organizations. This precious document was only discovered in
1871, having been missing for a long time, thus doubtless accounting
for the erroneous representations met with, not having the
correct blazon to follow. The oldest masonic motto known
is “God is our Guide” on Kerwin’s tomb in St Helen’s church,
Bishopgate, of 1594; that of “In the Lord is all our trust”
not being traced until the next century. Supporters consisting
of two doric columns are mentioned in 1688 by Randle Holme,
but the Grand Lodge of England in the following century used
Beavers as operative builders. Its first motto was “In the
beginning was the Word” (in Greek), exchanged a few years onward
for “Relief and Truth,” the rival Grand Lodge (Atholl
Masons) selecting “Holiness to the Lord” (in Hebrew), and the
final selection at the “Union of December 1813” being Audi
Vide Tace.
Mr Conder’s discovery of a lodge of “Accepted Masons” being held under the wing of the Company was a great surprise, dating as the records do from 1620 to 1621 (the earliest of the kind yet traced in England), when seven were made masons, all of whom were free of the Company before, three being of the Livery; the entry commencing “Att the making masons.” The meetings were entitled the “Acception,” and the members of the lodge were called Accepted Masons, being those so accepted and initiated, the term never otherwise being met with in the Records. An additional fee had to be paid by a member of the Company to join the “Acception,” and any not belonging thereto were mulct in twice the sum; though even then such “acceptance” did not qualify for membership of the superior body; the fees for the “Acception” being £1 and £2 respectively. In 1638–1639, when Nicholas Stone entered the lodge (he was Master of the Company 1632–1633) the banquet cost a considerable sum, showing that the number of brethren present must have been large.
Elias Ashmole (who according to his diary was “made a Free Mason of Warrington with Colonel Henry Mainwaring,” seven brethern being named as in attendance at the lodge, 16th of October 1646) states that he “received a summons to appear at a Lodge to be held next day at Masons’ Hall, London.” Accordingly on the 11th of March 1682 he attended and saw six gentlemen “admitted into the Fellowship of Free Masons,” of whom three only belonged to the Company; the Master, however, Mr Thomas Wise, the two wardens and six others being present on the occasion as members in their dual capacity. Ashmole adds: “We all dyned at the Halfe Moone Tavern in Cheapside at a noble dinner prepaired at the charge of the new-accepted Masons.”
It is almost certain that there was not an operative mason present at the Lodge held in 1646, and at the one which met in 1682 there was a strong representation of the speculative branch. Before the year 1654 the Company was known as that of the Freemasons for some time, but after then the old title of Masons was reverted to, the terms “Acception” and “Accepted” belonging to the speculative Lodge, which, however, in all probability either became independent or ceased to work soon after 1682. It is very interesting to note that subsequently (but never before) the longer designation is met with of “Free and Accepted Masons,” and is thus a combination of operative and speculative usage.
Mr Conder is of opinion that in the Records “there is no evidence of any particular ceremony attending the position of Master Mason, possibly it consisted of administering a different oath from the one taken by the apprentices on being entered.” There is much to favour this supposition, and it may provide the key to the vexata quaestio as to the plurality of degrees prior to the Grand Lodge era. The fellow-crafts were recruited from those apprentices who had served their time and had their essay (or sufficient trial of their skill) duly passed; they and the Masters, by the Schaw Statutes of 1598, being only admitted in the presence of “sex Maisteris and twa enterit prenteissis.” As a rule a master mason meant one who was master of his trade, i.e. duly qualified; but it sometimes described employers as distinct from journeymen Freemasons; being also a compliment conferred on honorary members during the 17th century in particular.
In Dr Plot’s History of Staffordshire (1686) is a remarkable account of the “Society of Freemasons,” which, being by an unfriendly critic, is all the more valuable. He states that the custom had spread “more or less all over the nation”; persons of the most eminent quality did not disdain to enter the Fellowship; they had “a large parchment volum containing the History and Rules of the Craft of Masonry”; St Amphibal, St Alban, King Athelstan and Edwin are mentioned, and these “charges and manners” were “after perusal approved by King Hen. 6 and his council, both as to Masters and Fellows of this right Worshipfull craft.” It is but fair to add that notwithstanding the service he rendered the Society by his lengthy description, that credulous historian remarks of its history that there is nothing he ever “met with more false or incoherent.”
The author of the Academie of Armory, previously noted, knew better what he was writing about in that work of 1688 in which he declares: “I cannot but Honor the Fellowship of the Masons because of its Antiquity; and the more, as being a member of that Society, called Free Masons” Mr Rylands states that in Harl. MS. 5955 is a collection of the engraved plates for a second volume of this important work, one being devoted to the Arms of the Society, the columns, as supporters, having globes thereon, from which possibly are derived the two pillars, with such ornaments or additions seen in lodge rooms at a later period.
In the same year “A Tripos or Speech delivered at a commencement in the University of Dublin held there July 11, 1688, by John Jones, then A.B., afterwards D.D.,” contained “notable evidence concerning Freemasonry in Dublin.” The Tripos was included in Sir Walter Scott’s edition of Dean Swift’s works (1814), but as Dr Chetwode Crawley points out, though noticed by the Rev. Dr George Oliver (the voluminous Masonic author), he failed to realize its historical importance. The satirical and withal amusing speech was partly translated from the Latin by Dr Crawley for his scholarly introduction to the Masonic Reprints, &c., by Henry Sadler. “The point seems to be that Ridley (reputed to have been an informer against priests under the barbarous penal laws) was, or ought to have been, hanged; that his carcase, anatomized and stuffed, stood in the library; and that frath scoundrellus discovered on his remains the Freemasons’ Mark.” The importance of the references to the craft in Ireland is simply owing to the year in which they were made, as illustrative of the influence of the Society at that time, of which records are lacking.
It is primarily to Scotland, however, that we have to look for such numerous particulars of the activity of the fraternity from 1599 to the establishment of its Grand Lodge in 1736, for an excellent account of which we are indebted to Lyon, the Scottish masonic historian. As early as 1600 (8th of June) the attendance of John Boswell, Esq., the laird of Auchinleck, is entered in the minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh; he attested the record and added his mark, as did the other members; so it was not his first appearance. Many noblemen and other gentlemen joined this ancient atelier, notably Lord Alexander, Sir Anthony Alexander and Sir Alexander Strachan in 1634, the king’s Master of Work (Herrie Alexander) in 1638, General Alexander Hamilton in 1640, Dr Hamilton in 1647, and many other prominent and distinguished men later; “James Neilsone, Master Sklaitter to His Majestie,” who was “entered and past in the Lodge of Linlithgow, being elected a joining member,” 2nd March 1654. Quarter-Master General Robert Moray (or Murray) was initiated by members of the Lodge of Edinburgh, at Newcastle on the 20th of May 1641, while the Scottish army was in occupation. On due report to their Alma Mater such reception was allowed, the occurrence having been considered the first of its kind in England until the ancient Records of the Masons’ Company were published.
The minute-books of a number of Scottish Lodges, which are still on the register, go back to the 17th century, and abundantly confirm the frequent admission of speculatives as members and officers, especially those of the venerable “Mother Lodge
