Freemasonry is a nursery in which the Order 

picks out those receptive for its most intimate secrets.[1]

 

 

In 1768, a new Lodge was founded by seven Masons in a small town named Wismar.

 

The fact that three of them - a German soldier, a Swedish one, a young German theologian – happened to meet in Wismar had unforeseen consequences. One of them was the birth of the Scottish Rectified Rite in the town of Lyons in France ten years later. The present paper will attempt to throw some light on how it happened.

 

 

The Mecklenburg Background

 

 

As the crow flies, Wismar is about 200 Km from Lund. It is a harbour located between Rostock and Lübeck, on the other side of the Baltic Sea, in the province of Mecklenburg. Which means in to-day’s Germany. However at that time, Wismar belonged to Sweden.[2]

 

A St Michael Lodge was founded in Schwerin on May 15, 1754, with a patent of the Premier Grand Lodge, bearing number 230. Its WM was Bro. Brünsich Edler von Brun zu Schwerin. Among the members, Baron von Dittmar and General-Major von Both. It closed on March 30, 1756.[3] No further masonic activity was registered in Mecklenburg until four years later.[4]

 

During a trip he made in 1759 to Berlin, Bro. von Handtwig [5] who was born in Riga and lived in Rostock, came in contact with Bro. Imbert, WM of Lodge La Concorde which belonged to the Mother Lodge The Three Globes from which Handtwig became a patent for a lodge in Rostock, zu den drei Sternen, dated June 10, 1760. The first officers were Handtwig as Master, Joachim Heinrich von Schröder (1725-1795) as Senior Warden, Ernst Ludwig Albrecht as Junior Warden and Dr. Peter Heinrich Behrmann, Senator of Rostock, as Orator. On December 4, 1760, Bro. Imbert came from Berlin to Rostock and opened an Ecossais Chapter, zur Sonne, grafted on the Rostock Lodge.[6] The Chapter worked after the system of the Hochkapitel von Deutschland, Schweden und Danemark (often named “Clermont Chapter” in masonic literature), opened in Berlin on July 19, 1760, that is with French rituals modified by Pastor Rosa.

 

Ernst Werner von Raven (1727-1787),[7] Herr auf Nossentin und Sparow (small villages located some 80 Km South from Rostock), was a member of the Lodge in Rostock and its WM 1764-1765. Together with J. H. von Schröder, he represented the Rostock Chapter at the convent of Altenberg (May 1764) [8] where both were knighted by von Hund, von Raven as Eq. a Margarita, von Schröder as Eq. a Grue. von Hund delivered a Patent to Raven as Prefect of “Eckhorst”,[9] Commissarius of the Rostock Chapter, whereas Schröder became one as Subprior of Lüneburg.[10] The Rostock Lodge passed over to the Strict Observance after their returned home and the Chapter changed its name into Carl zur Sonne in honor of von Hund.

 

A remarkable man whose masonic career was a quick one,[11] Johann Christian Schubart, was also knighted (Eq. a Struthione) at Altenberg by von Hund. Shortly afterwards, he began his propaganda action and convinced many lodges to adopt the Strict Observance system.[12] On January 3, 1765, he came to Hamburg and knighted nine Brethren, among others the Prov. Grand Master, Dr Jänisch (Eq. ab Urtica),[13] and the Subprior of the Hamburg Chapter founded by Rosa, Johann Gottfried von Exter (Eq. a Pino virente).[14] Hamburg became the seat of a Prefecture named Ivenak. From Hamburg, Schubart went to Copenhagen.[15] In June 1765, on his way back to Hamburg, Schubart stopped in Rostock and contacted von Schröder.[16]

 

 

The Wismar Lodge, the Clerics, the Embassy

 

 

-The Three Lions Lodge at Wismar [17]

 

Baron Friedrich von Vegesack was made a Mason in Hamburg in 1748 [18] and lived in Mecklenburg as a German captain in the service of Holland. He applied for a Warrant to the Lodge in Hamburg in order to found a Lodge at Wismar, became the answer that ‘things had changed a lot in the Order for some time, Hamburg could not warrant Lodges as it used to before’ and was refered to Herr von Schröder oder Dr. Behrmann in Rostock. However he sent his request to Ernst Werner von Raven who suggested he contacts Senator Behrmann, then Master of the lodge in Rostock. Vegesack sent a formal request dated September 13, 1766, to Behrmann,[19] signed by himself and four others : Major Johann von Böhnen, Swedish commanding officer at Wismar ; Counselor (Hofrath) Prof. August Schaarschmidt who lived at Bützow ; a Swedish officer, Lieutenant Georg Adolf von Sticht, and a German one, Captain (Hauptmann) Friedrich Heinrich von Bülow.

 

On October 20, von Böhnen who reputedly could not write German,[20] wrote in French to Behrmann :

[…] further we have discovered a man here whose name we ignore and whom we have not met yet, but he is from Schwerin and will establish himself in Wismar since he became assistant director of the local school, he is very well spoken of.[21]

A little later, Vegesack wrote to Schröder :

Starck is the name of the assistant director mentioned in Major von Böhnen’s letter, a very fine fellow and I believe a Scottish Master, I have not spoken to him yet because my wife was sick.[22]

 

The Warrant for the The Three Lions Lodge at Wismar, signed by J. H. von Schröder and von Raven, was drawn up on February 13, 1767. It included strong restrictions : the Lodge could not make Masons without getting permission first from that at Rostock, it must send the initiation fees to it and was practically deprived of all initiative.[23] The Lodge was installed on February 17 by Dr. Behrmann accompanied by Christian Nicolaus von Schröder (younger brother of Joachim Heinrich [24]), Dr. Oertling, Stadt-Secretair Pries and a servant from the Rostock Lodge, Bro. Steinbeck. Only six members of the Lodge attended : Vegesack as Master, Major von Böhnen as Senior Warden, Starck acting as Junior Warden in the absence of Schaarschmidt,[25] von Sticht sen., von Bülow and von Quillfeldt.[26]

 

Starck, aged twenty-six and a doctor in theology, was the youngest of the lot. He was made a Mason in a French military lodge in 1761 while studying at Göttingen.[27] In his posthumous book printed in 1970, Le Forestier acknowledges Starck’s intellectual superiority. But – to quote his own strong words – he acknowledges ‘his marked superiority over his colleagues in charlatanism’.[28] We will try to show that such a harsh judgment may not have been justified.

 

-The Clerics

 

On March 11, Vegesack, von Böhnen and Starck signed together a letter to von Schröder and von Raven in which they complained about the ‘inhuman behaviour’ of Behrmann.[29] Then, on March 31, Starck sent von Hund a first letter signed by himself alone. Since neither he nor the other members of the Wismar Lodge were acquainted with the Provincial Master’s name and address, the letter was handed over to von Schröder who agreed to forward it.[30]

 

Starck’s letter was printed twenty years later in Archidemides oder des Anti-Saint Nicaise zweyter Theil,[31] an anonymous pamphlet compiled by an old friend of von Hund, Christian Friedrich Kessler von Sprengseysen.[32] The gist of the letter was : ‘There is a certain Lodge located outside Germany which I wish would be brought in a clever way into the Strict Observance, especially within the Province of Your Eminence’. Starck explained that he had been one of the Lodge’s Officers and that the small group which led that Lodge possessed the inmost secret of the Order. Starck would be glad to help and return to that Lodge next Summer if the Strict Observance would entrust him with the necessary instructions in writing. He added that he had showed himself only as an Ecossois in his act of submission to the Strict Observance because he was bound to do so by the rule of that Lodge.

 

Joachim-Heinrich von Schröder having left Rostock for Wetzlar, von Hund’s Provincial Council gave von Raven the responsibility of negotiating further with the Wismar brethren under the greatest secrecy, with the exception of von Schröder.[33] Starck visited von Raven on April 17^th and sent him a long letter on the next day.[34] After mentioning first the changes which the Wismar Lodge desired, Starck stretched the following points :

·         Since he as well as Bro. von V. and von B. were invested with the highest masonic degrees and now showed themselves as such to the Strict Observance, they wished to be acknowledged and treated according to the rights owned by their predecessors (the Clerici), which they were still invested with.

·         Since the three of them hold the main offices of the Lodge, they desired to be informed of the Economic Plan.

·         They asked to be told the name of the Provincial Master.

Starck wrote he was aware that Raven could not take such decisions alone and asked him to forward their requests to the Province. If the Provincial Chapter rejected them, it would not matter at all : the three Wismar brethren would merely rejoin their original Chapters.

 

In a further letter written a few days later, Starck explained to von Raven that von Vegesack and von Böhnen had let him know the high masonic degrees they possessed only after von Schröder’s departure for Wetzlar. Having ascertained that his friends’ degrees were identical with his own, the three of them had begun to work together. Starck thought it was his duty to bring both his friends to his Chapter but was willing to do his best to convince his Chapter to unite with the Strict Observance.[35]

 

The Provincial Chapter granted Starck’s requests on May 25.[36] In a second letter to von Hund, July 6^th, Starck sent a Submission Act recognizing the authority of the Provincial Council. It was written in Latin and signed by himself, von Vegesack and von Böhnen with their clerical knights’ names : Archidemides ab Aquila Fulva,[37] Jacobus a Leone insurgente, Augustus ab Hippopotamo.[38] He added underneath that von Raven having joined the Clerics, his Order’s name as Prior Clericorum was Theodosius a Margarita.[39] On July 11, the Province’s Chancellor Jacobi informed von Raven that the Consilium wished to speed up the negotiations and intended to send an ambassador to Wismar as soon as von Raven gives them a green light.[40] A further letter from August 22 informed the Wismar brethren that the Provincial Chapter acknowledged all their rights, privileges and immunities as Clerics.[41]

 

Neither Behrmann nor Schubart were kept informed of the above, which explains why rumours circulated and conflicts developed.[42] In a letter to a unnamed correspondent – presumably Schubart – a Brother von Sehrohr asked :

Who has ever knighted Vegesack a Leone insurgente ? Frightful things nobody can give me information about. What can Vegesack know about the Provincial Master, we installed him here only up to the 4^th degree inclusively ? In God’s name give me full information as soon as possible, until I am properly instructed and informed I shall not acknowledge any a Leone insurgente. It is likely that S[ub]. P[rior]. von Cranich has already written to you about this. Please send me a straight answer […] [43]

Sehrohr’s letter fell into Vegesack’s hands and he answered :

Allow me to tell you, as your most sincere friend, that your crystal-clear note is the reason why I shall not engage myself further into nothing whatever for a long time; pardon my sincerity if I add that one must behave differently with tested friends and not convey the impression of using sensible Brethren who deserved well of the H. O. as rungs of a ladder upon which others (I let their selection undecided) climb. I was received in the Order of the Templars in France in 1749, for which reason I am rather familiar with the Inner Order ; long before you received the weak light of the first masonic degree, most venerable friend. You may well make fun of the Ph-l-s-ph-c-l [Lodge]. Do you know what is C-p-t-l-m- Cl-r-c-r-m Or-d-n-s T-mpl-r-o-r-m ? Are you aware of its prestige, of its privileges ? Then it will not have escaped your notice that these happy few not only don’t care much for hulls but also see further than our Brethren the Kn-ghts.

I shall not discuss the reasons of your belief or unbelief, time will see to that ; let me just assure you that we are neither weaklings to be threatened by a mother nor so young and our wings so tender that they may be cut off with a blunt knife.

Our mother chose to neglect us badly and the gentlemen R-R-r of the B. R-----rg [44] disregarded us like an elephant looking over a weak-sighted mole ; the latter will find out they made a considerable mistake, the former will acknowledge her wrongs, and then all concerned will have to do penance on the spot and mend their ways.

You see, most venerable friend, I have always been quite open with my friends. My character never changes. It will always be a true pleasure for me to embrace you as a Brother Knight, and since you have set a restriction, I shall inform you as soon as all misunderstandings have dissipated — You don’t want me to sign with the name I received when I entered the H. O. ; I obey, I may however sign myself as I wish to, that is, as your ever most truly faithful Order’s Brother.

Friederich von Vegesack

Wismar, August 5, 1767 [45]

 

On October 30, all the correspondence exchanged between the Council and Wismar were handed over to Schubart, asking for his opinion.[46] Schubart asks first whether the Clerics’ science could have originated in the St Petersburg’s Chapter under Colonel Melesino.[47] Since Starck considered that the meeting of both branches of the Order as a blessing from God, Schubart hopes he will not be disappointed. Schubart thinks necessary to send one or two brethren to Wismar, provided with full powers and precise instructions, in order to draw up a Treaty of Union and to raise Starck to the dignity of a Prefect whereas the ambassador should be raised by Starck to an equivalent dignity.

 

Accordingly, von Hund named ‘Br. Praefecten Franz Ritter vom Pfau’, his friend von Prangen, as an ambassador to Wismar, with full powers and instructions divided into eight points, signed by him manu propria on January 17, 1768.[48]

 

-The Embassy

 

·         As narrated by Jacobi [49]

From Kittlitz, von Prangen visited first Schubart in Leipzig. He arrived January 26 and found him sick. Schubart was with Jacobi, the Secretarium Ordinis, at that time not yet 23 years old, who finally accompanied von Prangen to Wismar where they arrived February 7.[50] Vegesack remained in Stralsund all the time Prangen and Jacobi were in Wismar.[51] von Prangen showed Starck and von Böhnen his accreditation at a meeting which Jacobi was not invited to attend.

                       

Another day, Starck showed them Clerical rituals, most of them written in Latin, and said they originated in the Province Auvergne in France. Jacobi made copies of them. Starck told them further that the fratres Clerici Ordinis were descendants (Abkömmlinge) of the Essenes. According to a summary of the story of the Clerical Order which Jacobi read while in Wismar, the Clerics came in contact with members of the Order of the Temple, such as a nephew of St. Bernard, named Montisbarrensis,[52] and received from St Bernard a special set of Rules at the beginning of the XII^th century.

 

Soon after their arrival in Wismar Prangen was made a Cleric by Starck in the presence of von Böhnen and of Bro. Günther,[53] a student in theology, while Jacobi, promoted as Curatore Domus Fratrum Clericorum, dressed in his usual Templar attire, attended as Tyler and watched the whole ceremony. It consisted of some psalms read in Latin, of other prayers with proper answers, and lasted less than half an hour. The participants were dressed in white robes down to their feet with a large red cross made in silk on their breasts and wore a purple cap similar to those of cardinals. Seven candles burning on the altar were set near to cups filled with water, oil and salt upon which Starck gave a benediction. He anointed von Prangen’s forehead and breast with oil and consecrated him as a Cleric under the name Frater Eucharius [54] a Pavone by setting a chain with a golden cross around his neck. No further clerical ritual was performed during their stay at Wismar.[55]

 

Prangen described the Strict Observance’s Economical Plan to Starck who reacted in a negative way, commenting it was against the dignity and true aims of the Order. Starck acquainted them with his departure for St Petersburg where he would discuss the modalities of an union between the spiritual and the secular branches of the Order. He had prepared a draft of a Pactum [56] which he handed over to Prangen for the attention of von Hund. As a token of the Clerics’ secrets Starck showed Prangen a piece of silver he made. At Starck’s invitation, Senator Behrmann and von Schröder came to Wismar. They were quite surprised when von Prangen told them about Starck’s great knowledge and of his secret foreign ties. Behrmann made strong negative remarks upon Starck whom he knew since his youth.[57]

 

They remained nearly six weeks in Wismar, during which Jacobi made copies of Starck’s rituals and documents. They were heartily treated by local Brethren, especially by von Both.[58] On their way back, they spent a few days at von Raven’s in Nossentin, then returned over Berlin and Cottbus to Kittlitz where they arrived middle of March.

 

·         What Jacobi did not know

Jacobi seems to have ignored that on February 10, likely during the meeting at which he was not invited, a provisional treaty was signed by von Prangen, von Böhnen and Starck, which expressed both parties’ agreement to instruct each other of their respective systems.[59] Nor did he know that on February 12, von Prangen, von Böhnen and Starck signed a joined text which included the Clerics answers to the eight points formulated by von Hund in von Prangen’s instructions.[60]

 

Once these documents were agreed upon, von Prangen and Jacobi were received into the Clerics and on February 22, von Prangen opened a Chapter during which several Brethren were promoted.[61] Starck also gave von Prangen a long text for the attention of von Hund. It was entitled Unvorgreifliche Gedanken über die Verbindung der klerikalischen Branche mit der weltlichen in der siebenten Provinz von seiten der regulierten Kanoniker des Ordens im Subpriorat Ratzeburg.[62] Its beginning described the creation of the Clerics in 1099 by Godefroy of Bouillon [63] and was followed with a sketch of the Order’s inner organization.

 

·         Consequences of the embassy

It can hardly be a coincidence that Vegesack remained away during the ambassadors’ visit and that on March 4 von Both became WM of the Wismar’s Lodge in his stead.[64] And it is likely no coincidence either that on June 6, Schubart demitted from all his charges in the Strict Observance.[65]

 

In the mean time, Starck had returned to St Petersburg where he was employed as private secretary and preceptor by Prince Wiäsemskoi.[66] On September 21, 1768, he drew up a patent naming von Raven Prior of the Wismar Chapter.[67]

 

May 28, 1770, Starck wrote from Königsberg [68] to von Hund that the Brethren at St Petersburg handed him over their documents as well as two letters, one written by Zinnendorf and another written from Sweden by Baumann,[69] to ‘one of our Brothers’ [likely von Böhnen] asking him to instruct them.[70] He wrote to von Hund again on June 21 and November 25, 1770.[71] In the latter letter Starck informed von Hund that he succeeded in completing the Order’s documents of which he made a list.[72] A new and last degree, Eques Professus, was introduced by von Hund the same year and was first conferred upon a French visitor, the elder Count of Brühl, Eq. a Gladio ancipiti, on November 25.[73]

 

On February 29, 1772, von Raven wrote to von Hund that von Böhnen had returned to Sweden after being excluded from the Wismar Chapter for having entered into negotiations with, and revealed some secrets to, Zinnendorf and that Vegesack had also left for Sweden and was not expected to return.[74]

 

A few weeks later, Starck sent von Raven the Pactum Fundamentale through which both branches of the Order were to remain united forever. von Raven forwarded it to von Hund together with a letter dated April 24, 1772.[75] The Pactum was ratified at the Convent of Kohlo in June 1772.[76] Starck was not present and von Raven represented the Clerics.[77] Once the Pactum was ratified, Raven handed over the improved rituals of the first four degrees, that of the [Squire] Novice as well as the historia ordinis, all of which were then adopted.[78]

 

The union between the Strict Observance and the Clerics lasted less than six years. On May 10, 1778, Starck sent a document to von Raven announcing the suspension of the relationship between the Wismar Chapter and the VII^th Province.[79] The same year he founded a small secret group, the Sieben Verbündeten (the Seven Allies),[80] and never engaged in masonic official activities again. [81] Named in 1781 Oberhofprediger at the court of Darmstadt where he resided for the rest of his life, his influence upon masonic rituals was never to disappear. Two years after the Convent of Kohlo, they arrived in France.

 

 

The Strict Observance in France

 

 

La Candeur, a French Lodge founded in 1763 in Strasbourg, felt so strongly about the recent events inside French Freemasonry which led to the interdiction of Grand Lodge meetings in 1767 that it applied to the “Modern” Grand Lodge for an English Warrant and became Nr. 429, dated May 2, 1772.[82]

 

Then, within a matter of days, the Lodge heard for the first time about the Strict Observance through one of its members, Antoine Joseph, Count of Lützelburg (b. 1739), who returned from Saxony. On May 10, 1772, the inner circle (seven Brethren) of La Candeur wrote a letter to Dresden asking to be admitted in the Order. von Hund let Major von Weiler [83] answer June 5 and on August 12 answered himself the formal request dated June 25 sent from Strasbourg, announcing that he had decided to ‘re-establish’ the Templar Province of Burgundy and that Weiler would come in person to Strasbourg proceed with the formal installation, [84] which Weiler did in September 1773.

 

La Candeur dispatched letters to Bordeaux, Montpellier and Lyons, announcing that it now belonged to ‘the Reform of Dresden’. Its first letter to Lyons, written November 6, 1772, explained :

Filled with respect and admiration for the acts of virtue and of benevolence through which Masonry is known in Germany, having heard that its reformation was completed after eight years of work […], we aspired to enter the sanctuary in which the knowledge and workings of more than two hundred Lodges are deposited ; we succeeded after exerting ourselves to the uppermost and are fortunate enough to have been recently admitted within that reform with distinctions and privileges which flatter us all the more that they grant us the means and power to let Brethren who would inform us of their wish share our fortune.

Willermoz (1730-1824) sent a guarded answer in his capacity of Past Grand Master and present Keeper of the Seals and Archives of the Grande Loge des Maîtres in Lyons. He explained at length Lyons’ negative position regarding the Grand Lodge in Paris and asked for further details. Eventually, Willermoz wrote to Dresden and after many letters exchanged with Weiler, the latter returned to France and “re-established” the Province of Auvergne in July 1774 in Lyons.[85]

 

Weiler brought the Strict Observance rituals to Strasbourg in 1773, to Lyons in 1774, and conferred the degrees on members of both Chapters up to the Eques Professus. The latter degree, deeply modified by Willermoz in its new form of Grands Profès, was conferred on thirteen Brethren, among them Jean de Türckheim, during the Convent des Gaules held at Lyons, November 25 to December 10, 1778.[86]

 

 

Some fifteen years ago, my friend René Guilly (1921-1992), an expert in the field of the rituals of the Rectified Scottish Rite, discovered in Germany a ninety pages long set of rituals in French, certified in parts by Starck on March 16, 1774. He ascertained ‘their striking analogies with the rituals of the Strict Observance used in Lyons in 1775 and those agreed upon at the Convent des Gaules’ and wrote :

It is, to say the least, curious and interesting to find him [Starck] thus partly at the source of the French Rectified Scottish Régime and even possibly, who knows ?, of its esoteric “calling”.[87]

Like most French masonic scholars, he could not read German well and was unfamiliar with the history of German Freemasonry.

 

These were the rituals adopted at Kohlo in 1772, translated into French by Abraham Benard.[88] They are nearly identical with those used by Weiler while instructing the young Chapter of the new II. Province in Lyons in 1774, annotated in his handwriting.[89] Modified by Willermoz and the Strasbourg Brethren, they were approved at the Convent of Wilhelmsbad (1782). Willermoz kept on “improving” some of them until 1809. 

 

 

The 20^th Century – New Information

 

 

Besides hitherto unknown letters exchanged between Starck and Nettelbladt in 1808-1809, published by Ferdinand Runkel in 1932, some documents rediscovered within the last fifteen years throw a new light upon the history of the Strict Observance in its relationship with Vegesack and Johann Starck.

·         In 1994, Werner Zimmermann transcribed Diethelm Lavater’s unpublished correspondence 1801-1826 which included many letters he received from Starck between 1809 and 1815.

·         In 1997, André Kervella et Philippe Lestienne published and commented a manuscript document dated 1750 they unearthed in Quimper (France) in the archives of the Finistère department. It showed among the illustrious G. M. of the Ordre Sublime des Chevaliers Elus [Sublime Order of Elected Knights], a member named ‘Dambourg le Baron de Veylask’ (read : From Hambourg the Baron von Vegesack).

·         In 2002, Pierre Mollier, Archivist of the Grand Orient of France, recognized the importance of an original manuscript included in a batch sent from Moscow to the Grand Orient of France, a power delivered on his request to ‘Frederique de Vegesack, C. E. [Chevalier Elu]’, dated August 4, 1749, signed by Massanes, ‘GM of the Sublime Order of Elected Knights’, countersigned in Amsterdam and likely drawn up in Montpellier, which empowered Vegesack to establish a Chapter in three towns of Germany.[90]

 

Starck’s correspondence with Nettelbladt 

 

Out of a blue sky, in October 1808, Starck received in Darmstadt a letter from a very young Mason in Rostock, Christian Carl Friedrich Wilhelm, Freiherr von Nettelbladt.[91] Nettelbladt wrote to Starck that he happened to be in Wismar in 1805 and heard that the archives of the Three Lions Lodge were in possession of a Brother Schultesius.[92] He met him, their contact was good, and Schultesius showed him the archives among which were two rather thick volumes of Minutes, letters and documents pertaining to the Order such as the Historia ordinis contracta, the ritual for the Hohen Schotten, the Rituale consecrationis cum officio magno as well as the cipher used by the Clerics.[93] Nettelbladt hoped to return to Wismar but was prevented to do so ‘because of the French invasion’. Later on, he heard that Schultesius had died and that the documents in his possession were looked after by various ‘unauthorized’ persons. Whereupon Nettelbladt decided to write to Starck on October 26, 1808, telling him the above.[94]

 

In his next letter, on November 16, he asked Starck, in his capacity as last living member of the Wismar Lodge, to name a proxy who would take care of the documents. Which Starck did in his answer from December 1, authorizing Nettelbladt to read the documents pertaining to the Clerics but asking him to send them to him.[95]

 

Starck reacted quickly. He requested von Raven’s brother [96] to send him all the documents in his possession and informed Nettelbladt that he received them. About the other documents, if Nettelbladt wished to have some, Starck would send them back to him under the condition to keep them for his sole use. He authorized Nettelbladt to keep the letters written by von Raven, von Schröder, Behrmann, von Vegesack und von Böhnen.[97]

 

In his last and long letter to Nettelbladt,[98] Starck described what happened at Wismar from his point of view :

Vegesack was Master, von Böhnen and myself Senior and Junior Wardens of the Wismar Lodge. When we negotiated in order to be released from the heavy yoke imposed upon us by the Three Stars Lodge in Rostock because of the Economic Plan, Schröder declined to enter into discussion with Vegesack […] there were also difficulties with von Böhnen who as a Swede was unable to express himself in writing in German ; consequently I was the only one left to lead the whole affair, although I did nothing and could do nothing without Vegesack and Böhnen. This is why I was taken as the main person in the matter. For sure, I had important relations with the remains of the Scottish Chapter at Petersburg ; later I got everything they possessed in my hands and also what another Brother from that Chapter, who died in 1764 and was famous the world over, had collected in Italy, France and Scotland ; however, notwithstanding all this, I was neither alone nor the main person. Vegesack’s knowledge was far from common : I still own a copy of the patent he received as a Cleric from Count de la Tour du Pin and Böhnen was a member of the Swedish Chapter.[99] All I could do was to bring to the Strict Observance the Lodge in St Petersburg in which were the remains of the Scottish Chapter. At least, that is what I hoped for, but I failed because these Brethren did not attend the Lodge any more, had retired from everything and requested I should do the same, which I did. Raven and Both joined us even before Vegesack and Böhnen went to Sweden and later they took over their offices. […] I never looked for honors or benefits in, with or through Freemasonry. […] Besides my father was a rich man [100] and I have always been more than adequately paid in the various posts I occupied since I was twenty-three.[101]

Toward the end of the letter, Starck mentions his admiration for Jean de Türckheim ‘who also belonged to the Order…’ [102]

 

Starck’s correspondence with Diethelm Lavater [103]

 

Less than a year after having received young Nettelbladt’s first letter, Starck received one from his contemporary, Diethelm Lavater.[104] They had met once when Lavater visited Starck in Darmstadt on his way back from the Wilhelsmbad’s Convent to his home in Zurich.[105] In his first letter, July 15, 1809, Lavater reminded Starck of his visit and explained he was writing to him because he happened to reread one of Starck’s books recently. It was the beginning of a long correspondence : within the next six years they exchanged eighty-seven letters. For the present paper, their main interest resides in what Starck tells Lavater about his masonic experience and ties, before and after the founding of the Wismar Lodge, as well as in his judgment upon the Strict Observance. He does not seem to have ever gone into so many details in earlier writings or ever expressed himself so clearly.

 

After giving a few examples illustrating that the tradition of the Strict Observance was obviously incomplete, Starck adds :

It is no less certain however that the explanation [Aufschluss] of the Order by means of the history of the Templars is a correct one. And if it is true that one cannot explain everything in Freemasonry through the history of the Templars only, on the other hand there are various aspects of Freemasonry which cannot be explained without the Templars’ history.[106] Which explains why systems older than von Hund’s have always made allowance for the Templars’ Order. The Clermont system – or, as it was named later, the system of Rosa – ended with it. In Sweden as well, the ultimate explanation of the Order refers to the Templars’ Order. All this is much older than von Hund’s system. And now if you want to add my testimony, I shall tell you that in 1763 […] I made the personal acquaintance of the last Grand Master of the Order of the Temple whose name in the series of the Magister Ordinis is a Sole aureo. This was Count Belford who took refuge in Russia after the Scottish rebellion, a man aged about sixty, afflicted with gout, who at that time lived at the house of the Great Chancellor Voroncov who supported him. The conclusion which can and must be drawn from all this is that the masonic Order has a historical secret, which is that the Order of the Templars is hidden under the veil of Masonry and that the latter is a derivation from the former.[107]

Again, Starck mentions both Belford and Voroncov in a later letter :

Natter, for sure a great engraver and expert in antiquities, was not a man who would have forged such things. The same applies to Lord Oghiv [108] from whom everything came. All these men had no interest to deceive each other – and myself – with false and invented information and they could have none. […] Moreover the last Grand Master of the Order, Lord Belford, who lived at Grand Chancellor’s Voroncof’s house after his flight from Scotland, told me that Oghiv imparted the only true and real facts but to a minority of Brethren.[109]

Starck was even more specific in 1813 :

[…] attempts were made to restore a few Chapters, however they went out one after the other. The last one was established by Scotland in St Petersburg through Oghiv and Williams, but in the [seventeen] sixties it had only three members left. Everything we have comes from them and it is forever severed from Masonry since 1774. [110]

And the ‘list of the Grand Masters of the Templar Order since 1628’, included in Starck’s letter from November 21, 1813, ends with ‘Robert, Count Belford, Eques a Sole aureo, who died in Russia in 1765’.[111]

 

The Quimper MS

 

The manuscript discovered by Kervella and Lestienne [112] has 13 folios and is divided into seven sections :

1.       Statutes of the Order in 7 articles,

2.       a list of illustrious Grand Masters (reproduced in Annex 2 to this paper) and a list of Grand Officers both listing first ‘le Comte de La Tour du Pin’; the name of each Grand Master is preceded by a province or a town in France or abroad,

3.       Statutes in 10 articles signed ‘Massanes’,

4.       the sketch of a ritual entitled ‘Maniere de recevoir un f. dans Lo. S.D.C.E.’ [Manner of receiving a Bro. in the Sublime Order of Elected Knights],

5.       a catechism comprising 82 questions and answers,

6.       the text of a blank certificate bearing dated ‘D.L.L. 1750 ou de L. M. 5750 de N. f. 632’,

7.       a text of some 900 words describing the vengeance of King Salomo after the body of Adoniram was found. It is remarkable because here, as well as in the catechism, the words Kadoch and essens [Essenes] are met with.[113].

It is not less remarkable to see here the name of Count de La Tour du Pin mentioned by Starck in his letter to Nettelbladt from September 14, 1809, quoted above.

 

The Vegesack patent

 

Pierre Mollier was kind enough to send me the following document which I transcribed and commented in a paper issued in 2002.[114] It allowed Vegesack to establish a Chapter in Hamburg, Bremen and Schwerin :

 

A L’Orient d’un Lieu elevé ou regnent Le Silence, La Charité, et La Concorde.

 

Nous G. M. de L’O. S. des C. E. ayant Egard à la Requête qui Nous à étée

presentée par Le T. R. F. Frederique de Vegesack C. E., afin d’obtenir de Nous

la permission d’etablir un chapitre dans les Villes de Hambourg, Lubeck, et

Swerin, connoissant come Nous le faisons Son attachement à L A. R ,

Sa prudence, Sa charité, Sa douceur de carractere et les autres qualités

indispensables, dont Il est doué dans un degré , eminant Nous luy avons

accordé Sa demande et Luy avons donné Nos pouvoirs, áfin qu’Il puisse

faire volablement touttes les fonctions qu’exigent Sa dignité en Se

conformant au prealable à tout ce qui est porté par l’article 3 ^me des

Statuts touchant des pareils Etablissemens . En foy de quoi Nous Luy

avons fait expédier les presentes signées de Nôtre Main scellées du

grand Sceau de L’O. et contre signées par un Assistant et Secretaire

du C. d’Amsterdam le 4 ^me Aout L’an de grace 1749 de L. M. 5749, et

de N. F. 631.

          P. Massanes  K.

             F             G. M

Par Mandement du T. I. G. M.

P. Jean Jacob Frantz. K.

             P: La fuy K :              C. E. Assistant et Secretaire.

             Dp :  g :  m. 

 

 

Antoine Meunier de Précourt, one more piece of the puzzle

 

As I tried to identify the ‘Great Chancellor Voroncov’ mentioned twice in Starck’s letters to Lavater, I found on the Web a paper entitled Les Français de la Volga : La politique migratoire russe des années 1760 et la formation des communautés francophones à Saint-Pétersbourg et à Moscou.[115] And I found therein a familiar name, that of Meunier de Précourt :

Au tout début de l’année 1777 le vice-consul de France à Moscou, Pierre Martin, rédigea une liste des Français domiciliés dans l’ancienne capitale de Russie. Ce précieux document que j’ai analysé ailleurs contient une partie sous le titre « Etat des François et Françoises qui ont été sollicités de passer en Russie comme colons par les Srs. Meunier de Précourt et Hauterive, tant à Paris qu'en Allemagne etc. ». […]

Le fonds de la Chancellerie de tutelle des étrangers aux Archives d’Etat des Actes anciens (RGADA) contient un dossier sur les contrats passés avec les colons. S’y trouve une liste des 55 colons français, arrivés en 1764 à St.-Pétersbourg accompagnés des recruteurs célèbres, De Boffe et Meunier de Précourt. […]

Le 6 août 1764 le ministre plénipotentiaire de la Russie à Paris le pr. D. A. Golicyn envoya à Saint-Pétersbourg la relation par laquelle il avisa la Chancellerie que les trois directeurs Meunier de Précourt, de Boff et d’Hauterive « levaient » avec beaucoup de succès des colons en Allemagne et qu’un bon nombre devaient en ces jours-ci arriver à Lübeck pour être acheminés à Saint-Pétersbourg. Un mémoire était joint à la relation du ministre, probablement de la main de Meunier de Précourt dont les talents littéraires étaient bien connus. […]

L’envoyé russe à la Haye le comte A. S. Musin-Puskin informait la Chancellerie de tutelle à la fin du mois d’août 1764 qu’il envoyait le jour même à Lübeck Meunier de Précourt avec ses 30 colons tirés de la France et Jean de Boff en tête du groupe de 17 colons.

 

Antoine Meunier de Précourt was Master of Lodge St Jean des parfaits Amis in Metz since 1759, his writings and masonic activity are well documented in France until 1763.[116] He is listed as ‘Antoine Mesnil [sic] de Precourt, Direktor der Russischen Kolonie, Eq. a Nodo’, among the Masons knighted in 1764 by von Hund in Altenberg and as a member of the Hamburg Prefecture.[117]

 

 

Let us put all this in context and try to ascertain if Starck actually invented his rituals and system or if there is a possibility that he transmitted older ones.[118]

 

The geographical locations of the ‘Illustrious Grand Masters’ listed in the Quimper MS [119] suggest that the theme Freemasonry / Essenes / Kadosch / Templars was familiar in France and abroad as early as 1749 and not, as it was believed until recently, as late as 1761.

 

Further clues point to the same direction :

·         In 1782, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz made the following declaration at the Convent of Wilhelmsbad :

As early as 1752, that is thirty years ago, having been elected to lead the Lodge in which I had been received and not being connected in any way either with the late Rev. Br. ab Ense [von Hund] [120] or with any follower of his system, I mysteriously taught those upon whom I conferred the 4th degree of the Lodge that they became herewith successors to the Knight Templars and their knowledge ; I repeated this and have repeated it ten years long, the way I learned it from my predecessor who himself had learned it from an ancient tradition the origin of which he ignored.[121]

·         In pamphlets printed in 1893 which reproduced masonic archives discovered in an attic in the town of Lyons, there is a very short ritual, dated 1754, entitled ‘Le Noviciat’.[122] Its wording and the ceremony it describes show much likeness with the Reception of a secular Novice (Aufnahme eines weltlichen Novizen) sent by Starck to von Hund in 1770.[123] One sentence is identical in both texts:

The Master of Ceremonies puts out the candles and says : — I do this in memory of those who were and are no more.

Bei dem Auslöschen der Lichter sagt er : — Das thue ich zum Gedächtnis derer, die gewesen sind und nicht mehr sind. [124]

·         On 11 September 1759, De Barailh, Master of a military Lodge in Nya-Ålfsborg near Göteborg (Sweden), gave full powers to confer the degree of ‘chevalier d’Occident et Royal arche, dernier grade de la maçonnerie suédoise’ to the Swedish Lieutenant Freiherr Bjönberg.[125] Until a few years ago, it was thought that the Templar-Kadosch theme had first appeared in France when De Barailh, returning from Sweden, arrived in Metz in March 1761. Three months later, Meunier de Précourt, Master of Lodge Les Parfaits Amis in Metz, sent to Willermoz in Lyons a long letter listing the twenty-one degrees he was familiar with, ending with the Knight Grand Inspector Grand Elect last degree.[126] He sent the catechism of the degree to Willermoz who made a copy of it, dated July 25, 1761.[127] It includes 52 questions and answers which are practically identical with those of the Quimper MS.[128]

·         In 1751, Baron de Tschoudy was Master of the Loge Ancienne in Metz. He left Metz for St. Petersburg, stayed there from 1758 to 1760, returned to Metz and became Master of Lodge St. Jean [or St. Etienne] de l'Amitié in 1762. In 1781, a French Mason named Labady [129] published a pamphlet, ‘G.J.G.E., ou Chevalier Kados; connu aussi sous les titres de Chevalier Élu, de Chevalier de l'Aigle-Noir’ (Grand Inspector, Grand Elect. or Knight Kados, also known under the titles of Elected Knight, of Knight of the Black-Eagle) which reproduced a manuscript degree written by Baron de Tschoudy.[130] It opens with a ‘Historical Abstract of the ancient Religious [131] and Military Order of the Knights of the Temple, as communicated after the Reception’ (pp. 25-55), followed with a ritual part entitled Forme de Réception (pp. 55-63) and an Instruction [catechism] of 77 questions and answers (pp. 63-82). The Tschoudy’s Instruction is practically identical with the Quimper MS catechism which cannot be later than 1750. Both include the sentence ‘they were named Kadosch which means Saint. They [were also] known under the name Essenes’. Nothing shows whether it was composed or copied by Tschoudy and when. However it must have been before 1769, since Tschoudy died then. Didn’t Starck tell Jacobi and Prangen in Wismar that the fratres Clerici Ordinis were descendants (Abkömmlinge) of the Essenes ? [132]

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

The foundation of the Three Lions Lodge was a milestone in the history of Freemasonry because two men – not to mention von Böhnen whose contribution remains unclear – who ‘must have remain’d at a perpetual Distance’ had they not been Masons, happened to meet in Wismar. Their accidental meeting resulted first in the creation – or revival ? – of the Clerics and, ten years later, in the birth of the present Scottish Rectified Rite. These two men were accused of being liars and charlatans. I consider the accusation as unjustified. [133]

 

Vegesack was telling the truth when he wrote in 1767 : ‘I was received in the Order of the Templars in France in 1749, for which reason I am rather familiar with the Inner Order’, conceding that the Order he belonged to in 1749 may have been different from von Hund’s Strict Observance system.

 

Starck also told the truth when he wrote to Lavater : ‘Vegesack’s knowledge was far from common : I still own a copy of the patent he received as a Cleric from Count de la Tour du Pin’, although we ignore if that patent was the one transcribed above or a different one and readily admit that the words ‘as a Cleric’ may not accurately fit the facts.

 

However, Starck taught at the Petrinum school at St. Petersburg between 1763 and 1765 [134] and there is a distinct possibility that he heard then – directly or through others – about the contents of the Quimper ritual which Précourt and Tschoudy seem to have been familiar with.

 

His non-masonic life does not agree with that of a liar or of a charlatan. A contemporary wrote :

His wife looks intelligent and sensible, but speaks little.[135] Their house is so beautiful and shows so much taste that one feels comfortable as soon as one enters it. Their union is a happy one, although childless which they make good with their common love for birds and dogs.[136]

And his achievements in the field of theology – which do not seem to have retained the attention of most masonic historians [137] – were highly praised by Gustav Krüger in 1931,[138] thus illustrating Runkel’s remark made one year later : ‘Starck is the father of the comparative study of religions’,[139] which is no small compliment.

 

In spite of his unusual culture, he may have been credulous… but who wasn’t in those times and even in our present days ? In 1810, at a time when there was no need for him not to tell the truth, Starck wrote to Lavater :

All these men had no interest to deceive each other – and myself – with false and invented information and they could have none.

Shouldn’t we apply to Starck the very words he used to describe the Masons he met in St Petersburg ?

 

 

Alain Bernheim

Annex 1

 

Membership of the Three Lions Lodge at Wismar

 

Prof. Andreas Önnefors was kind enough to send me Xerox copies of three manuscript documents preserved in the Order’s archives in Copenhagen under the reference F xxvi.

 

One is an undated manuscript reproducing the text of the Strict Obedience’s Obedienz Act (hereafter O A) signed by 31 Brethren at Wismar (Table 1A) who added in their own handwriting their birthdate and birthplace. The first name is that of Friedrich von Vegesack, founding Master of the Lodge, the last one that of Carl Ludwig Alexander Müller who was made on 5 January 1768.[140]

 

The other two are manuscript lists of members of the Lodge (hereafter D 1 and D 2). D 1 is entitled : Verzeichnis der zu der gerechten und vollkommenen Loge Zu denen 3 Löwen gehörenden Glieder den 30^ter May 1769 and includes 56 names. D 2 is entitled : Bestand der Loge Zu den Drey Loewen. It is not dated. Its 44^th and last name is that of Peter Heinrich Proel, a serving Brother, who was made on 1 November 1769. Since the next member of the Lodge was the Swedish Kapellmeister Perichon who was affiliated on 11 December 1769,[141] D 2 must have been drawn up between both these dates.

 

Both D 1 and D 2 have the same fields : number, family and Christian name, date and place of birth, profession, religion (Lutherian for all of them) and place of residence. However the sequence in which members are listed is different. D 2 has as first field : Degree (Classis), beginning with Classis V down to Classis I. D 1 lists Masters first (numbered from 1 to 7), followed with the remark ‘There are no Fellow-Crafts at the moment’, then Apprentices (numbered from 1 to 8), then Scots, Schotten (numbered from 1 to 16), one Wachtmeister (likely Tyler or possibly janitor) and four serving brethren. D 2’s last column is entitled ‘Comments’ (Anmerkungen).

 

These three documents are hereafter compared with the Matrikel der Loge zu den drei Löwen in Wismar included in the first volume (1854) of August Friedrich Polick’s Beiträge zur Geschichte der Freimaurerei in den beiden Grossherzogthümern Mecklenburg. Polick listed 53 Brethren - 7 Founders and 46 members - who were made in, or affiliated with, the Lodge between its foundation and 24 June 1771. This list is followed with a further list of 24 names which Polick took from another list of members, mentioned in his book, p. 53.[142] For most of them Polick added interesting comments.

 

However dates and names’ spellings are not always the same in these four documents.

Table 1A [143]

Sequence of signatories of the Obedienz Akt  

 

1          Fried v Vegesack

2          Johan von Böhnen

3          Johann August Starck

4          Conrad Friedrich von Quillfeldt

5          Georg Adolphe von Sticht

6          Friederich Heinerich von Bulow

7          Johann Friedrich Nölting

8          Carl Hendrich von Sticht

9          Andreas Wulff

10          Christopher de Zülow

11          Johann Ehrenfried Jacob Dahlmann

12          August Schaarschmidt

13          Hartwig Gotthard Hans von Both

14          Carl Fredrich Peresvetoff Morath

15          M. C. Schroeder

16          A. W. Keÿl

17          F. C. L. Saurkohl

18          G. Ende

19          Heinrich Wilhelm Hasperg

20          J. Poel

21          Heinrich Steinhagen

22          Carl Friedrich Dahlmann

23          Christian Heinrich Kiesewetter

24          Conradt Joachim Baleke

25          Daniel Heinrich Thomas

26          Nils Rosén

27          Jac Jon Enander

28          Claes Fromhold von Köhler

29          Ernst Ferdinand Adlershähle

30          Carl Fromhold Tallberg

31          Carl Ludwig Alexander Müller

   Table 1B.

Sequence of names in document D 1

 

 

Meister (Masters)

1. Fried: Heinr : von Bülow

2. Nils Roseen

3. Carl Fromhold Tallberg

4. Hans Thunmann

5. Franz Christ: Saurkohl

6. Ferdinand v. Adlershöhl

7. N. N. von Koschkull

 

Gesellen haben wir jetzt nicht (There are no Fellow-Crafts at the moment)

 

Lehrlinge (Apprentices)

 

1. M. C. Schroeder

2. Christ. Hein: Kiesewetter

3. Conr: Joach: Baleke

4. Carl Fried: Ulrich von Both

5. Carl Lud: Müller

6. Georg Jacob Kolbe

7. Lorenz Pet: Almquist

8. Peter  Fenger

 

Schotten (Scots)

 

1. Hartw: Gotth: Hans v: Both

2. Fried: v. Vegesack

3. Johann v. Böhnen

4. Aug: Schaarschmidt

5. Joh: Aug: Starck

6. Georg Adolf v. Sticht

7. Carl Fried: Peres: v: Morath

8. Carl Conr: Fried v: Quillfeldt

9. Dan: Hein: Thomas

10. Jacob Joh: Enander

11. Carl Fromhold v. Köhler

12. F. G. Westphal

13. Joh: Ehr: Jacob Dählmann

14. Carl Fried: Dählmann

15. Elias Lomberg

16. Joh: Fried: Nölting

 

Wachtmeister (Tyler or janitor)

 

Carl Frid: v: Sticht

 

Dienende Brüder (Serving Brethren)

 

1. And: Wulff

2. Aug: Keyl

3. Gottfried Ende

4. Heinrich Steinhagen

 

Table 1C.

Sequence of names in document D 2

 

 

 

Classis V

1. Friedrich Baron vonVegesack

2. Johann v Böhnen

3. Johann Aug: Starck

4. Hartwig Gotthard Hans v Both

5. C. F. P. v. Morath

6. Daniel Heinrich Thomas

Classis IV

7. Jac: Ehrenfried Dählmann Senior

8. C. F. v. Köhler

9. G. A. v. Sticht Senior

10. C. F. v. Quillfeldt

11. Jac: Joh: Enander

12. crossed out [= Baron v. Koschkull]

13. Aug: Schaarschmidt

14. N. N. Pouel

15. C. F. Dählmann junior

16. N. N. Westphal

17. Elias Lomberg

18. Joach: Ernst Fried: v. d. Lühe

19. Carl Hinrich v. Sticht junior

20. Johann Fried: Nölting

Classis III

21. Fr: Heinr: v. Bülow

22. Nils Roseen

23. Ferd: v. Adlershähl

24. Hans Thunmann

25. Franz Chr: Lud: Saurkohl

26. Fromhold v. Thallberg

27. N. N. Kolbe

28. Anton Dettlof Schönermann

29. August Keyl

30. Heinrich Steinhagen

31. Andreas Wulff

Classis II

32. Fried: Lud: Ulrich v. Klein

33. Peter Fenger

34. Gottfried Ende

Classis I

35. M. C. Schroeder

36. Christ: Heinrich Kiesewetter

37. Con: Joach: Balecke

38. Carl Lud: Alex: Müller

39. Carl Fried: Böttiger

40. Carl Fried: Ulrich von Both

41. Lorenz Peter Almenquist

42. Joh: Fried: Berg

43. Joach: Fried: Christ: Dabilow

44. Peter Heinrich Proel

 

1D. Members of the Lodge

 

Listed in the order and with the numbers given by Polick 1854, I: 106-117.

Birthplace and birthdate italicized when taken from the manuscript Obedienz Akt (O A).

The last line shows the degree after D 2.

 

Founding Members

 

1

Vegesack, Friedrich Baron von [144]

Körchau - 8 October 1725

V - Schotten - Capitain in holland. Dienst - In Wismar

 

2

Böhnen, Johann von [145]

Christianstadt - 21 June 1726

V - Schotten - Major und Ritter in Schwed. Dienst. - Commandant in Wismar

 

3

Starck, Johann August [146]

Schwerin - 28 October 1741

V - Schotten - Magister Philosophie - In Petersburg

 

4

Sticht (senior), Georg Adolf von [147]

Schweden - 12 April 1735

IV - Schotten - Capitain in Schwedischen Diensten - In Schweden

 

5

Bülow, Friederich Heinerich von [148]

Neuhaus in Lüneburg - 4 September 1737

III - M - Capitain ausser Diensten - Zu Spriehusen in Mecklenburg

 

6

Quillfeldt, Conrad Friedrich von [149]

Stralsund – 16 June 1736

IV - Schotten - Lieutenant in Schwedischen Diensten - In Stralsund

 

7

Schaarschmidt, August [150]

Halle - 6 October 1720

IV - Schotten - Docteur en Medicine - In Butzow

 

Members

 

The first line shows the date of making

(when followed with the letter A, the date of affiliation)

after Polick.

 

8

1767, 18 February

Nölting, Johann Friedrich [151]

Hannover - 26 October 1736

IV - Schotten - Cand. en Droit - In Wismar

 

9

1767, 18 February

Sticht (junior), Carl Heinrich (D 1 :Carl Friedr.) von [152]

Schweden - 24 August 1749

III - Bas Officier in Schwed. Dienste - in Wismar

 

10

1767, 5 March (A)

Zulow, Christopher de [153]

Blucher in Mecklenburg - 3 December 1703

 

11

1767, 5 March

Dahlmann sen., Joh. Ehr. Jacob [154]

Stralsund - 24 December 1739

IV - Schotten - Stadt. Secretair - In Wismar

 

12

1767, 30 March

Both, Hartwig Gotthard Hans von [155]

Wismar - 16 March 1734

V - Schotten - Obrist Lieutenant - In Wismar

13

1767, 22 April (A)

Morath, Carl Friedrich Peresvetoff [156]

Gottenburg (bei) - 18 August 1740

V - Schotten - Lieutenant in Schwedischen Diensten - Zu Wismar

 

14

1767, 25 May

Schroeder, M. C. [157]

Grabow in Mecklenburg - 7 February 1733

I - Lehrling - pensionair zu Buschmühlen

 

15

1767, 25 May

Keÿl, August W. [158]

Kustrin - 5 July 1746

III - Dien. Br - Im Diensten bey dem ObL v. Both - In Wismar

 

16

1767, 27 May

Saurkohl, Franz Christ. L. [159]

Güstrow - 8 February 1744

III - M - Candidat en Droit - Zu Gustrow

 

17

1767, 27 May

Ende, Gottfried [160]

Hirschberg in Schlesien - 8 May 1745

II - Dienender Bruder - Im Diensten bey Bar. Ranstaedt - In Wismar

 

18

1767, 20 June

Steinhagen, Heinrich

Insel Poel - 20 January 1746

III - Dienender Bruder - Im Dienste bey Syndi. Dahlmann - In Wismar

 

19

1767, 24 June

Dahlmann (jun.), Carl Friedrich [161]

Stralsund - 9 August 1741

IV - Schotten - Advocatur - In Wismar

 

20

1767, 27 June

Kiesewetter, Christ. Heinrich

Berlin - 4 January 1742 [162]

I - Lehrling - Candidat en Medicine - Zu Butzow

 

21

1767, 27 June

Baleke, Conradt Joachim

Parchim - 3 December 1746 [163]

I - Lehrling - Candidat en Droit - Zu Rostock

 

22

1767, 4 August (A)

Thomas, Daniel Heinrich [164]

Wismar - 24 November 1739

V - Schotten - Secretair bey der Commiss. in Stralsund - In Stralsund

 

23

1767, 4 August (A)

Wulff, Andreas [165]

Pitea (Schweden) – 1741

III - Dienender Br - Im Dienste bey dem Hg v Cramon - In Wismar

 

24

1767, 2 September (A)

Rosén, Nils [166]

Lund in Schonen - 22 April 1749

III - M - Etudiant en Belles Lettres - Auf Reisen

 

25

1767, 11 September (A)

Enander, Jacob Joh. [167]

Ehebolanda (Schweden) - 17 August 1729

IV - Schotten - Auditeur - In Stralsund

 

26

1767, 30 September

Adlershähle, Ernst Ferdinand

Stralsund - 4 April 1746 [168]

III - M - Fänrich in Schwed. Diensten - Zu Malmoe

 

27

1767, 30 September (A)

Köhler, Claes Fromhold von

Gothenburg (bei) - 31 October 1731 [169]

IV - Schotten - Fänrich in Schwed. Diensten - In Wismar

D 2: Passe Maitre oder Maitre deputé

 

28

1767, 30 September (A)

Handwich von [170]

Lieutenant in kaiserlich-russischen Dienst

 

29

1767, 9 novembre (A)

Tallberg, Carl Fromhold von [171]

Westergottland - 12 July 1733

III - M - Capitain in Schwedischen Diensten - Auf Reisen

 

30

1767, 16 november (A)

Pless (Plessen ?) von [172]

Kammerjunker in meckl.strelitz. Diensten

 

31

1767, 21 (or 30) December (A)

Westphal, N. N.

Stralsund [173]

IV - Schotten - Stadt. Secretair - In Stralsund

 

32

1768, 5 January

Müller, Carl Ludwig Alexander

Stralsund - 16 June 1748 [174]

I - Lehrling - Lieut. im Herzogl-Wurtenbg. Diensten - Zu Stuttgardt

 

33

1768, 13 February

Both, Carl Fried. Ulrich von

Schwerin - 4 August 1745

I - Lehrling - Kammer-Junker Meckl. Hoffe - Zu Schwerin

 

34

1768, 24 June

Thunmann, Hans [175]

Stockholm - 4 August 1749

III - M - Candidat en Philosophie - Zu Wismar - 7 January 1743 (D 2)

 

35

1768, 28 July

Kolbe, Georg Jacob

Strasburg - 9 March 1739 [176]

I - Lehrling - Advocatur - Zu Schwerin

 

36

1768, 10 September

Böttiger, Carl Fried.

Wittenburg - 7 October 1746

I

 

37

1768, 24 September

Lomberg, Elias

Stralsund - 8 September 1737 [177]

IV - Schotten - Fänrich in Schwed. Diensten - In Wismar

 

38

1769, 31 January (or 3 February)

Almenquist, Lorenz Peter

Stralsund - 9 August 1740 [178]

I - Lehrling - Lieutenant - In Schweden

 

39

1769, 15 February

Koschkull, N. N. von [179]

Curland - 1744

M - Etudiant en Droit - Auf Reisen

[IV]

 

40

1769, 17 February

Fenger,- Peter [180]

Wismar - 7 March 1738

II - Lehrling - Dienender Bruder - Schiffer - In Wismar

 

41

1769, 29 May (A)

Lühe, Joach. Ernst Fried. von der [181]

Mulsow in Meckl. - 7 October 1740

IV

 

42

1769, 24 June

Klein, Fried. Ulrich von [182]

Schwerin - 1745 - 4 July

II

 

43

1769, 28 September

Schönermann, Anton Dettlof [183]

Hamburg - 1733 - 4 May

III

 

44

1769, 30 September

Berg, Johann Fried. [184]

Rostock - 7 May 1739

I

 

45

1769, 20 October

Dabilow, Joach. Fried. Christ. [185]

Rostock - 4 April 1735

I

 

46

1769, 1 November

Proel, Peter Heinrich [186]

Wismar - 3 September 1746

I - Dienender Bruder

 

47

1769, 11 December (A)

Perichon [187]

 

48

1769, 23 December

Steinecke [188]

 

49

1769, 30 December

Duncker, O. C. [189]

 

50

1771, 22 January

Ungenade [190]

 

51

1771, 24 June

Nürenberg, F. [191]

 

52

1771, 24 June

Kindt [192]

 

53

1771, 24 June

Martienssen [193]

 

\

Table 1E. Alphabetical list of members

 

Polick	Names	O A	D 1 [194]	D 2
26	Adlershähle	29	M 6	23
38	Almenquist		A 7	41
21	Baleke	24	A 3	37
44	Berg			42
2	Böhnen	2	S 03	2
12	Both	13	S 01	4
33	Both		A 4	40
36	Böttiger			39
5	Bülow	6	M 1	21
45	Dabilow			43
19	Dählmann Jun.	22	S 14	15
11	Dählmann Sen.	11	S 13	7
49	Duncker
25	Enander	27	S 10	11
17	Ende	18	SERV 3	34
40	Fenger		A 8	33
28	Handwich
	Hasperg	19
15	Keÿl	16	SERV 2	29
20	Kiesewetter	23	A 2	36
52	Kindt
42	Klein			32
27	Köhler	28	S 11	8
35	Kolbe		A 6	27
39	Koschnell		M 7	12
37	Lomberg		S 15	17
41	Lühe			18
53	Martienssen
13	Morath	14	S 07	5
32	Müller	31	A 5	38
8	Nölting	7	S 16	20
51	Nürenberg
47	Perichon
30	Pless
	Poel [195]	20		14
46	Proel			44
6	Quillfeldt	4	S 08	10
24	Rosén	26	M 2	22
16	Saurkohl	17	M 5	25
7	Schaarschmidt	12	S 04	13
43	Schönermann			28
14	Schroeder	15	A 1	35
3	Starck	3	S 05	3
48	Steinecke
18	Steinhagen	21	SERV 4	30
9	Sticht Jun.	8	W 1	19
4	Sticht Sen.	5	S 06	9
29	Tallberg	30	M 3	26
22	Thomas	25	S 09	6
34	Thunmann		M 4	24
50	Ungenade
1	Vegesack	1	S 02	1
31	Westphal		S 12	16
23	Wulff	9	SERV 1	31
10	Zulow	10

1F. Lodge Meetings at which degrees were conferred

 

Degrees conferred	I.	II.	III.	IV.
1767
18 February	Nölting        Sticht jun.	Sticht jun.
5 March	Zulow (A), Dahlmann sen.
30 March	v Both
22 April	Morath (A)
25 May	Schroeder     Keyl
27 May	Saurkohl      Ende
20 June	Steinhagen
24 June	Dahlmann jun.
26 June		v Both	v Both
27 June	Kiesewetter Baleke
4 August	Thomas (A) Wulff (A)	Nölting
20 August		Keÿl
2 September	Rosén (A)
11 September	Enander (A)
30 September	Adlershähle Köhler (A) Handwich (A)	Adlershähle
28 October				v Both       Morath
9 November	Tallberg (A)
16 November	Pless (A)
21 (or) 30 Dec.	Westphal (A)
1768
5 January	Müller
February -March	[ THE EMBASSY ]
13 February	v Both jun.
4 March	ELECTIONS
16 March			Nölting        Sticht jun. Dahlmann sen. Keÿl       Saurkohl Dahlmann jun. Wulff    Handwich
23 March				Nölting        Sticht jun. Dahlmann sen. Dahlmann jun. Handwich
24 June	Thunmann
28 July	Kolbe
10 September	Böttiger
24 September	Lomberg
10 October			Saurkohl
9 December		Thunmann Lomberg
1769
31 January (or 3 February)	Almenquist
15 February	Koschkull
17 February	Fenger	Ende    Koschnell     Berg	Adlershähle Thunmann Lomberg
21 February			Koschkull
23 April				Lomberg
29 May	Lühe (A)
24 June	Klein	Kolbe           Klein
25 June			Kolbe
8 September				Lühe
28 September	Schönermann
30 September	Berg
14 October		Fenger Schönermann
19 October			Schönermann
20 October	Dabilow
1 November	Proel
11 December	Perichon (A)
23 December	Steinecke
28 December			Klein      Perichon
30 December	Duncker
1770
17 February		Dabilow
24 June	ELECTIONS
1771
22 January	Ungenade
24 June	Nürenberg   Kindt Martienssen
9 July		Ungenade
4 October		Kindt	ELECTIONS
1772
15 April		Martienssen

 

 

1G. Officers of the Lodge [196]

 

 

 

1H. Members of the Ordens-Haus Wismar

(listed after Schröder’s Materialien [199] )