down until it found utterance (j~ again among the stone-builders of the Anglo-Saxon period. It is not impossible that this may have been the case; but as there is no evidence that the Collegia possessed any esoteric teaching; as there was an almost complete break of several centuries in stone-building after the departure of the Romans; and as there is no evidence even of craft-organization among the Masons until the to tenth century (and then only very slender evidence), the chances of an inheritance from the Collegia would appear highly remote.
Again, there is a remark of Dugdale, the seventeenth century antiquary and herald, recorded somewhat casually by John Aubrey, to the effect that" about Henry the Third's
11
THE ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY
time the Pope gave a Bull or diploma to a Company of Italian Architects to travell up and downe over all Europe to build Churches. From these are derived the Fraternity of Free-Masons. This, again, is not impossible; but, in spite of intensive search in Papal archives and elsewhere, no evidence is yet available in support of the statement. We can safely, therefore, dismiss it as a guess, at the same time emphasising that, though much research has been carried out in recent years on operative documents, there is still no reason for supposing that any special body of Masons was ever employed exclusively on Church - or Abbey - building in this country. On the contrary, a Mason took any job which came his way, whether Church or Castle.
Lastly, much has been said and written of recent years of a supposed body of Masons who called themselves the "Comacine Masters," so-called, it is said, because their original headquarters were situated on an island in Lake Como. Now it is certainly true that the early development of Romanesque architecture was much influenced by Lombard builders, who were in wide demand dyer western Europe, and whose work in some of .its characteristic features is distinctive. But it is extremely doubtful if they ever formed an organized body; while, even if they did so, there is no reason Whatever for supposing that they possessed any of the features, such as symbolic teaching or secret signs or words, which are among the peculiarities of the Freemasons. Consequently, though the rather attractive idea that we had found here our lineal ancestors gained a considerable hold thirty or forty years ago, it has long since been abandoned as a working hypothesis.
The Steinmetzen.
The theory that our fraternity derived from the Steinmetzen, or stonecutters, of Germany became very popular about a century ago, following the publication in 1848 of the writings of Fallou who however, failed to submit any
12
THE STEINMETZEN
evidence in support of his claim. His lead was followed uncritically by later writers, including several of much greater eminence. The Abbot Wilhelm, of Hirschau, is said to have introduced an institution of lay 'brothers but examination of the records shows that these were not connected with the building trades. Another claim, like that of the Comacines, is that the Steinmetzen were established by papal bulls but these have never been traced. As in other countries, Lodges (Bauhiitten) were set up in connection with the building of the great cathedrals and their rules and customs tend to follow a common pattern. it must be remembered that for several reasons there was a constant interchange of staff and there would be a tendency for the best ideas evolved in one place quickly to spread to others. The earliest known text of their rules was drawn up at Regensburg in 1459 and the Torgau Statutes of 1462 record the acceptance by masters from several places of the ordinances previously drawn up. These regulations were confirmed by imperial authority in 1498 and again in 1563. Translations may be found in Gould's History of Freemasonry but we may here mention briefly that though some of their provisions are found in the Old Charges of England the latter do not in the main follow those documents. The Apprentice, when declared free, was required to enter into an obligation among other things not unlawfully þ communicate the mason's greeting and grip and not to alter without permission the mark conferred on him. The Torgau Ordinances contain detailed instructions on the conferment and use of the mark and even on its loan to an apprentice when his master has no work for him. The nature of the "greeting" is unknown today, but was probably a formula rather than a Word such as was given in Scotland.
There was in the organisation a chain of authority not established in England, a much more compact country. The Lodge was subordinate to its provincial Lodge and the
13
THE ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY
chief Lodge of Straassburg was prey dominant over all. There is no evidence of any direct connection between the Steinmetzen and Freemasonry.
The Compagnonnage.
Turning to France we find an association much ore closely akin to Freemasonry than the Steinmetzen, one curiously overlooked by many French authorities. The French gild system has a much greater antiquity than anything in Britain, in fact, of all parts of Europe the shadow of the dark ages passed over none so lightly as the South of France. There were many trade fraternities and we hear of an organisation of stonemasons as early as 1365, while a code of the masons of 1407 is preserved in the archives of Amiens. A still earlier code, of 1260, of an organisation of masons, stonemasons, plasterers and mortarers is especially interesting as it refers to a privilege granted by Charles Martel, who also figures in the English Old Charges.
But there was another organisation in France, among the journeymen Masons & members of allied trades and, curiously, its very existence was only known by the fact that encounters between members of rival sections were generally the prelude to the outbreak of bloody fighting, hardly kept in check by the threat of the galleys. In 1841, one Agricol Perdiguier published the Livre du Compagnonnage the first really detailed account to appear. The Compagnonnage contained three great divisions, the Sons of Solomon, the Sons of Maitre Jacques and the Sons of Soubisse. Maitre Jacques, according to his legend, was one of the first masters of Solomon and a colleague of Hiram. He was the son of Jacquin, a celebrated architect and his life was attempted and, after one rescue, a further attempt was successful.
The newly-admitted journeyman was expected to make the tour de France in search of employment and wider
14
THE COMPAGNONNAGE
experience and measures were taken for the reception of travelling craftsmen who were provided with work or helped on their way. The similarities between their initiation and English Masonic catechisms are suggestive but It is unfortunate that so little is known of them before Perdiguier, by which time much may have been adopted from Freemasonry which had been popular and widespread for a century. (In this country we know remarkably little about Friendly Society ritual which was so generally borrowed from the Masonic that the Foresters took an especial pride in their alleged independence).
In Britain, Operative masonry lost its ritual which passed over into the keeping of and was elaborated by the speculatives, whereas the Compagnonnage retained its and remained aloof from French speculative freemasonry. Although this Compagnonnage cannot be claimed to be in any way one of the origins of Freemasonry, yet it is more than likely that it did exercise considerable, if indirect, influence upon Speculative Freemasonry in the sixteenth century, just as other institutions in England and Scotland were similarly influenced from across the Channel in this period.
Freemasonry a British product.
Up to the present time, no even plausible theory of the "origin" of the Freemasons has been put forward. The reason for this is probably that the Craft, as we know it, originated among the Operative Masons of Britain. No doubt it incorporated from the earliest times shreds of ritual, folk-lore and even occult elements, of time-immemorial antiquity. But it is almost certainly a British product and of British origin.
15
CHAPTER II
MEDIEVAL OPERATIVE MASONRY
The history of Freemasonry is not so much the story of the development of a Craft Gild, culminating in such organizations as the Masons' Company of London, as the development of a body of "moral instruction" communicated by means of meetings held under the seal of secrecy. For this reason that history is not to be found written in the stone buildings which successive generations of masons have left behind them.
Nevertheless, in order to understand the possibility of such a development, the forms which it took and the terms which it employed, it is necessary to know something of the organization under which they were developed. Though, therefore, we need not consider the various styles of Architecture that prevailed successively in the medieval period, we shall have to look into the status of the different classes of Masons, the conditions under which they worked, the trade customs and legal enactments by which they were bound, and (so far as we can) the Craft system which grew up as a consequence of those conditions and customs.
Inter-communication among Masons.
Until the 14th Century we have no evidence at all of organization. Yet, from the rapidity with which each new "style" seems to have spread far and wide soon after its appearance, it is evident that there must have been at least a high degree of inter-communication among the Masons. To take a single instance—it seems likely that scarcely fewer than 5,000 churches were built in England
16
INTER-COMMUNICATION AMONG MASONS
during the twenty years immediately following the Norman Conquest (1066-86); and not only is there a remarkable similarity among them as regards size, proportions and general lay-out, but they differed appreciably from the surviving churches which are known to have been built during the half century or so before that period. In other words, it looks almost as if some central authority had prescribed (roughly) what sort of building was to be erected. Yet we know of no such central authority; and it may be that the mere mobility of the Masons, passing quickly from job to job, was sufficient to spread the " specification" (if we may so call it) of a church of that date.
The Secret Signs.
To anticipate somewhat, in order to indicate the direction in which our study of the period must tend, it will be best to say now that two features of the Craft, even in those early days, probably played a part in rendering it susceptible to the development of an "esoteric" element.
In the first place, the Mason's occupation must have kept him more or less permanently on the move, at any rate during all but the winter months. Practically all the stone buildings erected up and down the country almost up to the Elizabethan period were cathedrals, abbeys, churches or castles; and on completion of a few years work at one job he had to travel, possibly far, in search for the next. Thus a Mason must have been joining parties or lodges of hitherto complete strangers; and the possession of some secret. or word to prove his bona fides would at least be appropriate —not so much, perhaps, to guarantee his ability (which could easily be tested practically) as to satisfy his employer that he was familiar with, and had pledged his fidelity to, the established customs and usages of the Craft.
In the second place for several (perhaps many) years at a time the body of Masons employed on a building enterprise would form a more or less isolated community, living close
17
MEDIEVAL OPERATIVE MASONRY
to their work, and having comparatively little intercourse with the inhabitants of the nearest town or village. Such conditions, too, might well have provided a suitable nursery for the development of the Craft in its infancy.
The Gilds.
Before passing on to consider the "background" of the mediaeval Mason we must consider the Gild system. Many Crafts had their trade secrets; many, perhaps most, from the tenth century onwards tended to form Gilds for the better governing of their members and for securing a high standard of technical skill. The Masons, too, had their trade secrets of a technical character, but they were in a different position from other Crafts, the members of which generally followed their trade throughout life in the same locality.
The Craft Gilds were essentially products of the larger communities, their members well-known to each other, contributing regularly to a common purse for sick benefits, burial and other purposes, and maintaining an altar at which they met on the Festival of their Patron Saint. The Mason, on the other hand, went where the work was available, sometimes under compulsion when royal castles were under construction on the Welsh Marches or elsewhere.
In Tudor and Stuart times we find the Masons formed into actual gilds in conjunction with other building trades, but their mediaeval organization was of a regional or national character. Exactly how this functioned we do not know, but there are references to a periodical assembly of Masons in the Old Charges, which will be considered later. Another trade which was not confined to the towns was that of the Minstrels and they have left definite traces of periodical regional assemblies.
Though the Mason-organization was distinct from that of the general run of the Gilds, much of the gild machinery was known to and adopted by the Craft, as will be seen by
18
THE GILDS
the Old Charges. It has also been suggested that our ritual may have been inspired by the annual productions of Miracle Plays, the various sections or interludes of which were taken over by various Crafts with more or less suitability.
Here we run into difficulty. Four complete cycles of Miracle Plays are still in existence and many other individual plays, but in no play with which the Masons were concerned is there any connexion with any part that has now passed into Masonic ceremonial, nor is there any play based on the building of King Solomon's Temple. On the other hand no part of the Old Testament story was more fully dramatized than the building of the Ark and there was in very early times a ritual based on this structure. As the Craft in general adopted much from the Gilds, so there are parallels between the dramas enacted in public by the Craft Gilds and the essentially private productions of the Masons.
The Lodge.
We may now pass on to refer to some "operative" usages. Several were common in other trades or crafts, but in Freemasonry all have survived, in more than mere name, to the present day.
A Lodge was originally the Mason's working place, as distinguished from the place where he slept and ate. The earliest known reference occurs in 1277 in the building accounts of Vale Royal Abbey, whereas and mansiones were erected for the workers, as no doubt the building was being carried out far from town or village. Later operative documents have many allusions to "lodges," which in some cases (for example at York in 1399) served also as repositories for tools and implements.
The body of Masons working there may well have been referred to also as a "Lodge" quite early; but we have no clear indication of such a practice before the (Scottish) Schaw Statutes of 1599, in which three organized bodies of
19
MEDIEVAL OPERATIVE MASONRY
Masons are spoken of as the Lodges of Edinburgh, Killwinning and Stirling.
Apprentices.
The system of apprenticeship was, of course, known and used in many trades and crafts from early days. It seems to date from the first part of the 13th century, the earliest known London regulation being dated about 1230, although that was nearly a century before it began to be insisted upon and to come into general use.
Early references to Mason Apprentices are very sparse; but this may well be because our knowledge of Craft organization is largely based on building accounts, usually relating to " major" buildings such as abbeys or castles, at the erection of which apprentices would scarcely be encouraged.
The Entered Apprentice was a feature of Scottish operative Masonry at least as early as 1598, though the system is not known to have existed in England, and the term is not heard of in English Masonry before the first Book of Constitutions, which were written in 1723 by a Scotsman.
According to the Scottish practice an apprentice, after, completing his (nominally) seven years under indenture, was "entered" in the Lodge and became an Entered ' Apprentice. He was then allowed to do a certain amount of work on his own account, but was not yet free to undertake a building enterprise involving the employment of subordinate labour.
Fellows and Fellow Crafts.
The Entered Apprentice's full freedom came some seen years later (but the length of time varied considerably), when he became a Fellow of Craft, which term is again unknown in England unti 1723. He was then fully qualified as regards membership of his Lodge, and could also undertake contracts as an employer. Incidentally it is fully
20
FELLOWS AND FELLOW CRAFTS
established that as early as 1598 the admission to the grades of both Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft was of an esoteric nature.
In English documents the term "Fellow" is first found near the end of the 14th Century, when it is used in the sense of one of a body or member of a fraternity, and with no grade significance. By perhaps late in the middle of the 15th Century, it is used in Craft regulations with that implication, but the Fellow was by then of a status superior to that of the " mere " Mason, and qualified, if called on, to take charge or to employ Masons under him—a status roughly equivalent to that of the Fellow Craft of Scottish documents.
The Warden was a normal feature of the Gilds, whence the Masonic office was derived. In our Craft the Warden begins to appear about 1400. At York in 1408 the Warden and other senior Masons took the oath of obedience to the regulations as well as to the Master. In several cases, as for instance in London in 1481, the Warden was in charge of the Lodge's cash.
The Master, or Master Mason.
This was a term applied almost until the 18th Century solely to the Mason i harìe of a building operation, the earliest example in this country being John of Gloucester, who was Master Mason at the erection of Westminster Hall,1254 – 62.
In Scottish lodges, although the presiding officer was usually known as the Deacon, Warden or Preses, we find near the end of the 17th Century the title Master Mason applied to the ruler of a Lodge; it is not quite clear, however, if this was an operative practice.
Masons and "Free" Masons.
Three other terms may perhaps be best dealt with here:-
21
MEDIEVAL OPERATIVE MASONRY
Freemason, Layer and Cowan.
The earliest known use of the word Freemason occurs in 1376, when it implies an operative Mason of a somewhat superior class, though not very clearly defined; indeed it is by no means certain that there was actually any technical distinction between a Mason and a Freemason. During the 17th Century a number of examples of the use of the latter word suggest that it was beginning to be applied especially to the non-operative Mason.
Curiously enough they meaning of the term is not certain. By many it is taken to imply a "freedom," in what sense is not clear, whether free from restrictive laws and regulations, free from tolls and taxes, or free as emancipated skilled artisans; unlike practically every other craft or trade, in which the " freedom" of a city or borough was required to qualify the craftsman to exercise his occupation, the Mason could be and was called on to build anywhere, regardless of town regulations, and it may be that this is what is implied in the term " Free " Mason.
On the other hand, the accepted opinion of the best authorities is that the term was originally an abbreviated form of "Freesstone Mason,” that is, one whose work would involve the cutting and shaping of the finer kinds of stone, called freestone, as found in a belt stretching from Dorset to Yorkshire and as imported from Normandy.
This would require more skill than was possessed by one who was occupied with the roughstone, or stone of inferior quality, which was more or less incapable of being properly squared.
Although we believe that the Freemason meant originally a worker in free yet the insistence on physical freedom, that is freedom from, serfdom, in the Old Charges (see next Chapter) and in the modern ritual, must be noted. The probable explanation is that the term "free" in Freemason had different implications in successive periods of Free' masonry.
22
THE LAYER (OR SETTER)
The Layer (or Setter).
This name, which figures largely in the early building accounts, was given to a separate class of workman, whose job it was to build up the prepared stones. The craft of the Layer (or Setter) was less skilled than that of the Mason (or Hewer), and there may have been a certain amount of jealousy between them. Though there is a fair amount of evidence as to the interchangeability of the two trades and the authorities in London in the middle of the 14th Century tried to prevent such specialization, yet the distinction between the two classes persisted. The Layer's chief tool was the trowel, which even today occupies a comparatively unimportant place in the ritual.
The Cowan.
We first hear of the Cowan in the (Scottish) Schaw Statute of 1598 (see p.167), and he had no exact counterpart in England or Ireland. He was a working Mason who had not properly joined the Fraternity—who had not, in fact, been admitted into a Lodge after serving his term under indentures. No doubt there were many such capable of doing good work. But the official attitude to them is clearly indicated by the following regulation from the Schaw Statutes (wording modernized):- Item, that no master or fellow of craft receive a cowan to work in his society or company, nor send any of his servants to work with cowans, under pain of twenty pounds (Scots) so oft as any person offends in this respect.
According to a minute of the Mother Kilwinning Lodge in 1707 "No Meason shall employ no cowan which is to say without the word to work," which (by leaving out the last two important words) has given rise to the definition of a cowan as a "Mason without the word." Mention of him does not enter English Freemasonry until Anderson's second Book of Constitutions, 1738.
23
MEDIEVAL OPERATIVE MASONRY
The Assembly.
So far we have documentary evidence for all that has been said. We are on less safe ground when we come to consider the Assembly of Masons. According to the earliest two of the Old Charges (see next Chapter) such a governing body existed, meeting every third year and possessing certain legislative powers; every master was bound to attend. Its origin is there attributed (with no historical probability) to the time of King At elstan. The much later Roberts Family of Old Charges speak of annual assemblies.
It is just possible that such General Assemblies of Masons were actually held, either annually or triennially, in medieval times. But it is at least curious that beyond the two Old Charges there is no contemporary evidence to confirm their existence, since it is now believed that the Statutes of 1360 and 1425 (see next Section) which banned confederations of Masons were more likely to have been aimed at ii organizations formed to increase wages.
In the second edition (1738) of his Constitutions Dr. Anderson gives a detailed account of an attempt to break up a General Assembly at York in 1561, for which no authority has been found, although the doctor assures us that" this tradition was firmly believ'd by all the old English Masons." According to his narrative Queen Elizabeth, "hearing the Masons had certain Secrets that could not be reveal'd to her (for that she could not be Grand Master) and being jealous of all secret Assemblies, she sent an armed force to break up their annual Grand Lodge at York on St. John's Day, Dec. 27, 1561.... But Sir Thomas Sackville, Grand Master, took care to make some of the chief Men sent Fre-masons, who then joing in that Communication, made a very honourable Report to the Queen; and she never more attempted to dislodge or disturb them, but it esteem'd them as a peculiar sort of Men that cultivated Peace and Friendship, Arts and Sciences, without meddling
24
THE ASSEMBLY
in the Affairs of Church or State." For the tradition of a General Assembly in 1663, see page 71.
The advent of Grand Lodge in 1717 was, according to Anderson, a re'dval not so much of Freemasonry as of the General Ass mbly.
The Statutes Affecting the Masons.
The Statutes of the realm provided the only evidence, apart from the Old Charges and such records as the building accounts already mentioned, of the existence of Freemasonry in England before the initiation of Elias Ashmole in 1646 (see p.46).
In Edward III's reign that dread Asiatic plague, the Black Death, swept away more than half of the four million population of England; the demand for the labour of the survivors became so great that wages rose to heights unknown before. In consequence was enacted the restrictive Statute of Labourers of 1350, the following clause of which applies to the Masons:-
Item, that carpenters, masons and tilers and other workmen of houses shall not take for their work, but in such manner as they were wont; that is to say, a master carpenter iid., and another iid.; a master freestone mason iiiid., and other masons iiid., and their servants id.
This was confirmed by a Statute of ten years later, which also declared that:—
All alliances and covines of masons and carpenters, and congregations, chapters, ordinances and oaths betwixt them.. . shall be from henceforth void and wholly annulled; so that every mason. . . shall be compelled by his master whom he serveth to do every work that to him pertaining to do, or of free stone, or of rough stone.
25
MEDIEVAL OPERATIVE MASONRY
In 1425, the third year of King Henry VI's reign, it was /\ enacted that:-
Whereas by the yearly Congregations and Confederacies made by the Masons in their general Chapiters assembled, the good Course and Effect of the Statutes of Labourers be openly violated and broken. . . Our said Lord the King. . . hath ordained anct established ... that such Chapiters and Congregations shall not be hereafter holden ... and that all... Masons that coine to such Chapiters and Congregations be punished by Imprisonment of their Bodies, and make Fine and Ransom at the King's Will.
Piquancy is added to this Statute by the once commonly held belief, endorsed by Dr. Anderson, that Henry VI himself later became a Freemason. there is nothing in the Statutes of 1360 and 1425 to connect the " convines," congregations, confederacies and " chapiters " therein mentioned with the General Assembly of the first two Old Charges; it is far more likely that they arose in revolt against the low wages fixed by the Statute of 1350.
The various Statutes of Labourers Were edified, and in part repealed, by an Act of 1563 in Queen Elizabeth's reign; one clause is of especial interest, since among many tradesmen allowed to have their sons apprenticed to them is specified the “roughe mason," whereas in previous legislation the term "mason" had been used. The explanation may be that the latter expression had by this time already lost its purely operative significance.
Later laws affecting the (Speculative) Freerfiasons, such as the Unlawful Societies Act, 1799, and the Unlawful Oaths in Iôeland Act, 1823, will be referfed to in their proper places.
The Four Crowned Martyrs.
This seems a fitting place for telling the story of the Christian stonemason martyrs, who suffered under Dio-
26
THE FOUR CROWNED MARTYRS
cletian. They were to become the Patron Saints of the Building Trades, though their commemorative Day, 8th November, was less popularly observed by English Masons than among the German steinmetzen and on the Continent generally.
Actually there were jive Masons, Claudius, Castorius, Nicostratus, Simphorianus and Simplicius and (including four soldiers) nine martyrs in all, who are commemorated under the name of Quatuor Coronati.
The five Masons, who were highly skilled sculptors, refused to fashion a statue of the heathen god Aesculapius for the Emperor, who thereupon ordered that they be buried alive in leaden coffins and cast into the River Tiber. Forty-two days later the chests were recovered by Nicodemus, a fellow Christian. When the image had been made by other hands Diocletian ordered the City Militia to offer incense, and four Christian soldiers who declined to do so were scourged to death. Their bodies, which were thrown to the dogs, were rescued and buried with the other saints. The dates assigned to the two sets of martyrdoms were A.D. 298 and 300 respectively.
In 313 Pope Melchiades built for the relics a Basilica on the Caelian Hill, dedicated to the Four Crowned Ones and the Five Sculptor Martyrs. But as it was always called by the first part of the title, the memory of the Five became blended in the Four.
The Basilica was rebuilt by Pope Honorius I in A.D. 622, but three years earlier a Church of the Four Crowned Martyrs had been erected in Canterbury, probably where St. Alphege's Church now stands. Of the Old Charges, the earliest, the Regius Poem, alone mentions the Quatuor Coronati; this it does as follows:-
Pray we now to God almyght,
And to hys swete Mo er Mary bryght,
That we nowe keepe these
Artyculus here,
And these poynts wel al-y-fere
27
MEDIEVAL OPERATIVE MASONRY
As dede these holy Martyres fowre,
That yn thys Craft were of grete honoure;
They were as gode Masonus as on erthe schul go
Gravers and ymage-makers they were also.
In Speculative Freemasonry the name of Quatuor Coronati survives in that of the oldest and best known Lodge of Masonic Research, No. 2076, London, warranted in 1884.
CHAPTER THREE
THE OLD CHARGES
This is a subject about which the average brother hears more than he learns. At the first Installation Meeting he attends after his Passing certain "Old Charges and Regulations" are read over to the Master-elect and our brother has probably and quite properly made their acquaintance in the Book of Constitutions presented to him after his Initiation. This preliminary section is, however, all that survives in present-day form of a mass of Manuscripts of varying age which played a very vital part in the lives of our operative brethren. Although parallels will be found here and there, no other medieval body, whether craft, religious or otherwise, is known to have possessed such documents.
Over one hundred copies are now known and most are available in reliable reproductions, while the original documents can be seen in the British Museum, Grand Lodge or other Masonic libraries although a few remain in private hands.
The Regius and Cooke MSS.
The two oldest are in the British Museum; the Regius Ms.
28
THE REGIUS AND COOKS MSS.
is believed to have been written about 1390 and the Cooke Ms. about 1425. The Grand Lodge No 1. Ms. in the possession of the Grand Lodge of England, is dated 1583 and several others are ascribed to the 17th century and others were actually written in the 18th century after the formation of Grand Lodge. Great attention has been paid to them by students during `the past 'three-quarters of a century and, by examining in great detail the various copies, it has been possible to work out lines of descent for, like many manuscripts, " differences " occur between copy and copy. They are essentially English or of English origin and as Professor Douglas Knoop was of the opinion that there was little trace of any English Masonic organisation before about 1375 it will be realised they bring us very close to the earliest operative organisation.
Their use will be discussed later but first it is well to give a description of them. The two old copies are in book form as are a few of the more recent ones, but many are written on skins stitched end to end in the form of a roll, measuring as much as six feet by nine inches.
The text falls into three parts.
The Prayer.
First, a prayer of invocation. The following example is taken from Grand Lodge No. 1 Ms. of 1583:
"THE MIGHTE OF THE FATHER OF HEAVEN and the wysedome of the glorious Soonne through the grace & the goodnes of the holly ghoste yt been three p'sons & one god be wth us at or beginning, and giueg us grace so to gou'ne us here in or lyuing that wee maye come to his blisse that n`eur shall haiie ending. AMEN."
The History.
Then follows the historical portion which is too long to reproduce in full. The following is an abstract of the version given in the Beswicke-Royds Ms. which was dis-
29
THE OLD CHARGES
covered in l915 and is now in the possession of the Province of Lancashire (Eastern Division).
This version was probably written in the early part of the sixteenth century and consists of four pieces of parchment about six inches wide stitched tügether to form a continuous strip six feet, ten inches in length.
The Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The historical statement opens with an account of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. These are still referred to in connection with the Second Degree but in medieval times they formed the non ma urricþilum of the Universities. The place of Geometry Will be fealised by the following passage:-
" .... The wch seaven liberall scienc's bee as it were all one science that is to say Geometry for thus may a man proue that all the scienc's in the world bee found by Geometry for it teacheth meat & measure ponderacon & weight of all maner of kynd & earth and there is no man that worketh by any craft but hee worketh by some measure and no man buyes or sells but by measure & weight and all is Geometry. And Craftsmen & merchants fynd no other of the VII scienc's espetially plowe-men & tillers of graine both come seeds vynes plants & sellers of all other fruits, for Gram neither Astronomy nor any of these can fynd a man one measure or meat without Geometry wherefore I thinke that science most worthy that fyndeth all others"
The Two Pillars.
The story proper begins with Lamech and his two sons by one wife and one son and one daughter by another. These children were the founders of all Crafts in the world, Jabell of Geometry, Juball of Music, Tuballcain of the Smiths craft and the sister discovered Weaving. These
30
THE TWO PILLARS
children knew that God would take vengeance for sin either by fire or water
" .... wherefore they writt these scienc's wch were found in twoe pillars of Stone that they might bee found at after the flood. The one ftone was called marble that cannot burne with fire. The othr was called Lateras that cannot drowne wth watr. Our Intent is now to tell you truly howe & in what manner these stones were found whereon these Crafts were written The Greek Hermenes that was sonne unto Cus and Cus was sonne unto Sem who was sonne unto Noah This same Herme nes was afterwards called Hermes the father of wise men and hee found out the twoe pillars of stone wherein the scienc's were written and taught them forth And at the makinge of the Tower Babilon there was the Craft of masonry then first found & made much of and the kinge of Babion who was called Hembroth or Nembroth was a mason and loved well the Craft as it is said wth the mr of the stories"
Here we have the original legend of the Pillars, not those with which we are familiar today but two others erected by the inhabitants of the ancient world to carry over the knowledge of mankind over an impending destruction which proved to be Noah's flood. Of all our traditions this has the longest pedigree for it was taken by the compiler of the early version from Higden's Polychronicon, a world history written by Ranulf Higden, a monk of Chester, who died about 1364. Higden copied from Josephus who in turn took it from the Greek historian, Berosus, who wrote about 300 B.C. and is believed to have copied from the Sumerian account of about 1500 B.C.
The first Charge was given by the King of Babylon to a party of sixty Masons sent to assist in the builing of the city of Ninevah. We then pass to the removal of Abraham and Sarah into Egypt where the patriarchs taught the seven
31
THE OLD CHARGES
sciences to the Egyptians, a worthy scholar being Euclid.
... And it befell in his dayes That the lords and state of this Realme had so many sonnes that they had begotter some by their wyues and some by ladies of the realme' for that land is an hott land & plenteous generacon and they had no Competent living for their children wherefore they made much sorrowe And the kinge of that land called a great Counsell & a pliamt to knowe howe they might fynd there children meanes and they could fynd no good wages Then hee caused a Cry to bee made throughout the Realme That if there were any man that could informe him that hee should come unto him and hee should bee well rewarded and hould himselfe well paid. And after this Crye was made, this worthy Clarke Euclid came and said to the kinge and all his great Lords If you will haue yor children gouerned & taught honestly as gentlemen should bee under Condison that you will grant them & mee a Comifsion that I may haue power to rule them honestly as those sciencs ought to bee ruled And the kinge wth his Counsell granted them & sealed that Comifsion And then the worthy docter tooke the Lords sonnes and taught them the science of Geometry in practice to worke masonry and all manner of worthy workes that belonged to building of Castles & all maner of Courts Temples Churchs wth all other buildings & hee gaue them a charge in this manner first that they should bee true unto the kinge and unto the lord they serued and that they should loue well togethr and bee true one to anothr and that they should call one & other fellowes & not servant or knaue nor othr foule names and that they should truly serue for their paymt the lord they serued "
Building of the Temple.
The next major episode is the building of the Temple.
“... Longe after the Children of Israel came into the
32
THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE
land of Behest wch nowe is called amongst vs is called Jerusalem kinge Dauid began the temple of Jerusalem called wth them Templu' Domini And the same kinge Dauid loued Masons well & cherished them and gaue them paymt And hee gaue them chargs as you shall here afterwards. And after the decease of Kinge David Solomon that was sonne unto Dauid pformed out the Temple his father had begun and hee sent after Masons into dyvers lands and gathered them togeather so hat hee had foure score thoufand workers of stone and they were named Masons and hee had three thoufand of them wch were ordeyned maisters & governors of that worke And there was a kinge of another Region that men called Hyram and hee loved well kinge Solomon & gaue him timber for his worke and hee had a Sonne that was named Aynon and hee was mr of Geometry and hee was chiefe mr of all his masons and mr of all his Graveinge works & of all othr masons that belonged to the Temple and this witnefseth the Byble in libro Regn 11IIt0 capite VII. And this sonne Solomon confirmed both charges & manners wch his father had given to masons and thus was the worthy craft of masons confirmed in the Cuntry of Jerusalem and in many othr kingdomes glorious craftsmen walkinge abrode into dyuers Cuntryes some because of learninge more craft & other some to teach their craft."
Naymus Graecus.
The reference above to the son of King Hiram "named Anon" is interesting. This person is introduced in various guises in the different versions of the Old Charges. Another curious name follows in the next section, Naymus Graecus, the man with the Greek name, probably a reference to Pythagoras. Charles Martell who is also referred to is Charlemagne (throughout this history anachronisms must be overlooked).
33
THE OLD CHARGES
"....And so it befell yt a curious mason named Naymus Graecus who had beene at the makinge of Solomons Temple came into france & there taught the Craft of masonry to the men of France, And then there was one of the royals blood of france called Charles Martell & hee loued well this Craft and hee drewe td him this Naymus Graecus & learned of him the Craft & tooke upon him the Charges & manners & afterwards b the grace of God hee was elected kinge of france & when hee was in his state hee tooke to him many masons and made mafons there that were none before and (tt them on worke & gaue them charges & manners & 'good paymt wch hee had learned of other masons & hee confirmed them a Charter from yeare to yeare to hould an afsembly & thus came the Craft of masonry into ffrance."
St. Albon.
There immediately follows the story of the introduction of Masmjry into Ång1m É with an account of the fixing of the rate of pay. This is regarded by many authorities as confirmative of the theory that the original traditional history was devised shortly after the Blagk Death with its economic upheaval.
" .... England all this season stood void both of any Charge & Masonry vntill the tyme of St. Albon and in his tyme the kinge of England yt was a pagan and hee walled the Towne wch is nowe called St Albons and so lÞ in Albons tyme a worthy knight was chiefe steward to the kinge & had goumt of the Realme & alfo of makinge the towne walls & hee loued masons well & cherished them & made their paymt right good standinge wages as the Realme did require for hee gaue them euery three weeks IIIs VId their double wages whereas before that tyme through all the whole land a mason tooke but a pent' a day till the tyme that St Albon mended it and gott them a charter of the kinge and his Counsell and
34
ST. ALBON
gaue it the name of an Afsembly & was thereat himselfe & made masons & gaue them arges as you shall hereaftr."
The Assembly at York.
There followed a period of inactivity until the King Athelston and here we find an account of the Assemb at York around which a Masonic legend persisted for many centuries.
" .. and head a sonne that was named Hedwine and hee loved masons much more than his father was full of the practice of Geometry wherefore h himselfe to comune wth masons & to learne of the Craft & afterwards for loue hee had to mason craft hee was made mason himselfe & hee gott father the kinge a Charter & a Commifsion to hould euer yeare an Afsembly where they would within the realm & to correct wthin themselues by statute Trespafses if they were done wthin the Craft. And hee held an afsembly at York & there hee made masons them charges and taught them the manners of and comannded that Rule to bee houlden euer a to him he betooke the Charter & Comifsion to keep and ordeyned. That it should bee ruled from kinge to kinge. when the Afsembly was gathered together he caufsed a Cry to bee made that all masons both yonge That had any writings or vnderstanding Charges that were made before either in this land any othr that they should shewe them forth and tt some in french some in Greeke & some in Englishe some in othr langages and the Intent thereof was found and thereof hee commannded a booke to bee made, how the Craft was first found & made, and Commanded that it should bee read & tould when any mafon should bee made & to giue them the charge and from tyme till this masonry hath beene kept in that forme and order
35
THE OLD CHARGES
as well as men might Gouerne the same, And furthermore at dyvers afsemblies hath beene putt to and added certaine charges more by the best aduice of maisters & fellowes"
The Obligation.
This ends the historical statement and, on this point in several versions, we find an instruction to take an obligation on the volume of the Sacred Law. In the Hadslon Ms. of 1723 this instruction is interposed in Latin:-
"Tunc unus ex Senioribus teneat Librum, ut illi vel ponat, vel ponnt manus super Librum et tune praecipta deberunt legi."
The Charges.
The Charges differ widely from the general character of Gild ordinances and, while some set out rules for the conduct of the work, others may be described as general rules of conduct. Internal evidence shows that the Charges in the Cooke Ms. of about 1425 were taken from an earlier original version than the shorter ones in the Regius Ms. of about 1390 and, again, the evidence points to mid 14th century.
Here are the Charges as set forth in the Beswicke-Royds Ms.: -
"here followeth the worthy & godly oath of masons (vizt)
"EUERY man that is a mason take heed right well of this charge if you fynd yo· selfe guilty of any of these that you may amend you againe espetially you that are to bee charged take good heed that you may keepe this é Charge for it is a great grill for a man to forsweare him- I selfe vpon a Booke.
1 The first charge is that you shall bee true man to God and holy church, and that you vse no heresie or
error
36
THE CHARGES
by your vnderstandinge or by teachinge of indiscreet men.
2 Alfo you shall bee true liegemen to the kinge wthout treason or fallshood and that you knowe no treason but that you amend it if you may or ells Warne the kinge or his Counfell thereof.
3 Alfo you shall be true one to another, that is to say to euery mr & fellowe of the Craft of masonry that bee mafons allowed & that you doe to them as you would they should doe to you.
4 And alfo that euer mason keepe Counsell of lodge and chamber truly & all othr Counsell that ought to bee kept by the way of masonry.
5 Alfo that no mason bee thiefe in Company so farr forth as you shall knowe.
6 And alfo that you shall bee true unto the lord & mr that you ferue & truly to see for his prïfitt & advantage.
7 Alfo that you doe no villany in that house whereby the Craft may be slandered.
These bee the Charges in Gen'all wch euery mason should hould both maisters & fellowes Now followe other Charges in pticuler for masters & fellowes.
1 first that no mr take upon him any lords worke nor other worke butt that hee knowe himselfe able of Cuninge to pforme the same so that the Craft haue no disworship but that the lord may bee ferued truly.
2 Alfo that no mr take any worke but that hee take it reasonably so that the lord may be truly ferved wth his owne goods & the mr hue honestly & truly pay his fellowes their pay as the manner of the Craft doth require.
3 Alfo that no mr nor fellowe supplant other of their worke (that is to say) if they haue taken a worke or stand mr of a lord's worke you shall not putt him out vnles hee bee unable of Cunning to end the worke.
37
THE OLD CHARGES
4 Alfo that no mr or fellowe take any Prentice to bee allowed his aprentice but for seaven years and that the apprentice bee able of birth & limms as hee ought to bee.
5 Alfo that no mr nor fellowe take allowance to bee made mafon wthout the afsent of his fellowes at the leaft fyve or six.
6 And alfo that hee that is to bee made masons bee free borne of good kinred & no bondman & that hee haue his right lams as a man ought to haue.
7 Alfo that no mr putt a lords worke to taske that was used to goe to journey.
8 Alfo that euery mason giue pay to his fellowes but as hee may deserue so that hee bee not deseaued by false workmen.
9 Alfo that no fellowe slandr anothr falsly behind his backe to make him loose his good name or his worldly goods.
10 Alfo that no fellowe wthin the lodg or wthout answer another ungodly wthout reasonable cause.
11 Alfo that euery mason preferr his elder & putt him to worship.
12 Alfo that no mason shall play at cards hazards or any othr ínlaw" game wherby they may bee slandered.
13 Alfo that no mason comitt Ribaldry or leachery to make the Craft slandered & that no fellowe goe into the towne where there is a lodge of masons wthout a fellowe to bear him witnes that hee was in honest Company.
14 Alfo that euer mr & fellowe come to the Afsembly if hee bee wthin fifty myles & hee haue warninge & to ftend to the award of maisters and fellowes.
15 Alfo that euery mr & fellowe if hee haue trespafsed shall ftend to the award of mrs & fellowes to make them accord & if they cannot to goe to the Comon lawe.
38
THE CHARGES
16 Alfo that no mason make moulds sware or rule to any rough layers.
17 Alfo that no mason sett layers wthin a lodge or wthout to haue mould ftones wth moulde of his owne makinge.
18 Alfo that euery mason shall receave and cherish strang masons when they come ouer the Cuntry & sett them on worke as the manner is (that is to say) if they haue mould ftones in place hee shall sett him a fortnight on worke at the least & giue him his hyre & if there bee no stones for him then to refresh him wth some money to bringe him to the next lodge, and alfo euery mason shall serue truly the workes and truly make an end of the worke bee it taske or Journey if hee haue his pay as he ought to haue.
These charges that are here rehearsed and all other that belonge to masonry you shall truly keepe to the uttermost of yor knowledge
So helpe you God and by the Contents of this Book."
The English character of the Charges is indicated by the fact that in the Scottish versions we find the craftsmen pledging obedience to the King of England, a very curious provision before the Union of the two countries.
Use of the Old Charges.
We have now described very briefly the general form of the Old Charges and the question arises, what were their uses? We gather from the historial portion that Prince Edwin, son of Athelstan, collected the writings and understandings of the Craft at his Asse.mbly at York. It is doubtful whether this history was ever read or recited in full but the possession of a copy seems to have served very much the same purpose as a Lodge Warrant today. This is borne out by the
39
THE OLD CHARGES
Sloane 3848 Ms. to the effect that it was finished by Edward Sankey on the 16th day of October, 1646. This was the day on which Elias Ashmole was initi'ted at Warrington, the earliest recorded initiation in an English Lodge. Richard Sankey was one of the members and it is almost certain the document was prepared for use on that occasion. There is a note on the Scarborough Ms. of a meeting at Scarborough in 1705 when six gentlemen were admitted.
The last section—the Charges, General and Singular— (open up a new field. They are of different classes. How came they to be included ? They reveal a mixture of what we may call the operative and the speculative side. About a score contain an Apprentice Charge, of a definitely operative character ; of these, a group mainly, though not exclusively, associated with the latter part of the pre-Grand Lodge era, contain New Articles, definitely of a speculat'i've character and some other copies refer to Masonic secrets.
It is a curious fact that these documents contain no mention of the use of the Mason's Mark, a very essential feature of operative life which comes into full prominence in Scottish records.
There was a ritual side. Two distinguished Brethren, the late Bros. E. L. Hawkins and Roderick H. Baxter, devoted much time to analysing and identifying passages which have now passed into Ritual or may have inspired it. One small group goes so far as to describe the ceremonial at the conferment of secrets. These were written in the latter part of the 16th and early part of the 17th century and link up with another type of document which is more closely associated with speculative freemasonry and will be described later.
Here are a few examples from versions of the Old Charges not already quoted here. They were selected by the late Roderick H. Baxter.
40
USE OF THE OLD CHARGES
"Harleian MS., No. 2054. (written by Randle Holme (1627-1699) the Chester Herald and Antiquary, and well known to have been a Freemason).
There is seurall words and signs of a free Mason to be revailed to yu wch as you will ans : before God at the great and terrible day of Judgmt. yu keep secrett & not to revail the same to any in the heares of any pson but to the M.rs and fellows of the said Society of free Masons so help me God xt.
"Buchanan MS. (Second half seventeenth century).
These Charges that you have Received you shall well and truly keepe, not discloseing the Secrecy of our Lodge to man, woman, nor child : stick nor stone, thing moue-able nor immoueable : so God you helpe and his holy Doome. Amen.
"Harris MS., No. 1. (Second half seventeenth century).
These Charges wch wee now rehearse to you and all other the Charges, Secrets and Mysteries belonging to Free-Masonry, you shall faithfully and truely keep together with the Council of this Lodge or Chamber. You shall not for any Gift, Bribe or Reward, favour or affection, directly or Indirectly, for any Cause whatsoever divulge or disclose to either Father or Mother, Sister or Brother, Wife, Child, friend, Relation or Stranger, or any other Arson whatsoever. So help you God your Holy-doom and the Contents of this Book.
" Harleian MS., No. 1942. (Second half seventeenth century).
I: A: B: Doe in the presence of Almighty god & my fellowes and Brethren here present, promise and declare that I will not at any time, hereafter, by any Act, or Circumstance whatsoever, Directly or Indirectly, Publish, discover, reveale or make knowne any of the secrets
B *
41
THE OLD CHARGES
privilidges, or Councells of the ffraternity or fellowship of free masonry, which at this time, or any time hereafter shalbee made knowne unto mee, soe helpe me god & the holy contents of this booke.
"Dumfries-Kilwinning MS., No. 4. (First half eighteenth century).
The charges we now w Rehearse to you wt. all other f charges and secrets otherways belonging to free masons or any that enter their interest for curiocitie together wt. the counsels of this holy ludge chamber or hall you shall not for any gift bribe or Reward favour of affection directly or indirectly nor for any cause qt. soever devulge disclose ye same to ether father or mother sister or brother or children or stranger or any person qt.soever. So help you God.
"You yt. are under vouees take hee yt. you keep ye ath and promise you made in presence of allmighty God think not yt. a mental reservation or equivocation will serve for to be sure every word you speak the whole time of your Admission is ane oath."
The W.Ts. are suggested by the Melrose No. 2 Ms. (1674) .... and he ought not to let you know the priviledge of ye compass, Square, levell and ye plum-rule" There is an interesting endorsement on the Grand Lodge No. 1 Ms. which, as we have already mentioned, is dated 1583. The addition was probably made about a couple of centuries later but is very suggestive of early Royal Arch Freemasonry:
In the beginning was the Word,
And the Word was with God,
And the Word was God.
Whose Sacred and universal Law
I shall endeavour to observe
So help me God.
42
USE OF THE OLD CHARGES
The original Grand Lodge of England furnished testimony of the importance of the Old Charges when a request to the Craft to bring in old records was issued in 1719. This and its sequel will be considered later.
The first Book of Constitutions published in 1723 is claimed by its author, Dr. James Anderson, to contain a digest of the old Records. We may here mention that two copies of the Cooke Ms., the Woodford Ms. and the Supreme Council Ms. were made in 1728. The former bears the endorsement:-
“This is a very Ancient Record of Masonry wch
was copyed for me by Wm. Reid Secretary to the
Grand Lodge 1728."
lt is a curious fact that, 'despite this display of official interest, the study of the Old Charges did not seriously begin for more than a century and was then inspired by a non-Mason who drew public attention to the long-overlooked document now known as the Regius Ms. The first analysis into what we know today as "families," which enable lines of descent of groups of these documents to be ascertained and studied, was undertaken by a German, Dr. Begemann, and was continued and developed in this country by those two giants of Masonic research, W. J. Hughan and R. F. Gould. As has already been mentioned, the majority are now available in facsimile reproduction or reliable transcript, the need for which is exemplified by the destruction of the Bolt-Colerane Ms. in an air raid on Bristol. It was tragic that the hand of death has recently removed the two great experts of this century, Professor Douglas Knoop and the Rev. H. Poole, each of whom, by a most fortunate circumstance, completed his magnum opus shortly before his death.
43
CHAPTER IV
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
We have discussed briefly various suggested sources of Freemasonry and given some account of medieval operative masonry and the Old Charges. We now reach the important task of describing the evoluton of our speculative system. In addition to several copies of the Old Charges we have certain seventeenth-century records in England but nothing of the nature of Lodge minutes, whereas in Scotland there are not only minute books, one running back as far as 1599, but also the tradition of the Mason Word.
Economic Changes.
The economic changes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had far-reaching effects on the mason craft. The building of churches and the older ashlar-faced castles had declined and the classical style of architecture was being introduced. At the same time there was a drastic fall in the value of money which stimulated building while, at the same time, it diminished the reward of labour. It is not always realised today that "direction of labour" is no new thing; it was commonly resorted to in connection with the building of royal castles and residences and is still found in the seventeenth century.
Later Gilds and the Masons' Company of London.
There were in several places Gilds or Companies of Masons, often in conjunction with other building trades and the books of the London Masons' Company are extant from 1619 onwards and it is about this time that we begin
44
LATER GILDS
To find traces of Lodges or other bodies as well as individuals not connected with the craft of Masonry. For the sake of convenience we call them speculative freemasons but, though the word is found in the Cooke Ms. of about 1425, it is not found in general use before the middle of the eighteenth century. Thus we have the picture of an entirely operative craft in 1600 which has given place to the speculative side by the middle of the eighteenth century. Bro. Knoop carried the process a little further but we are not with him on this point.
The London Masons' Company was probably not in existence before 1356, though there is a record that in 1306 the journeymen combined and threatened to beat newcomers if they accepted lower wages than was customary. In 1376 four Masons were elected to the Common Council and there was a grant of arms in 1472 while in 1481 ordinances were adopted and approved. Other incorporations including Masons were found at Canterbury, Durham, Exeter, Gateshead, &c. &c.
There was, within the London body, an inner fraternity known as the Acception, membership of which did not necessarily follow membership of the Company. Those admitted paid a fee of 20s. if of the Company, 40s. if strangers. Seven members of the Company were enrolled in the Acception in 1620-21 and Nicholas Stone, the King's Master Mason, who was Master of the Company in 1633, did not join the Accepted Masons until 1639.
Initiation of Sir Robert Moray.
Shortly afterwards occurred the earliest recorded initiation on English soil. Some members of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) No. 1, to give it its present-day title, had entered England with the Scottish Ármy and on 20th May, 1641, they initiated "Mr. the Right Honerabell Mr. Robert Moray, General Quartermaster to the Armie of Scotland." This was at Newcastle-on-Tyne which was
45
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
evacuated by the Scottish Army the following July after which those responsible reported the fact to the Lodge and the matter was rectified and recorded in the Minutes. Sir Robert Moray also attended a meeting of the Lodge in 1647, when he signed the minutes.
Elias Ashmole.
The next event is particularly interesting. Elias Ashmole, the antiquary, left a diary in which are mentioned many matters of astrological or other occult significance and there are two references to Freemasonry: 1646. Oct. 16. 4 H 30' p.m. I was made a Freemason at Warrington in Lancashire with Coll. Henry Main-Waring of Karincham in Cheshire. The names of those who were then of the Lodge, Mr. Rich Penket, Warden, Mr. James Collier, Mr. Rich Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam, Rich Ellam and Hugh Brewer.
Most of these have been identified as men of good social position and there was not a single operative member. We have already mentioned that the Sloane 3848 Ms. was transcribed by Edward Sankey, possibly the son of Richard Sankey, one of the members of the Lodge.
Nearly thirty-six years later, Ashmole sat in Lodge again, . this time in London: " March, 1682.
"10—About 5 P.M. I reed: a Sumons to appr at a Lodge to be held the next day, at Masons Hall London. " 11—Accordingly I went, & about Noone were admitted into the Fellowship of Free Masons, S William Wilson Knight, Capt. Rich: Borthwick, Ì', Will: Woodman, Ìô Wm Grey, Ìr Samuel! Taylour & Mr William Wise.
"I was the Senior Fellow among them (it being 35 yeares since I was admitted) There were prsent beside my selfe the Fellowes after named.
46
ELIAS ASHMOLE
"Mw Tho: Wise Mr of the Masons Company this prsent yeare. Mr Thomas Shorthose, Mr Thomas Shadbolt, Waindsford Esgr Ìr Nich: Young Mr John Shorthose, Ìr William Hamon, Mr John Thompson, & Ir Will: Stanton.
" Wee all dyned at the halfe Moone Taverne in Cheapeside, at a Noble dinner prepaired at the charge of the New-accepted Masons."
This is truly valuable. All but three of those present were members of the Masons' Company; several filled the Chair in various years and it was evidently possible for gentlemen-Masons to become members without the formality of joining the Company and taking up the Freedom of the City.
There is in a number of pamphlets, some of which are now exceedingly rare, ample confirmation of the fact that Freemasonry was familiar to more Londoners than the members of the Company or the Acception. A skit on the "Company of Accepted Masons" was published in Poor Robin's Intelligencer in 1676; an anti-Masonic leaflet of 1698, now in the Library of Grand Lodge, is addressed "To all Goodly People of the Citie of London." There are two well-known references to'" Pretty Fellows" who have their "Signs and Tokens like Freemasons" in The Tatter of 1709 and 1710.
Staffordshire.
In the Midlands, Dr. Robert Plot, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, published his Natural History of Staffordshire in 1686. This contains not only an abstract and criticism of part of the Old Charges but a contemporary account of our fraternity:
"To these add the Customs relating to the County, whereof they have one, of admitting Men into the Society of Free-Masons, that in the moorelands of this County
47
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
seems to be of greater request, than any where else, though I find the Custom spread more or less all over the Nation; for here I found persons of the most eminent quality, that did not disdain to be of this Fellowship. Nor indeed need they, were it of that Antiquity an h or, that is pretended in a large parchment vblum they have amongst rem, containing the History and Rules of the craft of masonry. Which is there deduced not only from sacred writ, but profane story, particularly that it was brought into England by St Amphibal, and first cornmunicated to S. Alban, who set down the Charges of masonry, and was made paymaster and Governor of the Kings works, and gave them charges and manners as St Amphibal had taught him. Which were after confirmed by King Athelstan, whose youngest son Edwyn loved well masonry, took upon him the charges, and learned the manners, and obtained for them of his Father, a free-Charter. Whereupon he caused them to assemble at York, and to bring all the old Books of their craft, and out of them ordained such charges and manners, as they then thought fit: which charges in the said Schrole or Parchment volum, are in part declared; and thus was the craft of masonry grounded and confirmed in England. 1t is also there declared that these charges and manners were after perused and approved by King Hen. 6. and his council, both as to Masters and Fellows of this right Worshipfull craft."
"Into which Society when any are admitted, they call a meeting (or Lodg as they term it in some places), which must consist at lest of 5 or 6 of the Ancients of the Order, whom the candidats present with gloves, and so likewise to their wives, and entertain with a collation according to the Custom of the place: This ended, they proceed to the admission of them, which chiefly consists in the communication of certain secret signes, whereby they are known to one another all over the Nation, by which
48
STAFFORDSHIRE
means they have maintenance whither ever they travel: for if any man appear though altogether unknown that can shew any of these signes to a Fellow of the Society, whom they otherwise call an accepted mason, he is obliged presently to come to him, from what company or place soever he be in, nay, tho' from the top of a Steeple (what hazard or inconvenience soever he run), to know his pleasure, and assist him; viz., if he want work he is bound to find him some; or if he cannot doe that, to give him mony, or otherwise support him till work can be had; which is one of their Articles; and it is another, that they advise the Masters they work for, according to the best of their skill, acquainting them with the goodness or badness of their materials; and if they be any way out in the contrivance of their buildings, modestly to rectify them in it; that masonry be not dishonored: and many such like that are commonly known: but some others they have (to which they are sworn after their fashion), that none know but themselves, which I have reason to suspect are much worse than these, perhaps as bad as this History of the craft it self; than which there is nothing I ever met with, more false or incoherent."
Randle Holme.
Five heraldic painters of Chester bore the name of Randle Holme. The third of the line, who was born in 1627 and died in 1699-1700, was the author of the " Academie of Armory" in which were several references to Freemasonry of the greatest importance as indicating the relationship of a non-operative to the fraternity in the seventeenth century, for instance:
"A Fraternity, or Society, or Brotherhood, or Company; are such in a corporation, that are of one and the same trade, or occupation, who being joyned together by oath and covenant, do follow such orders and rules, as are made, or to be made for the good order, rule,
49
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
and support of such and every of their occupations. These several Fraternities are generally governed by one or two Masters, and two Wardens, but most Companies with us by two Aldermen, and two Stewards, the later, being to pay and receive what concerns them."
Again, he refers to various tools without, apparently, moralising upon them (this came much later in the develop- ment of Freemasonry) and in a later passage said,
"I cannot but Honor the Felloship of the Masons because of its Antiquity; and the more, as being a Member of that Society, called Free-Masons. In being conversant amongst them I have observed the use of these several Tools following some whereof I have seen being born in Coats of Armour"
He attached some importance to Pillars and they were depicted in an illustration of the Arms of the Masons (the familiar three castles).
Among the loose papers in the Harleian Ms. 2054 is a version of the Old Charges transcribed by Randle Holme III and immediately following this there is written on a small scrap of paper: "There is seurall words & signes of a free Mason to be revailed to y° wch as y° will answ: before God at the Great & terrible day of Iudgmt y° keep Secret & not to revaile the same to any in the heares of any pson w but to the Mt' & fellows of the said Society of free Masons so helpe me God, ëÑc, " The significance of this cannot be doubted and the passage will be further considered later. The next leaf contains further notes by the same writer obviously relating to an existing Lodge including a list of the members and certain figures apparently relating to entrance fees and subscriptions. Much study has been devoted to this record and
50
RANDLE HOLME
the majority of the persons concerned have now been identified without much shadow of doubt. They were members of various trades, including some Masons or followers of other building trades but obviously persons of culture with whom Randle Holme would feel at home.
Much of his work can still be seen in Chester and he was enrolled as a foreign burgess at the celebration of Preston Gild in 1662, his son, Randle Holme IV, being similarly enrolled in 1682.
It is convenient at this point to refer to an interesting fact often overlooked by Masonic students. Attempts have been made to enlist Freemasonry in one or the other side in various political controversies, a factor sternly discouraged from the very beginning in English Freemasonry. Of the three individuals most prominently considered in this Chapter, Sir Robert Moray was serving with the Army of Scotland, then allied to the Parliamentary side, Ashmole was a staunch Cavalier and Randle Holme III was also a Royalist.
John Aubrey.
John Aubrey (1626-97) published The Natural History of Wiltshire in 1686. He thus repeats the fable of the Papal Bull on which so much false history is based: Sr William Dugdale told me many years since, that about Henry the third's time, the Pope gave a Bull or diploma (Patents) to a Company of Italian Architects (Freemasons) to travell up and down over all Europe to build Churches. From those are derived the Fraternity of Free-Masons. (Adopted-Masons) They are known to any another by certayn Signes & Markes (Markes is erased) and Watch-words: it continues to this day. They have Severall Lodges in severall Counties for their reception: and when any of them fall into decay, the brotherhood is to relieve him, &c. The manner of their Adoption is very formal!, and with an Oath of Secrecy.
51
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
This was taken from the original in the Bodleian and the additions in brackets indicate alternative wordings written above the original. Aubrey therefore felt the subject was of sufficient importance to polish considerably.
On the reverse of Folio 72 we have the famous reference to Sir Christopher Wren:
1691. Mdm, this day (May the 18th, being Monday) [another interpolation—after Rogation Sunday] is a great convention at St. Paul's Church of the Fraternity of the Free Masons: [again Aubrey strikes out the word Free and inserts "Accepted "] where Sr Christopher Wren is to be adopted a Brother: and Sr Henry Goodric .... of ye Tower & divers others—There have been kings, that have been of this Sodalitie.
Sir Christopher Wren.
The above paragraph has introduced us to this great and controversial figure. Born in 1632, he became a professor of Astronomy in 1657 and of Mathematics in 1661, being also appointed Assistant Surveyor General of the Royal Buildings. After the Fire of London he was entrusted with the great work of reconstruction and, though many of his plans were not followed, we owe to him the magnificent St. Paul's Cathedral and the many Wren churches and other buildings. The first Book of Constitutions, edited for Grand Lodge by Dr. Anderson and published in 1723, refers but briefly to him as "the ingenious Architect" and as the architect of the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. At that time, however, Wren was not in favour with George I and, when the second edition of the Book of Constitutions appears in 1738 Anderson felt himself at liberty to give much greater prominence to the famous architect. Unfortunately, as we shall see later, Anderson was no reliable authority and his story of Wren's Masonic offices, including that of Grand Master are simply without foundation, though it is probable that he was a member of the Craft
52
SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN
Anderson's History, for what it is worth, may be briefly summarised:
1669. Completed the Sheldonian Theatre and the "pretty Museum."
1673. Grand Master Rivers levelled the Footstone of St. Paul's, designed by D. G. Master Wren.
1685. Upon the death of Grand Master Arlington, the Lodges met and elected Sir Christopher Wren Grand Master, who appointed Mr. Gabriel Cibber and Mr. Edward Strong, Grand Wardens.
1707. Lodges in the South neglected by Wren.
1708. St. Paul's completed.
"Some few Years after this Sir Christopher Wren neglected the Office of Grand Master; yet the Old Lodge near St. Paul's and a few more continued their stated meetings."
An account of the building of St. Paul's Cathedral, by Sir Christopher's Son, and published by his grandson, Stephen Wren, mentions that "The highest or last Stone on the Top of the Lantern, was laid by the Hands of the Surveyor's son, Christopher Wren deputed by his Father, in the Presence of that excellent Artificer Mr Strong, his Son, and other Free and Accepted Masons, chiefly employed in the Execution of the Work."
There were several other seventeenth-century references to Freemasonry, of greater or lesser importance, but it will be sufficient here to introduce some records from the North-East of England.
The Alnwick Lodge.
There is a tradition that this Lodge was founded by,, operative Masons brought from the South by Sir Ambrose Crowley when he established a foundry at Winlaton in 1690. The records include a copy of the Old Charges and are the only English operative minutes going back to pre-Grand Lodge days. The early members were mainly operative and the first Rules are dated 1701. They have been closely
53
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
examined and debated upon and Bro. Poole was of the opinion that in the early days, although the degrees as now understood were not worked, the materials out of which the degrees were subseguently formed are to be found. It was not until 1735 that the Lodge accepted a Deputation from Grand Lodge and we have an interesting minute of 1708 describing the Masonic dress of the day:
at a true & prfect Lodge kept at Alnwick at the house of Ìr Thomas Davison then one of the Ward(ens) of the same Lodge the twentieth day of this Instant Janery 1708 It was Order(ed) that for the future foe Member of the said Mar Wardens or ‚fellows should appear at (any) or the Lodge to be kept on St Johns day in Christ-m(ass) without his appron & Common Square fixt in the Belt thereof upon pain of forfeiting two shills Six pence each pson offending and that Care be taken by the Mar & Wardens for the time being that a Sermon be pvided & prea(ched) that day at the (Parish) Church at Alnw(icke) by some clergyman at their appointmt. where the Lodge shall all appear with their aprons on & Comon Square as aforesaid & that the Mar & Wardens neglecting their duty in providing a Clergyman to preach as aforesd shall forfiet the sure of tenn shillings
While the Lodge was still independent, in 1734, "it is agreed by the Master and Wardens, and the rest of the Society, that if any Brother shall appear in the Assembly without gloves and aprons at any time when summoned by Master and Wardens, shall for each offence pay one shilling on demand."
York.
No name appeals more strongly to the Masonic imagination than York and, unfortunately, imagination has too often been too freely used. Prince Edwin's Assembly of 926 and the raid on the assembled Craft ordered by Queen
54
YORK
Elizabeth are among the best-known examples. (But York has a Masonic antiquity, Operative and Speculative, of its own. On the Operative side we have the Fabric Rolls of York Minster and the original of the Levander-York Ms. of the Old Charges, said to have been written in 1560.
Another version of the Old Charges, the York Ms. copied in 1693, bears, below the signature of the copyist the names of five members of "the Lodg." Unfortunately, neither copyist nor members can be traced among the Freemen of York. There is an endorsement on the back of the Scarborough Ms. recording the admission of six persons at a private Lodge at Scarborough on 10th July, 1705. Finally, the original Minute Book of the York Lodge, later to assume Grand Lodge status, has been lost for some years, but extracts were taken in 1778 from which we know that Sir George Tempest, Bart., presided in 1705 and that in 1713 "18 gentlemen of the first families in the Neighbourhood were made Masons" at Bradford.
Central Organisation not traced.
Though there is a family resemblence between many of the bodies we have described in this Chapter there is no definite evidence of the existence during the early eighteenth century of any central authority, though the evidence of the Catechisms, which will be considered later, indicates a remarkable uniformity of procedure and there is a hint in me of theaT ter versions of the Old Charges that the establishment of such a body was at least under consideration.
Early Freemasonry in Scotland.
A separate chapter will be devoted to Scotland but we must here interpolate some remarks on the line of development of Operative and Speculative Masonry which differed considerably from that which obtained in England. We have already mentioned that the Old Charges were essen-
55
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
tially English. Scotland has, however, an abundance of old records including Tsodge Minute Books running back far beyond anything in existence South of the Tweed. She has the registration and use of the Mark, the Edinburgh Minutes of 1599 being attested by the Mark of the Warden and the Lodge of Aberdeen being in possession of a beautiful Mark Book which began in 1670. Above all, Scotland has the Mason Word, no trace of which has been found in English medieval records.
The old Scottish Lodge Minutes are those of essentially operative bodies yet non-operatives were admitted to membership from a very early date. By the late sixteenth century there was a measure of co-operation and uniformity which at least hints at the existence of some central authority. What was the function of a test Word? The skilled Mason could give practical proof of his ability; possession of the means of recognition proved him to be a member of the organisation.
We have a description written in 1691, by the Rev. Robert Kirk, Minister of Aberfoyle, "like a Rabbinical Tradition, in way of comment on Jachin and Boaz, the two Pillars erected in Solomon's Temple (1 Kings vii, 21) with ane Addition of some secret Signe delyvered from Hand to Hand, by which they know and become familiar with one another."
A letter of 1697 tells that the Lairds of Roslyn "are obliged to receive the masons' word which is a secret signall masons have thro'out the world to know one another by. They alledge 'tis as old as Babel, when they could not understand one another and they conversed by signs. Others would have it no older than Solomon."
Trinity College, Dublin.
A remarkable document is preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. It was customary during the 17th and 18th centuries for a satirical speech to be delivered
56
TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
at the Universities by a representative of the undergraduates, known as " Terrae Filius." In 1688 the speech at Trinity College contained interesting satirical references to Freemasonry. The first passage opens, "It was lately ordained that for the honour and dignity of the University there should be introduced a Society of Freemasons consisting of gentlemen, mechanics, porters" &c. &c." who shall bind themselves by an oath never to discover their mighty no-secret; and to relieve whatsoever strolling distressed brethren they meet with, after the manner of the Fraternity of Freemasons in and about Trinity College, by whom a collection was lately made for, and the purse of charity well stuffed for, a reduced Brother." Then followed a ridiculous list of gifts including " From Sir Warren, for being Freemasonised the new way five shillings."
Later we are informed that on the corpse of one Ridley (a notorious informer) was the "Freemasons' Mark." It must be remembered that this address was delivered to a well-informed audience the members of whom might be expected to understand the various allusions. It indicates the existence of a Society known to be secret, benevolent and of mixed membership, and hints at a recent change of procedure.
Seventeenth Century Procedure.
A suggestion was made recently and gave rise to much controversy that the bridge between Operative and Speculative Masonry would rest mainly on Scotland at the Operative end and on England at the Speculative. What can we gather from the information available?
Position of the Old Charges.
The Old Charges were still held in veneration and in example after example we find a copy in evidence at an assembly wholly or partially non-operative—Ashmole's, Randle Holme's, Alnwick, Scarborough, York.
57
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
The Social Board.
Ashmole tells how the brethren at London dined together at the expense of the newly-admitted Masons. Something of the nature of an initiation fee, or paying one's footing is indicated here and in Plot we find the candidates presenting the brethren and their wives with gloves in addition to entertaining them with a collation. Randle Holme left what appears to be a subscription list.
Working Tools.
These are referred to at Chester by Randle Holme. The moralising with which we are familiar was introduced much later.
Dress.
The only account of the dress of the Lodge is found at Alnwick where in 1708 the brother was required to wear on a ceremonial occasioh his apron with the common square fixed in the belt.
Relief.
There is an elaborate gibe at the duty to relieve a distressed brother in the Trinity College, Dublin Ms. Plot also waxes satirical on this point and his remark probably inspired a later parody of the E.A. Song: If on House ne'er so high, A Brother they spy, As his Trowel he dextrously lays on, He must leave off his Work, And come down with a Jerk, At the Sign of an Accepted Mason.
Ritual.
It will surprise some to learn that our ritual of today was consolidated only after the Union of 1813. Before that date we rely on a mass of documents and printed
58
RITUAL
exposures from which we gather the three degrees iéf sümething like their present form were fully-established by 1730 but, over the years before that, even after the formation of the first Grand Lodge in 1717, controversy raged for many years and at the beginning of the present century the leading Masonic historians were ranged in rival camps according as they believed one, three or two ceremonies were known. Much has been discovered since then and present day students recognise that at least two separate ceremonies were worked and that, if one looks further, much of the esoteric teaching now divided between the three (some go further and add the Royal Arch) is to be found.
We have mentioned the Mason Word in Scotland: we have seen Randle Holme's cryptic reference to the secrecy to be observed in regard to several words and signs. Aubrey leaves a similar hint but, at the beginning of this twentieth century, pre-Grand Lodge ritual was virtually unknown.
The Haughfoot Minute.
The Haughfoot Lodge, now extinct, left its Minute Book from which some scrupulous brother tore the first pages so that the book opens tantalisingly with a minute of 22nd December 1702:
.... of entrie as the apprentice did Leaving out (The Common Judge). Then they whisper the word as before—and the Master Mason grips his hand after the ordinary way.
The same day Sr James Scott of Gala Thomas Scott his Brother, David Murray in Philliphaugh James Pringle in Haughfoot Robert Lowrie in Stowtonherd and John Pringle Wright gave in ther petition each for themselves earnest desiring to be admitted into the sd Society of Masons and ffellow Craft Which ther desir being maturely considered was accordingly agreed to and granted and they each of them
59
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
By them selves were duely and orderly admitted apprentices and ffellow Craft. And ther was imposed on them the soumes following to be payed in to the box quh they accordingly each of them for himself promised to pay, viz.:
Sir James Scott half a guinie or 71b 2b
Thomas Scott Three punds
David Murray One pound
James Pringle One pund
Robert Lowrie One pund
John Pringle One pund
Thereafter the meeting resolved with one voice yt yr shall be ane yearly meeting of those concerned in this Lodge att Haughfoot in all tyme comeing upon St John's Day.
They also committed to Andrew Thompson one of yr number to provide a Register book against their next meeting.
And they comitted to John Hoppringle of yt Ilk to appoint the next meeting and give timely advertissement thereof to all concerned.
We have here a most important minute indicating in a few lines the progress from one degree to another, the acceptance of candidates and their admission fees (in Scots currency). The Lodge was also putting its affairs in order by purchasing a register and arranging an Annual Meeting—on St. John's Day.
The Catechism.
The next evidence is provided by a group of sixteen manuscripts and prints ranging in date from 1696 to 1730. Each is cast in cachetical form, hence the name given to the group. Though certain relationships are apparent they do not fall into families as do the Old Charges.
60
THE CHETWODE CRAWLEY MSS.
The Chetwode Crawley and the Edinburgh Register House Mss.
About 1900, several years after the publication of the first edition of Gould's great History of Freemasonry and much of Hughan's early work, some volumes were purchased from a second-hand collector and among them was discovered a masonic catechism. Thanks to the efforts of W. J. Hughan, it was secured for the Grand Lodge of Ireland and named after the great Irish Masonic student, W. J. Chetwode Crawley. The paper, watermark and writing indicate an origin about the end of the seventeenth century or the beginning of the eighteenth and the date commonly ascribed is 1700. The drawback, from the point of view of the student, was that it might have been written after the formation of the Grand Lodge of England and the great spread of interest in Freemasonry, hence it was not completely accepted in evidence before 1930 when the Edinburgh Register House Ms. was discovered in the Scottish Archives after which it is named. This is definitely dated, the endorsement being, "Some Questiones Anent the mason Word 1696" and the document is headed "Some Questiones that Masons use to put to Those who have ye Word before they will acknowledge them." Although the two documents have obviously not been copied one from another they are as obviously closely related. Many of the questions are identical and most of the others approximately so; the Form of Giving the Mason Word is not identical but very similar and this appears in different parts of the two documents.
The following transcript of the Edinburgh Register House Ms. is taken, by permission, from the Transactions of the Manchester Association for Masonic Research.
Some Questiones That Masons use to put to those who have the word before they will acknowledge them.
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PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
Quesn. 1 Are you a mason. Answer Yes.
Q. 2 How shall I know it? Ans. you shall know it in time and place convenient. Remark the fors[ai]d answer is only to be made when there is company present who are not masons But if there be no such company by, you should answer by signes tokens and other points of my entrie.
Q. 3 What is the first point? Ans. Tell me the first point ile tell you the second. The first is to heill and conceal!, second, under no less pain, which is then cutting of your throat. For you most make that sign when you say that.
Q. 4 Where was you entered? An. At the honourable Lodge.
Q. 5 What makes a true and perfect Lodge? An. Seven masters, five entered apprentices, A dayes journey from a burroughs town without bark of dog or crow of cock.
Q. 6 Does no less make a true and perfect lodge? An. Yes five masons and three entered apprentices &c.
Q. 7 Does no less. An. The more the merrier the fewer the better chear.
Q. 8 What is the name of your lodge An. Kilwinning.
Q. 9 How stands your lodge An. east and west as the temple of Jerusalem.
Q. 10 Where was the first lodge. An. in the porch of Solomons Temple.
Q. 11 Are there any lights in your lodge An. Yes three the north east, s w, and eastern passage. The one denotes the master mason, the other the warden. The third the setter croft.
62
THE CHETWODE CRAWLEY MSS.
Q. 12 Are there jewells in your lodge An. Yes three, Perpend esler a square pavement and a broad oval!.
Q. 13 Where shall I find the key of your lodge. Yes [sic. lege-An.] Three foot and a half from the lodge door under a Perpend esler, and a green divot. But under the lap of my liver where all my secrets of my heart lie.
Q. 14 Which is the key of your lodge. An. a wool hung tongue.
Q. 15 Where lies the key. Ans. In the bone box.
After the masons have examined you by all or some of these Questions and that you have answered them exactly and made the signes, they will acknowledge you, but not a master mason or fellow croft but only as [sic. legean] apprentice, soe they will say I see you have been in the kitchine but I know not if you have been in the hall. Ans. I have been in the hall as weel as in the kitchine.
Quest. 1 Are you a fellow craft Ans. Yes.
Quest. 2 How many points of the fellowship are ther Ans. Fyve viz. foot to foot, knee to knee, Heart to Heart, hand to hand and ear to ear. Then make the sign of fellowship and shake hand and you will be acknowledged a true mason.
The words are in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The forme of giveing the mason word.
Imprimis you are to take the person to take the word upon his knees and after a great many ceremonies to frighten him you make him take up the bible and laying his right hand on it you are to conjure him to secrecie by threatning that if [he] shall break his oath the sun in the firmament will be a witness ag[ain]st him and all
63
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
the company then present, which will be an occasion of his damnation and that likewise the masons will be sure to murder him. Then after he hes proniised secrecie. They give him the oath a[s] follows By god himself and you shall answer to god when you shall stand naked' before him, at the great day, you shall not reveal any pairt of what you shall hear of see at this time whether by word nor write nor put it in wryte at any time nor draw it with the point of a sword, or any other instrument upon the snow or sand, nor shall you speak of it but with an entered mason, so help you god.
After he hes taken the oath he is removed out of the company with the youngest mason, where after he is sufficiently frighted with 1000 ridiculous postures and' grimmaces, He is to learn from the s(ai)d mason the manner of makeing his due guard which is the signe and the postures and words of his entrie which are as follows First when he enters again into the company he must make a ridiculous bow, then the signe and say God bless the honourable company. Then putting off. his hat after a very foolish manner only to be demonstrated then (as the rest of the signes are likewise) he sages the words of his entrie which are as follows Here come I the youngest and last entered apprentice As I am, sworn by God and St Jhon by the square and compass, and common judge to attend my masters service at the honourable lodge from munday in the morning till saturday at night and to keep the keyes therof under no less pain then haveing my tongue cut out under my chin and of being buried, within the flood mark where no man shall know, then he makes the sign again withdrawing his hand under his chin alongst his throat which denotes that it be cut out in case he break his word.
Then all the mason(s) present whisper amongst themselves the word beginning at the youngest till it come to
64
THE CHETWODE CRAWLEY MSS
the master mason who gives the word to the entered apprentice. Now it is to be remarked that all the signes and words as yet spoken of are only what belong to the entered apprentice, But to be a master mason or fellow craft there is more to be done which after follows. First all the prentices are to be removed out of the company and none suffered to stay but masters.
Then he who is to be admitted a member of fellowship is putt again to his knees, and gets the oat[h] administrated to him of new afterwards he must go out of the company with the youngest mason to learn the postures and signes of fellowship, then comeing in again He makes the masters sign, and sages the same words of entrie as the apprentice did only leaving out the common judge then the masons whisper the word among them selves beginning at the youngest as formerly afterwards the youngest mason must advance and put himself into the posture he is to receive the word and sages to the eldest mason in whispering The worthy masters and honourable company greet you weel, greet you weel, greet you weel.
Then the master gives him the word and gripes his hand after the masons way, which is all that is to be done to make him a perfect mason.
The Dumfries No. 4 Ms.
It will have been observed that, throughout this chapter, references to the Old Charges have constantly been introduced also material of later origin provided in the Catechism and the possible bridge between Operative and Speculative Masonry involving England and Scotland.
An interesting document embodying all these matters has been in the possession of the Dumfries Kilwinning Lodge, No. 53, ever since it was first written early in the eighteenth century. The date usually ascribed is C1710.
The Dumfries No. 4 Ms. as it is known today, consists
65
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
of a Masonic Catechism combined with an unusually corrupt version of the Old Charges and some notes on King Solomon's Temple. It was obviously at one time of practical use as it shows signs of considerable handling.
This Ms. opens with a version of the Old Charges concluding with the Apprentice Charge; then follows a set of questions and answers partly on the lines of the other Catechisms and partly introducing some scriptural matter. A detail met with very early in Irish Freemasonry is the dress of the Master.
" Q. would you know your master if you saw him A. yes Q. what way would ye know him A. by his habit Q. what couller is his habit A. yellow & blew meaning the compass Wc is bras & Iron."
Then follows "The Strangers Salutation" which is succeeded by "Questions concerning the Temple." Some of these are found in other Catechisms in this section. The writer describes quite fully the Pillars of King Solomon's Temple but a question immediately preceding this apparently refers to the earlier ante-diluvian Pillars.
" Q. where [was] the noble art or science found when it was lost A. it was found in two pillers of stone the one would not sink and the other would not burn "
The whole concludes with eight lines of doggerel verse:
"A caput mortuu here you see
To mind you of mortality ... "
The Graham Ms.
One of the most startling discoveries of this century occurred in Yorkshire, in 1936, after the Initiation of the Rev. H. I. Robinson, in whose family the Ms. had been for a considerable time. The date is rather vague and could be read as 1672 or 1726 and the latter is generally accepted as authentic. The examination follows closely
66
THE GRAHAM MSS.
conventional masonic lines, containing parallels to other catechisms, notably The Whole Institution of Free-Masons Opened, printed in 1725, also there are similarities to the Dumfries No. 4 Ms., of about 1710, which combines with a catechism a corrupt version of the Old Charges.
The candidate is tested after his entering and after his raising and the latter differs from anything else known in Freemasonry for the traditional history is devoted to an attempt to extract from the body of Noah the secrets he had carried with him from the antediluvian world. Here is the counterpart of our traditional history:-
we have it by tradition and still some refferance to scripture cause shem ham and Japheth ffor to go to their father noahs grave for to try if they could find anything about him ffor to Lead them to the vertuable secret which this famieous preacher had for I hop all will allow that all things needfull for the new world was in the ark with noah Now these 3 men had allready agreed that if they did not fund the very thing it self that the first thing that they found was to be to them as a secret they not Douting but did most ffirmly be Leive that God was able and would allso prove willing through their faith prayer and obedience for to cause what they did find for to prove as vertuable to them as if they had received the secret at ffirst from God himself at its head spring so came to the Grave finding nothing save the dead body all most consumed away takeing a greip at a ffinger it came away so from Joynt to Joynt so to the wrest so to the Elbow so they R Reared up the dead body and suported it setting ffoot to ffoot knee to knee Breast to breast Cheeck to cheeck and hand to back and cryed out help o 'father as if they had said o father of heaven help us now for our Earthly 'father cannot so Laid down the dead body again and not knowing what to do—so one said here is yet marow in this bone and the second said but a dry bone and the third said it
67
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
stinketh so they agreed for to give it a name as is known to free masonry to this day so went to their undertakings and afterwards works stood: yet it is to be beleived and allso understood that the vertue did not proceed from what they Wound or how it was called but ffrom ffaith and prayer so thus it Contenued the will pass for the deed
The narrative passes on to the building of King Solomon's Temple with an ingenious method of differential payments of interest to present-day Mark Master Masons.
now it is holden Worth by tradition that there was a tumult at this Errection which should hapened betwext the Laborours and masons about wages and ffor to call me all and to make all things easie the wise king should have had said be all of you contented ffor you shall be payed all alike yet give a signe to the Masons not known to the Laborours and who could make that signe at the paying place was to be payed as masons the Laborours not knowing thereof was payed as fforesaid
The description of the secrets indicates some primitive symbolism including the five points of fellowship and the writer was overtaken by caution at the last.
So all Being ffinised then was the secrets off ifree Masonry ordered aright as is now and will be to the E End of the world for such as do rightly understand it—in 3 parts in refferance to the blesed trinity who made all things yet in 13 brenches in refferances to Christ and his 12 apostles which is as follows a word ffor a deveine Six ffor the clargey and 6 ffor the ffellow craft and at the ffull and totall agreement therof to ffollow with five points off ffree Masons fellowshipe which is 'foot to 'foot knee to knee breast to breast cheeck to cheeck and hand to Back which rye points hath refferance to the rye cheife signes which is head 'foot body hand and heart
68
THE GRAHAM MSS.
and allso to the rye points off artitectur and allso to the rye orders of'Masonry yet takes thire strength ffrom five primitive one devine and ffour temporall which is as ffollows ffirst christ the chiefe and Cornnerston secondly Peter called Cephas thirdly moses who cutte the commands ffourthly Bazalliell the best of Masons ffifftly hiram who was riled with wisdom and understanding
The signature of this interesting document is "Tho Graham Chanceing Master of Lodges outher Enquam Ebo." A palaeographer suggested the third word was misread and was possibly part of the name. If this be so (and the point is not generally admitted), " Outher " might refer to the instructor of candidates sometimes found (especially in Scotland) and an ingenious anagrammatic mnemonic can be constructed out of the two last pseudo-Latin words!
Slade's Free Mason Examin'd.
It is convenient at this point to mention a work which appeared over half a century later, The Free Mason Examin'd by Alexander Slade was published in 1754 and ran to half a dozen editions in the course of the next five years. There was at the time quite a craze for alleged revelations of the secrets of Freemasonry. This differed from all other varieties in that the ceremonies are based on the building of the Tower of Babel. The three degrees are called the Minor's Part, the Major's Part and the Officers' Part, and, the Officers are the six sons of Cush, the eldest son of Ham and the Grandson of Noah.
The pamphlet has been largely discounted by students and the following reasons put forth as possible causes of its publication:
First—It was a picture of a branch of Masonic work in 1754. Although Nimrod does not appear in our ritual, he figured in some of the Old Charges &c. Slade explains
69
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
that his grandfather was made a Free-Mason about 1708 when Sir Christopher Wren was Grand Master and it is just possible it represents a working of that time.
Secondly—It was published as a counterblast to the newly formed rival Grand Lodge, the Antients, of which more will be heard in Chapter VI.
Thirdly—that it was an ingenious parody designed to confuse the minds of those who were too eagerly buying the exposures then widely printed and sold.
Fourthly—It was a pure financial speculation.
Our earliest ritual.
What was the form of our earliest ritual? Some pointers have been given above and the indication is clear that before the formation of the first Grand Lodge more than one version was to be found. How the change was made from the Pillars of the Old Charges constructed to carry the knowledge of mankind over an impending destruction to the Pillars in which so much of today's interest centres is a mystery that may never be solved. But it is probable that, before the Craft finally settled on the building of King Solomon's Temple and the loss and subsequent recovery of certain knowledge, other prototypes were tried out perhaps by small groups of Masons in isolated parts of the country. The evidence in favour of the Temple rite as a general basis is overwhelming but the Graham Ms. of undeniable authenticity and the Slade pamphlet of dubious parentage at least hint of rites based on Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel.
Moving towards organisation.
Mention has already been made of a small group of the Old Charges containing new orders. These are set out in full in the Roberts version published actually five years after the formation of the first Grand Lodge and shortly
70
MOVING TOWARDS ORGANISATION
before the publication of the first official Book of Constitutions.
We do not know what truth there is in the heading of the new articles but at least they give a pointer to some attempt at metropolitan organisation:— ADDITIONAL ORDERS AND CONSTITUTIONS MADE AND AGREED UPON AT A GENERAL ASSEMBLY HELD AT . . . . . . . . . , ON THE EIGHTH DAY OF DECEMBER, 1663.
I. THAT no Person, of what Degree soever, be accepted a Free-Mason, unless he shall have a Lodge of five Free-Masons at the least, where-of one to be a Master or Warden of that Limit or Division where such Lodge shall be kept, and another to be a Workman of the Trade of Free-Masonry.
II. That no Person hereafter shall be accepted a Free-Mason, but such as are of able Body, honest Parentage, good Reputation, and Observers of the Laws of the Land.
III. That no Person hereafter, which shall be accepted a Free-Mason, shall be admitted into any Lodge, or Assembly, until he hath brought a Certificate of the Time and Place of his Acception, from the Lodge that accepted him, unto the Master of that Limit and Division, where such Lodge was kept, which said Master shall enroll the fame on Parchment in a Roll to be kept for that Purpose, and give an Account of all such Acceptions, at every General Assembly.
IV. That every Person, who is now a Free-Mason, shall bring to the Master a Note of the Time of his Acception, to the end the same may be enrolled in such Priority of Place, as the Person deserves, and to the end the whole Company and Fellows may the better know each other.
V. That for the future the said Society, Company and Fraternity of Free-Masons, shall be regulated and governed by one Master, and as many Wardens as the said
71
PRE-GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY
Company shall think fit to chuse at every Yearly General Assembly.
VI. That no Person shall be accepted a Free-Mason, unless he be One and Twenty Years Old, or more.
VII. That no person hereafter be accepted a Free-Mason, or know the Secrets of the said Society, until he shall have first taken the Oath of Secrecy here following, viz.: I, A.B. DO HERE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD ALMIGHTY, AND OF MY FELLOWS AND BRETHREN HERE PRESENT, PROMISE AND DECLARE, THAT I WILL NOT AT ANY TIME HEREAFTER BY ANY ACT OR CIRCUMSTANCE WHATSOEVER, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, PUBLISH DISCOVER, REVEAL OR MAKE KNOWN ANY OF THERE SECRETS, PRIVITIES OR COUNCILS OF THE FRATERNITY OR FELLOWSHIP OF FREE MASONS, WHICH AT THIS TIME, OR AT ANY TIME HEREAFTER SHALL BE MADE KNOWN UNTO ME. SO HELP ME GOD, AND THE TRUE AND HOLY CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK.
FINIS
Immediately after this date, London was visited by a double calamity. One-fifth bf the population was killed by the Great Plague of 1665, and, a year later, two-thirds of London's houses and almost one hundred of its churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral, perished in the Great Fire.
It is fortunate that there was available a genius of the nature of Sir Christopher Wren and it will be realised that a major building problem arose. An Act of Parliament was passed encouraging all manner of building trade workers to settle in the City of London promising their freedom on the completion of seven years residence and work there. At the same time, King Charles II exercised his influence with the corporations of other towns for the rehabilitation of those who had lost their homes and businesses in the fire.
This move brought hundreds of Masons flocking into the City. We have no records of their organisation but undoubtedly Operative Masonry at least was given an
72
MOVING TOWARDS ORGANISATION
enormous impetus and, following the tendency of the time, Accepted Masons were no doubt admitted into the Lodges.
By the early part of the eighteenth century, the stage was set for the first assembly of Free and Accepted Masons which we can confidently record and the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England.
CHAPTER V
THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50.
The Formation of Grand Lodge.
1717 is the most important date in the history of Freemasonry. For it was in the third year of the reign of King George I and two years after the defeat of the Old Pretender's hopes of recovering his kingdom, that, conceived the year before, the Grand Lodge of England had its birth. —Now it has been truly observed that " all Freemasonry in existence today can be traced, through one channel or another, to the Grand Lodge of England."*
Since no Minutes were then kept, Dr. James Anderson's second (1738) edition of his Book of Constitutions is practically our sole authority for the proceedings of Grand Lodge during the first six years of its existence, and his account, in which is mentioned a preliminary meeting the preceding year, runs as follows:-
A.D. 1716, the few Lodges at London .... thought fit to cement under a Grand Master as the Center of Union and Harmony, viz. the Lodges that met,
1. At the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house in St. Paul's Church Yard.
Dr. W. J. Chetwode Crawley.
C*
73
THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
2. At the Crown Ale-house in Parker's Lane near Drury-Lane.
3. At the Apple-Tree Tavern in Charles-street, Covent-Garden.
4. At the Rummer and Grapes Tavern in Channel-Row, 'Westéninster.
They and some old Brothers met at the said Apple-Tree, and having put into the Chair the oldest Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge) they constituted themselves a GRAND LODGE pro Tempore in Due Form, and forthwith revived the Quarterly Communication of the Officers of Lodges (call'd the Grand Lodge) resolv'd to hold the Annual ASSEMBLY and Feast, and then to chusea GRAND MASTER from among themselves, till they.–should have the Honour of a Noble Brother at their Head.
Accordingly
On St. John Baptist's Day, (24th June), A.D. 1717, the ASSEMBLY and Feast of the Free and accepted Masons was held at the foresaid Goose and Gridiron Alehouse.
Before Dinner, the oldest Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge) in the Chair, proposed a List of proper Candidates; and the Brethren by a Majority of Hands elected Mr. ANTHONY SAYER, Gentleman, Grand Master of Masons, who being forthwith invested with the Badges of Office and Power by the said Oldest Master, and install'd, was duly congratulated by the Assembly who pay'd him the Homage.
Capt. Joseph Elliot and Mr. Jacob Lamball, Carpenter - Grand Wardens
SAYER Grand Master commanded the Masters and Wardens of Lodges to meet the Grand Officers every
74
THE FORMATION OF GRAND LODGE
Quarter in Communication, at the Place that he should appoint in his Summons sent by the Tyler.
Of the above two Grand Wardens we meet the Junior again as Acting Grand Warden in 1735, but Captain Elliot fades entirely from sight.
The above Assembly represents the so-called "revival of Freemasonry," wrongly so named since in its earliest years the Grand Lodge claimed jurisdiction over Lodges in London and Westminster alone.
The above account is supplemented by a reference to the formation of Grand Lodge in The Complete Free-mason; or, Multa Paucis for Lovers of Secrets, which, published as late as 1763, substantially confirms Anderson's statement, but gives as the number of sponsoring lodges, six. The additional two, which may have been represented by" some old Brothers" as above, are not named.
The Four Old Lodges.
Original No. 1. According to the Engraved List of Lodges of 1729 this Lodge was constituted in 1691, but it probably had a far earlier origin. In 1723 it had 22 members, including Thomas Morris and Josias Villenau, who both at different times served as Grand Wardens. But in those early days its members seem not to have had the same social significance as for example those of Original No. 4. When Lodges began to cease to be known by their meeting-places it became in 1760 the West India and American Lodge and ten years later adopted the title of the Lodge of Antiquity, which it still bears. It is now No. 2 on the Grand Lodge roll, having drawn lots in 1813 with the Grand Master's Lodge for the honour of heading the list—and having lost the hazard.
One of its most famous Masters was William Preston (See p.105) the author of Illustrations of Masonry, who asserted that Sir Christopher Wren had regularly attended
75
THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
the Lodge and had presented it with three mahogany candlesticks and the mallet with which Charles II levelled the foundation-stone of St. Paul's. There is no confirmation of any of these statements. It was largely through Preston that for ten years, from 1777 to 1787, the Lodge was rent in twain; the majority of members seceded from Grand Lodge and actually became one on their own, the Grand Lodge of England South of the River Trent, being so constituted by the York Grand Lodge. Other distinguished members included the Duke of Sussex, son of George III and Grand Master for thirty years (1813-43), the Duke of Albany, youngest son of Queen Victoria, and Thomas Harper, D.G.M. of the Antients.
Original No. 2 had 1712 as the official date of its constitution. It had only a short life under Grand Lodge as it came to an end between 1736 and 1738.
Original No. 3 obtained in 1723 a Grand Lodge warrant which, as one of the "Time Immemorial" lodges, it scarcely required, and in consequence found itself in 1729 ousted from its proud seniority and, despite its protests, relegated by the Committee of Precedence to the eleventh place. In 1768 it became the Lodge of Fortitude and, having amalgamated with the Old Cumberland Lodge in 1818, is now the Fortitude and Old Cumberland Lodge, No. 12. It has the honour of having supplied from its members the first Grand Master.
Original No. 4 was the aristocrat of the Old Lodges. Of its 71 members in 1724 ten were noblemen, three were honourables, four baronets or knights and two general officers, while the three senior Lodges possessed not a single "Esquire." The second and third Grand Masters were both members of this Lodge, as well as Dr. James Anderson. The Duke of Richmond was its Master in 1724 until being elected Grand Master next year.
The Lodge took Original No. 3's place in 1729 and eleven, years later advanced to No. 2, which number it retained
76
THE FOUR OLD LODGES
until the Union of Moderns and Antients in 1813 (seep.117). In 1747 it was erased from the list for non-attendance at Quarterly Communications, but was restored in 1751 on the intercession of the second Grand Master.
The Lodge moved in 1723/4 from the Rummer and Grapes Tavern to the Horn Tavern, Palace Yard, and was called by the name of the latter tavern for many years. Unfortunately there was formed a New Lodge at the Horn, which became the more fashionable, and in 1774, "finding themselves in a declining state," the members agreed to amalgamate with the Somerset House Lodge. It is now known as the Royal Somerset House and Inverness Lodge, and is once again No. 4.
The First Grand Master.
Little enough is known of Anthony Sayer, Gentleman. Two years after his Grand Mastership he was elected Senior Grand Warden in the reign of Dr. Desaguliers. He was a member of No. 3 of the Four Old Lodges, of which he was Warden in 1723 and remained a member until at any rate 1730.
His financial circumstances seem to have been poor and a petition from him is recorded in Grand Lodge Minutes in 1724—with what result is not known. A second petition for relief was made in 1730, when "the Question having been put it was agreed that he should have £15 on Acct. of his having been Grand Master," and a final sum of two guineas was paid to him from the General Charity in 1741.
More pleasant is it to picture Anthony Sayer as walking last in a procession of ten Grand Masters, arranged in order of juniority, at the installation of the Duke of Norfolk in 1730. Unfortunately the same year saw him arraigned before Grand Lodge on a complaint of his having committed irregularities, their nature not being specified. "The Deputy Grand Master told Bro. Sayer that he was acquitted
77
THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
of the Charge against him and recommended it to him to do nothing so irregular for the future."—the equivalent of a verdict of " Not Guilty, but don't do it again."
At the time of his death in January, 1742, he was Tyler of what is now the Old King's Arms Lodge, No. 28.
The Second and Fourth Grand Master.
George Payne was on 24 June, 1718, "duly invested, install'd, congratulated and homaged " as Grand Master of Masons, after which he " desired any Brethren to bring to the Grand Lodge any old Writings and Records concerning Masons and Masonry in order to shew the Usages of antient Times." Anderson further states that during that year several copies of the Gothic (i.e. MS.) Constitutions were produced and collated.
During his second term of office as (the last commoner) Grand Master (1720-1) he produced the Cooke MS. in Grand Lodge and also compiled the General Regulations which were enshrined in Anderson's Constitutions, 1723. What was from our point of view a tragedy of this year was that in some private lodges several valuable MSS. (probably Old Charges) "were too hastily burnt by some scrupulous Brothers, that those Papers might not fall into strange Hands."
He was Master of No. 4 Lodge in 1723, and it was out of respect to him that Grand Lodge restored that Lodge to its place in 1751. He was appointed J.G.W. in 1725 and acted as Grand Master on a special occasion in 1735, continuing as an active member of Grand Lodge until 1754, in which year he was appointed a member of the Committee set up to revise the Constitutions: the new edition was published in 1756. George Payne was of considerably more substance than the first Grand Master, and when he died in 1757 he held the post of Secretary of the Pay Office.
78
THE THIRD GRAND MASTER
The Third Grand Master.
Dr. John Theosophilus Desaguliers, LL.D, F.R.S. succeeded George Payne in 1719. Of French descent and attractive personality if forbidding aspet, he had been educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took orders in 1710. In the same year he became a lecturer on Experimental Philosophy and in one of his books on this subject, published in 1734, he showed himself (as Bernard Jones points out) a prophet, over two hundred years before the event, of the splitting of the atom! While Grand Master, it is recorded that he "reviv'd the old regular and peculiar Toasts or Healths of the Free Masons." It was also during his rule that it was agreed that the Grand Master should have the power of appointing his Grand Wardens, who had hitherto been annually elected, and a Deputy Grand Master. The first D.G.M. was Dr. John Beal, appointed by the Duke of Montague in 1921. Dr. Desaguliers himself was Deputy Grand Master to the Duke of Wharton in 1722, and held the same office again in 1723 and 1725. Like his predecessor he was a staunch supporter of the General Charity when it came to be established in 1724.
The high-light of his Masonic career may be said to have been his famous visit to Edinburgh in 1721, which he undertook for professional reasons, but while there he sought an interview at the Lodge of Edinburgh, the Master Masons of which, "finding him duly qualified in all points of Masonry, received him as a Brother into their Societie." This visit is believed to have had a considerable influence on the introduction of Speculative Masonry into Scotland.
It was Dr. Desaguliers who was responsible for the initiation of the first Royal Freemasons. These were the Duke of Lorraine, who was admitted into the Craft by the Doctor at the Hague, in 1731, and Frederick, Prince of Wales (whose Chaplain he was) at an "Occasional Lodge" at Kew Palace in 1737.
79
THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
On his death in 1744 he was buried in the Chapel Royal in the Savoy. His son, Lieut.-Gen. Thomas Desaguliers, who served for fifty-seven years in the Royal Artillery, was a well-known Freemason, and the remarº able number of Lodges in that Corps during the second half of the 18th Century may well have been due to his influence.
A lineal descendent, Lord Shuttleworth, was J.G.W. in 1952.
Noblemen as Grand Masters.
In 1721 John, Duke of Montague was chosen as Grand Master, which office has since been invariably held by one of noble or Royal blood. In that year, Dr. William Stuk1y, the antiquarian, had been, according to his Diary, "made a Freemason at the Salutation Tavern,
Tavistock Street .... I was the first person made a Freemason in London for many years. We had great difficulty to find members enough to perform the ceremony. Immediately upon that it took a run and ran itself out of breath thro' the folly of the members."
What led him to become a Freemason is explained in his Autobiography:
"His curiosity led him to be initiated into the mysterys of Masonry, suspecting it to be the remains of the mysterys of the antients; when, with difficulty, a number sufficient was to be found in all London. After this it became a public fashion, not only spred over Brittain and Ireland, but all of Europe."
Stukeley was present at the installation of the Duke of Montague.
An important discovery relating to the latter's term of office was made in 1930, when the new Bank of England was being built. This was of a "Foundation Stone" bearing the following names:—
80
NOBLEMEN AS GRAND MASTERS
Mr. Thomas Dunn & Mr. John Townsend - Masons.
Anno Masonry 5722
Ld. Montacute, G. Master
Now Brothers Dunn and Townsend have been identified as having been apprenticed Masons in 1694 and as belonging in 1723 to the Lodge held at the " Ship behind the Royal Exchange," so that this discovery proves conclusively the continuity of descent from Operative to Speculative Masonry.
The next Grand Master (1722) was Philip, Duke of Wharton, who was most probably the original of Lovelace in Richardson's Clarissa and in any case proved an unsatisfactory Freemason.* He appointed Dr. Desaguliers as his Deputy and the Rev. James Anderson as one of his Wardens.
Dr. James Anderson (1684-1739)
This important Masonic pioneer, was the second son of James Anderson, "Glassier and-Measson," whose name is recorded as a member of the Aberdeen Lodge in 1670. Educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he was licensed as a minister of the Church of Scotland about 1702, but moved to London in 1709, receiving the degree of D.D. in 1731 from Aberdeen University.
There is no trace of his having been present at the formation of Grand Lodge or of ever having attended until 1721. It is not known in what Lodge he was initiated or whether it was a Scottish or English one, but we do know that he was a member of the Horn Lodge (Original No. 4, see p.76). He achieved some fame at the time by the publication of his Royal Genealogies, but it is his Masonic activities that have saved his name from oblivion.
*He is thus summed up in Pope's Moral Essays:-
Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days,
Whose ruling passion was the lust of praise.
81
THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
According to his own account, at a meeting of Grand Lodge in 1721, when sixteen Lodges were represented,
"His Grace's Worship and the Lodge finding fault with all the Copies of the old Gothic Constitutions,' order'd Brother James Anderson, A.M., to digest the same in a new and better method."
but it is more likely that the suggestion came from Anderson himself, who is known to have always kept an eye' on the main chance and not only sought and obtained the approval, of Grand Lodge for the preparation of the second edition of his Constitutions (which appeared in 1738), but also throughout retained the property in both editions, and actually secured from Grand Lodge a motion discouraging members from buying Smith's Pocket Companion, which "pyrated " his work in 1735.
At any rate Anderson produced his manuscript, which, after being examined by a committee of "14 learned Brothers, who reported that they had perused Brother Anderson's History, Charges, Regulations and Master's Song and had approved of it with certain amendments, was ordered to be printed. This was done, with the addition of The Antient Manner of Constituting a Lodge. After the publication of his work in 1723 he stayed away from Grand Lodge for seven years.
Anderson's Constitutions, 1723.
This small quarto volume of 91 pages contains a remarkable frontispiece representing a classical arcade with two noble Grand Masters in the foreground, and behind them attendants, one of whom carries aprons and gloves: in the centre is a diagram of Euclid's 47th (Pythagoras's) proposition, with underneath the Greek word "Eureka," which exclamation, however, is commonly ascribed to Archimedes rather than to Pythagoras. There is a Preface from the pen of Dr. Desaguliers, followed by the History, in which Anderson excels himself. Whereas the Old
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ANDERSON'S CONSTITUTIONS, 1723
Charges had traced Masonry, or Geometry, from Lamech, Anderson must needs go back to Adam. Many English monarchs are claimed as having belonged to the Order, 'but it is noteworthy that although " the ingenious architect, Sir Christopher Wren," (see p.52) is mentioned, he is not referred to in this edition as Grand Master.
More important is the introduction of several phrases derived from Scottish Operative Masonry, including "Entered Apprentice" and " Fellow-craft " (the old Operative expressions in England having been " Apprentice " and "Fellow,") although Anderson leaves the word "Cowan" until his second edition in 1738.
Of "The Charges of a Free-Mason," the most striking and one that, as we shall see, was to have far-reaching consequences, is the first, which states that"'tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them (Freemasons) to that Religion to which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves." Now, in spite of Anderson's explanation that in ancient times masons were charged in every country to be of the religion of that country, this article was definitely an innovation, since the Old Charges have almost without exception a positively Christian character.
The 39 General Regulations, which formed the chief feature of the work, had been compiled by George Payne during his second Grand Mastership in 1720. One of them, No. XIII has always been a headache to Masonic historians. It lays down quite simply that "Apprentices must be admitted Masters and Fellow Crafts only here [in the Grand Lodge] except by dispensation." This at once raises the question whether Masters and Fellow Crafts are intended here as separate degrees.
How Many Degrees?
It is quite certain that in the great majority of Lodges at
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THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
this time there were only two degrees, that of Initiate or (Entered) Apprentice and that of Fellow, the latter being quite eligible to become Master of his lodge or even a Grand Officer. The working of these two degrees was in no sense identical with that of our own first two degrees, but most probably covered between them most of those degrees together with part of our third. The two degrees were commonly bestowed on the candidate on the same evening.
On the other hand there is evidence that fairly early in the 18th Century a few Speculative Lodges were admitting Masons, passing them to the degree of Fellow Craft and making Master Masons in three separate steps. This was an innovation since the “Master" of the Old Charges referred to the Mason who organized the building operations or else the Contractor, and not the Master Mason in our present meaning.
Whatever may have been the reason for imposing Regulation No. XIII, its observance (if it ever was observed) must have been extremely inconvenient to London Lodges and have been resented even more by the growing number of provincial lodges under Grand Lodge jurisdiction. That it was impracticable is shown by its repeal two years later.
The wording "Masters and Fellow Crafts" in the Regulation we can only conclude to have been one of Anderson's importations from Scotland, where the two expressions meant much the same thing. That they were intended to convey the same grade is shown by the omission of “Fellow Crafts" from the repealing resolution.
At any rate we may rest assured that by 1730 quite a number of lodges were working the third degree, complete with the Hiramic legend—it is not known exactly when this made its appearance in Freemasonry—and that three degrees were officially recognized in the 1738 Constitutions, although for long afterwards some lodges persisted in confining themselves to the old two degrees. The wording
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HOW MANY DEGREES?
"Sublime Degree" does not make its appearance until after 1750.
Grand Lodge Minutes.
Hitherto for our account of the proceedings of Grand Lodge we have had to rely mainly on the History in Dr. Anderson's second (1738) Book of Constitutions. But in 1723 William Cowper, Clerk to the Parliaments, was appointed its first Secretary, and thenceforth we have contemporary and reliable Minutes to which to refer. It was not, however, until 1741 that the Secretary was to be declared automatically a member of Grand Lodge. William Cowper served as Secretary for only a year, but we meet him again as Chairman of the Committee of Charity in 1725 and as Deputy Grand Master in 1728.
His first Minutes, dated 24th June, 1723, record that on the election of the Earl of Dalkeith to succeed the Duke of Wharton, the latter appealed against the new Grand Master's appointment of Dr. Desaguliers as his Deputy, whereupon the Duke's action was held to be " unprecedented, unwarrantable, and Irregular" and His Grace seems to have left the hall in a huff.
At the meeting of Grand Lodge in February, 1724, it was agreed that a Brother must not belong to more than one lodge at one time "within the Bills of Mortality." The last is a curious phrase, often met with at this period, and is explained by Bernard Jones as having had its origin about five hundred years before, when London began to issue weekly lists of deaths. Curiously enough, the provision of 1724 has never been repealed, the reason being that, to the relief of many ardent London brethren, it was never enforced.
The Gormogons.
During 1724 there first came to public notice a rival and
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THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
definitely anti-Masonic body, regarding whom the following appeared in the Daily Post of the 3rd September:-
"Whereas the truly ANTIENT NOBLE ORDER of the Gormogons, instituted by Chin-Quaw Ky-Po, the first Emperor of China. . . . many thousand years before Adam and of which the great philosopher Confucius was CEcumenical Volgee, has lately been brought into England by a Mandarin and he, having admitted several Gentlemen of Honour into the Mystery of that most illustrious order, they have determined to hold a Chapter at the Castle Tavern in Fleet Street, at the particular request of several persons of Quality. This is to inform the public, that there will be no drawn Sword at the Door, nor Ladder in a dark Room, nor will any Mason be receiv'd as a Member till he has renounced his Novel Order and been properly degraded .... The Mandarin will shortly set out for Rome, having a particular Commission to make a Present of this Antient Order to His Holiness and it is believed the whole Sacred College of Cardinals will commence Gormogons."
The last sentence rather points to the Roman Catholics (and perhaps the Jacobites) as having been behind the movement. A later news-sheet asserted that "many eminent Freemasons have degraded themselves" and seceded to the Gormogons, while, according to the British Journal of the 12th December:-
"A Peer of the first Rank, a noted Member of the Society of Free Masons, hath suffered himself to be degraded as a member of that Society and his Leather Apron and Gloves to be burnt and thereupon enter'd himself as a Member of the Society of Gormogons, at the Castle Tavern."
This last cutting establishes the connexion with the movement of the first and last Duke of Wharton, 6th Grand
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THE GORMOGONS
Master, whose flighty and unstable character well fits in with such a derogatory gesture.
When exactly the Gormogons died out is not known, but two considerations seem to render untenable Gould's theory that "the Order is said to have become extinct in 1738." In the first place the existence of a Lancashire Gormogon in the person of John Collier, better known as Tim Bobbin (1708-86) was revealed by the chance stumbling upon a poem of his, The Goose, by one of the present authors. The first appearance of the poem known to the authors is in Tim Bobbin's Collected Poems of 1757 and in any case very little of his verse is ascribed to a period before the last forty years of his life. The Goose has a dedication:- "As I have the honor to be a member of the ancient and venerable order of the Gormogons, I am obliged by the laws of the great Chin-Quaw-Ki-Po, emperor of China, to read, yearly, some part of the ancient records of that country .... "
The poem describes, in part, the spinning of a coin to settle a dispute about the payment for a goose:-
"No sooner said than done—both parties willing
The Justice twirls aloft a splendid shilling;
"While she, (ah nature, nature,) calls for tail,
And pity 'tis, poor soul, that she should fail!
But chance decrees—up turns great Chin-Quaw-Ki-Po,
Whose very name my belly sore doth gripe-oh!"
Secondly, Gould's theory is further stultified by the existence of some very rare but undoubtedly Gormogon medals which bear every evidence of having been minted as late as 1799.
The Musical Society.
A curious minute of Grand Lodge in 1725, ordering William Gulston and six other brethren to attend the next Quarterly Communication (but with no further elucidation
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THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
from that source) is explained by the minutes of the Philo Musicae et Architecturae Societas, which had been instituted the same year by those seven brethren from the Lodge at the Queen's Head in Holles Street. It was a condition of membership that the applicant must be a Mason; failing this the Society would make him one; it went so far as to pass Fellow Crafts and even make Master Masons, despite Regulation XIII, then in force.
George Payne as Junior Grand Warden visited the Society to see for himself and there followed a letter from the Duke of Richmond, the Grand Master, calling attention to the irregular makings. The Society paid no attention, but went on with its practices without any action's being taken by Grand Lodge; indeed a week later Francis Sorrell, Senior Grand Warden, is shown to have been a guest of the Society. The Musical Society died out early in 1727.
The Grand Lodge of York.
Although the once firmly believed account of Edwin's Assembly of Masons at York (see p.35) is purely apocryphal, there was undoubtedly an Old (Operative) Lodge at York of considerable antiquity. Its extant records start from 1712, when it was in process of becoming Speculative. In these the Master of the Lodge is usually referred to as "President" and initiates are invariably "admitted and sworne" or "sworne and admitted "—a gild term.
On the Festival of St. John, 1725, called now the "Grand Feast," the Lodge met in slightly strange circumstances, since the President of previous years had now become " the Grand Master," while a Deputy Grand Master and Grand Wardens were also elected.
The reason for this translation (in the sense of Bottom in The Midsummer Night's Dream) is clearly a Grand Lodge's having been set up in London eight years previously, and the explanation of the sudden burst of pride is furnished
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THE GRAND LODGE OF YORK
in the famous Oration next year of Francis Drake, Junior Grand Warden, wherein he asserts that:-
"Edwin, the first Christian King of the Northumbers, about the six hundredth year after Christ, and who laid the Foundation of our Cathedral, sat as Grand Master. This is sufficient to make us dispute the superiority with the Lodges at London. But as nought of that kind ought to be amongst so amicable a fraternity, we are content they enjoy the Title of Grand Master of England; but the Totius Angliae (of All England) we claim as an undoubted right."
Incidentally, in this speech Dr. Drake addresses the "Working Masons; persons of other Trades and Occupadons; and Gentlemen," showing that the Lodge still contained Operative members, and also alludes to "E.P. (Entered 'Prentice), F.C. and M.M.," thus making it clear that three degrees were already worked in this Lodge.
The new Grand Lodge drew up 19 "Articles agreed to be kept and observ'd by the Antient Society of Free Masons in the City of York," which read more like the rules for a single Lodge than the Regulations of a Grand Lodge. Although its independence is grudgingly acknowledged in Anderson's Constitutions of 1738, York Grand Lodge did not attempt to warrant lodges or indulge in other similar Grand Lodge activities until after its revival in 1761 (see p.102).
The Duke of Norfolk.
When this nobleman was proclaimed and installed in January, 1730 nine former Grand Masters, as already recorded, " walk'd one by one according to Juniorityviz.: Lord Coleraine, Earl of Inchiquin, Lord Paisley, Duke of Richmond, Earl of Dalkeith, Duke of Montagu, Dr. Desaguliers, George Payne, Esq., and Mr. Anthony Sayer." The only one absent was the Duke of Wharton, who died the following year.
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THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk, was a Roman, Catholic. It was he who presented to Grand Lodge its Sword of State (still in use), which had belonged to King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and carries that great warrior's name on its blade.
The General Charity.
Up to the establishment of Grand Lodge the disbursement of relief had been the affair of individual lodges. It was not until 1724 that a centralized charity scheme was seriously mooted and a Committee of Charity (today's Board of Benevolence) appointed. Five years later the first contributions from lodges were received, each newly constituted lodge being assessed at two guineas.
In 1730, and even more in 1733, the functions of that Committee were considerably extended, and duties which today would fall to the Board of General Purposes were entrusted to it.
We have already spoken of the case of Anthony Sayer. Other early applicants for relief were Joshua Timson, who had been Grand Warden in 1722, and Edward Hall, whose petition in 1732 was personally recommended by the Duke of Richmond, he at the Lodge at the Swan in Chichester having been " made a Mason by the late Duke of Richmond Six and thirty Years agoe." Brother Hall got six guineas.
It was suggested in Grand Lodge in 1735 that the General Charity might be the cause of Masons' being made irregularly, for the purpose of participating in the benefits therefrom.
Extension of Grand Lodge Jurisdiction.
It has already been observed that the Grand Lodge that was founded by the Four Old Lodges (or possibly six) in 1717 did not claim any jurisdiction over lodges outside London and Westminster, that is a total of three square
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EXTENSION OF GRAND LODGE JURISDICTION
miles. The first three years were quiet ones, but after that came a spate of activity.
In 1723 we find Grand Lodge legislating for lodges " in or near London," "within the Bills of Mortality" and "within ten miles of London," and in the same year the furthest "regular constituted lodges" are recorded as having been situated in Edgeworth (Edgware?), Acton and Richmond. In the Engraved List of Lodges of 1725 are to be found 64 lodges in all and the sphere of jurisdiction extended to such places as Bath—this spa may well have had the honour of having inits Queen's Head Lodge the first at any distance from London to come under Grand Lodge—Bristol, Carmarthen, Chester, Chichester, Gosport, Norwich, Reading, Salford and Warwick. In 1727 it became necessary to appoint the first Provincial Grand Masters, and in the next two years came the constitution of the first overseas Lodges, at Fort William in Bengal, Gibraltar and Madrid. The last had been originally constituted, personally but irregularly, by the erratic Duke of Wharton in 1728. By 1732 there were 102 lodges in all on the Engraved List.
Next the vexed question of precedence began to trouble the lodges, but this was in 1729 settled for the time being, but naturally not without a certain want of harmony, by Grand Lodge's arranging the order according to the dates of their constitution as lodges, or what they themselves considered to be those dates.
Prichard's Exposure.
Masonry Dissected, by Samuel Prichard, "late Member of a constituted Lodge," first published in 1730, was so successful that it ran through three editions in eleven days and was reprinted in numerous editions in many countries for the remainder of the century; it had two effects. In the first place, unlike its contemporary fellow-expose, The Mystery of Free-Masonry, this 32-page catechism
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THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
definitely establishes the working of three degrees, and the great stimulus given to the use of the third degree in lodges at this time may well have been the result of its enormous sales. Secondly, although the ritual it displays was not wholly accurate, yet its disclosures were enough to cause alarm and despondency in Grand Lodge, one result being a tightening up of the regulations regarding a lodge's admission of a visitor, who must thenceforth be personally vouched for by a member.
A further and more important consequence was that in the words of John Noorthouck's Book of Constitutions of 1784 " some variations were made in the established forms" at this time, the better to detect impgstors. What exactly these "variations" were is not now cIear*, but it is certain that they gave a decided impetus to the dispute between Antients and Moderns, leading to the setting up of a rival Grand Lodge, as dealt with in the next Chapter.
It remains to add that an anonymous and allegedly impartial counterblast to Masonry Dissected was duly forthcoming under the title of A Defence of Masonry. Its authorship is commonly attributed to Martin Clare, who was to be Deputy Grand Master in 1741.
The Grand Stewards.
In 1728, on the proposition of Dr. Desaguliers, twelve Stewards were nominated to look after the Great Feast, and this number remained until the Union of 1813, when it was increased to 18. In 1735 it was decided that for the future all Grand Officers should be chosen out of the body of the Stewards, who the same year were granted their petition to form a Stewards' Lodge, acting as a Master Masons' Lodge.
In the following year Grand Lodge was declared to consist of the four present and all former Grand Officers, the Master and Wardens of all regular Lodges, and in the
*But see p.95.
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THE GRAND STEWARDS
case of the Stewards' Lodge, of nine other representatives as well, the nomination of whom was left to that Lodge.
The Second Book Of Constitutions, 1738.
A good deal has already been said about the new and revised edition, which was again the work of Dr. Anderson and appeared the year before his death. One of the chief additions to his previous volume is an imposing list of pre-Grand Lodge Grand Masters, including Grand Masters Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, Alfred the Great, Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Christopher Wren. (For the last, see page 52). It is easy to laugh at such absurdities of spurious i erudition, but it must be remembered that Anderson's Constitutions exercised an enormous influence all over the world and that his reputation as the Historian of the Craft survived his death by nearly a hundred years. Nowadays the Doctor's statements, except those within his own Masonic experience or fully collaborated, are usually disregarded.
Masonic Processions.
Up to 1747 it had been the custom for Brethren, dressed in full Masonic clothing, to move in procession through the streets to the Great Feast. But owing to the number of mock processions, often of an elaborate and expensive character, which had been taking place with the object of deriding the Order, the practice was discontinued for the future.
Further, a Regulation of 1754 forbade a Brother's joining any public procession clothed as a Mason, except by dispensation.
A Period of Neglect, 1747-1750.
Lord Byron, a great-uncle of the Poet, was elected Grand Master in 1747 at the age of 25—there had already been one (Lord Raymond in 1739) 22 years of age—and during his
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THE GRAND LODGE PERIOD, 1717-50
five years' reign he attended Grand Lodge but thrice, while the same Grand Officers and Stewards remained in office throughout. Everything points to this having been a period of slackness and neglectful conduct of the Society's affairs. There were increasing complaints of "irregular makings," and one London tavern is recorded as having displayed a Notice:— "Masons made here for 2/6." Horace Walpole, himself a Mason, had remarked in 1743:-
"The Freemasons are in. . . . low repute now in England. . . . I believe nothing but a persecution could bring them into vogue again."
If there was to be no persecution, there was to ensue a fierce dissension in their ranks, as the next Chapter will reveal.
CHAPTER VI
GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY, 1251-1813.
The Great Dissension — Antients and Moderns.
Throughout the latter half of the 18th Century Freemasonry in England (and likewise in much of the English speaking world) was rent into two bitterly opposed camps, that of the " Antients," who in 1751 formed a rival Grand Lodge " Under the Old Institutions," and that of the " Moderns " (so dubbed), who loyally adhered to the original Grand Lodge.
lentil comparatively recently it was customary to describe the Antients as " seceders " and " schismatics," but both terms are quite unjustified seeing that not one of the first dissidents belonged to any lodge under the jurisdiction of the premier Grand Lodge, and also that their ritual and customs differed scarcely at all from those of their Irish and Scottish brethren, whose Grand Lodges, as we shall
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THE GREAT DISSENSION
see, were later to recognize the new as the Grand Lodge of England.
Later secessions of Masons and Lodges from the Moderns to the Antients did occur, just as there are recorded instances of secession from the Antients to the Moderns.
The Causes of the Break.
These can be found partly in the slackness and weak administration of the original governing body at this time, as alluded to in the preceding chapter, and partly in certain changes in custom and ritual which had been made, some deliberately (see p.92). These changes can be stated with some certainty to have included the following:-
(1) The de-Christianization of Freemasonry, which had started at least as early as 1723.
(2) Neglect of the Days of St. John as special Masonic festivals.* Between 1730 and 1753 not one ("Modern") Grand Master was installed on either on those Saints' days. Now among 18th Century Freemasons this was regarded as a serious matter.
(3) A transposition of the modes of recognition in the E.A. and the F.C. degrees. Probably one of the "variations in the established forms" deliberately made about 1730, as earlier recorded, it certainly destroyed any claim of Freemasonry to be "universal" and it is likely that this destruction of a land-mark incensed the Antients most of all.
(4) Abandonment of the esoteric part, slight though it then was, in the ceremony of installing a lodge Master.
(5) Neglect of the catechisms attached to each degree, Other variations in working, as practised by Antients and strict Moderns included:-
(a) Differences in the Passwords for the F.C. and the
*The traditional birthday of St. John the Baptist is celebrated on June 24, while St. John the Evangelist's Day is December 27.
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GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY, 1751-1813
M.M. degrees; (b) Different words for one of the substituted secrets of a Master Mason, resulting in the alternative forms in use today; (c) The method of placing the Three Great Lights and the Wardens; (d) The employment of Deacons in lodges. These officers are known to have functioned in Ireland as early as 1727, but in strict Modern lodges their duties were performed by Stewards until the Articles of Union in 1813; (e) The refusal of the premier Grand Lodge officially to recognize the Royal Arch degree.
The Traditioners.
We have used the expression " strict Moderns" because, it must not be imagined that by any means all of the lodges ' under the jurisdiction of the "Modern" Grand Lodge allowed themselves to be influenced by its edicts to the extent of changing their customs. For those—and additional instances are coming to light very frequently—who remained faithful at once to their own Constitution and their old ritual, Brother Heron Lepper, late Librarian of Grand Lodge, coined (in this sense) the excellent tern " Traditioners."
For the most part the " strict Modern" lodges are found to have been those in or near London, while the Traditioner lodges flourished further afield.
The Antients' Grand Lodge.
When exactly the Grand Committee, which preceded the Grand Lodge of the Antients, was formed, is not known; some have put it even as early as 1739. What we do discover from the first records is the meeting of a Committee of " a General Assembly" in July,. 1751, when the " Rules and Orders to be Observ'd by the Most ANTIENT and HONble Society of FREE and ACCEPTED MASONS" were agreed by five members, including a "Grand Secretary."
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THE ANTIENTS' GRAND LODGE
Next year we find the Grand Committee a fait accompli, and its first Minutes record the presence of representatives of nine duly numbered lodges, " all the Antient Masons in and adjacent to London." There was undoubtedly a large Irish element in these lodges, whose members were mainly mechanics or shop-keepers.
It was not until December, 1753, that a Grand Master was chosen in the person of Robert Turner, " Master of No. 15 " (whose warrant is now held by ttie Newcastle-onTyne Lodge No. 24), who then appointed a Deputy. With the election of Grand Wardens the transformation into a Grand Lodge was complete.
Laurence Dermott.
The Minutes of 1752 already quoted record the appointment as the second Grand Secretary of one who has been characterized as " the most remarkable Mason that ever existed." This was Laurence Dermott, who was born in Ireland in 1720. Initiated there at the age of 20, he was made Master of a Dublin Lodge in 1746 and in the same ear was Exalted in the Royal Arch, the allusion to this in he records of the Antients being one of the earliest known references to the degree.
Coming to England about 1748 as a journeyman painter, at which trade he often worked a twelve-hour day, he at first joined a lodge under the premier Grand Lodge but later transferred his allegiance to Nos. 9 and 10 of the Antients (now the Kent Lodge, No. 15 and the Royal Athelstan Lodge, No. 19 respectively). He afterwards became a wine merchant and prospered. Of no mean education, he had at least a smattering of Latin and Hebrew, his polemic style was a match for that of any of his "Modern" antagonists, and such was the force of his character that he was the life and soul of the Antient movement almost until his death in 1791.
Laurence Dermott fulfilled the duties of Grand Secretary
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GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY, 1751-1813
with triumphant success until 1770, when he resigned after disputes with his deputy and successor, William Dickey; from the following year until 1787 he was often chosen as Deputy Grand Master. One of his first acts as Grand Secretary was to produce a model set of by-laws for private lodges, and in 1756 he compiled, like Anderson before him, a book of Constitutions. To this he gave the curious title of.—
Ahiman Rezon:
or, A Help to a Brother. (The Hebrew words can barely stretch to this interpretation). This edition, which, it is worthy of note, contains not a single word derogatory to the "Moderns," was in fact copied very largely from Anderson and from Spratt's Constitutions for the Use of Lodges in Ireland, 1751. Three more editions, with a greater use of original matter and increasingly strong strictures on the premier Grand Lodge, were to be published in the lifetime of the compiler and proprietor, and a further four before the Union of 1813.
Of the 224 pages of the 1764 edition no fewer than 118 were devoted to poetry and songs. In the 1778 edition there is a note to the third Charge (forbidding the initiation of women or eunuchs) which runs:— "This is still the law of Antient Masons, though disregarded by our Brethren (I mean our Sisters) the Modern Masons." (see p.113).
That the title of the book was often misunderstood by Masons is shown by the reference to it in a Lodge Inventory (1838) as " A. H. Iman's Reasons"!
Progress of the Antients.
The first country lodge, at Bristol, was constituted in 1753. By next year there were 36 lodges on the register, which 17 years later accounted for 74 lodges in London, 83 country lodges and 43 in overseas countries. In that same year, 1771, the "Modern" Grand Lodge had under
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PROGRESS OF THE ANTIENTS
it 157 London, 164 country and 100 overseas lodges.
In 1754 a Committee of Charity, known as the Stewards' Lodge, was set up with powers very much the same as those of the similar Committee of the Moderns, (see p.90). A curious Minute of Grand Lodge the same year runs as follows:- Bro. Cowen, Master of Lodge No. 37, proposed paying one guinea into the Grand Fund for No. 6, now vacant. This proposal was accepted and the Brethren of No. 37 are to rank as No. 6 [since 1819 the Enoch Lodge, No. 11] for ye future.
The efforts of Laurence Dermott and others to find a Noble Grand Master were successful in 1756, when the Earl of Blesington, who as Viscount Mountjoy had already ruled the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1738 and 1739, was installed as Grand Master of the Antients in proxy, as indeed the four years of his term of office were to be continued. His absence can, however, be accounted for by the fact that the Seven Years War (1756-63) made it necessary for him to be in Ireland. It was no doubt to promote the Earl's acceptance of the Grand Mastership that Dermott had discreetly dedicated his Ahiman Rezon to him.
In 1738 a "strict union" was established with the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and Scotland followed suit in 1773, the third Duke of Atholl, then head of the Grand Lodge of the Antients, being at the same time Grand Master-elect of Scotland.
Four years later it was decided that no one should be made a Mason for less than two guineas, of which five shillings was to be paid to the Fund of Charity, and one shilling to the Grand Secretary. Curiously enough we read that later the same year "David Fisher, late Grand Warden Elect" had " attempted to form a Grand Lodge of his own and offered to Register Masons therein for 6d. each."—which is a little reminiscent of the tavern notice mentioned in last Chapter. Brother Fisher was under-
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GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY, 1751-1813
standably "deem'd unworthy of any office or seat in the Grand Lodge." In 1767 Thomas Mathew, who according to Dermott had a fortune of £16,000 a year (worth more than four times that amount today), was privately installed as Grand Master. He was a Roman Catholic, but despite the Papal Bulls of 1738 and 1751 was
"so fond of the Craft that wherever he resided, whether in Great Britain, Ireland, or France, he also held a Regular Lodge among his own Domesticks."
The Atholl Masons.
When the third Duke of Atholl was installed Grand Master in 1771, he chose Laurence Dermott as his Deputy, and William Dickey was elected to succeed the latter as Grand Secretary. The two seem to have worked in complete harmony from this time.
Next year it was agreed that the Masters and Wardens of all lodges within five miles of London must attend every meeting of Grand Lodge, or in default pay a fine of five shillings and threepence "to be levy'd on the Warrant." After expressing satisfaction that the " Antient Craft is regaining its ground from the Moderns" the third Duke died in 1774. He was succeeded both as Duke and Grand Master by his nephew, who was initiated, passed, raised, installed Master of the Grand Master's Lodge and elected Grand Master of the Antients, all in four days. His installation in the last office came after a further 24 days, and the above must constitute something of a record in rapid advancement in the Craft. There was no counterpart in the premier constitution to the Grand Master's Lodge, which (under the Antients) was then No. 1, and is so listed today.
Thus breathlessly installed, the fourth Duke was to reign, with one ten-year interval, until 1813. It is little wonder that the Antients came to be known as "Atholl Masons"
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THE ATHOLL MASONS
and their lodges as "Atholl Lodges." John Murray, fourth Duke of Atholl, came of a family which had been connected with Masonry since 1641; the initiation of his direct ancestor, Sir Robert Moray in that year is related on page 45.
In 1783 Robert Leslie was appointed Grand Secretary and despite a serious conflict with Dermott retained that position, with one brief interval, until the Union with the Moderns in 1813. The Grand Secretary at this time does not appear to have been overpaid. His salary was five guineas a year, increased in 1790 to fifteen, paid "quarterly or half-yearly, as he pleased to take it." There was a glimmer of the dawning of reconciliation with the Moderns in 1797, when it was moved to appoint a committee to effect with one from the rival Grand Lodgei a Union between the two controlling bodies. But the time was not yet.
Remakings.
At the height of the feud both Grand Lodges fulminated - against a member of the rival body's being admitted to one of their own lodges, even as a visitor, and it was consequently the custom for both Modern and Antient lodges to " remake " a brother of the other persuasion who sought admission. Sometimes this was carried to ridiculous lengths, as in the case of Milbourne West, who as an Irish and Antient Freemason had been elected Provincial Grand Master of Quebec under the Modern Grand Lodge. When, however, he applied for membership of what is now the Royal Cumberland Lodge, No. 41, of Bath, that experience was of no avail, and he had to be "remade," but without fee.
In the sixties the situation seems to have softened somewhat, at any rate in London, and we find William Dickey, when Grand Secretary of the Antients, being made a Modern Mason without in any way diminishing his allegiance to the
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Antients' Grand Lodge, of which he subsequently became Deputy Grand Master from 1777-81 and from 1794 till his death in 1800.
The York Grand Lodge.
Before relating the further history of the Moderns it will be necessary to say something of two other Grand Lodges. These were the Grand Lodge of all England, situated at York, to which allusion has already been made on p.88 and the Grand Lodge of England South of the River Trent, deriving from it.
The original Grand Lodge of York was dormant from 1740-60. The occasion of its revival in 1761 by " Six of the Surviving Members of the Fraternity " was the warranting of a Lodge which met at the Punch Bowl, York, by the Grand Lodge of the Moderns, which had already chartered lodges at Scarborough, Halifax and Leeds and appointed a Prov. G.M. for Yorkshire.
The Lodge at the Punch Bowl did not last long and the York Grand Secretary wrote to the Moderns' Grand Lodge in 1767 that it "had been for some years discontinued, and that the most Antient Grand Lodge of All England held for time immemorial in this City is the only Lodge held therein." He went on to say:-
That this Lodge acknowledges no Superior, that it pays Homage to none, that it exists in its own Right, that it grants Constitutions, and Certificates in the same Manner, as is done by the Grand Lodge in London, and as it has from Time immemorial had a Right and use to do. .. .
The collapse of the Lodge at the Punch Bowl did not deter the Moderns' Grand Lodge from constituting other lodges in York at this time, one of which is the famous York Lodge, No. 236.
Noorthouck's Constitutions of 1784 stated that "the antient York Masons were confined to one lodge, which is
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THE YORK GRAND LODGE
still extant, but consists of very few members, and will probably be soon altogether annihilated." This last wish or prophecy was to be fulfilled although not immediately. The Grand Lodge was never dissolved, but lingered on until about 1792, when it gradually faded out.
During its heyday the jurisdiction of the "Grand Lodge of All England" never extended beyond Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire, but it is to be observed that the "York Rite " and "York Masonry" have always been regarded and notably in the United States as denoting the oldest and purest form of Freemasonry. During the sixty-seven years of its existence the Grand Lodge constituted, so far as is known, not more than fourteen lodges and one Grand Lodge, namely:— The Grand Lodge of England South of the River Trent, (1779-89).
Under this high-sounding title masquerades our old friend the Lodge of Antiquity, first of the Four Old Lodges. How did it come about that this mainstay of the original Grand Lodge should desert its allegiance and set itself up as a rival organization? The cause was the antipathy existing between the famous William Preston, then Master of the Lodge, and John Noorthouck, its Treasurer. Preston had been appointed Assistant Grand Secretary and employed by the G.S., James Heseltine, in preparing a new edition of the Book of Constitutions. When this was nearly completed, the job was taken away from him and given to Noorthouck, whereupon Preston threw up his Assistant Grand Secretaryship in disgust.
Next came a complaint from Noorthouck to Grand Lodge that on St. John the Evangelist's Day, 1777, Preston had instigated a procession in Masonic dress from St. Dunstan's Church (actually a distance of a few yards) in contravention of the Grand Lodge Regulation already mentioned (p.93). When Preston was arraigned for this offence he pleaded
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that by virtue of its immemorial constitution the Lodge of Antiquity had certain privileges that more modern lodges did not possess. Although he was induced to withdraw this plea and just when reconciliation seemed in sight, fresh fuel was added to the fames by the action of the Lodge in expelling Noorthouck and two of his faction.
Grand Lodge demanded their reinstatement without effect, and meanwhile the Lodge Secretary had been in touch with the York Grand Lodge and obtained its consent to constituting the majority members of the Lodge of Antiquity as the Grand Lodge of England South of the River Trent. This was followed by a severance of relations with the original Grand Lodge and the publication of a Manifesto acknowledging the authority of the Grand Lodge of York as the senior body.
The expelled minority, backed by Grand Lodge, continued to style themselves the Lodge of Antiquity, but Preston and his associates had secured the Lodge furniture which they moved by night to fresh rooms. Of the new Grand Lodge John Wilson was the first Grand Master and John Sealy the Grand Secretary, while Preston himself was appointed D.G.M. and Grand Orator. The leading seceders were formally expelled from the original Grand ' Lodge. There were thus two Lodges of Antiquity operating at the same time and under different Constitutions, one of them having a dual capacity, that of a private lodge and that of a Grand Lodge.
Two new lodges were constituted by it during the ten years of its existence, but little else was accomplished to bring glory either to itself or to the Yorkist 'cause which had sponsored it. In 1789 Preston and those expelled with him submitted to Grand Lodge and were restored to their privileges, while the warring members of the Lodge of Antiquity were reunited in that harmony which the Lodge has preserved ever since. The Grand Lodge of England South of the River Trent thus came painlessly to its end,
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but it should be noted that during its brief lifetime it formed one of four Grand Lodges in simultaneous existence in England.
William Preston, (1742-1818).
The author of Illustrations of Masonry, which was first published in 1772 and ran to eleven further editions in his lifetime, came in 1760 from Edinburgh to London, where he became a journeyman printer. At the age of twenty he was the second initiate of an Antients lodge of Edinburgh brethren in London, whom he persuaded to be reconstituted by the Moderns' Grand Lodge in 1772. That Lodge is today the Caledonian Lodge, No. 134.
Two years later he joined the Lodge of Antiquity and within three months was elected its Master. The story of this " time immemorial" Lodge fascinated him and he devoted much of his time to increasing its membership and winning recognition for its prestige.
Always adept in composing and delivering Masonic lectures, William Preston, " little Solomon" as his opponents dubbed him, may be regarded as the father of the modern Preceptor. When he died in 1818 he left £500 to the Fund of Benevolence and another £300 in Consols as the endowment which has allowed the celebrated Prestonian Lectures to be given to this day—annually except for breaks from 1862 to 1925 and during the second World War.
William Preston lies buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Moderns' Grand Lodge after 1750.
After several ineffective Grand Masters, the 9th Baron Blayney was installed in that high office in 1764. This Irish nobleman was a soldier and may have been initiated in a military lodge; at any rate he was undoubtedly a Traditioner in his outlook on ritual and he took his duties as Grand Master very seriously. During his three years of office he constituted 74 lodges, 62 of them in England and
D*
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Wales, 19 of which are still in existence, while in the same period only 24 lodges were warranted by the Grand Lodge of the Antients.
Sale of Lodge Constitutions.
There was at this time more than one case of the illegal sale of lodge constitutions, and a notable instance occurred in 1767, when the members of the George Lodge, then No. 3, which met at the Sun and Punch Bowl, High Holborn, agreed to sell their warrant and regalia for thirty guineas to "some Honourable Gentlemen Newly Made." These newly made gentlemen included Thomas Dunckerley, of whom we shall be hearing more, and Thomas French, who was next year to be appointed Grand Secretary. The new Lodge was the present famous Lodge of Friendship, No. 6* At its first meeting the Duke of Beaufort was initiated and elected to the chair; a few months later he was elected Grand Master.
Meanwhile, the Committee of Charity, to whom the irregular sale of the constitution had been reported, decided that "as a mark of high respect to his Grace the Duke of Beaufort and the other Noblemen and Honourable Gentlemen who meet under the name of the Lodge of Friendship and in consideration of their being very young Masons," the constitution of No. 3 should remain with them, this decision not to be looked upon as a precedent.
Thomas Dunckerley (1724-95).
This outstanding Freemason was a natural son of King George II, although his royal descent was not acknowledged by George III until 1767. He joined the Navy, from which he retired about 1764 with the rank of gunner. Having been initiated in Plymouth in 1754, he formed Masonic lodges in several of the ships in which he served, and one of
*In 1856 it was found that out of 20 Grand Wardens recently elected, no fewer than 13 had come from the ranks of the Lodge of Friendship.
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THOMAS DUNCKERLEY
these, that meeting in H.M.S. Prince, became the shore lodge now known as the Royal Somerset and Inverness Lodge, No. 4.
Like Lord Blayney he was a Traditioner. In 1767 that Grand Master appointed him the first Provincial Grand Master of Hampshire, and at a time when, as his biographer, Henry Sadler, points out, that office was virtually dormant in England, as were also most of those who held it, he carried out his duties with the utmost enthusiasm and energy. Eventually he held no fewer than eight out of the thirty-four Prov. G. Masterships, and was honoured in 1786 by being appointed Past Grand Warden.
His connexion with the Royal Arch and Mark degrees will be related in its proper places.
Proposed Charter of Incorporation, 1769.
The Duke of Beaufort was anxious to obtain a Royal Charter of Incorporation for the Society, and in 1769 the project was approved by Grand Lodge after the lodges had voted in its favour by 168 to 43. But determined opposition now arose, the Caledonian Lodge even entering with the Attorney General a caveat against the move (for which they narrowly escaped erasure). The Antients' Grand Lodge were also alarmed, holding that the scheme was directed against themselves.
In any case, the Moderns' Deputy Grand Master, the Hon. Charles Dillon, when due to move the appropriate bill in the House of Commons, moved instead that its consideration should be deferred sine die. The scheme had failed, but in the picturesque wording of Heron Lepper, " in vanishing from human ken, like the fiend of folklore, it left behind a nauseous stench to remind men that something unholy had passed that way." The Antients, of course, jeered jubilantly.
But, apart from the prestige conferred, a Royal Charter of Incorporation has distinct advantages, such as the right
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to sue in the courts, and it may be pertinent to inquire if in the altered circumstances of today the time has not come for the Society to seek to be so incorporated.
Freemasons' Hall, 1776.
Another venture of the Duke of Beaufort's was far more successful. In 1769 he proposed the raising of a fund for defraying the expenses of building a new hall, and four years later a Hall Committee (of which William Preston was originally a member) was set up to superintend the scheme. Hitherto Grand Lodge had held its ordinary meetings ' usually at various taverns.
The Committee bought "two large commodious dwelling houses and a large garden situated in Great Queen Street" for £3,180 and with the customary optimism of building estimates it was reckoned that the complete structure could be erected for a further £3,180. Actually the building cost no less a sum than £20,000. This naturally required paying for, and there was much groaning among the brethren of the time at the increased charges payable to Grand Lodge.
The first Freemasons' Hall took little more than a year to build and in 1776 it was ceremoniously opened and dedicated to Masonry, Virtue, Universal Charity and Benevolence.
Three new Grand Officers were appointed in connexion with the new Hall. These were Grand Chaplain (Dr. William Dodd, Dr. Johnson's friend, who, however was expelled from the Society in 1777 on being convicted of having forged a bond from his patron, the Earl of Chesterfield, for which offence he was executed), Grand Architect (Thomas Sandby) and Grand Portrait Painter (Rev. William Peters). The last two appointments were intended to be purely personal and not to be perpetual offices.
Lord Petre.
Freemasons' Hall was completed during the Grand
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LORD PETRE
Mastership of Lord Petre, who had succeeded the Duke of Beaufort in 1772 and ruled for five years. Robert Edward, 9th Lord Petre, was looked upon as the head of the Roman Catholic community in England. Although he was not the first Catholic to hold the English office of Grand Master (see p.90), he was the only one to do so in the original Grand Lodge after the Papal denunciations of 1738 and 1751, since we can except the Marquess of Ripon, who in 1874 resigned the supreme office in Freemasonry on adopting the Catholic religion. William Preston praised Lord Petre's Masonic enthusiasm.
John Wilkes, (1727-97).
A mystery attaches to the initiation of the famous (or notorious) "Friend of Liberty." The minutes of the Jerusalem Lodge (now No. 197) of 1769 record that John Wilkes was made a Mason "by virtue of a dispensation under the hand and seal of Charles Dillon, Deputy Grand Master, "and this is supplemented by a notice in the contemporary press that the ceremony took place in King's Bench Prison in the presence of Grand Officers, who are named in the minutes as having been Bro. Dobson, the W.M., who was also P.A.G.M., Bro. Maschall, a Prov. G.M. and Bro. French, Grand Secretary.
Although the dispensation and the presence of Grand Officers were both officially denied a few days later (also in the press), we may take it for granted that the facts recorded above are correct and that what Grand Lodge was nervous about was the revelation that Wilkes had been initiated in prison; this is confirmed by the subsequent fate of:—
Captain George Smith.
This officer was simultaneously Junior Grand Warden and Prov. G.M. for Kent. His book The Use and Abuse of Freemasonry the Grand Lodge declined to sponsor. In
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1783 he was arraigned for" making Masons in a clandestine manner in the King's Bench Prison." His defence was that he had done so as Master of the Royal Military Lodge, an itinerant lodge, the master of which having the constitution had the right to hold a lodge and make Masons. But Grand Lodge set its face against this plea, declaring it to be inconsistent with the principles of Masonry to hold a Freemason's Lodge for making, passing or raising Masons in any place of confinement.
Captain Smith was subsequently in more serious trouble, being charged with "uttering an Instrument purporting to be a certificate of the Grand Lodge, recommending two distressed Brethren," for which he was expelled from the Society.
Royal Freemasons.
The Duke of Cumberland, younger son of King George III, was elected Grand Master in 1782, and the Earl of Effingham, whom he nominated as Acting Grand Master, was installed as his proxy. Five years later, the Prince of Wales and his brother, Prince William, (afterwards William IV) were initiated. All the other sons of George III (except the Duke of Cambridge) became members of the Craft, and we shall hear more of the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Sussex.
Fifth Book of Constitutions, 1784.
The third editor of the Book of Constitutions was John Noorthouck, the antagonist of William Preston. The new I edition, which as we have seen had been started by William Preston, was an improvement on any that had gone before, and what is more carried for the first time a full index "without which no publication beyond the size of a pamphlet can be deemed compleat." With this sentiment, expressed in its preface, the present authors heartily concur.
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THE MASONIC CHARITIES
The Masonic Charities.
This period saw the start of the great charities of the Craft. The Royal . Cumberland Free Masons' School, now the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, the first of them, was founded in 1788, largely through the exertions of the Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini, Grand Sword Bearer and a Founder of the Nine Muses Lodge (now No. 235); he was the Prince of Wales's dentist. Two of his grandchildren were subsequently admitted as pupils at the School. In his charitable endeavour he was ably seconded by Thomas Dunckerley and James Heseltine, the Grand Secretary.
The School was first sited at Somers Place East, near the present St. Pancras Station, and was able to accommodate 15 girls, but it had already proved inadequate by 1795, when a new building was erected in St. George's Fields at a cost of £3,000. The number of pupils was now increased to thirty, which was again doubled by 1802.
Since 1792, Grand Lodge has annually made a contribution of £150 to the Institution.
The second of the great charities, the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys was, unlike its predecessor, established by the Antients. In 1798 William Burwood, P.M. of the United Mariners' Lodge (now No. 30), with other members, set up the Institution for Clothing and Educating the Sons of Indigent Freemasons, of whom the number first to be cared for was six. In 1801 the fourth Duke of Atholl became its Patron, while towards the end of its separate existence the Antients Grand Lodge contributed a proportion of the fees it had received for the initiation of candidates. In 1810, to commemorate the fiftieth year of George III's reign, the number of pupils was increased to fifty.
The subsequent history of the first two of the great charities, as well as the founding of the third, will be briefly related in the following chapter.
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The Chevalier d'Eon (1728-1810).
In the person of this French gentleman and Freemason English Freemasonry became indirectly involved in one of the major scandals of the 18th Century. It is an extraordinary story.
An expert swordsman and Dragoon officer, the Chevalier was the trusted servant of both Louis XV and Louis XVI and at the end of the Seven Years War was appointed Ambassador at the Court of St. James. When in 1764 he was superseded in this post by a personal enemy, he É' carried away the State papers relating to his mission, which included details of a scheme for invading this country.
In 1777 he accepted an offer by Louis XVI to increase his pension in return for the papers, accompanied by the amazing stipulation that he should " lay aside the uniform of a Dragoon .... and resume the garments of her sex." Now rumours that he was in reality Mlle. la Chevaliere had been growing ever since they were started by his enemy the French Ambassador and to such an extent that several hundreds of thousands of pounds were freely wagered on his sex. One of these "insurance policies" had been brought to the Law Courts in 1777; a French surgeon gave evidence from his surgical knowledge and another Frenchman swore from his carnal knowledge that d'Eon was a woman. Lord Mansfield, the judge, rejected the argument that he must be a man since he had been admitted a Freemason and the jury legally decreed him a woman.
The Chevalier had in fact been initiated in 1767 by the L'Immïrtalite de L'Ordre Lodge, one of several ("Modern") French lodges constituted in London at this time, and rose to be its Junior Warden; his writings show how keen he was on the Craft. When the rumours recounted above were at their height he took refuge with the Earl Ferrers, who had been Grand Master in 1762-3.
The amazing sequel is that, although hitherto he had stoutly protested his manhood, without, however, agreeing
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to put it to the proof, after accepting King Louis's offer — he proclaimed himself a female and for the remaining thirty-three years of his life so attired himself; he never re-entered a lodge. The actual truth about his sex did not ë come to light until his death, when he was divested of his ë (female) clothes for burial.
The judgment of the High Court was the origin of Laurence Dermott's jibe in Ahiman Rezon (1778), already quoted, concerning "our brethren (I mean sisters) the modern-masons.. .. And upon a late tryal at Westminster, it appeared that they had admitted a woman named Madame D'E—."
The Earl of Moira.
It was a fortunate day when, in 1790, the Earl of Moira was appointed Acting Grand Master of the Moderns by the G.M., the Duke of Cumberland, and he was continued in that office by the next G.M., the Prince of Wales, afterwards King George IV. This outstanding military commander and fine Freemason was styled "Acting Grand Master of India" in 1813, when he went to that sub-continent as Governor-General.
As a member of the Committee set up to effect a reconciliation with the Antients, his efforts towards that desirable,end were tremendous. Equally useful was his help in securing the immunity of Freemasons from the provisions of the Unlawful Societies Act of 1799, which is dealt with in the succeeding section.
His only not wholly successful action was the founding, in 1799, of the Masonic Benefit Society, which flourished for a while but perished about 1830.
The Unlawful Societies Act, 1799.
At the height of the Wars of the French Revolution, Parliament passed an Act for the suppression of seditious
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societies. It enacted that all societies, the members of which are required to take an oath not authorized by law shall be deemed unlawful combinations. Owing to the efforts of the Duke of Atholl and the Earl of Moira a clause was inserted exempting all lodges of Freemasons from its operation.
It was, however, assumed at first that the Act precluded the constituting of new lodges, thus doubling the perils of erasure.
Steps towards Reconciliation.
After nearly half a century of severance a new generation of Freemasons of both societies had arisen, many of whom were heartily sick of the internecine warfare between the two bodies.
The first move came from the Antients Grand Lodge, as already recorded on page 101. Five years later, the next attempt to heal the breach, which was made by the Moderns, was also unsuccessful and matters were not improved by their expulsion in 1803 of Brother Thomas Harper, who, curiously enough, held important positions in both bodies, sitting as a Past Grand Steward on the Committee of Charity of the elder, while at the same time serving as Deputy G.M. of the Antients.
In 1809 the Moderns' Grand Lodge, which had meanwhile entered into fraternal alliances with the Grand Lodges of Scotland (of which the Earl of Moira was Grand Master) and of Ireland, took an important step, resolving that It is not necessary any longer to continue in force those Measures which were resorted to in or about 1739 (see pp. 92 and 95) respecting irregular Masons and do therefore enjoin the several Lodges to revert to the Antient Land Marks of the Society, and next year Thomas Harper was reinstated. It is generally believed that this Brother, while professing to be keen on the Union, was in reality opposed to it, since he believed
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that his trade as a jeweller, supplying Masonic regalia, would be affected.
In 1810, however, the Atholl Grand Lodge resolved that a Masonic Union on principles equal and honourable to both Grand Lodges, and preserving the Land Marks of the Ancient Craft, would be. . . . expedient and advantageous to both.
Meetings followed between the Earl of Moira and the Duke of Atholl and between special Committees of the rival Grand Lodges.
The Lodge of Promulgation.
The Moderns' negotiating Committee had been formed in 1809 as the Lodge of Promulgation, which lasted until 1811. Its original object was to report on the differences of ritual, as practised by Antients and Moderns. Ceremonies were rehearsed in front of the Duke of Sussex, W.M. of the Lodge of Antiquity (who was to succeed the Prince of Wales as G.M. in 1813 and was easily the most cultured of the sons of King George III), and the Masters of eight other London lodges.
In the result the working adopted was mainly that of the Antients, and notably in the use of Deacons, which had hitherto been confined to Antient lodges and in the Installation ceremony for Masters of Lodges; it is considered that the expression “Board of Installed Masters" dates from this time.
Among other recommendations of the Lodge to the Earl of Moira was one for appointing a "Professor of the Art and Mystery of Speculative Freemasonry," to settle all doubtful points. Such an officer never materialized.
The Articles of Union.
In 1813 the Duke of Atholl, who had ruled the Antient Masons since 1774, was succeeded by the Duke of Kent,
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the father of Queen Victoria. This Prince, who was far frombeing generalIy popular, certainly showed his best side in his Masonic contacts. Royal brothers were thus in command of the two branches of the English Craft, and the Duke of Kent had also, as a mark of reconciliation, been appointed his Deputy by the Duke of ussex, the new Grand Master of the Moderns.
In the same year twenty-one Articles of Union between the two Grand Lodges were signed and sealed by both Grand Masters and other important officers, including Thomas Harper.
The second Article lays down that "pure Ancient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz. those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellowcraft and the Master Mason, including the Supreme Oder of the Royal Arch." The fifth Article set up a Lodge of Reconciliation, consisting of representatives of both fraternities, to visit lodges for the purpose of obligating and instructing members.
The Articles of Union were very soon ratified by both Grand Lodges and thus was born the present United Grand Lodge of England, with the Duke of Sussex (proposed by the Duke of Kent) as its first Grand Master. Thus also was happily ended the feud of sixty years. Probably the feud itself, but certainly the terms of settlement, have been of inestimable benefit to the present Craft.
CHAPTER VII
UNITED GRAND LODGE FREEMASONRY 1813 to 1952
However wonderful the Union must have seemed to English Freemasons, it was not unattended by difficulties;
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one of these was that it was not equally welcomed in other parts of the World, and notably in America; another was the question of the:—
New Numbering of Lodges.
This was solved by the respective No. 1 Lodges of the two Constitutions drawing lots for the first place; the (Antients') Grand Master's Lodge won, so that the Lodge of Antiquity, as already recorded on page 75, has from thenceforth become No. 2. The remaining lodges on the two lists were given alternate numbers, the Antients taking the odd numbers and the Moderns the even, so far as the old Ancient lodge numbers lasted.*
At this time there were altogether 647 lodges, not counting the (Moderns') Grand Stewards’ Lodge, which kept its place at the head of the roll without a number.
There were further closings-up of lodges in 1832 and in 1863; the order and numbers stabilized in the latter year are likely to remain permanent and final, whether or not further lodges drop out.
The Lodge of Reconciliation (1813-6).
This Lodge, appointed by the Articles of Union, comprised among its eighteen members some of the ablest ritualists of the day, and the present Craft working is vastly indebted to the labours of these brethren. The Rev. Dr. S. Hemming, a Modern Mason, was the Worshipful Master.
In 1814 there was a certain amount of dissension about the obligations of the three degrees. This was fomented by Bro. J. H. Goldsworthy, a P.M. of the Lodge of Fidelity, No. 3 (who at its start was a member of the Lodge of Reconciliation and was later to become a member of the
*It is a happy coincidence that the latest constituted Aistients' lodge surviving at the present day is the appositely named Union Lodge of British Guiana, No. 247, while the latest similar Modems lodge is the equally apt Lodge of Unanimity of Peðrith, Nï. 339. Both were founded in 1813.
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Board of General Purposes and a noted Preceptor) and by members of the Phoenix Lodge, No. 289 and other Antient lodges.
But the trouble, which at one time threatened to develop into a schism, was patched up with the result that in Grand Lodge in 1816:-
The Ceremonies and Practices, recommended by the Lodge of Reconciliation, were exhibited and explained; and alterations on two points in the Third Degree [one of which was that the Master's Light was never to be extinguished while the Lodge was open] having been resolved upon, the several Ceremonies ... were approved and confirmed.
And so, its labours being ended, the Lodge was thanked for its "unremitting Zeal and Exertion" and ceased to be.
Another important result of the Act of Union was the setting up of the Board of General Purposes, which soon became a most important instrument of Grand Lodge.
The International Compact, 1814.
With the establishment of the United Grand Lodge of England it became necessary for the sister Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland to be assured that the working sanctioned by the new authority was in conformity with their own. Accordingly at the end of 1814 there took place at Freemasons' Hall a historic meeting between the Duke of Sussex, the Duke of Leinster, G.M. of Ireland and Lord Kinnaird, the Scottish G.M., together with other brethren from the three Grand Lodges, and at this theV, eight resolutions that form the International Compact were unanimously agreed to.
By these the definition of pure Ancient Masonry was declared in the same wording as in the second Article of Union (see p.116) and provision was made for a "constant fraternal intercourse, correspondence and communion"
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THE INTERNATIONAL COMPACT, 1814
to be maintained for ever between the three Grand Lodges, each agreeing not to issue Warrants for lodges within the officers of the jurisdiction.
Although the last of the Resolutions ordered the circularization of the Compact to all lodges under the rule of the three Grand Lodges, the only known official record of it in full is contained in the Minutes of the Irish Grand Lodge.
The Book of Constitutions, 1815.
New Constitutions were clearly necessary, and these were published in 1815, the editor being Bro. W. Williams. For the first time the fabulous history of Freemasonry was omitted.
The Ancient Charges were scarcely altered, with the exception of the First, "Concerning God and Religion" (see p.83), which is now made to run:-
Let a man's religion or mode of worship be what it may, he is not excluded from the order, provided he believe in the glorious architect of heaven and earth, and practise the sacred duties of morality.
By the Regulations of 1815 Provincial Grand Masters for the first time ranked after the Grand Treasurer and before the Grand Wardens, while past rank was not to be given to the holder of any Grand Office below that of Deacon. The least sum payable by an applicant for initiation was fixed at three guineas, which was raised in 1883 to five guineas in the case of lodges at home. The same Master was precluded from remaining in the chair for more than two years, and at least a month must elapse between different degrees for any one Freemason. Official sanction, moreover, was for the first time given to the ceremony of Consecrating a Lodge.
The General Regulations were revised in 1818, the chief amendments being to restore to Grand Lodge the election
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of the Grand Treasurer and to add all Past Masters to the Masters and Wardens as admissible to Grand Lodge.
Lodges of Instruction and Preceptors.
With the Union's newly agreed ritual, Lodges of Instruction began to flourish, fifteen existing in 1814. The most famous were the Stability Lodge (No. 217) of Instruction, founded in 1817, and the Emulation Lodge of Improvement, which was founded six years later. While the systems taught by the two Lodges now differ widely in detail, there is evidence that at one time they more nearly coincided. It must be remembered that the working of the Lodge of Reconciliation was not committed to writing and may have been variously recollected by those present: in 1836 the Freemasons' Quarterly Review (see p.123) rebuked Emulation for lapses from the standard of accuracy demanded by Peter Gilkes, while in 1856 Bro. Muggeridge, leader of Stability, said that the differences between the two Lodges were of form only and not of substance. The printed aides-memoire, on which we lean too much today came only gradually into general use.
In an age rich in Preceptors the following outstanding ones, all of whom were elected to the Board of General Purposes, must be briefly mentioned—Peter Gilkes, whose name was one to conjure with in the Emulation Lodge of Improvement; Lawrence Thompson, who by the Grand Master's command delivered for many years the Prestonian Lecture (see p.105) in the Lodge of Antiquity, No. 2; Peter Thomson, who became a Life Governor of all the Craft Charities; Philip Broadfoot, a founder of the Stability Lodge of Instruction; and John Goldsworthy, already referred to in connexion with the Lodge of Reconciliation.
Although all had colourful personalities and lived to a great age, they were not entirely free from jealousy, as witness Peter Gilkes's attempt in 1819 to induce Grand
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Lodge to suppress some unauthorized lectures by Philip Broadfoot. This came to nothing, but is noteworthy as an early instance of the rivalry between Stability and Emulation workings.
Erasure of Lodge 31, 1821.
The erasure of this Liverpool Lodge arose out of the presentation of a Memorial to Grand Lodge through the Provincial Grand Lodge of Lancashire. When later the latter asked for its withdrawal the Duke of Sussex merely pigeonholed the document without informing either Grand Lodge or the Board of General Purposes of its receipt. Lodge No. 31 were far from satisfied, accused the Board of General Purposes of having detained the Memorial and protested rather contumaciously.
Other Lancashire lodges joined in, and after Grand Lodge's efforts at patient explanation and appeasement had proved of no avail, it became necessary to suspend 68 Masons, belonging to 11 lodges. Subsequently 42 duly submitted and were restored. The 26 recalcitrants were expelled, and Lodge No. 31 was erased.
Thus was stamped out what might have led to a dangerous mutiny, but the affair left behind much bitter feeling.
The Grand Lodge of Wigan, 1823.
Four more erased and disgruntled Lancashire lodges formed a new Grand Lodge in 1823; it constituted six lodges, of which only one, the Lodge Sincerity of Wigan (since 1913 chartered as No. 3677, E.C.) survives today. With occasional periods of dormancy the new Grand Lodge struggled on till about 1866.
It has been the privilege of one of the present authors to dine with one of the last surviving members of the "Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of England according to the Old Institutions" of Wigan.
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A Grand Lodge Library Started, 1837.
This invaluable adjunct was added to Grand Lodge when on the suggestion of the Grand Registrar, Bro. John Henderson, £100 was voted for the purpose. In 1847 Bro. J. R. Scarborough proposed an annual grant of £20 to the Library and Museum, emphasizing:-
the desirability of possessing the means of cultivating intellectuality more than gastronomy; that the other bottle did not do half so much good as the other volume, that it was laughable to tell a poor but inquiring brother to make a daily advance in Masonic knowledge—and the arts and sciences his particular study, if we withheld from him the means of doing so, and did not even give him a hint where Masonic knowledge could be gathered.
Although this was equally impressively seconded by Dr. Crucefix, of whom we shall be hearing more in next section, nothing much was done until 1880, when Grand Lodge voted an annual grant of £25 and added a Library Committee to the Board of General Purposes.
A Grand Lodge Librarian and Curator was appointed in 1887,* and assistants in 1920; these offices have been occupied by Masons of high scholastic attainment, who have proved their worth in the field of Masonic research and in their unfailing helpfulness to inquiring students. Grand Lodge Library now comprises more than 20,000 volumes.
The Benevolent Institution Founded, 1838.
We have already dealt with the start of the two earlier Charities (see p.111). The third, although his was not the inception of the idea, will always be associated with the name of Dr. Robert Crucefix, who despite determined opposition from the highest quarters, nevertheless stoutly
* The Brother appointed was Henry Sadler, the famous Masonic author, who was at the time also Grand Tyler.
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persevered in his laudable project for the erection of an Asylum for Worthy and Decayed Freemasons, as the Charity was at first called. He even started the Freemasons' Quarterly Review, which he edited for several years, to provide propaganda for the cause.
At the first meeting of subscribers, held in June, 1835, Bro. Crucefix, who presided, was able to announce that the Earl of Durham, D.G.M. and the Grand Treasurer had agreed to act as Trustees. A few weeks later, however, the Earl withdrew, stating that he had been under the impression that the consent of the Duke of Sussex had been obtained.
When that Prince was tackled, it was found that he had numerous objections to the scheme, at first on the grounds that a third Charity could only harm the existing ones, and that the proposed Asylum would " tend to hold out an inducement for an improper class of individuals to enter the Fraternity," and later because he preferred a system of annuities to the erection of a building. Meanwhile, however, Bro. Crucefix, who was Junior Grand Deacon, had in 1837 obtained from Grand Lodge an unanimous resolution recommending the contemplated Asylum to the favourable consideration of the Craft.
Then in 1840, owing to the G.M's continued opposition, came a clash between Grand Lodge and Dr. Crucefix, caused by the latter's having printed certain proceedings of Grand Lodge in his Review—he had already been suspended in connexion with remarks made at an Asylum Committee meeting. It was now proposed to expel him from the Society, but this fate was averted by his making a very humble apology.
In 1842 Grand Lodge launched the Duke of Sussex's rival scheme in the shape of the "Royal Masonic Benevolent Annuity Fund," and in 1849 the scheme was extended to cover a Widows' Fund.
In spite of the theft by an absconding Trustee of its
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funds, amounting to £620, the Asylum Committee did not lose sight of its object, and a site having been found near Croydon, the foundation stone of a building to house 50 annuitants was laid in May, 1849.
Next year came the eagerly awaited amalgamation of the Asylum and the Annuity Fund, the two Charities being united under the style of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution for Aged Freemasons and their Widows. Unfortunately Bro. Crucefix did not live to see this final fruition for which he had striven so valorously.
From that date to the present day the record of the combined Institution has been one of uninterrupted progress. In 1876 the annuities were increased to £40 for each brother and £32 for each widow. * A block of 104 modern flats for the aged will shortly be erected at Hove. There are now about 2,000 annuitants, living all over the globe. The cost is over £180,000 per annum.
The Prince of Wales, who became President of the Charity in 1874, retired to become its Grand Patron in 1901 on his accession to the throne as King Edward VII.
Progress of the other Chanties.
At the Union both the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and that for Boys became available equally to the children of both Atholl Masons and Moderns. In 1814 it was resolved by Grand Lodge that the charge of registering new-made Masons initiated in London should be one guinea, of which five shillings would be applied towards the maintenance of the Schools, and in the case of initiations in Distant, Foreign and Military Lodges the charge should be half-a-guinea, of which two and sixpence would be similarly applied.
* The full rates are today £156 for a married Brother and £104 for a widower, bachelor, widow, spinster, daughter or spinster sister of a deceased Freemason.
The largest single donation during a Bother's lifetime was the munificent sum of £10,000 contributed by the late K.W. Bro. C. Ó. Keyser, P.G.W., Prov. G.M. for Hertfordshire, in 1927.
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In 1851 a new Girls' School (see p.111) was built facing Wandsworth Common and was dedicated by the Earl of Zetland, G.M. at a Grand Lodge meeting specially held at the School.
In 1918 a Junior School, which accommodates 120 little girls of between 7 and 10, was opened at Weybridge, where it still is, while in 1934 the Senior School was moved to Rickmansworth, the fine new buildings (of which the foundation stone had been laid by the Duke of Connaught, G.M., in 1930) being opened by H.M. Queen Mary. No fewer than 400 girls can be accommodated in its nine buildings, situated in a fine parkland of more than 200 acres.
The Boys' School, 1813 to 1952.
This Charity, which, as already stated on page 111, had been started by the Antients, was amalgamated in 1817 with a similar one which had been originated by Bro. F. Columbine Daniel and other members of the (Moderns') Royal Naval Lodge, No. 59. The Institution became "Royal" on King William IV's agreeing to act as its Patron in 1832. In 1838 Grand Lodge's annual contribution was fixed at its present amount of £150.
Twelve years later a building was bought at Wood Green, Tottenham, where the erection of a larger school was begun in 1861, the premises being opened four years after by Lord Ripon, then Deputy G.M. They were extended in 1873 and again in 1883 through the generosity of the Craft.
In 1898 there took place the Centenary celebration, over which the Prince of Wales presided. The record sum of £141,000 then collected made the present School buildings at Bushey Park possible. These were completed in 1902, and in 1929 a Junior School was added.
The Institution, which was Incorporated by Royal Charter in 1926, provides at present educational benefits for over a thousand youths, 400 in the Senior School and 300 Juniors, while a further 300 are being assisted outside
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the Institution. The last named are mainly receiving higher education, since by a recent enactment the Board of Management may "vote or set aside annually such a sum of money as the Board may think fit to provide for the Further Education, Training and Maintenance of deserving boys after they have finished their School career."
Finally, plans have recently been prepared for the upgrading of the School and for the provision of considerable additions to the buildings to allow for technical training.
The 154th Anniversary Festival on 11th June, 1952, brought a grand total of £667,592, of which the Western Division of the Province of Lancashire alone contributed the record sum of £562,282, or four-fifths.
The Duke of Sussex, G.M., 1813-43.
We must now return from the present time to the second decade of the 19th Century. Something has already been said of the Duke's share in the achievement of a United Grand Lodge of England. In 1838, to commemorate his twenty-five years' Grand Mastership, the Craft presented him with a testimonial valued at one thousand guineas, and when he died in 1843 he had ruled over English Freemasons for the then record period* of thirty years. The Earl of Zetland succeeded him as G.M. until 1870.
Although the Duke of Sussex exercised his powers in a somewhat arbitrary and dictatorial manner, as seen in his dealings with Lodge 31 and Dr. Crucefix, there was no other Modern (with the exception of the Earl of Moira) who could have retained the loyal fidelity of such (Atholl) D.G.M.s as Agar and Harper for the rest of their lives and enjoyed the complete trust of the whole English Craft.
Of his brother, King William IV, it is related that once when a deputation of influential Freemasons waited on him, expecting a ceremonious audience, they were somewhat
*The actual record was the 38 year reign of the Duke of Connaught (1901-39)—(See p.liO). This was exceeded in Ireland by the Duke of Leinster, who was G.M. for 61 yearó. (See x.155).
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astonished when "Gentlemen," exclaimed the bluff Sailor King, "if my love for you equalled my ignorance of everything concerning you, it would be boundless."
An Impostor, 1847.
It is not often that Grand Lodge allows itself to be hoodwinked, but it so happened in 1847, when a visiting American, who styled himself Major-General George Cooke, LL.D. and gave out that he was Chancellor of the University of Ripley, joined the Prince of Wales's Lodge, No. 259. A generous supporter of the Masonic Charities, he became Vice-President of the Girls' School and a Life Governor of the Boys' School and of the Benevolent Institution.
Before he left England the Grand Master conferred on him the rank of P.G.W. and appointed him his representative at the Grand Lodge of New York. A fund was even raised for the purpose of putting his bust in Freemasons' Hall. It was not until Cooke was safely back in the States that it came to light that so far from being a Major-General or a Doctor of Laws he was in reality a mere medical quack, who advertised his wares.
He was accordingly stripped of his Grand Rank, expelled from Grand Lodge and reimbursed the sums he had subscribed to the Charities.
The Case of Bro. John Havers.
John Havers, a pupil of Peter Thomson, whom he called the greatest Mason he had ever known, was in 1855 " the most disliked brother in the Craft," but lived to be entertained by his old opponents and to have his bust placed in Freemasons' Hall.
In that year the Craft was at the dictation of Bro. W. H. White, who had served as Grand Secretary for fifty years, and of three other influential Grand Officers, and was seething with unrest, largely because Grand rank was the
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perquisite of three or four London lodges. The Earl Zetland then sought and took the advice of John Havers, who described himself at the time as "an incendiary red republican," and in a short period everything was quiet and normal.
John Havers became J.G.W. in 1862 and was for is years on the Board of General Purposes and on the Co mittee of Management of the Masonic Benevolent Annui
Fund (see p.123).
A New Freemasons Hall, 1866.
The building of the second Hall was started in 1864. An improvement on the old Hall but of course no like as commodious or impressive as the present Masonic Peace Memorial (see p.131), it took just under two years complete. For the first time Freemasons' Tavern (now the Connaught Rooms) was separated from the Hall.
After a disastrous fire in 1883, by which the Grand Temple was almost completely destroyed, as well as most of the oil portraits of previous Grand Masters, the building was reconstructed and the Temple enlarged.
Some Masonic Miscreants.
Although they have been fortunately few and far between, there have been occasional black sheep and backsliders in the Craft. The case of Brother William Dodd, the forger who rose to be Grand Chaplain, has already been mentioned on page 108.
Then there have been two brethren who were notorious poisoners. One of these was Dr. Edward William Pritch P.M. of a Glasgow lodge, who was hanged in 1865 for administering a
