Introduction
Through Masonic
artefacts the whole spectrum of the history of Freemasonry is opened up to us. A
brief visit to any Masonic museum will transport us through centuries of our
craft. Here I would like to
consider just a few examples of early 18th Century Masonic ephemera,
a subject that is as wide as it is deep. Ephemera is defined as any paper item
printed with a view of its being discarded after use. Dr John Johnson, the
greatest collector of Ephemera whose total collection of over 1 million items,
is now house in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, stated before 1956:
‘It
is difficult to define (ephemera) except by saying that it is everything which
would normally go into a wastepaper basket after use, everything printed which
is not actually a book’.
The derivation of
the word is from the Greek ephemeros,
which translates as lasting only a day.
In modern Greek the word for a newspaper is ephemeris.
Masonic ephemera
may conveniently be classified under four main headings:
A. Information
(leaflets to newspapers)
B. Instruction
(summonses to invitations)
C. Advertisements
(cigar labels to watch papers)
D. Collectables
(book plates to playing cards)
The emphasis in
this paper is mostly on the first of these headings.
Leaflets,
handbills, pamphlets and posters
Under this heading
come all the items classically associated with printed ephemera. Each of these
subjects has its own distinguishing features but they are all characterised by a
number of common factors:
unbound sheets
(except the pamphlet which is defined as a
glued or stitched
leaflet)
various sizes,
single sheet
printed on one or two sides side
distributed free
of charge
distributed by
hand or displayed
intended
to inform the general public
They are all a
valuable and important reflection of contemporary views and tastes as well as
activities. They often give an insight into aspects of our society not to be
found elsewhere.
Among
the earliest printed evidence of the antagonism towards our fraternity is a
single small leaflet, 100mm by 165mm, of which only one copy is extant. This
leaflet is a good example of the importance of an ephemeral item to the study of
the development of Freemasonry in its early days. The leaflet is headed To All Godly People, in the Citie of London and dated 1698,
nearly two decades before the formation of the premier Grand Lodge. It is set in
the Roman typeface popular during the period and prior to the much more pleasant
typeface invented by William Caslon some two decades later.
The
text, which has been frequently published, states:
Having thought it needful to warn you/ of the Mischiefs
and Evils practiced/ in the Sight of GOD by those called/
Freed Masons, I say take Care lest their Cer-/ emonies
and secret Swearings take hold of/ you; and be weary that
none cause you to err/ from Godliness. For this Devlish
sect of/Men are Meeters in secret which swear against/
all without their Following. They are the/Anti Christ
which was to come leading/Men from Fear of GOD. For how
should/ Men meet in secret Places and with secret/Signs
taking Care that none observe them to/ do the Work of
GOD; are not these the Ways/ of Evil-doers?
Knowing how that GOD observeth pri-/ villy them that sit
in Darkness they shall be/ smitten and the Secrets of
their Hearts layed/ bare. Mingle not among this corrupt
People/ lest you be found so at the World’s Conflag-/
ration.
Three
lines outside the body of the text, at the base, state:
Set
forth as a Warning to this Christian Generation by/
M Winter, and Printed by R Sare at Gray’s/ Inn-gate, in
Holborn./ 1698.
Very
little is known about the circumstances under which the pamphlet was issued. In
the leaflet, Freemasonry is condemned for the anti-religious standing of its
membership. Bro Knoop and G P Jones in their article in AQC
55 (1942) titled ‘An Anti‑Masonic
leaflet of 1698’ give
a prime example of how much consequential information can be obtained from the
content of this apparently simple ephemeral item. They speculated and concluded
that Winter, the author, about whom no information is available, was pious,
probably a chiliast, condemning Masons as crypto-Romanists; and that these
denunciations in the leaflet in 1698 may have been based on fact, although there
was no reason for the Masons to be accused of popery. The content of the leaflet
confirms that Freemasonry was considered an evil institution because of its
secret signs and meeting places.
The
most interesting conclusion reached by Knoop and Jones is that the statement
that the Masons were antichrist implies that they were anti-Trinitarian.
Therefore Freemasonry may well have adopted a deistic attitude towards religion
long before Anderson’s constitutions of 1723. The only known extant copy of
the leaflet was discovered by Bro Albert Frost of Sheffield and donated by him
to the Grand Lodge Library in 1943. This leaflet, as would be the case for
similar broadsheets of this period, would have been printed in small quantities,
printing costs being minimal at the time. It would have been handed out to
passers-by by street hawkers and ‘mercury women’, whose function was to sell
and hand out both official government announcements as well as unofficial
notices, news sheets and other leaflets.
As
early as the 1690s hawkers were distributing newspapers in the streets of
London. The famous London Gazette,
which first appeared as The Oxford Gazette
in 1665, was then published twice a week. In between publishing days, the
official vendors of the newspaper filled their time by selling or distributing
all sorts of other printed material. Copies of the printed sheet, handed out on
street corners, would also be pinned on the walls of clubs, work places and
coffee houses and left on tables, to be picked up by customers. They were soon
discarded and lost forever just days or weeks after publication.
The
1698 leaflet described stands out as an exceptional rarity. There are no other
early leaflets which have survived, which so blatantly attack Freemasonry. We
have to look at exposures, also printed as one or two sided broadsheets, to
appreciate the continued antagonism towards our fraternity.
Single
sheet exposures
The
Grand Lodge Library houses the rich collection of ephemera which originally
belonged to that extraordinary Masonic collector Alexander Mayrick Broadley
(1847-1916). He was initiated in Bridport in 1869. A registered barrister, he
spent much of his Masonic life in Tunis and Malta. Active in most of the orders
beyond the craft, Broadley was appointed Deputy District Grand Master for Malta
in April 1879 and Provincial Grand Master for the Mark Province of Tunis and
Malta in September 1879. He wrote extensively and compiled a truly superlative
Masonic collection of printed items. In 1917 Wallace Heaton purchased
Broadley’s collection at a sale where no other dealers appear to have been
present. The whole of the Heaton collection was subsequently purchased from him
and donated to the United Grand Lodge of England in 1939. It is housed in a
total of nine volumes. One section is devoted to Anderson’s late Constitutions
which are interspersed with various prints and portraits. The next three volumes
are almost purely ephemera. It contains, among a multitude of ephemeral
treasures, a unique single sheet 190mm x 300mm in size, attacking Freemasonry by
exposing its supposed secrets.
It
is the earliest known Irish exposure dated 1725 and entitled The
Whole Institutions of Free-Masons Opened. It is printed on both sides. It
was published by William Wilmot who has been identified as a Dublin printer and
who flourished between 1724 and 1727. The importance of this single sheet
document, inter alia, is the
disclosure of the early use of words and signs for the third degree - without
evidence, however, that three separate ceremonies were in practice. The document
also mentions, for the first time in print, the word Jehovah.
Again, however, without detail of any ritual working related to the word. It
gives us a minute insight into anti-Masonry during the periods concerned. Had
more leaflets survived we may have learnt more of such attitudes.
A
total of nine manuscripts dated between 1696 and 1750 are listed and discussed
by Knoop, Jones, and Hamer in their The
Early Masonic Catechisms, published by Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1975. The
greater significance of printed versions, however, lies in the intent of
publishers to reach a much wider circulation of the broadsheet. Our own Grand
Lodge minutes allow us a view of the mode of distribution of such leaflets.
The
minutes for the 28 August 1730 Quarterly Communication refer to Dr
Desaguliers’ concern over ‘a printed
paper lately published and dispersed about Town’. The reference is to the
very rare ‘Mystery of Free-Masonry’. William
James Hughan, the renown Masonic scholar, reported in 1909 that there were then
only two known examples of the original broadsheet still in existence. One was
purchased by General Lawrence of Boston USA from Spencer & Co who offered it
for sale in their 1875 Book Catalogue. A second copy was in the private library
of T Francis of Havant. This ephemera sheet would have been distributed in
coffee shops, taverns and sold in pamphlet-shops in the centre of the city.
Consequent to the printing of the leaflet a series of letters appeared in The
Daily Journal starting with the edition of Saturday 15 August, in which a
letter referring to the activities of the fraternity and signed ‘F.G.’
concludes with a full version of the exposure. There is, incidentally, a second
letter by ‘F.G.’ (not ‘C.G.’, as quoted in some sources) requesting a
re-print of his letter and exposure which appeared with identical text in the
next issue No 2999 on Tuesday August 18. This was followed by a letter by a
reader with the initials ‘J.B.’, published on Saturday August 22 (No 3004)
quoting in detail the obligation taken by the candidate. An error in the
numeration of the paper repeats No 2999 for two consecutive issues, omitting No
3000 from the sequence.
The
extent of the interest in these exposures is reflected in the widespread
re-publication of the letter and attachment. In addition to several newspapers
in England, the letter and exposure were also published in full in the 8
December 1730 edition of Benjamin Franklin’s own Philadelphia
Gazette. It may be worth noting that Dr Franklin had not yet joined the
fraternity at the time. This widespread circulation and apparent popularity of
the catechisms disclosing Masonic ritual may not necessarily have been induced
by the curiosity of the general public. There is the distinct possibility that
these leaflets, just as Prichard’s well documented Masonry Dissected and other exposures, may have been popularised by
Freemasons themselves purchasing the literature in order to use them as aidés-memoir. It may even be suggested that the repeated publication of Masonry
Dissected in umpteen editions (as well as Richard Carlisle’s various Manuals
published after the union) were intended specifically for Freemasons as the
potential customers.
There
were other attacks, not necessarily exposures, printed, published and
distributed without now a trace of their existence except in reports. The
Universal Spectator or Weekly Journal dated Saturday 20 May 1732 includes on
its first page an unsigned letter addressed to the Editor, Henry Stonecastle of
Northumberland, quoting a declaration made by the Mayor of Canterbury against
the Freemasons. The letter gives us an insight into the mode of publication of
such declarations. The Mayor, having heard of Freemasons’ meetings being held
in the Red Lion tavern:
....thought it fit per se, and per
alium, to proclaim
in the public Streets such an Arret against that innocent
and useful Society....and the rather (sic),
as it was
thought absolutely necessary to be publish’d several
Market Days, by his Lordship’s Deputy, the Cryer.
The
anti-Masonic text of the proclamation itself, within the content of the whole
defensive letter, has been reproduced in Notes
and Queries in AQC 33 (1920) on page 186. The interest, for purposes of this
paper, lies in the fact that there appear to be no surviving copies of the
proclamation itself.
The
economic aspects of setting and printing such leaflets suggests just a small
number being produced. This explains, to some extent, their rarity. We still
cannot escape the intriguing possibility, however, that hidden somewhere, most
likely in collections totally unrelated to Freemasonry, lie more of these
priceless fascinating documents, waiting to be discovered.
Douglas
Knoop, G P Jones and Douglas Hamer in their ‘Early
Masonic Pamphlets’ published by QC
in 1978 listed and carefully analysed pamphlets and booklets which include
criticism of Freemasonry and exposures of the ritual. These publications were
meant to be permanent. It is the single page broadsheets, printed and intended
to be discarded, that are ephemeral and not included in the above listing.
Periodicals,
newspapers et al
The
various forms of what we have come to call printed
media have two factors in common: the conveyance of news and their ephemeral
nature. The Roman Acta Diurna,
established by Julius Caesar in 60 BC, is the earliest record we have of a
‘newspaper’. The act established the issue of a regular bulletin made available in the Forum and discarded on a daily basis, being
replaced by a new updated version.
In
the Middle Ages, town criers fulfilled the function of newsmen and in the 16th
century handbills, pamphlets and broadsheets were used to communicate news. At
the same time ballads and often insidious or controversial leaflets were also
distributed. As already mentioned, these, the true predecessors of the modern
newspaper, were often sold at fairs
and in shops. They were also distributed in coffee houses, pamphlet-shops and in
the streets by ‘hawkers’.
The
overall image of Freemasonry and its early history, from before its days as an
organised society, is well reflected in press reports. The first mention of
Freemasonry in a newspaper can be found in the No 26 issue of The Tatler for Tuesday June 7 to Thursday June 9 1709. The anonymous
letter dated June 6 is addressed to Isaac Bickerstaff, pseudonym for Richard
Steele, who established The Tatler on
12 April 1709, abruptly ceasing publication in January of 1711. It refers to the
ongoing correspondence in the paper. The relevant text reads:
...But my Reason for troubling you at this present is, to
put a Stop, if it may be, to an insinuating, increasing
Set of People, who sticking to the Letter
of your
Treatise, and not to the Spirit of it, do assume the Name
of Pretty fellows; nay, and even get new Names, as you
very well hint. Some of them I have heard calling to one
another....by the Names of, Betty,
Nelly, and so forth.
You see them accost each other with effeminate Airs: They
have their Signs and Tokens like Free-Masons: They rail
at Womankind;......
It
should be noted that these ‘letters’ are often essays written by, and
expressing the views of, the publisher. Two further mentions of Freemasonry appeared in issues 73 and 166 of The Tatler, 24-27 September 1709 and 29 April-2 May 1710
respectively. Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729), the publisher of The
Tatler was Dublin born dramatist and politician, knighted in 1717. His named
portrait is centrally placed on the engraved Lists of Lodges in the print
entitled Les Free-Masons published in the 1735 edition of Bernard Picart’s Cérémonies
et costumes religieuses de tous les peuple du monde. There is no explanation
as to why Sir Richard Steele appears on the print, especially as there is no
evidence of his ever having become a Freemason. The only viable reasoning is
that in 1735 Steele was already dead and the use of portraits of dead
personalities was exceedingly cheap where living dignitaries demanded high, even
exorbitant, fees to have themselves represented on prints of this kind.
Not
long after this the Premier Grand Lodge was formed, in June 1717 the use of the
press for announcements became increasingly frequent, including details of the
admission of personalities into the
Society of Free-Masons. Anderson’s ‘minutes’ published in the 1738
edition of the Constitutions record on page 114 the irregular election that took
place in June 1722. There is little doubt that Anderson used these same news
reports as his source of reference for the events that took place in the decades
preceding the publication of the second Constitutions.
Hints
of antagonism towards the craft which appeared in the press gradually turned
into blatant attacks. The first printed exposure of Masonic ritual appeared in
No 4712 of The Flying Post or Post Master
on April 11-13 1723, within weeks of the publication of Anderson’s Constitutions. The exposure was attached to an anonymous letter
addressed To the Author of the Flying Post
and is now referred to as A Mason’s
Examination. It gives us the
earliest insight into Masonic ritual practised at the time. At
this stage I need to recount a personal and fortunate experience regarding early
newspapers. In November 1999 I purchased a copy of The Post Boy, number 5373 dated Thursday December 26 to Saturday
December 28 1723 from a dealer in the Channel Islands. Halfway through the
second column and ending nearly at the end of the next, on the reverse of the
newspaper was a letter, obviously Masonic in content, addressed to
the Author of the Post Boy signed Yours
&c A.B. The catechism was
clearly intended to look like an exposure of Masonic ritual to a non-Mason. (We
can define an exposure as a spurious and unauthorised disclosure of Masonic
ritual).
The
author of the letter in my copy of the Post
Boy actually referred to the earlier issue of The
Flying Post in April of the same year,
referred to above.
As
I began to search through various publications, newspaper libraries and started
contacting colleagues, I realised that the text of the catechism was unknown and
this issue number 5373 of the newspaper must have been exceedingly rare,
possibly a lone surviving copy. With my
friend and colleague Brent Morris, whose speciality, inter
alia, is deciphering and interpreting literary texts,
we began to analyse the importance of the newspaper I had purchased. We soon
found a reference to our newspaper. Until now, the edition of the Post
Boy I had in hand was thought to be only the figment of the imagination of
the author of The Free-Masons Accusation and Defence of 1726. This anonymous
anti-Masonic publication comprised six letters between father and son, three
supposedly written by the father attacking the Craft and three feeble responses
by the son. In the first of these letters, the father makes an extended
reference to the ‘examination’ of
the masons published in The Post Boy.
The relevant statement begins as follows:
I
remember, when I was last in Town, there was a Specimen of their (the
freemasons’) Examination published in the Post Boy; but so industrious were
the Masons to suppress it that in a Week’s time not one of the Papers was to
be found; where-ever they saw ‘em they made away with them.
The
author continues at length on the methods used by the masons to do away with all
available copies of the newspaper. He states I
cannot charge my Mind with the Date of the Paper and urges his son to obtain
a copy by any Means. He continues, stating that the masons were angered by
the publication although they pretended not to give it any importance and that
they ‘presently put out a sham Discovery
to invalidate the other’. He ends this part of his letter by stating that:
‘a friend and Mason let me understand
that this was a genuine Discovery.’ The thought that the Masons had
actually succeeded in obtaining and destroying all available copies of the
newspaper was astounding. Yet, it looked as that was exactly what may have
happened. Masonic scholars to date have searched and have been unable to trace a
copy of the issue of The Post
Boy referred to in The Free-Masons
Accusation and Defence. There
have been an abundance of published theories, including those by Knoop, Jones
& Hamer in their Early Masonic
Pamphlets, as to what the author may have been referring to. All end by
effectively presuming that the allusion to the existence of an additional
exposure was fictitious. Not so!
The
conclusions that Brent reached, inter alia, show that The
Post Boy catechism is a well-written mixture of repetitions of neutral
questions from other catechisms, logical extensions of these questions, and
subtly different answers that disagree with other published exposures and
manuscript catechisms. For example, the first two questions and answers are:
Q. Are you one of
us?
A. I’ll stand
Tryal.
Q. How will you be
try’d?
A. By Question and
Answer
This
is similar to Samuel Prichard’s Masonry
Dissected first published in London
in 1730
Q. Are you a Mason? A. I am; try
me, prove me, disprove me if you
can.
Another
example is found in the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth questions, which show the
sort of subtle revisions to what was generally accepted as Mason’s secrets.
Q. What is the
Apprentice’s Word?
A. Babel.
Q. What is the
Fellow Craft’s Word?
A. Jerusalem.
All
of the early catechisms are in agreement that the Masons had two secret words
from the Bible: Boaz and Jachin. The Post
Boy gives biblical B and J words, just different ones from the rest of the
catechisms. The Post Boy catechism is
almost certainly a ‘sham’, a misleading publication, appearing as a
disclosure, intended to lead readers at the time away from the real secrets of
the Craft.
The
first record of any masonic journal is Der
Freimaurer, published in Leipzig, Germany in 1738. There appears to have
been no other Masonic newspapers or journals in the British Isles until
the publication of The Sentimental and Masonic Magazine, in Dublin from July 1792 to
August 1795. Masonic ‘newspapers’, in the sense of daily information provided for Masons, was an unknown concept. The
weekly and monthly Masonic periodicals, with just two exceptions, were only
popularised in the 19th century.
Papal
Bulls
The
subject of Papal Bulls, which remains the greatest manifestation of the
controversial concept of Papal infallibility, has been extensively covered in
Masonic literature including the pages of our transactions. They are the most
overt display of the Church’s hostility to Freemasonry. Here, I would like to
consider the ephemeral aspects of Papal Bulls, copies of which were nailed or
otherwise fastened to church doors across Europe during the course of the
eighteenth century. This was the method of communicating officially and with
authority the word of the Holy See to the faithful across the nations. The Papal
Bull was at the top of the list in order of importance of communications
emanating from the Vatican. Lesser matters were communicated by briefs,
regulations and edicts, inter alia. The Bull was initially hand-written in Latin on vellum
parchment in elaborate calligraphy using convoluted terminology. The folding and
formal sealing of the document involved a painstaking ceremony at the end of
which the Papal seal was applied to a metal ingot, the Bullæ. The Papal Bull was then authenticated.
The
Bull, often accompanied by a translation to facilitate its understanding, was
then printed in Rome and distributed to all the local dioceses. The publication
entailed a formal ceremony in which the Bishop officially proclaimed the Bull
which was frequently read at church services. Thereafter, the printed version
was appended to the door of the church. The evidence for this procedure can be
found on many of the documents themselves. The first Papal Bull relevant to
Freemasonry was the well documented In
Eminenti issued by Pope Clement XII on 28 April 1738. It was given in Rome
at the Basilica of St Mary the Great. The very last line of the printed document
states:
‘...Publicata fuit ad valvas Basilicae Principis
Apostolorum ac aliis locis solitis consuetis, &c.’
which
translates as: Published on the doors of
St Peter’s and other usual places.
The
second Bull of Benedict XIV in 1751, Providas,
is even more detailed in the requirements of its dissemination. The last
paragraph, following the signature and seal, freely translated, states inter
alia:
...the
above mentioned Constitution was affixed and
published on the doors of the Lateran Basilica and of the
Chief of the Apostles, etc etc; and in other customary
and usual places by me, Franciscus Bartolotti, Apost. Pursuivant.
The
legality of this mode of publication, by posting the printed document onto
church doors and ‘other usual places’,
is further stressed in contemporary ephemeral documents issued by various civic
authorities. Using just one example, consider the Italian Proclamation in Rome
dated 14 January 1739, repeating the Vatican’s prohibitions on Freemasonry and
ending with the statement:
‘...the
present proclamation, when affixed in the usual
places in Rome, do oblige and bind Rome and its
District...in the same manner as if they had been
personally notified to each of them....’
The
importance and power of the Papal Bulls are underlined by the fact that they
were considered worthy of forgery, examples of which are exceedingly rare. The
genuine, printed Papal Bulls were effectively circulated as bill-posters to be
discarded in due course, which explains their rarity.
Masonic
education
We
are less concerned today with the type of Masonic education that was so
important to the Brethren of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Preston,
Brown, Finch, Hutchinson and Claret, among others, saw the importance of
education as their primary concern with Masonic development. Notwithstanding
personalities, financial gain and conflicts of interest, these were teachers in
the true sense of the word. They identified themselves as such and without
impropriety advertised themselves whilst soliciting ‘business’. The
solicitation came by way of publicity leaflets and pamphlets, often tacitly
supported by Grand Lodge.
These
ephemeral price-lists ‘selling’ Masonic degrees and offering other
facilities often give us an insight unavailable from other sources. They divulge
the business acumen of Preston; they remind us of the troubles of Finch which
led to his offers of a range of degrees in manuscript. Such blatant
commercialisation is difficult to imagine today. William Preston, best known for
his Illustrations of Masonry and his influence on our modern ritual, was
the first to publish prospecti for Masonic courses and leaflets promoting and
advertising his activities. His 1774 ‘Book
of Courses’ was advertised by way of a small leaflet headed FREE-MASONRY.
It was intended for distribution to Brethren through the various Lodges. The
quasi-official standing Preston enjoyed as a scholar is reflected in the
Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge of February 1775 where his Lectures are
publicised as being held every Tuesday at the Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street.
This
may not be too surprising when Preston’s close association with Grand Lodge is
considered. He was involved with the project for building Freemasons’ Hall, he
had effectively become printer to Grand Lodge and in 1775 he was informally
appointed Deputy Grand Secretary. The advertisement is poorly printed in small
sized standard Roman lettering, with only capitals used for emphasis, the long
‘s’ still current. Since the printing was almost certainly undertaken by
Preston himself, this being his trade, one may have expected more sophisticated
lay-out and typography, by using perhaps an engraving for decoration or
occasional italic or bold lettering and differing sized print. The standard
monotonous text, on one side only of the single sheet, begins:
Brother Preston, desirous to remove the present
difficulty of gaining Instructions in Masonry.....
proposes to teach Masonry on its genuine and original
principles, on the following reasonable terms:
s.
d.
FIRST DEGREE
5
0
SECOND DEGREE
5
6
THIRD DEGREE
10
6
The
remainder of the text effectively consists of an apologia: that the expense is
‘trifling’ and that such low costs show that ‘interest is not his object’; that the subscription paid will be
returned to any subscriber who is not ‘Master
of either the first or second degree’ within twelve lessons. The use of
the word ‘Master’ in association
with first and second degrees has caused comment. The terms were not in use as
ordinary Masonic nomenclature. Could Preston’s salesmanship extend to implied
deception? May his wording ‘Master
of the first...degree’ be deliberate, intended to encourage new initiates
still inexperienced in the language of the craft?
Bro
Colin Dyer in his extensive and standard book William
Preston and His Work, gives us minute details of the man’s character and
achievements. There is no evidence to indicate whether Preston’s lectures were
a success or not. The part that the advertising leaflets played in his career,
however, is self evident.
Theatrical
posters
From
the early 1700s fraternal organisations, including the Freemasons, attended and
supported the arts. In 1723 The Theatre Royal in Drury Lane staged Love
In A Forest with a dedication by the author, Charles Johnson, himself a
Freemason, to the Worshipful Society of
Freemasons. This has been described in detail in Fred Pick’s article ‘Freemasonry and the Stage’ published in the Manchester Lodge of
Research, Transactions No. 29 in 1939. In 1728 we have the first of several
instances of the direct involvement of Grand Lodge in support of the theatre.
Lord Kingston, at the Quarterly Communication on 27 December of that year,
following his installation as Grand Master, announced his intention to attend
the Old Play House, hoping and expecting Brethren to accompany him. In August
1730 a Masonic play proper, The Generous
Freemason was staged in London, billed as a musical curiosity
and a tragi-comi-farcical opera.
It
cannot be easy for us, on the threshold of the 21st century, readily to identify
with the overall ambience of Freemasonry in the 1700s. Our charitable aims are
manifest in our activities. A combination of posters, newspaper advertisements
and announcements combine to provide us visually with information not found in
contemporary literature. Attitudes towards the craft changed during the last
decades of the 18th century and the change is reflected in plays and reports of
the period.
One
of the most successful Masonic plays of the 18th century was the Harlequin
Free-Mason (which, I discovered during the AMMLA Conference, has been
translated into French and staged in that language) with music by Bro Charles
Disdain (1745-1814). It was said to have been first produced by Thomas Harris,
as a sequel to a non-Masonic play, and performed at the Covent Garden Theatre on
29 December 1780. The play ended with an impressive procession depicting the
history of Freemasonry. This was publicised in posters with the following words:
To conclude with a procession of the principal Grand-
Masters, from the creation to the present century,
dressed in the habits of their respective ages and
countries.
The
one page leaflet, 240mm x 160mm, was distributed by the Theatre Royal, Covent
Garden, advertising a performance of The
Man of the World to which is added the Masonic pantomime: Harlequin Free-Mason. The
text proudly announces that this is to be the fifty first time that the Harlequin
Free-Mason is being performed. Several of these early leaflets are extant
and all are printed in Roman type. They are crowded with text and detail. Only
the size of the type-face differs. The words Harlequin
Free-Mason are in the largest type, centrally placed to emphasise the
Masonic aspect of the performance. The
printer has attempted to achieve an artistic effect on the very simple black and
white posters by a wide separation of words and letters, particularly in the
listing of the named actors. Letterpress in the 1780s was still very limited in
its application. The advent of display typeface was not to become
popular until a few years later.
This
early period, in modern printing terms, needed facilities that were cheap and
print that was easy to produce. The speed with which some posters were printed
is reflected in the misplaced overlay of one colour over the other, or the
frequent misspelling of words or names. The
temporary and ephemeral nature of these sheets of printed paper is reflected in
the lack of attention or importance given to the printing processes.
They were to be discarded and could hardly be considered works of art, so
that care or pride in production was minimal. If there was a decorative element
it was frequently a design from the existing stock of the printer. Only
occasionally were new emblems, such as Masonic ones, produced for an event. A
curious manifestation of this use of decorative cartouches from existing stock
is the appearance of Masonic emblems on otherwise non-Masonic posters and other
printed items; an indiscriminate choice by the printer, who, in finding no
suitable devices in his stock associated with the subject of the poster or card,
uses existing designs, which happen to be Masonic, to decorate the printed item,
irrespective of its content.
Instruction
To
consider briefly the subject of Instruction, as the second category of Ephemera,
we can look at summonses, invitations and tickets.
A
summons is formally defined as an
authoritative call to attend or do something. The success of the Premier
Grand Lodge as a governing body may well be attributable, to some extent
at least, to the adoption of the concept of being ‘summoned’ - that
special peremptory demand for one’s presence at a meeting or assembly,
emanating from a higher authority. The concept is imbedded in antiquity. It was
respected and practised by the many trades guilds of medieval times. The Cooke
manuscript, reliably dated 1420 or before, states, under the heading ‘Assembly’,
starting with line 902, that ‘...the
Master and the Fellows before warned be come to such Congregation...’.
These early rules and regulations for operative Masons, which we refer to as
ancient charges and of which the Cooke manuscript is amongst the earliest, are
the ones that appear on the opening pages of our present Book of Constitutions.
Elias
Ashmole, the first recorded initiate in England, on 16 October 1646, has a
second entry in his diary for 10 March 1682 which reads:
I recd: a Summons to appr: at a Lodge to be held the next day. at Masons Hall,
London. The concept is again referred to by James Anderson in his first
Constitutions of 1723. Item III of The
Charges of a Free-Mason is headed ‘Of
Lodges’ and states that ‘...In
ancient Times, no Master or Fellow could be absent from it (the Lodge),
especially when warn’d to appear at it, without incurring a severe
Censure...’. The summons seems to have played a central part in the daily
activities of every Mason from time immemorial.
In
Anderson’s second Constitutions of 1738 on page 109 of Part III of his History of Masonry in Britain..., he states that the Lodges in
London, having found themselves neglected, decided to join forces. Four of them
accordingly met and formed themselves into a Grand Lodge on St John the
Baptist’s Day in 1717. The Assembly and Feast was held on that day and before
Dinner the oldest Master Mason Mr Anthony Sayer, Gentleman, was elected Grand
Master who ‘commanded the Masters and
Wardens of Lodges to meet the Grand Officers every Quarter in Communication at
the place that he should appoint in his summons sent by the Tyler’. This
is the first mention we have of a summons in its present context.
Tickets,
which were issued for the Annual Feast for Election of the new Grand Master, can
be differentiated from summonses, which were sent by the Grand Master to Lodges
demanding the attendance of the Brethren at the Quarterly Communication. The
majority of summonses to attend Grand Lodge were, however, plain and simple and
in stark contrast to the wonderfully elaborate engraving on the invitation
tickets to the Annual Assemblies. In early examples, as with summonses, much of
the text on the invitation was printed and only the details of time and place
were inserted in manuscript. The Broadley collection has a cropped example,
printed in blue on off-white paper, approximately 180mm x 170mm, where the Grand
Master’s name Morton has been
inserted by hand above the printed title. The remainder of the text, the
manuscript section italicised, continues:
‘You are desired to meet your Brethren of free and
accepted Masons at Haberdashers Hall on the 27th
April [1741] at 12 o'clock at noon to choose a Grand
Master and other general officers and to dine.’
All
the Festival tickets were numbered, this one being No 124. The numerals are
always in manuscript. The standard fee of 10 shillings and sixpence or half a
guinea is also printed on the ticket and remained a set and constant fee well
into the 19th century. The standard statement NB.
No Brother to be admitted unclothed or armed, printed outside the highly
decorative frame, also appears on all the tickets up to the end of the century.
The copper-plate engraver’s name is on the invitation as: Sturt
sculp. He chose a wide range of Masonic emblems to build a decorative frame
around the wording. Among the trowels, compasses and squares is also an
armillary sphere, significant in the early representations of symbols important
to the fraternity. Similarly numbered invitation tickets for each year have the
Stewards referred to by their lay titles. It is only in 1795 that we have an
invitation giving the title Brother to
the Stewards. The heading on this ticket is now His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales Grand Master. There is only a single bright red wax seal,
that of the Premier Grand Lodge. The standard fee of 10 guineas applies as does
the statement that no brother is to be admitted unclothed or armed. This,
however, is augmented by the stark bold words at the bottom of the summons: No
French Wines. This can be seen as a rare patriotic and political statement,
expressing prevalent sentiments following the declaration of war on Britain by
the French Republic in February 1793. The text is enclosed by a delicately
decorative frame headed by the Prince of Wales’ feathers.
Using
also one example for the third category of ephemera, namely advertising, we can
look William Cole, namesake and successor to Benjamin Cole as printer to Grand
Lodge. He appears to have taken sufficient pride in his own achievements to
justify advertising himself by placing his name prominently on printed summonses
as the engraver and printer of the list of
Masons' lodges giving his address at No. 109 Newgate Street, London. He also used his skill for his own benefit by producing the
most attractive trade card to publicise his activities. William Cole distributed
to his potential clients an engraved sheet worthy of recognition as a work of
art in its own right. The elaborate calligraphic text, in italic and various
type styles, is framed off centre on the 175mm x 215mm trade card. The
background can be moderately described as magnificent. It embodies heraldic
devices, banners, globes, young cherubs clothed in 18th century attire at work
in the various trades described on the trade card, emblems and other general
decor, showing an engraver at his very best. Only a modest representation of the
square, compasses and the level give a hint of a Masonic association.
The
text reads:
William
Cole
Engraver
Copper Plate Printer & Stationer/opposite Warwick
Lane/Newgate Street/London
Neatly engraves and Prints, Drafts,
Notes, Circulars, Letters, Shop Bills, & Cards,
Bills of Parcels, Visiting Cards &c
which are executed at the shortest notice
on the most equitable terms
While
we may learn much about William Cole through his trade card, it is still the
exquisite design of the background engraving that is most charming and of most
significance. Freemasons were often associated closely with the nobility and
gentry of the period. The use of copper-plate engravings by members of the
fraternity reflected an element of the elegance and prestige of contemporary
society. The square and compasses, plumb rule, globes and maul are objects which
appear repeatedly on a range of trade cards which are otherwise unconnected with
Freemasonry.
A
further example of early advertising ephemera is to be found in the widespread
identification of Freemasonry as a popular social activity. This led many
manufacturers to create products aimed at the fraternity. Music sheets, beer,
wine, tobacco and even match box labels appeared with Masonic brand names on
them. Prior to 1800 the quality of the printing on cigar labels, for instance,
could not match the beauty and colour of the later chromo-lithography. Smoking
and drinking, however, were popular activities and tobacco manufacturers and
vintners capitalised on their popularity. The earliest example we have of the
commercialisation of a Masonic brand is to be found in the tobacco trade. As
ships sailed from Scotland and England to America to return with Virginia
tobacco, manufacturers printed a range of packaging designs. A number of quaint
small sized labels about 55mm x 65mm all show Masons in their aprons. Stainer’s
Best Virginia has an engraved depiction, no doubt inspired by Benjamin
Cole’s frontispieces to the List of Lodges. An architect, the square in his
left hand, is pointing with his right to the plans for the building whilst two
Masons in their aprons observe and listen. Masonic tools are dispersed in the
foreground and buildings in the background. The tobacco brand is inscribed on a
rolled sheet supported by a pipe. Cigar smoking was seen as an expensive and
luxurious activity and later packaging reflected the fact with high quality,
often gold embossed, printing, even though many of the most fanciful and
expensive looking labels belonged to the lowest quality cigars.
Ephemera, early
ephemera in particular, gives us insights not available from other sources and
as collectors of guardians of artefacts, we will often find that the greatest
satisfaction in collecting is to be derived, not from the object itself, but
from the knowledge that we have been able to gain through it.
Bibliography
& Sources
Beresiner, Yasha
Aspects of Masonic Ephemera before 1813 AQC 111 (1998)
Crawley, W J
Chetwode, The Masonic Mss. in the Bodleian
Library AQC 11 (1898)
Crawley, W J
Chetwode, The Old Charges and Papal Bulls
AQC 24(1911)
Dashwood, J R
Newspaper advertisements (18th
century) AQC 70 (1957); AQC 71 (1958)
Dyer, Colin William
Preston and His Work Middlesex 1987
Fenton, S J The
Lodge Summons Dorset Masters Lodge Transactions Vol 19 (1928/9)
Knoop, Douglas;
Jones, G P & Hamer, Douglas The Early
MasonicCatechisms, QC London 1975
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Jones, G P & Hamer, Douglas Early
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London Aldershot 1990
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Theatres in the 18th Century AQC 93 (1980)
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Earliest Years of English Organised Freemasonry AQC 22 (1909)
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Sir Algernon (Compiled and Arranged by) Catalogue of Contents of the Museum at Freemasons' Hall in the
Possession of the United Grand Lodge of England 3 Volumes London 1938
