Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of Freemasonry.
gentle family of Littler or Lytlor existed in Cheshire 11 1646 ; while he prints the wills of Richard Ellom , Free mason of Lyme ( Lymme ) , and of John Ellams , husband man of Burton , bot ' i in the county of Cheshire—that of tht former bearing date September 7 , 1667 . and of the lattei
June 7 , 1689 . That these were the Ellams named bj Ashmole cannot bo positively affirmed , but they were doubtless members of the same yeoman family , a branch oi which had apparently settled at Lymm , a village ir Cheshire , about five miles from Warrington . Of the familj
of Hugh Brewer , nothing has come to light beyond the fact that a person bearing this patronymic served in some military capacity under the Earl of Derby in 1643 . " Bro Gould then proceeds to indulge in the following appropriate observations : " The proceedings at Warrington in 1646
established some very important facts in relation to the antiquity of Freemasonry , and to its character as a specula tive science . The words Ashmole uses , ' the names ol those who were then of the Lodge , ' implying as they do either that some of the existivq members were absent , oi
that at a previous period the Lodge-roll comprised other and additional names beyond those recorded in the ' Diary , ' amply justi y the conclusion that the Lodge , when Ashmole joined it , was not a new creation . The terra ' Warden , ' moreover , which follows the name of Mr . Richard Penket
will of itself remove any lingering doubt whether the Warrington Lodge could boast a higher antiquity than the year 1646 , since it points with the utmost clearness to the fact that an actual official of a subsisting branch of the Society of Freemasons was present at the meeting . " For
ourselves , and with Bro . Rylands as our guide , we prefer taking a still bolder course , and pointing out that , as the members , including Mr . Penket the Warden , who were present at the initiation of Ashmole and Mainwaring , were what we should now call Speculative Masons , meeting
together under some kind of settled government , and as it is extremely improbable that such a Lodge so governed had sprung into existence suddenly , we are justified in dating the existence of a speculative era in Masonry back to some period preceding that usually assigned to it iu England ,
namely , the close of the year 1646 . We may not be able to show how or when it began ; it may or may not have had something to do with the initiation of Robert Moray or Murray at Newburn-on-Tyne in 1641 , as record * d in Lyon ' s history ; or , the Lodge being located in the North
of England , the introduction of gentlemen into a Masons ' Lodge may have been influenced by the examples cited by Lyon as having occurred in 1634 and following years in
Edinburgh or Mary ' s Chapel Lodge . In any circumstances it is hardly credible that the Lodge at Warrington with non-operative members as part of it was not in existence before 1646 .
Why Bro. Gould Discredits Wren's Connection With Freemasonry.
WHY BRO . GOULD DISCREDITS WREN'S CONNECTION WITH FREEMASONRY .
BY BRO . JACOB NORTON . ( Continued from page 5 . ) AS many of our readers have never seen Anderson ' s Constitutions of 1723 and 1738 , we must inform them that each edition is prefaced with a history of Masonry . The history of the pre-1717 constitutions begins
with Lamach ; Anderson begins with Adam , and his second history is of course longer than the first . In the latter we are informed that on the 29 th of September 1721 , the Grand Lodge requested Dr . Anderson to revise Payne ' s
Constitution of 1720 ; what kind of a constitution Bro . Payne compiled no one knows . ' Anderson ' s new constitution was approved by the Grand Lodge , 25 th March 1722 .
and in January 1723 it was presented to the Grand Lodge in print . We have before us the two original editions , and have culled from each all the passages wherein Wren was mentioned , and here they are , with the respective pages annexed .
1 st . " King Charles II . founded the present St . Paul ' s Cathedral in London , much after the style of St . Peter ' s at Rome , conducted by the ingenious Architect Sir Christopher Wren . " ( First edition , p 41 ) .
2 nd . " Nor should we forget the famous theatre at Oxford , built by Archbishop Sheldon in the King ' s time , which among his other works was designed and
Why Bro. Gould Discredits Wren's Connection With Freemasonry.
conducted also by Sir Christopher Wren , the King ' s Architect . " ( lVd . ) And 3 rd . " Bow-Church Steeple in Cheapsido—Built by Sir Christopher Wren . " ( See note , p 46 . ) Second Edition . 1 st . " Charles II in his travels
had been made a Free Mason , he "was resolved to encourage the Augustan style by reviving their Lodges , and approved of their choice of Henry Jermyn , Earl of St . Albans , as their Grand Master , who appointed Sir John Denham his Deputy Grand Master , Sir Christopher Wren and Mr . John Web Grand Wardens . " ( p 101 . )
2 nd . " Thomas Savage , Earl of Rivers , succeeded St . Alban as Grand Master , 24 th June 1666 , who appointed Sir Christopher Wren his Deputy , and John Web and Grinlin Gibbons as Wardens . But the Deputy and Wardens managed all things . " ( p 102 ) .
3 rd . "The King and Grand Master ordered Deput y Wren to draw up a fine plan for the oity . " ( Ibid . ) 4 th . "Gilbert Sheldon at his cost , built [ the Theatre at Oxford which was ] conduoted by Deputy Wren and Grand Warden Web . " ( p 103 ) .
5 th . The King with Grand Master Rivers in due form levell'd the foot stone of New St . Paul's , designed by D . G . Master Wren , A . D . 1673 . " ( p 103 ) . 6 th . " The King also founded Chelsea Hospital for old soldiers , a new palace and another palace
at Winchestor , designed by Grand Master Wren . " ( p 104 ) . 7 th ( 1674 ) . " George Villars , Duke of Bucks , an old Mason , succeeded as Grand Master of England , but being mdolpnt , he left all his business to his Deputy Wren and his Wardens , and demitted A . D , 16 " 9 . ( p 105 ) .
8 th . " Upon the death of Grand Master Arlington 1685 , the Lodges met and elected Sir Christopher Wren Grand Master . " ( p 106 ) . 9 th . " The King [ William III . ] was privately made a Free Mason , approved of their choice of Grand Master Wren . " ( p 107 ) .
10 th . " This year [ 1695 ] Brother Charles Lennox , Duke of Richmond , Master of a Lodge at Chichester , coming to the annual assembly and feast at London , was
chosen Grand Master , Sir Christopher Wren was bis Deputy Grand Master , and who acted as before at the head of the Craft , and was again chosen Grand Master A . D . 1698 . " ( p 107 ) .
11 th . " Grand Master Wren , who had designed St . Paul ' s , A . D . 1673 , as Master of work , had the honour to finish it .... . and celebrated the Copestone when he erected the cross on the top of the cupola in July A . D . 1708 . " ' ( p ! 08 ) .
And 12 th . "Some few years after this [ 1708 ] , Sir Christopher Wren neglected the office of Grand Master , yet the old Lodge near St . Paul ' s and a few more continued their stated meetings . " We see now that Sir Christopher Wren is mentioned three times in the 1723 edition and twelve times in that of
1738 . In the first , Wren is styled merely as the "ingenious Architect , " or the " King ' s Architect , " and in the 1738 edition , he was a Grand , & c . How or where Dr . Anderson got the extra information in 1738 can readily be imagined . But in 1763 or ' 4 , an anonymous book was
printed , viz .: " Multa Paucis , " which out-Andersoned Anderson . It contains a longer list of pre-1717 Grand Masters than Anderson gave , and that instead of four Lodges in 1717 , we have in the "Multa Paucis" six Lodges . We have shown in a former paper that the Roberts' MS .
improved upon the Harleian MS . No . 1942 , by adding the date of " December 8 th , 1663 , " to a certain assembly referred to in the latter , and that Anderson , in 1738 , altered the date of Robert's assembly , and made it on St . John ' s
Day , 27 th December 1663 , but "Multa Paucis" says that assembly -was held in 1661 , and mentions no St . John ' s Day . We shall , however , give but one quotation from " Multa Paucis " about Wren , viz .:
" But our good old Grand Master Wren , being struck with ' age and infirmities , did from this time [ 1710 ] retire from all manner of business , and on account of his disability would no more attend the Lodges in visiting and regulating as usual . "
The next witness of Sir Christopher ' s Freemasonry is Dermott , author of the "Ahiman Rezon , " the gospel oi the so-called Ancients . In the second edition of the
" Ahiman Rezon , " after referring to Anderson ' s statement about Wren ' s neglecting the Lodges , Dermott says : " The Doctor's assertion is certainly true , and I will endeavour to do justice to the memory of Sir Christopher
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The History Of Freemasonry.
gentle family of Littler or Lytlor existed in Cheshire 11 1646 ; while he prints the wills of Richard Ellom , Free mason of Lyme ( Lymme ) , and of John Ellams , husband man of Burton , bot ' i in the county of Cheshire—that of tht former bearing date September 7 , 1667 . and of the lattei
June 7 , 1689 . That these were the Ellams named bj Ashmole cannot bo positively affirmed , but they were doubtless members of the same yeoman family , a branch oi which had apparently settled at Lymm , a village ir Cheshire , about five miles from Warrington . Of the familj
of Hugh Brewer , nothing has come to light beyond the fact that a person bearing this patronymic served in some military capacity under the Earl of Derby in 1643 . " Bro Gould then proceeds to indulge in the following appropriate observations : " The proceedings at Warrington in 1646
established some very important facts in relation to the antiquity of Freemasonry , and to its character as a specula tive science . The words Ashmole uses , ' the names ol those who were then of the Lodge , ' implying as they do either that some of the existivq members were absent , oi
that at a previous period the Lodge-roll comprised other and additional names beyond those recorded in the ' Diary , ' amply justi y the conclusion that the Lodge , when Ashmole joined it , was not a new creation . The terra ' Warden , ' moreover , which follows the name of Mr . Richard Penket
will of itself remove any lingering doubt whether the Warrington Lodge could boast a higher antiquity than the year 1646 , since it points with the utmost clearness to the fact that an actual official of a subsisting branch of the Society of Freemasons was present at the meeting . " For
ourselves , and with Bro . Rylands as our guide , we prefer taking a still bolder course , and pointing out that , as the members , including Mr . Penket the Warden , who were present at the initiation of Ashmole and Mainwaring , were what we should now call Speculative Masons , meeting
together under some kind of settled government , and as it is extremely improbable that such a Lodge so governed had sprung into existence suddenly , we are justified in dating the existence of a speculative era in Masonry back to some period preceding that usually assigned to it iu England ,
namely , the close of the year 1646 . We may not be able to show how or when it began ; it may or may not have had something to do with the initiation of Robert Moray or Murray at Newburn-on-Tyne in 1641 , as record * d in Lyon ' s history ; or , the Lodge being located in the North
of England , the introduction of gentlemen into a Masons ' Lodge may have been influenced by the examples cited by Lyon as having occurred in 1634 and following years in
Edinburgh or Mary ' s Chapel Lodge . In any circumstances it is hardly credible that the Lodge at Warrington with non-operative members as part of it was not in existence before 1646 .
Why Bro. Gould Discredits Wren's Connection With Freemasonry.
WHY BRO . GOULD DISCREDITS WREN'S CONNECTION WITH FREEMASONRY .
BY BRO . JACOB NORTON . ( Continued from page 5 . ) AS many of our readers have never seen Anderson ' s Constitutions of 1723 and 1738 , we must inform them that each edition is prefaced with a history of Masonry . The history of the pre-1717 constitutions begins
with Lamach ; Anderson begins with Adam , and his second history is of course longer than the first . In the latter we are informed that on the 29 th of September 1721 , the Grand Lodge requested Dr . Anderson to revise Payne ' s
Constitution of 1720 ; what kind of a constitution Bro . Payne compiled no one knows . ' Anderson ' s new constitution was approved by the Grand Lodge , 25 th March 1722 .
and in January 1723 it was presented to the Grand Lodge in print . We have before us the two original editions , and have culled from each all the passages wherein Wren was mentioned , and here they are , with the respective pages annexed .
1 st . " King Charles II . founded the present St . Paul ' s Cathedral in London , much after the style of St . Peter ' s at Rome , conducted by the ingenious Architect Sir Christopher Wren . " ( First edition , p 41 ) .
2 nd . " Nor should we forget the famous theatre at Oxford , built by Archbishop Sheldon in the King ' s time , which among his other works was designed and
Why Bro. Gould Discredits Wren's Connection With Freemasonry.
conducted also by Sir Christopher Wren , the King ' s Architect . " ( lVd . ) And 3 rd . " Bow-Church Steeple in Cheapsido—Built by Sir Christopher Wren . " ( See note , p 46 . ) Second Edition . 1 st . " Charles II in his travels
had been made a Free Mason , he "was resolved to encourage the Augustan style by reviving their Lodges , and approved of their choice of Henry Jermyn , Earl of St . Albans , as their Grand Master , who appointed Sir John Denham his Deputy Grand Master , Sir Christopher Wren and Mr . John Web Grand Wardens . " ( p 101 . )
2 nd . " Thomas Savage , Earl of Rivers , succeeded St . Alban as Grand Master , 24 th June 1666 , who appointed Sir Christopher Wren his Deputy , and John Web and Grinlin Gibbons as Wardens . But the Deputy and Wardens managed all things . " ( p 102 ) .
3 rd . "The King and Grand Master ordered Deput y Wren to draw up a fine plan for the oity . " ( Ibid . ) 4 th . "Gilbert Sheldon at his cost , built [ the Theatre at Oxford which was ] conduoted by Deputy Wren and Grand Warden Web . " ( p 103 ) .
5 th . The King with Grand Master Rivers in due form levell'd the foot stone of New St . Paul's , designed by D . G . Master Wren , A . D . 1673 . " ( p 103 ) . 6 th . " The King also founded Chelsea Hospital for old soldiers , a new palace and another palace
at Winchestor , designed by Grand Master Wren . " ( p 104 ) . 7 th ( 1674 ) . " George Villars , Duke of Bucks , an old Mason , succeeded as Grand Master of England , but being mdolpnt , he left all his business to his Deputy Wren and his Wardens , and demitted A . D , 16 " 9 . ( p 105 ) .
8 th . " Upon the death of Grand Master Arlington 1685 , the Lodges met and elected Sir Christopher Wren Grand Master . " ( p 106 ) . 9 th . " The King [ William III . ] was privately made a Free Mason , approved of their choice of Grand Master Wren . " ( p 107 ) .
10 th . " This year [ 1695 ] Brother Charles Lennox , Duke of Richmond , Master of a Lodge at Chichester , coming to the annual assembly and feast at London , was
chosen Grand Master , Sir Christopher Wren was bis Deputy Grand Master , and who acted as before at the head of the Craft , and was again chosen Grand Master A . D . 1698 . " ( p 107 ) .
11 th . " Grand Master Wren , who had designed St . Paul ' s , A . D . 1673 , as Master of work , had the honour to finish it .... . and celebrated the Copestone when he erected the cross on the top of the cupola in July A . D . 1708 . " ' ( p ! 08 ) .
And 12 th . "Some few years after this [ 1708 ] , Sir Christopher Wren neglected the office of Grand Master , yet the old Lodge near St . Paul ' s and a few more continued their stated meetings . " We see now that Sir Christopher Wren is mentioned three times in the 1723 edition and twelve times in that of
1738 . In the first , Wren is styled merely as the "ingenious Architect , " or the " King ' s Architect , " and in the 1738 edition , he was a Grand , & c . How or where Dr . Anderson got the extra information in 1738 can readily be imagined . But in 1763 or ' 4 , an anonymous book was
printed , viz .: " Multa Paucis , " which out-Andersoned Anderson . It contains a longer list of pre-1717 Grand Masters than Anderson gave , and that instead of four Lodges in 1717 , we have in the "Multa Paucis" six Lodges . We have shown in a former paper that the Roberts' MS .
improved upon the Harleian MS . No . 1942 , by adding the date of " December 8 th , 1663 , " to a certain assembly referred to in the latter , and that Anderson , in 1738 , altered the date of Robert's assembly , and made it on St . John ' s
Day , 27 th December 1663 , but "Multa Paucis" says that assembly -was held in 1661 , and mentions no St . John ' s Day . We shall , however , give but one quotation from " Multa Paucis " about Wren , viz .:
" But our good old Grand Master Wren , being struck with ' age and infirmities , did from this time [ 1710 ] retire from all manner of business , and on account of his disability would no more attend the Lodges in visiting and regulating as usual . "
The next witness of Sir Christopher ' s Freemasonry is Dermott , author of the "Ahiman Rezon , " the gospel oi the so-called Ancients . In the second edition of the
" Ahiman Rezon , " after referring to Anderson ' s statement about Wren ' s neglecting the Lodges , Dermott says : " The Doctor's assertion is certainly true , and I will endeavour to do justice to the memory of Sir Christopher