A personal list – what historical Freemasons would you like to sit in a lodge with?
Of all the historical Masons from the very beginnings of the society, there are some that you would just love to sit in a lodge room with – feel the peace and harmony and discuss all things Masonic. Of course it’s just a fantasy, but just imagine…….
Here are my seven.
Elias Ashmole
Of all the Freemasons, sitting next to Elias Ashmole and discussing alchemy and the early philosophies of the Craft would be a most interesting conversation. Ashmole is the first recorded English ‘Speculative’ Freemason, and was made a Mason in my home town of Warrington in 1646. He went on to become an alchemist, learning from William Backhouse and the works of John Dee. How amazing would it be to learn those lost secrets from Ashmole.
Joseph Fort Newton
Of all the Masonic writers, Fort Newton had a grasp of the true essence of the Craft; his essential work The Builders described the philosophy and history of Freemasonry in such a poetic way that it would certainly be a pleasure to discuss with him his knowledge and personal thoughts. He also had an outstanding career as a Baptist Minister and visited the UK, promoting the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the USA before there even was a ‘special relationship’.
Henry Harrison
Henry Harrison was my great-great-great-great uncle and a member of the same lodge that I am a member of now. We use the same Officers chairs as the lodge did in his day, and some of the same collars and jewels are still used, such as the Deacon’s pre-union symbol, so it’s never hard to imagine Henry not being present, as he would have used some of the same lodge items. Since joining the lodge I’ve seen his writing and signature in various documents and his name mentioned in the minute books, and it would be nice to have him sit in the same lodge. He died in 1844 and has a Masonic symbol and cipher on his grave stone.
Michael Alexander Gage
The Liverpool Masonic Rebel and firebrand would certainly be an interesting figure to sit next to in a lodge. Gage appeared to be a strict observer of the Antient ritual, and would let it be known if a Mason deviated from the correct wording. He led the Masonic rebellion and launched the Rebel Grand Lodge in 1823, but he effectively rebelled against the rebels and left Freemasonry as the Rebel Grand Lodge established itself in Wigan in the 1840s.
Voltaire
The French philosopher Voltaire was escorted into a lodge by Benjamin Franklin in 1778, and to have the great historian and writer in the same lodge room would be a harmonious and intellectual experience. Voltaire was an advocate of the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech, and was a promoter of the Enlightenment and of liberty, effectively supporting aspects of the ethos of Freemasonry before he became a Mason.
Arthur Edward Waite
Arthur Edward Waite was an esoteric Mason; a Freemason who examined and wrote about the cryptic and arcane elements of Freemasonry. He researched and explored the many higher degrees of Freemasonry, and also ventured into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He seemed to be constantly searching for the mystic origins of the Craft, and his writings convey an array of thoughts and beliefs that entwine themselves with the more spiritual ideas of Masonry.
Kenneth Mackenzie
Kenneth Mackenzie, like Arthur Edward Waite, was an esoteric Mason. Mackenzie was a man of immense talent; as a writer and occultist he expressed many ideas on the esoteric nature of Freemasonry, and was interested in alchemy and tarot. After his death in 1886, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded, with what was believed to be Mackenzie’s cipher manuscripts used as a basis for the Order.
Who would you choose as your seven historical Masons?
The ethos of Freemasonry has never been so best exemplified than when a member of the society can make good from bad, and Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles did just that; from the lust of Empire building that was franticly taking place during the early nineteenth century, Raffles not only founded a city when he established Singapore, but he founded an international trading centre. He created churches and schools for the indigenous population, allowed local businesses to operate, outlawed slavery in the city, and drafted the first constitution of the new Singapore, taking a complete moralistic stance on its development.
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was born on the 6th of July 1781, on the Ship Ann, off the harbour of Port Morant in Jamaica. He was the only surviving son of Benjamin Raffles, a captain trading in the West Indies. As a child Raffles was sent to an Academy at Hammersmith, then, at the age of 14 he became an employee of the East India Company, working as a clerk at East India House in London, an event which was to determine the rest of his relatively short life. Raffles held high ambitions, and he gained the post of Assistant Secretary in Penang, and with a large increase in salary, he then married his first wife Olivia before setting out for Southeast Asia in 1805. He had a passion for knowledge, and learned the Malayan language on the voyage.
This new position opened up a new world for Raffles and he entered into the sphere of colonial networking, finally joining Freemasonry in July 1812, in the Lodge Virtutis et Artis Amici, in Buitenzorg, Java, under the Grand Orient of the Netherlands. He was subsequently raised in the Lodge De Vriendschap in Surabaya, Java, in July 1813, serving as Worshipful Master the same year. His close friend and associate Thomas McQuoid was also a Freemason and a founder of the Lodge Neptune which was based in Penang and McQuoid was ‘Perfected’ with Raffles in Rose CroixChapter La Vertueuse in Batavia in 1816. Thomas McQuoid became a long time friend and business partner of Raffles, supporting him in key decisions as his confidant.
Raffles’ wife had died in 1814, and certain charges had been made against him regarding mismanagement and improperly purchasing land. Raffles also succumbed to Ill health – something which plagued him during his career in Southeast Asia – and forced him to leave Java and return to England on the 25th of March of 1816, just after his ‘Perfection’.
On his journey home, Raffles stopped off at St. Helena, meeting Napoleon, referring to him as a ‘monster’. Back in England, with his health recovered, he remarried; he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, published his work The History of Java and was knighted, receiving support from Princess Charlotte, the daughter of the Price Regent – the future George IV. Raffles was celebrated while in London, the charges against him were dropped, and he was offered the position of Lieutenant General of Bencoolen – a British garrison located in south west Sumatra.
He took up the position and after arriving at Bencoolen, with renewed confidence he immediately set about bringing in new reforms. In 1818 he passed a new ‘Regulation’ that would bring about the eventual abolition of slavery in the area and banned cockfighting. The slave trade had been abolished in Britain in 1807, but slaves were still kept throughout British colonies, such as the West Indies and throughout settlements in Asia. Even after the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, the territories of the East India Company remained exempt. English Freemasons had been as divided on the issue of slavery as much as the population of England had been, with some Freemasons – especially in the port of Liverpool – such as merchant Thomas Golightly and Liverpool MP Sir Isaac Gascoyne, openly supporting the slave trade before its abolition in 1807. Internationally, divisions on the issue of slavery were still evident among Freemasons, most famously with the American brethren; with George Washington keeping slaves, and Benjamin Franklin being an ardent abolitionist.
Raffles had a moralistic passion which drove him on to introduce new reforms in the new colonies liberalizing the severe Dutch colonial system and to curb Dutch expansion in Southeast Asia. He was overtly anti-slavery and held a modern vision for the governance of Bencoolen; he had sent fellow Freemason and politician George Canning a memorandum which set out his aims – especially mentioning the idea of establishing a station at the eastern exit of the straits of Malacca before the Dutch did. The Dutch were always a problem to the British in Southeast Asia, and Singapore, which became the hub for the British Empire in Southeast Asia, was to be free of Dutch influence.
George Canning was a supporter for the abolition of slavery, and was at the time serving as the President of the Board of Control, an office that was responsible for overseeing the East India Company, and thus Canning was very much interested in British influence in South East Asia. Canning had become a Freemason in 1810 and he joined two of the most prestigious lodges in London; Lodge No. 4 which was one of the four original lodges that had formed the ‘Premier/Modern’ Grand Lodge of 1717, and the Prince of Wales Lodge No. 259, the membership of which included the Prince of Wales himself. Canning was a well connected gentleman, and was also a member of a number of clubs in London such as Whites, giving an ambitious politician such as Canning a nexus of powerful contacts.
Raffles became intensely involved in the settlement and administration of Singapore from 1819; partly surveying the island, setting out plans for settlement, establishing places of education and worship and in 1823, he drafted the constitution of Singapore, specifically prohibiting slavery and gaming – following his moralistic stance which he had practiced in the administration of Bencoolen. Tragedy had struck while Raffles was in Bencoolen when, after an outbreak of dysentery, he lost three of his children. His own health had suffered once more, and after finalising the constitution of Singapore, he set off on his final journey for England.
He finally returned to England on 22 Aug 1824, over a year after he left Singapore, founding the Zoological Society of London in Apr 1826, along with various members of the nobility, clergy, eminent naturalists and gentlemen, some of whom were also Fellows of the Royal Society. Raffles had always been interested in making notes of the plants and animal life of Southeast Asia – but most of his specimens and effects were destroyed in a fire on a ship as Raffles set off for England. He became its first chairman and president, and his zeal for zoology and botany – and indeed the promotion of them as a science, is in tune with Raffles’ passion for education.
Raffles died of apoplexy, a day before his 45th birthday on the 5th of July, 1826. He had been suffering from bouts of illness for some years. Because of his anti-slavery stance, he was refused burial inside his local parish church, St. Mary’s in Hendon, by the vicar, whose family had made its money in the slave trade. Stamford Raffles was an extraordinary man, his courage in banning slavery from the colonies under his jurisdiction, and his zeal for education testifying to his modern outlook. It is no wonder that in parts of Southeast Asia today, he is celebrated through Freemasonry.
Lodges connected to Raffles
The Dutch Freeasons were probably the first to set up an organised lodge in the Far East, but the beginnings of Singapore’s Lodge is traced to the founding of Freemasonry in the Eastern Archipelago. This began with the establishment of the Lodge at Bencoolen in 1765. Raffles certainly attended a number of lodges in the region – Lodge Virtutis et Artis Amici, in Buitenzorg, Java, Lodge de Vriendschap in Surabaya and Chapter La Vertueuse in Batavia. Such was the influence of Raffles that the local Lodge bears his name and coat of arms as their insignia.
Freemasonry in Singapore began with the first ‘mother’ lodge, Lodge Zetland in the East No. 748 E.C established and consecrated on the 8th of December 1845, in a house at Armenian Street. At that first lodge meeting, twelve leading members of the small European community in Singapore – among them senior lawyer, William Napier, deputy superintendent of police, Thomas Dunman and Straits Times editor, Robert Carr Woods – were proposed for initiation. On the 15th of December 1845, William Napier became the first initiated Brother, next was prominent citizen Mr William H. Read followed by soldier, Lieutenant Benjamin Bloomfield Keane. Other notable Freemasons in Singapore’s early history included the first attorney-general,Thomas Braddell; Rajah of Sarawak, James Brooke, Admiral Henry Keppel, John Coulson Smith, former headmaster of Raffles Institution, and Thomas Owen Crane, Justice of Peace, and trustee of Raffles Institution. The Masonic Hall in Singpore was built in 1879, and was known locally as the ‘Haunted House’ as the local people misunderstood the ceremonies that went on there.
The above article is copyright to Dr David Harrison 2010.
The article previously appeared in Freemasonry Today, 2010.
Another personal list of mine. There have indeed been many Freemasons that have actually changed the world in which we live in; politicians and generals who have fought tyranny, scientists who have developed cures for diseases or invented new technologies, and even artists and writers that have changed how we look at the world around us. The following list includes many favorite historical Masonic heroes who I feel have certainly changed the world in a positive way.
Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner was a Freemason, natural philosopher, a Fellow of the Royal Society and discoverer of the Small Pox vaccine. This disease killed countless people, maiming the survivors, and Jenner’s work is said to have saved more lives than any other person. His work laid the foundation of immunology, and Small Pox was declared an eradicated disease in 1979.
Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin gives him a well-deserved place on the list, Fleming’s work saving countless human lives. He also wrote many papers on chemotherapy and immunology and received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945. Fleming was a member of a London based lodge.
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin was the grandfather of Charles Darwin, he was a Freemason, a doctor of medicine, a natural philosopher, a member of the influential Lunar Society, a slave-trade abolitionist and a poet. Darwin conducted groundbreaking experiments with gases and air, and promoted education for women. He also put forward ideas that preceded the modern theory of evolution, a subject that was embraced by his grandson Charles.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was a supporter of the freedom of speech, a revolutionary, a writer, a natural philosopher, an erstwhile member of the Lunar Society and the Hell Fire Club, and a Freemason. His work for the cause of American Independence alone gives him a prominent place on this list, and his early innovative experiments with electricity may have also been an inspiration for Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.
George Washington
George Washington
George Washington surely deserves his place for leading the fight against tyranny in the American war of Independence, and he also became a leading figure within Freemasonry. As first President of the United States, Washington established a precedent for his successors. When he laid the cornerstone for the US Capitol in 1793 during a Masonic ceremony, Washington symbolically laid the cornerstone of a new nation, in a shared public ceremony that forever bonded not only Freemasons, but the American people also.
Duke of Wellingon
The Duke of Wellington
Although the Duke of Wellington had not attended a lodge since being a young man, he still became a Masonic role model. After his victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Wellington secured Britain’s supremacy in Europe, and English lodges celebrated his link to the Craft. Viscount Combermere – a fellow veteran of the Peninsula War and Provincial Grand Master for Cheshire, paid tribute to Wellington as a Freemason on his death.
Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Churchill
Of all the celebrated British Freemasons, Sir Winston Churchill is perhaps the most quoted and the most praised for his leadership during World War II. His dogged stance in the face of invasion and his strong leadership certainly inspired British resistance when the British Commonwealth and Empire stood alone against Nazi Germany. Churchill was also an artist, writer, historian, and was named the Greatest Britain of all time in 2002.
For more information on the above Freemasons, feel free to refer to my books displayed below, available from Lewis Masonic and amazon.
During nearly three hundred years since the first Grand Lodge was organised in London, England in 1717, there have been many Freemasons that have changed the Craft in a progressive and positive way. The following list is compiled of Masons that I have chosen, mainly from a historical perspective, and perhaps also being from an English stance as well. The list can act as a brief introduction, and for further research on the Masons discussed, I can refer the reader to some of my books mentioned below.
Rev. Dr. John Theophilus Desaguliers
Dr John Theophilus Desaguliers
Dr John Theophilus Desaguliers is a celebrated natural philosopher, poet and Freemason from the early eighteenth century. He was an early Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge and is now seen as the Mason, along with Dr James Anderson, who changed the ritual structure during the 1720s and created the three degree system, a system that is still practiced around the world today.
Rev. James Anderson
Rev. James Anderson
Rev. James Anderson, like Desaguliers, is seen as a Mason who conducted ground-breaking work, forging Modern Freemasonry during the early eighteenth century, and is now more famous for his Constitutions of 1723, and the second edition which he changed considerably in 1738. Every Grand Lodge today has a set of Constitutions; rules and regulations that determine the administration and practice of the Craft, a legacy indeed of Anderson’s work.
Dr Francis Drake
Dr Francis Drake
Dr Francis Drake was a Mason under the Grand Lodge of All England held at York, or the York Grand Lodge for short. He gave the ground-breaking Oration in 1726, an Oration that not only declared the Grand Lodge at York for the first time, but also put forward the ethos and philosophy of Freemasonry. Indeed, on reading of Drake’s Oration, one will recognise the values that are at the very core of modern Masonry. The Oration was published a number of times and became widely read, even being popular with London Masons. Drake went on to become Grand Master of York in 1761.
Laurence Dermott
Laurence Dermott was an Irish Mason who was a force behind the formation and the development of what became known as the ‘Antient’ Grand Lodge, founded in 1751 as a reaction against the Modernisation of Freemasonry by the Premier Grand Lodge, along with the pomp and ceremony and the issues of class that was becoming apparent in certain London lodges against Irish Masons. The ‘Antients’ quickly took hold and rivalled the ‘Modern’ Grand Lodge, paving the way for a Union in 1813 which brought change and compromise to the Craft. The ‘Antients’ also gained a foothold in America and assisted in spreading the Craft there.
William Preston
William Preston
William Preston was a Mason who, at one time, had been an ‘Antient’ Mason, a ‘Modern’ Mason, and a Mason under the York Grand Lodge, being a founder of the Grand Lodge of England South of the River Trent. He was an avid ritualist and promoted education within the Craft, his legacy being the wide use of the Preston-Webb ritual in the USA and the Prestonian Lecturer under the UGLE.
The Duke of Sussex. The Library and Museum of Freemasonry; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
The Duke of Sussex
The Duke of Sussex became the first Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1813, and guided through the changes that the union of the ‘Antients’ and the ‘Moderns’ brought – not an easy task within Freemasonry! He was seen by many – such as the writer George Oliver – as being heavy handed, being stern in his views in regard to ritual and the Royal Arch (which became seen as an addition to the third degree under the UGLE). Despite the Liverpool Masonic rebellion, he kept the Union together and his firm control is seen in the fact that the UGLE is still going strong and is respected throughout the Masonic world.
Albert Pike
Albert Pike
Albert Pike’s contribution to Freemasonry is very well known, his development of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite and his book Morals and Dogma being an influential work that has been read by many thousands of Freemasons since first published in 1872. The work, besides promoting the Scottish Rite, discusses Pike’s theories on the degrees, giving lectures on each and portrays his in-depth intellect on the secrets of symbolism. Pike and his work has arguably inspired countless Freemasons over the past 150 years.
So do you agree with this list – or would you replace these with other influential Freemasons?
For further information on the featured Freemasons of this list, please refer to a selection of my work:
‘Once a priest, always a priest; once a mason, always a mason; but once a journalist, always and forever a journalist.’
Freemason Rudyard Kipling, A Matter of Fact, Many Inventions, 1893
There is a Masonic lodge which still meets in London called the Authors’ Lodge No. 3456, which, when founded in November 1910, received letters of goodwill from ‘Brothers’ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, and Jerome K. Jerome. Rudyard Kipling, had been initiated into Freemasonry in the Hope and Perseverance Lodge No. 782, based in Lahore, India, in 1886, and went on to become an honorary member of the Authors’ Lodge. The lodge had a direct connection to the London based Authors’ Club, which had been founded in 1891, being constituted by the Masonic members of the Authors’ Club, founders such as Max Montesole and A.F. Calvert, who had famously discovered an early Masonic Catechism dating from the early eighteenth century, which he eventually sold to Masonic historian Douglas Knoop. The consecration of the Authors’ Lodge reveals the intricate relationships between certain gentlemen’s clubs and Freemasonry; the founding of the lodge being seen as not only a way of promoting the Authors’ Club amongst Freemasons, but also providing a means of promoting Freemasonry within the club, attracting literary men into the Craft ‘could not fail to add lustre to the Order.’
Henry Rider Haggard
Kipling and Rider Haggard were very close friends, and they both famously conveyed Freemasonry in their work. Indeed, Masonic themes can be seen in Rider Haggard’s late Victorian works King Solomon’s Mines and the wonderfully exotic novel She, a story which deals with death and re-birth. Both of these works present the idea of the heroic explorer searching lost civilisations for hidden knowledge and, along with Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King, testify not only to the popularity of Freemasonry at the time, but also the acceptance of the Craft in Victorian society, which, within these literary contexts also conveyed an element of mystery and the occult. Rider Haggard was also a close friend of Egyptologist and occultist Ernest A. Wallis Budge, both of them, along with Kipling, being celebrated members of the literary Savile Club.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Victorian gentlemen’s clubs – popular amongst the literary gentlemen of the time, had links to Freemasonry during the period. Indeed, many Victorian writers, artists and politicians were members of both, the thriving social scene offering networking and social advancement, both Freemasonry and the clubs having similar dining etiquette, strict dress codes and rules on balloting for new members. The networking that took place in the London clubs attracted the vivid imagination of Victorian writers, some of whom even wrote about their experiences of the mysterious activities that occurred behind the closed doors. Arthur Conan Doyle, who was initiated into the Phoenix Lodge, No. 257, at Southsea, Hampshire, on the 26th of January, 1887, made a literary reference to a London gentleman’s club in his 1893 Sherlock Holmes short story The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, were Sherlock Holmes visits his brother Mycroft at the mysterious ‘Diogenes Club’ which he describes as:
‘the queerest club in London’ being for gentlemen ‘who have no wish for the company of their fellows. Yet they are not averse to comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals.’
The bizarre rules of the club are described:
‘No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one. Save in the Strangers’ Room, no talking is, under any circumstances, permitted, and three offences, if brought to the notice of the committee, render the talker liable to expulsion. My brother (Mycroft) was one of the founders, and I have myself found it a very soothing atmosphere.’
The location of the club in the story was given as being on Pall Mall, a short distance from the Carlton Club, Conan Doyle presenting its interior as having a games room and ‘a large and luxurious’ reading room. The ‘Diogenes Club’ was fictional, but with Mycroft’s secretive career in government, the club was presented as having possible deeper mysterious political agendas. Conan Doyle was obviously being inspired by the secrecy and mysterious nature of such gentlemen’s clubs, so it is not surprising that he also occasionally referred to Freemasonry in his Sherlock Holmes stories, such as in The Red-Headed League, when Holmes – who was obviously very familiar with Masonic symbolism – recognised that a certain gentleman was a Freemason, the particular gentleman being surprised that Holmes knew of his membership:
‘I won’t insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you use an arc and compass breastpin.’
He also referred to Freemasonry in other Sherlock Holmes stories, such as The Adventure of the Norwood Builder and The Adventure of the Retired Colourman, as well as mentioning Freemasonry in his other works.
Conan Doyle, along with other Victorian Freemasons, such as Arthur Edward Waite, had embraced psychic research, an interest that developed after the death of his wife and several other close family members, and until his death in 1930, he ardently supported spiritualism and constantly sought proof of life after death, a curiosity which can be somewhat paralleled with writer and Freemason Mark Twain’s interest in parapsychology in the USA. Conan Doyle’s 1926 work The History of Spiritualism also lent his support to séances conducted by various psychics at the time and their supposed spiritual materialisations. One of the spiritualists that Conan Doyle supported was Daniel Douglas Home. Fellow Freemason Lord Lindsay was also a supporter of Home, having witnessed the spiritualist mysteriously levitate out of a third story window only to return through the window of an adjoining room.
Jerome K Jerome
Jerome K. Jerome’s Masonic membership is hotly debated, though he certainly mixed in Masonic circles; Jerome having been good friends with fellow writers and Freemasons Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard and Kipling. Jerome was a member of the Authors’ Club, which included other illustrious and literary Freemasons such as Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill. Conan Doyle was Chairman of the Authors’ Club for many years, often reading his manuscripts to members prior to publication, and one of the founders of the club was the writer and Freemason Sir Walter Besant, who went on to be a founder of the celebrated Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, in 1894 – the London based lodge dedicated to Masonic research.
Jerome also contributed to a Masonic publication; a souvenir of the Grand Masonic Bazaar in aid of the Annuity Fund of Scottish Masonic Benevolence in 1890. The publication, given the rather humorous title of Pot Pourri of Gifts Literal and Artistic, included the lost classic Jerome story The Prince’s Quest, a rare and much sought after piece of Jerome literature. The Prince’s Quest is a fairytale which tells the beautiful story of a Prince who is searching for love; after traveling the length and breadth of the land on his quest, he returns home to his empty court, only to find love has been waiting there all along in the guise of a fair maiden.
Along with this contribution to the Masonic publication and the reference to him and his ‘Brothers’ writing a letter of goodwill to the Authors’ Lodge, Jerome’s Masonic membership has been regularly discussed and debated over the years. The Preface of Pot Pourri of Gifts Literal and Artistic puts forward that many of its contributors were not members of the Craft, though it does say ‘charity claims us all in a common brotherhood’. The preface was written by the artist William Grant Stevenson who was the Master of Lodge of Dramatic and Arts No. 757, which still meets in Edinburgh and was founded in 1888. The publication was produced by the Lodge Dramatic and Arts for the fund-raising bazaar held in Edinburgh in December 1890.
Jerome used the setting of a gentleman’s club as the location of a story which had been told to the narrator in his 1909 work The Philosopher’s Joke, and he seemed well acquainted with the social etiquette and aesthetic atmosphere of the clubs. Jerome also spiritually commented on Freemason Rider Haggard’s work in his essay Dreams. Jerome’s Masonic membership is still debated as there is a lack of Masonic records which refer to him, but there is still a wealth of evidence which suggests that he had links to the Craft and was aware of Freemasonry. He certainly mixed in Masonic circles and was a member of gentleman’s clubs, having been influenced by them in his writing. Being friends with Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard and Kipling, Jerome would have been familiar with Freemasonry, and would have found it an interesting social activity. Perhaps future findings may reveal more about his Masonic membership. Their letters of goodwill testifies their respect for the founding of the Authors’ Lodge, a lodge which celebrated its centenary year recently.
Arthur Conan Doyle, The History of Spiritualism, (Teddington: Echo Library, 2006).
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Coming of the Fairies, (Forgotten Books, 2007).
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, (Herefordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1992), pp.399-401.
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Red-headed League, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, (Herefordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1992), p.133.
History of the Authors’ Lodge No. 3456, (London, 2000).
Authors’ Lodge Transactions iii, (London, 1919), p.408.
Thank you to Ron Selby, Secretary of the Authors’ Lodge, for supplying the information.
The above article is the copyright of Dr David Harrison, 2010.
The article has previously appeared in ‘Freemasonry Today’, 2011.
During the eighteenth century in England, there were three Grand Lodges in operation; the ‘Moderns’, the ‘Antients’, founded in 1751, and the Grand Lodge of All England held at York, otherwise known as the York Grand Lodge, which declared itself as a Grand Lodge in 1726. A Freemason could move between the three Grand Lodges with ease, and there are quite a few examples of this, a more well-known example being William Preston, who had dealings with all three Grand Lodges at certain points in his Masonic career, eventually being a prominent figure behind the foundation of another Masonic body; the Grand Lodge South of the River Trent. Antient Masons who wanted to join a Modern lodge had to undergo a ‘remaking ceremony’, and there is plenty of evidence of Modern, Antient and York Masons visiting each other’s lodges and enjoying Freemasonry side-by-side in harmony at local level.
Today, the York Grand Lodge, which came to an end at the close of the eighteenth century, is a Masonic body that eagerly attracts the interest of Masonic researchers and is held in high regard; the York Grand Lodge having an early history that can be traced back to 1705 at least, even before it called itself a Grand Lodge. What is interesting is that when an independent Grand Lodge emerges today, it is immediately termed as ‘bogus’ or ‘clandestine’. Websites appear to denounce them, announcements are made in Masonic Magazines to warn the unsuspecting Freemason not to become entangled with anyone from these ‘pretend’ Grand Lodges at all costs, and aggressive campaigns are launched to discredit them.
Recent examples of these independent Grand Lodges can be seen with the emergence of the Regular Grand Lodge of England, which was founded in 2005. There was also a revival of the Grand Lodge of All England held at York in the same year, and there was the Grand Orient of the United States of America, founded around the same time. There are others, but in all cases, they have quickly been denounced as bogus, clandestine and pretend Grand Lodges. Formed by Freemasons who may have been dissatisfied at how mainstream Masonry was going or disgruntled by certain events that had occurred. Whatever the reason, like the York Grand Lodge in the eighteenth century, these new Grand Lodges could be seen as offering an alternative form of Masonry.
Perhaps the emergence of independent Grand Lodges is part of the evolution of Freemasonry; many of the young men that join Freemasonry today seem to want more than just a dining club and are searching for enlightenment, a spiritual pathway that can produce a greater meaning to their lives. They increasingly see Masonry as a journey to enrich them as a person, and not just as a means of enriching the jewels on their chest. Perhaps the formation of these Grand Lodges are Masonic experiments that need to be done as a means of searching and revaluating the true meaning of Freemasonry – to experiment in ritual or administration, to do so without the restraints of rules and regulations that are enforced by an older generation of Masons from a different time.
After the Union of the ‘Moderns’ and the ‘Antients’ in 1813 in England, the Liverpool Masonic rebellion led to the reformation of the ‘Antients’ in the north of England in 1823, the rebellion leading to changes in the regulations of the recently formed United Grand Lodge of England, changes such as the relaxing of rigorous ritual rules and changes in administration, an example being the division of the large Lancashire province into East and West provinces. This rebel Grand Lodge survived in the Lancashire town of Wigan until 1913, when the last surviving lodge reconciled with the UGLE, the last of the ‘Antients’ being brought back into the fold. This reminds us that whatever Grand Lodge we are under, be it a regular Grand Lodge or an independent Grand Lodge, we are all Freemasons, and we are all on the square, searching for what was lost.
As we come back to the question – should these independent Grand Lodges be seen as irregular, clandestine or bogus? Are they rebel Masons defying their original obligation? Or are they mere experiments? What do you think?
Freemasonry undoubtedly continued to assist in the networking that was crucial to the Trans-Atlantic trade as the nineteenth century progressed, especially between Liverpool and the ports of America. Crucial to the cotton industry of the north-west of England was the trade with the Southern cotton producing States, and with the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the cotton trade experienced a period of uncertainty and instability. The outbreak of the American Civil War followed the secession from the Union by the Southern cotton producing States that depended on slavery. The growing anti-slavery position of the Northern States had made conflict with the South more apparent, the newly elected President Abraham Lincoln having firmly declared himself against the expansion of slavery, a view that was compounded in a speech he gave in New Haven, Connecticut in March 1860:
‘One of the reasons why I am opposed to Slavery is just here…I want every man to have the chance – and I believe a black man is entitled to it – in which he can better his condition – when he may look forward and hope to be a hired labourer this year and the next, work for himself afterward, and finally to hire men to work for him! That is the true system.’[1]
With the foundation of the Confederate States of America in February 1861, hostilities followed, and in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln resulted in slaves being freed in Confederate States occupied by the Union.
The maintaining of networking and business contacts were essential to the cotton merchants and brokers of Liverpool, and during the war, despite the neutrality of Britain, some Liverpool merchants were willing to buy cotton that could be smuggled past the Union naval blockade that had been established during the early stages of the conflict. An example of the intricate networking that developed during the Civil War in Liverpool can be seen with the activities of a Confederate naval officer and ‘secret serviceman’ who operated in the port called James Dunwoody Bulloch, a Confederate ‘banker’ named Charles Kuhn Prioleau, the Liverpool based shipping firm of Fraser and Trenholm and a number of Merseyside shipbuilding companies.
James Dunwoody Bulloch was no stranger to Freemasonry, his family home, Bulloch Hall, was built by his father Major James Stephen Bulloch, a plantation owner, a cotton producer and a Freemason. The Hall, near Roswell, in the Southern State of Georgia, was built in the Neo-Classical Greek revival style in 1840, and displayed Masonic symbolism prominently on each side of the Hall and over the main entrance. The plantation kept a number of slaves, and after being ransacked by Union troops during the war, a legend developed that it had been the prominent Masonic symbolism that ultimately saved the Hall from being destroyed.[2] Indeed, the legend of Bulloch Hall being saved due to its Masonic links is akin to Albert Pike’s home being saved from destruction by a Union commander who was also a high ranking Freemason; Thomas H. Benton, a Union General who had been Grand Master in Iowa from 1860-1862, placed Federal troops around Pike’s home at Little Rock, Arkansas, when the city was invaded.[3]
After establishing his base in Liverpool and cultivating his contacts, Bulloch began arranging in secret for the construction of commerce and blockade raiders, such as the CSS Alabama, which was built at the Birkenhead shipbuilders John Lairds, and the CSS Florida, which was constructed by the Liverpool shipbuilder William Cowley Miller.[4] Bulloch also purchased ships, such as the CSS Shenandoah, the purpose of which was as a commerce raider, particularly focussing on Whaling ships – a source of revenue for the Union. The CSS Alabama became extremely successful; from the ship’s launch in July 1862 to her sinking by the USS Kearsarge in June 1864, the Alabama claimed over 60 prizes, her Captain Raphael Semmes also residing in Liverpool for a time. Along with his younger brother Irvine Bulloch, who had been the youngest officer on the Alabama, James remained in Liverpool after the Civil War, both maintaining a relationship with their nephew and future President of the USA Theodore Roosevelt, who was also a Freemason.
The society of Liverpool proved its support for the Confederacy when, in October 1864, the great Southern Bazaar was held at St. Georges’ Hall to raise money for the Confederate wounded, and as a result around £20,000 was raised. The woman behind the bazaar was none other than Mary Elizabeth Prioleau, the wife of Confederate ‘banker’ Charles Kuhn Prioleau, who originated from Charleston, South Carolina, and was a manager and partner of Fraser and Trenholm. The offices of Bulloch and Fraser and Trenholm were located close to each other at Rumford Place, near to the Liverpool Docks. Prioleau was supplying funds for the shipbuilding at Lairds, and after the war was over, Fraser and Trenholm became bankrupt and he left Liverpool to settle in London.[5]
Rumford Place
The foundation stone for the Neo-Classical St. Georges’ Hall had been laid in 1838 with a Masonic ceremony, led by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master of West Lancashire, with a number of local lodges attending, such as the Lodge of Harmony.[6] Many of the local Liverpool lodges also raised money for the ‘distressed operatives’ of the cotton mills throughout Lancashire and Cheshire during the American Civil War period, with lodges such as Lodge of Harmony[7] and the Merchants Lodge, which contributed twenty guineas in 1862, taking the lead.[8] There are no records yet discovered of the Bulloch’s and Prioleau being Freemasons in Liverpool, but they certainly mixed in the same social circles, the men enjoying access to Liverpool high society, and Prioleau knew the value of symbolism, decorating his house at 19 Abercromby Square in Liverpool with an elaborate mixture of classical and Confederate symbolism, some of which, such as the fresco on the entrance porch ceiling which displays the palmetto tree, being the State symbol for South Carolina, would be instantly recognisable to Confederate supporters.
The fresco on the ceiling of Prioleau’s Abercromby Square residence
The Lancashire Cotton Famine was as much a result of overproduction in the years prior to the American Civil War as the supply of raw cotton being cut off due to the Union blockade. The cotton workers of mill towns such as Manchester became unemployed as a result, and a rioting took place in Stalybridge in 1863, spreading to Ashton, Hyde and Dukinfield. Despite this hardship, cotton workers had met at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester and had given support to Lincoln and the Union in the fight against slavery. However, support was divided in certain Lancashire cotton producing towns, and some mills actually hoisted the Confederate flag on the day the Prince of Wales marries Princess Alexandra in 1863.
William Ewart Gladstone, despite his liberalism, had shocked his fellow politicians on his views on the American Civil War and the issue of slavery. Gladstone, whose elder brother Robertson was a high ranking Freemason and politician in Liverpool, and whose father had kept slaves on his West Indies plantation, gave a speech in Newcastle in October 1862, were he had effectively recognised the Confederacy:
‘We may have our own opinions about slavery; we may be for or against the South; but there is no doubt that Jefferson Davies and other leaders of the South have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and they have made, what is more than either, they have made a nation…’[9]
Gladstone’s reference to the Confederacy ‘making a navy’ was certainly uncanny regarding that his home town of Liverpool was central to the ship building activities of Confederate agent James Dunwoody Bulloch at this time. Gladstone’s Newcastle speech certainly stirred feelings across the British political spectrum, leading the Liberal spokesman John Bright to comment ‘he has no word of sympathy for the four million bondsmen of the South’.[10] Though he was against slavery, Gladstone ultimately disapproved of the Civil War to bring about its end.[11]
Albert Pike, a Freemason who had joined the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite in the USA, was an advocate of slavery and a Confederate Officer during the Civil War, who, having built up relationships with various Native American tribes while working as a lawyer, was given a command in the Indian Territory and trained Confederate regiments of Indian Cavalry. Pike fell foul of his superiors and faced an accusation that some of his troops had scalped Union soldiers, so, facing arrest, Pike resigned from the Confederate Army. After the war, Pike continued his Masonic career, re-shaping the Scottish Rite (he had been elected Grand Commander for the Southern Jurisdiction in 1859), and writing the detailed work Morals and Dogma. Pike and his work was held in high regard by many Masons in Britain, such as Dr. William Wynn Westcott who founded the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1888.
Freemasonry in the Confederate States was undoubtedly affected by the Civil War, with many lodges suffering due to the conflict. One such lodge was the Atlanta Lodge No. 59, which had a number of its brethren actively take part in the conflict, such as General George ‘Tige’ Anderson who fought in a number of campaigns, including Gettysburg in July 1863. Other brethren who served in the Confederate army included Dr. W.E. Parkhurst who served as Lieutenant in the Fifth (5th) Georgia Cavalry, and Dr. Daniel Cornelius O’Keefe, who was born in Limerick, Ireland, and served as Surgeon with the rank of Major. After the war he campaigned to established public schools in Atlanta. The lodge certainly suffered during the war and from 1861 to the end of the conflict in 1865, Methodist Minister Lewis Lawshe served as Worshipful Master, holding the lodge together. Lawshe also entered the ranks of the Confederate Army as Chaplain.
The war torn Confederate States underwent an economic and social upheaval which obviously affected the membership of Freemasonry in the area. As with the members of the Atlanta Lodge, many Confederate Freemasons were involved in the war, and Freemasonry in the old Confederate States suffered stagnation in the following years. After the war, the lodges in the Northern states however, reveal a different story, and whereas the Confederate lodges were static for many years, the lodges in the Northern States appear to have flourished and enjoyed a period of prosperity – the golden age of fraternalism not applying in the Confederate States.[12]
There were of course Freemasons on both sides of the American Civil War, and many prominent officers in the Union army were practising Freemasons. One such officer and Freemason who fought the Confederates was the Muscogee Creek Indian Chief Opothleyahola, who, in leading Creeks and Seminole Indians who were loyal to the Union from his plantation in Oklahoma to seek promised refuge in Kansas, fought a number of battles against pursuing Confederates. Suffering great losses through battle, disease and hardship, the remaining followers finally made it to a refuge camp in Kansas, where Opothleyahola died from illness in 1863. Opothleyahola had kept slaves on his plantation, but during the outbreak of the Civil War, he refused pressure to join the Confederacy, his plantation becoming a gathering place for runaway slaves, free blacks and Indian tribes in the early stages of the war.[13]
Perhaps one of the most moving examples of Masonic brotherhood during the Civil War was written by American Masonic historian Joseph Fort Newton, who related the story of how his father; a Freemason and soldier in the Union army, had been taken prisoner, and while at a prisoner of war camp, he became seriously ill. He made himself known as a Mason to a Confederate officer in the camp, and the officer subsequently took him to his home and nursed him back to health. At the end of the war, the same Confederate officer gave Joseph Fort Newton’s father money and a pistol for his journey home.[14] Another incident that revealed how Freemasonry bridged the bitter political divide created by the Civil War was during the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, when the Confederate officer and Freemason Lewis Addison Armistead, who was mortally wounded in the field of battle, gave the Masonic sign for distress. He was attended to by fellow Freemason Henry H. Bingham, who recognised the sign. Bingham however, was a Union officer, but the brotherhood of Freemasonry transcended above the political differences and personal beliefs. Armistead gave Bingham his personal effects to pass onto his old friend and fellow Mason Winfield Scott Hancock, who was also a Union officer.[15]
Freemasons had certainly played a part in slavery and the slave trade, and Freemasons had also played a part in bringing an end to it. Freemasonry allowed intimate business relationships to develop and to become established, so mariners and merchants from the United States could be welcomed by other Freemasons who were merchants from Liverpool, maintaining friendships and business links at various ports, cultivating trades such as slavery. Certainly when a mariner stepped off his ship in the old Liverpool docks, he could make his way to a lodge meeting and be among friends, finding a meal and lodgings during his stay. He could then perhaps discuss business, make connections, and perhaps extend an invite to his lodge in America or the West Indies. Of the many trades that took place in Liverpool, the slave trade was one that contributed immensely to the development of the port and certainly increased the wealth of the merchants there.
This article is taken from The Transformation of Freemasonry by David Harrison
[1] Abraham Lincoln, ‘From a Speech at New Haven, Connecticut, March 6th, 1860’, in Mario M. Cuomo and Harold Holzer, (ed.), Lincoln on Democracy; His own words, with essays by America’s foremost Civil War historians, (New York: Fordham University Press, 2004), p.176-177.
[2] Bulloch Hall is currently in possession of a ‘letter of protection’ signed by a Federal General, which ensured the Hall was spared destruction by Union troops. See John Hussey, Cruisers, Cotton and Confederates, (Merseyside: Countyvise, 2008), p.91.
[3] See Michael Halleran, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War, (Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, 2010).
[4] John Hussey, Cruisers, Cotton and Confederates, Liverpool Waterfront in the days of the Confederacy, (Birkenhead: Countrywise, 2009), pp.17-19.
[5] See the Fraser and Trenholm Archive, The Liverpool Maritime Museum. The archive includes original letters from Prioleau to key figures in the Confederacy, discussing loans and blockade running vessels.
[6] Anon. The History of The Lodge of Harmony No. 220, (Liverpool, 1948), p.9.
[8] John Macnab, History of The Merchants Lodge, No. 241, Liverpool, 1780-2004, Second Edition, (Liverpool, 2004), p.57.
[9] Peter J. Parish, ‘Gladstone and America’ in Peter J. Jagger (ed.,), Gladstone, (Hambledon Continuum, 1998), pp.85-105, on p.97.
[10] Ibid., p.99. See also Philip Magnus, Gladstone A Biography, (New York, E.P Dutton & Co., 1954), p.154.
[11] Peter J. Parish, ‘Gladstone and America’ in Peter J. Jagger (ed.,), Gladstone, (Hambledon Continuum, 1998), pp.85-105, on p.99
[12] John Belton and David Harrison, ‘Two Centuries of Masonic Membership Exposed and some light on Post Civil War Fraternalism’, a paper presented at the ICHF, Edinburgh, 26th of May, 2007.
[13] See Angie Debo, The Road to Disappearance, A History of the Creek Indians, (Oklahoma: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1941).
[14] See Allen E. Roberts, House Undivided: The Story of Freemasonry and the Civil War, (Missouri, USA: Missouri Lodge of Research, 1961). Also see Joseph Fort Newton, The Builders, (London: Unwin Brothers Limited, 1924).
[15] Brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead, originally from North Carolina, was a member of Alexandria-Washington Masonic Lodge No. 22, and before the Civil War he had served with his friend and fellow Mason Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, who was a member of Charity Lodge No. 190. Captain Henry H. Bingham, serving under Hancock at Gettysburg, was a member of Chartiers Lodge No. 297. See Halleran, The Better Angels of Our Nature.
There are some lodges that meet on ranches, hilltops, caves, and in other outside areas, and actually confer degrees and conduct ceremonies outside. Some outside meetings have become traditional for certain lodges, such as the Castle Lodge No. 122, in Eagle, Colorado, which meets outside on a private ranch annually during the summer.[i] There is also a lodge in Montana, which still meets outside and has Tyler’s mounted on horseback, with custom-made aprons for the horses!
There are many traditional outside meeting places for Masonic lodges in the US; one of the more famous examples being Independence Rock, in central Wyoming, which was a landmark and way-station on the old Oregon Trail, and became the first meeting place for Freemasons in what was to become the State of Wyoming. A similar site exists in Montana at the summit of Mullan Pass, which was the first recorded meeting place of Freemasons in the State in 1862. A stone alter and stone Officer’s stations have been erected there.[ii] In Indiana, a rock quarry was used as a meeting place for eighteen hundred Masons in 1967, using forty-five Tylers positioned around the rim of the quarry, and at a quarry in Marietta, Ohio, Tylers on horseback shouted from the rim of the quarry to report. Caves are also a common meeting place for lodges in the US, for example, in Kentucky, Masons met in Mammoth Cave, in Oregon, Malheur Cave has been the site of meetings of the Robert Burns Lodge No. 97,[iii] and in New Mexico the Carlsbad Caverns have also witnessed lodge meetings.[iv]
In England, for a lodge to meet outside is now unheard of, but there was a lodge under the Grand Lodge of Wigan that did meet under a bridge by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal near Wigan. This particular lodge called the Rose Bridge Lodge, was quite short lived, but was an interesting reminder that lodges could once meet this way. Apparently the lodge posted a Tyler at either end of the canal towpath to keep out intruders.[v] Meeting outside, under the sun, the moon and the stars, is for a lodge to meet under the active, natural Universe itself, and as long as the weather is good, there would be no place better.
Do lodges meet outside in other countries?
Lodges have been known to meet outside in India, and in Australia, one New South Wales lodge has met a couple of times in a large cave, and there is a Mark Lodge, which has met in a quarry in Australia. The quarry had supplied the stone for the Grand Lodge building in Brisbane.
On the 18th May 2013, the J W Jackson Lodge of Mark Master Masons No.32 on the Roll of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Queensland, held an Advancement to the degree of Mark Master in the quarry at Yangan, north-east of Warwick, Queensland. This is the same quarry that provided sandstone for the Ann Street Masonic Memorial Temple, Home of the UGLQ. This Mark Lodge is named after James Watkin Jackson, a pioneer of Freemasonry in Queensland. He was the founding Master of North Australian Lodge No1 UGLQ, consecrated 13thJuly 1859, six months before the state of Queensland was proclaimed.
[i] The Castle Lodge No. 122 in Eagle, Colorado, hosts the outdoor lodge event annually with permission of the Colorado Grand Lodge AF&AM. It is put on at Bro. Larry Trotter’s TNT Ranch outside of Gypsum Colorado named ‘COAZ’.
[ii] For the history of the Mullan Pass Historic Lodge No. 1862 which presently meets on the historic site, see http://www.helenamasons.org/MullanPass05.htm [accessed on the 30th of December, 2012]
[iii] For the history of the Robert Burns Lodge No. 97 and the Malheur Cave, see http://www.burnslodge.org/malheur.html [accessed on the 30th of December, 2012]
[iv] K. Arrington, ‘Highest Hills or Lowest Vales’, www.masonicworld.com [accessed on the 30th of December, 2012]
[v] See Harrison, The Liverpool Masonic Rebellion and the Wigan Grand Lodge, p.59. In England, Pseudo Masonic clubs, such as the Hell Fire Club, also known as the Monks of Medmenham, certainly met in caves on the estate of Sir Francis Dashwood in West Wycombe during the mid-eighteenth century, and it has been suggested that the cave-like tunnels of Joseph Williamson in Liverpool, constructed in the early nineteenth century, were used as a meeting place of some sorts, but there is no evidence for Masonic meetings in caves in England. See Harrison, Genesis of Freemasonry, pp.139-141. There have been religious gatherings held outside in England, such as the Primitive Methodist meetings of the early nineteenth century held at Mow Cop, the rugged outcrop that straddles the border of Cheshire and Staffordshire, and more recently, the New Age gatherings of Stone Henge during the Summer and Winter Solstice, though in the US, especially in the western States and rural areas of the south, it was common to hold religious meetings outside and conduct baptisms in rivers.
The above article is copyright to Dr David Harrison, 2013.
The article has previously appeared in the book A Quick Guide to Freemasonry by Dr David Harrison, published by Lewis Masonic and priced £9.99.
It has also appeared in The Square, 2014.
Many thanks to David Moran and David Cook for the use of the two photographs.
I know, however, but of one ancient book that authoritatively challenges universal consent and belief, and that is Euclid’s Elements of Geometry…
Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, Part II, Chapter 1, 1795.
Thomas Paine is celebrated today as an eighteenth century revolutionary, radical and republican who wrote countless controversial but ground breaking pamphlets, such as Common Sense and The Age of Reason. He also wrote the enigmatic Origins of Freemasonry, published posthumously as part ritual exposé and part Masonic history. His interests in Freemasonry were obvious, and the fact that some of his supporters and associates, such as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, James Monroe, La Fayette, Nicolas de Bonneville and Richard Price, were Freemasons, has led some historians, such as Margaret Jacob, to believe Paine was also a Mason. Certainly during the nineteenth century, Masonic historians such as R.F. Gould and A.F.A. Woodford went to painstaking lengths to distance Paine from the Craft, his very association to Freemasonry causing embarrassment and shame, with Gould even stating that Paine wasn’t the author of the exposé. Woodford dismissed Paine’s involvement with Freemasonry, declaring that his exposé had no value, and contemptuously stated that Masonry was no way honoured with Paine’s connection, not wanting the Craft to be associated with such a political radical. Ironically, all of the attention that Paine received from Masonic historians was seen as proof in itself in some circles.
Paine’s colourful life began in Thetford in 1737. He was set to follow his Quaker father as a corset-maker, but he was never at rest and constantly sought knowledge. His first wife died in childbirth, and Paine seemed to enter a period were he did various jobs, drifting into teaching and finally working in excise. He married for a second time, though they were to separate as Paine’s interest in politics developed. His first foray into the political arena was to petition Parliament on behalf of his fellow excisemen for better working conditions, an adventure which led him to the London coffee-houses and to a meeting with Freemason Benjamin Franklin, who was visiting London at the time. Paine’s lobbying was ignored and he lost his job as a result, so in 1774, on invitation from Franklin himself, he left for the American colonies.
Once there, Paine settled into Philadelphia and with an introduction from Franklin, he became the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, quickly becoming a man of letters, embracing the spirit of reform in America and spearheading the anti-slavery movement. Indeed, Franklin was constantly name-dropped into his writings, Paine using him as a seal of approval. It was his use of ‘common’ language, so easily understood by the America people, which made his pamphlet Common Sense so successful during the American Revolution, gaining Paine the admiration and support of another Freemason, George Washington. Paine’s writing skills and friendship with Franklin and Washington enabled him to stay at the forefront of the political action and he was made secretary to Congress’ Committee for Foreign Affairs from 1777-79. After Paine left the position, he continued to be active in foreign affairs, and letters from Paine to Washington reveal a personal friendship at this time, Washington arranging a hefty salary for Paine. Despite this, Paine was not happy at the way the Revolution was going with the political power being shared by the landowning elite, and he began to make enemies.
In 1787, Paine returned to England, were he once again entered into political debate, joining radical clubs in London with William Blake (no stranger to Freemasonry himself) and promoted his invention of an iron bridge. When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, Paine saw an opportunity to start again and wrote The Rights of Man in response to Edmund Burke’s rebuke of the Revolution. Burke had written in answer to Richard Price’s sermon on the Revolution, and Paine defended the Freemason Price, confirming the natural rights of man against the tyranny of Kings, supporting the ideas of the Enlightenment made popular in France by Voltaire. Paine fled for France on the advice of Blake, and again with the help of friends like the Freemason La Fayette, he entered the political arena, assisting in forging the new French Constitution.
However, events soon turned sour with the Terror, and as an Englishman who spoke no French, he began to attract suspicion and gained enemies after pleading for the life of King Louis. He was imprisoned and only released by the intervention of another Freemason, James Monroe in 1793. Paine stayed on in France living for a time with Monroe and another Freemason Nicolas de Bonneville, where he completed his most controversial work to date: The Age of Reason. Spiritually, Paine supported the approach known as Deism – a belief system which derives the existence of God based on Reason as apposed to sacred scripture, and in The Age of Reason, Paine refers to God in a scientific sense as a Creator of a mechanized Universe. Disillusioned, he finally departed to the USA in 1802 with the help of Thomas Jefferson, who had also moved in a Masonic milieu, although actual proof of his membership has never been found. Paine died seven years later.
Paine sought a Utopian vision for the world, embracing the recognizable essence of Freemasonry, promoting ideals such as democracy, education, morality, religious toleration, and the fashionable Newtonian natural philosophy, Paine sharing Newton’s views that the existence of God was to be found in Nature. Indeed, in part one of his Age of Reason, a number of chapters are dedicated to the Newtonian system of the Universe, in a fashion which is very similar to the presentation of the Craft ritual, giving an almost poetical description of the Earth and five other planets rotating around the Sun, explaining how gravity orders the harmony of the Solar system. The search for the hidden mysteries of Nature and Science certainly captivated Paine who himself dabbled in architecture and experimented with inventions, designing an iron bridge and a smokeless candle!
His Origins of Free-Masonry, which was regarded after his death as a missing chapter belonging to the unpublished third part of the Age of Reason, presented a description of the Masonic ritual along with his theory that Freemasonry was a form of Sun worship. Curiously, the essay fits in with his work in the Age of Reason, and as a whole it follows a mystical Newtonian theme of a modern ordered Universe that complements God as being revealed in Nature and Reason. The work certainly echoes Masonic themes, with Paine using ancient knowledge by Euclid to support his views on the Newtonian Universe and discussing the Biblical cubit, a measurement used in the construction of Solomon’s Temple.
Paine did however make a lasting contribution to Freemasonry, his Origins being influential to Carlile’s Manual of Freemasonry, Carlile quoting Paine when writing his thoughts on the Craft’s history. A number of lodges in the USA were also named after Paine, and when he died many lodges throughout America honoured him. If Paine did enter into Freemasonry, it would have been during the period of the American Revolution, his life being at the epicentre of the social elite at that time, his closeness to Franklin, Washington, La Fayette and Monroe suggesting that he was undoubtedly aware of their Masonic membership. Paine was certainly attracted to clubs and societies throughout his life, such as the White Hart Club which Paine attended when he was an exciseman in Lewes. He was a founding member of the first Anti-Slavery Society in America and he was involved in the society of Theophilanthropists and Philosophical Society, in which he discussed the Newtonian Universe and Euclid’s geometry. Paine was unquestionably informed by the ethos of Freemasonry, an ethos that influenced his writings and inspired his vision of a just and fairer society, an aspiration wholly in accord with Freemasonry today as much as in the later eighteenth century. What was dangerously revolutionary and radical then, is much applauded now.
The above article is copyright to Dr David Harrison, 2009.
This article originally appeared in Freemasonry Today, 2009.
At a recent talk I gave to Minerva Lodge which is based at the Liverpool Masonic Hall in Hope Street, I had the pleasure of being shown around the building, finding a labyrinth of passageways leading to beautiful lodge rooms, ante-rooms, office rooms, corridors with ancient Masonic items on display and magnificent dining rooms. The building certainly reveals an enigmatic character, and one could easily get lost within the maze of corridors and doorways. Many lodges still meet there.
The history of Liverpool Masonic Hall is one of expansion and change; a committee was formed for the specific duty to purchase a property for Liverpool lodges to meet, a house in Hope Street being bought in 1857. The Masonic Hall was opened the following year after some alterations, but by 1872 the property was demolished and the corner stone of a new specially built Masonic Hall was laid on the 2nd of November with a full Masonic ceremony, with local Masonic dignitary Lord Skelmersdale doing the honours. The Hall was ready two years later, but had to be extended again by the 1920s, an indication of the growth of Freemasonry in the area. A strip of land next to the building was purchased and by 1932, the extension was completed. The building is certainly worth a visit, a particular highlight of mine being the Egyptian Chapter Room.
Elias Ashmole
Joseph Fort Newton
Henry Harrison
Michael Alexander Gage
Voltaire
Arthur Edward Waite
Kenneth Mackenzie
![quarry%20group%20shot[1]](https://dr-david-harrison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/quarry-group-shot1.jpg)
