Introduction
‘Masonic Curiosities’ maybe interpreted in a
number of ways. My choice has been to select questions which perturb scholars
and to which there really are no definite answers. For instance, it is now well
established that Elias Ashmole was the first English speculative free mason
initiated in July 1646. Where was he exactly initiated? Could it have been in an
operative working Lodge? It is also known that he was an intellectual, noble
man. Why did he become a Freemason? Furthermore when organised Freemasonry began
in London in June 1717 it consisted entirely of ‘gentlemen’ intent on
drinking and dining and having a good time in general. What happened in between
times? How and why the change, between 1646 and 1717, from an apparently
aristocratic institution emerging 70 years later as nothing more than a
Gentlemen’s Club at best? All these questions are examples of Masonic
Curiosities, according to my definition.
Another example is the publication of the first Constitutions by James
Anderson in April 1723, some 6 years after the formation of the Grand Lodge of
England. Until then we appear to have been enjoying festive aspects of
freemasonry quite happily without minutes, rules or regulations. Why spoil it
all and publish so many restrictive sets of laws for the comportment of
freemasons?
By their very nature, the answers to these questions
remain theoretical only.
Elias Ashmole
Ashmole was born in May 1617 at Lichfield,
Staffordshire. A talented and ambitious man, he was able to fulfil many of his
dreams after his second marriage to the wealthy Lady Mainwaring, 20 years his
senior He retired at the age of 25 and pursued personal interests thereafter.
During 1645 and 1646, crucial years in the Civil War, Ashmole’s political and
military careers developed on parallel lines. In March 1646 he was made a
Captain in the King’s Army and he witnessed the defeat of King Charles by
Cromwell three months later. He returned to Smallwood and on 16 October 1646
Elias Ashmole was made a freemason in Warrington. This is the evidence of the
first initiation of an English speculative mason. That is notwithstanding the
fact that those present and listed would have certainly been initiated at an
earlier date. It took place at 4.30 in the afternoon. The precise time can be
given because of Elias Ashmole’s diaries. But many Masonic Curiosities appear
with regard to his initiation. What was the exact nature of the Lodge in which
Ashmole was initiated? In the whole of his extensive manuscript annotations
there are only two references to his Masonic activities, dated 1646 and 1682.
The names of those present listed by Ashmole in his diary are uncontested. None
of those present belonged to the stonemasons trade. The Lodge, however, will
have consisted of several additional members not present at the initiation and
who may well have been working operative stonemasons. There are interesting
hints in the diary annotations at the nature of Masonic activity at the time.
Colonel Henry Mainwaring, with whom Ashmole was initiated, was a Roundhead parliamentarian
friend, diametrically opposed to the Royalists who Ashmole supported. The
implication is that freemasonry, from these very early days, recognised no
political boundaries. The structure of the Lodge is also hinted at by the
significant reference to Richard Penkett as a Warden. Furthermore Ashmole took
his obligation on the Sloane Manuscript, an ancient charge in manuscript,
which was expressly composed for the ceremony of his initiation. Thus we see
that the structure of freemasonry has been reasonably consistent through the
centuries.
There are two perennial questions raised with regard
to Elias Ashmole’s initiation. Why did he join? And why is there no other
mention of freemasonry in his extensive diaries until his visit to London in
1682? The answer may lie in that freemasonry was not an organisation of
consequence. Ashmole joined because by nature he was a joiner. He could not have
resisted the temptation to discover the nature of what even then was a
mysterious association and he may well have found nothing of consequence in the
fraternity. It is also possible that he may have attended meetings unrecorded in
his annotations until the summons to the Masons Company in London. There is the
added possibility that in the quite and secretive ambiance of a Masonic meeting
he was able to meet with unrecorded intellectual colleagues to discuss those
aspects of esoteric and hermetic studies very much experimental in the
scientific world. Ashmole was an extraordinarily accomplished man. By 1648 he
had extended his studies in Astrology and Anatomy to Botany and Alchemy. This
last subject was to occupy him considerably and he wrote several books on the
subject, the first in 1650.He was undoubtedly fascinated with esoteric and
hermetic studies. He often consulted oracles. Yet Ashmole made a point of not
allowing his enthusiasm for alchemy to obscure his historical research and he
never saw himself as a practicing alchemist.
The second and only other Masonic mention in the 1850
odd manuscript pages that comprise his annotations and diaries is dated 10th
March 1682, thirty-five years after his initiation. The same curios questions
arise in this instance as they did with regard to the first entry. What ceremony
did Ashmole exactly attend? He was The Senior Fellow among them thus a
speculative gathering in an operative environment of the Masons Company of
London. What was he doing there? The recorded ceremony of the acception in
the Masons Company has yet to be explained. It appears to be a ‘club within
the club’ to which selected individuals were admitted as members. Ashmole’s
presence here may be seen as evidence or at least suggest that Ashmole’s own
lodge into which he was initiated in 1646 was of a similar composition. Elias
Ashmole, in 1646, may well have found an esoteric content to some or other
aspect of the Craft proceedings. He may have had colleagues similarly inclined.
Whilst the format of the institutions, however, did not change over the years,
the content, ritual and ceremony and, more importantly, the academic quality of
its membership, may well have been diluted, declined over the years so that it
will have altered completely emerging, in 1717 as just another one of he many
London clubs of the period.
Desaguliers and the Constitutions
Although the Premier Grand Lodge
was formed on 24 June 1717, it was not until exactly 6 years later, on 24 June
1723 that the first Secretary to the Grand
Lodge, William Cowper, was appointed. It is only after this date that
minutes of Grand Lodge began to be kept. There are no records of any kind of the
activities of Grand Lodge before June 1723. The historic report of the events
that took place on that fateful day in June 1717, are only to be encountered
some twenty years later, in Anderson’s second edition, The
New Book of Constitutions published in 1738.
It is from these Constitutions that
we know that on the day at the feast, the
Brethren by a Majority of Hands elected Mr Anthony Sayer Gentleman, Grand Master
of Masons. Anthony Sayer (1672-1742) proclaimed George Payne (d 1757) as his
successor in 1718; these two Brethren were the only two commoners to be elected
Grand Master. Every early indication points at our Society as a fun, food and
charity institution from the start. The lack of any minutes and rules or
regulations at the start is in line with an organisation not taking itself too
seriously. Six years of unregulated activity. At the time there were several
dozen other similar institutions. What was it that assured the success of
Freemasonry beyond any of the other contemporary organisations? The answer is
simple: the Freemasons were able to recruit members of the nobility, and soon,
Royalty itself, to join the Craft. There was a price to pay, however:
constitutions. Nobility and aristocracy would not join a Society without orderly
regulations. This fact, however, leads to the more important and difficult
question: what inducement did a member of the aristocracy have at the time to
join freemasonry?
Since 1718 the appointment of
Grand Master was only afforded to Brethren of great distinction, of the
aristocracy, nobility and royalty. The first of these, the third Grand Master to
be elected in 1719, was the Reverend John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683-1744).
He graduated from Oxford with a Doctorate of Civil Law, having taken his
holy orders in 1710. Four years later he was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society and became the Curator of this most prestigious scientific institute.
Here then, the question already posed has to be repeated. What could have
possibly been whispered into the ear of so prominent a man as Desaguliers, the
author of books on experimental philosophy, closely associated with the
aristocracy and Royalty, as to persuade him to become a freemason? It is my view
that Freemasonry and the Royal Society had very little indeed in common at this
or any other time. There is no real evidence, beyond the circumstance
surrounding Ashmole mentioned above, that we freemasons have had secrets
associated with Hermetic philosophy, the Kabbalah or other similar mystical
schools of thought. Outsiders have maliciously associated our organisation with
a series of tasteless activities, ranging from sorcery and witchcraft to
idolatry and devil worship.
The Royal Society, on the other
hand, during this early period at the turn of the 18th Century,
focused its scientific research on what was then referred to as alternative
philosophy the same experimental philosophy in which John Theophilus
Desaguliers, our Grand Master to be, excelled. Here were a group of scientists,
respected through the world, whose daily research, in simplistic terms, revolved
around esoteric and hermetic studies and the secrets of nature. There was a
standing understanding that the revelation of the one yet to be discovered
secret of nature could transform the scientific world. It would allow the
fulfilment of the study of alchemy and convert basic metal to gold. Through the
one secret of nature, yet unknown, communication with those who had passed
beyond would be possible. It was in this environment of serious study that the
Royal Society members would have heard of the formation of a body calling
themselves Freemasons, who had a secret known only to them. It is possible that,
notwithstanding the conviction that the secrets of any such inconsequential body
as the Freemasons, could not be of any scientific importance, someone had to
ensure that that was indeed the case. Although Elias Ashmole and his ilk had
been both Freemasons and members of the Royal Society before the turn of the
Century, their views and outlook of Freemasonry would have been clearly of a
different perspective to that of the organised Freemasonry that was launched in
June 1717.
John Theophilus Desaguliers,
Curator and respected member of the Royal Society, was selected or may have
chosen himself to investigate this newly set up organisation. On being initiated
into our secrets and mysteries and admitted a member of the Craft, the new
candidate, Bro Desaguliers, would have quickly discovered that there were no
secrets among the masons, beyond traditional forms of recognition. Here, he
would have found the true spirit of brotherly love, relief and truth prevailing. His very high social
standing will have certainly induced the Grand Lodge to offer him the highest
possible office from the outset, which he may well have accepted. This would
explain why there appears to be so little, if any, information about Desaguliers
prior to his appointment as Grand Master in 1719.
Enchanted by the camaraderie of
our institution and true to his obligation, on his return to the Royal Society,
Desaguliers would have rather persuaded his colleagues to join the fraternity
than disclose the inconsequential secrets he had learnt and sworn to observe.
This then may well have been the beginning of the involvement of the aristocracy
in our midst. The Constitutions were written at the instigation of Desaguliers
who, no doubt, had the future of the Institution at heart and the Aristocracy,
nobility and royalty in his head. He brought
with him Lord Montgomery our first Noble Grand Master. Clearly with the presence
and membership of such distinguished Brethren some rules and regulations for the
comportment of the Brethren became necessary. Thus Grand Master Desagulier
instructed James Anderson to compose or ‘digest’ the Constitutions and
secure the continued patronage of Nobility and Royalty, which England has
enjoyed ever since.
There are an infinite number of Masonic curiosities in
the rich history of freemasonry and they will continue to baffle and delight
historians for ever.
Selected Bibliography and Sources
Page, Bryan F Elias Ashmole The First recorded
English Freemason
Prestonian Lecture for 1988
Josten C H Elias Ashmole Oxford, 1966
Rogers, Norma The Lodge of Elias Ashmole, 1646 AQC
65 1952
Tuckett J E S Dr Richard Rawlinson and the Masonic
Entries in Elias
Ashmole’s Diary AQC 25 1912
Baigent, Michael Freemasonry,
Hermetic Thought and The Royal Society of
London AQC 109, 1996
Carr, Harry; Haunch T O and
others Grand Lodge 1717-1967 Oxford
1967
Ward, Eric Anderson’s Constitutions Oxon 1976
Weisberger, William R John
Theophilus Desaguliers: Promoter of the
Enlightenment and of Speculative
Freemasonry (due) AQC 112, 2000
