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Home , Elias Ashmole, William Dugdale, Windsor Herald

FIRST RECORDED ENGLISH SPECULATIVE FREEMASON

Introduction

Every Freemason who spends time reading about the history of the fraternity must eventually ask himself the same questions. When and where did start?

It is unfortunate that no documentary evidence has come to light so far that would pinpoint the exact date that Freemasonry started. If there had, many books on the subject would never have been written. There is however a significant list of firsts in Freemasonry that point the way.

The place to begin any story is at the beginning. In history however, you must begin at a point where you can identify the thread of your topic and pick it up from there. Just because we do not have a written record of an event does not mean it did not happen. It only means we do not have the documentation. Sometimes it requires deductive reasoning and thoughtful conclusions. No matter what you believe you must allow that England in the 17th century was fertile ground for the growth of Freemasonry.

Many well-meaning but misguided historians, both Masons and non-Masons, have tried to prove that Freemasonry was a lineal descendant or a modern version of the mysteries of classical Greece and Rome or derived from the religion of the Egyptian pyramid builders. Other theories reckon that Freemasonry sprang from bands of travelling stonemasons acting by Papal authority. Others still are convinced that Freemasonry evolved from a band of Templar who escaped to Scotland after the Order was persecuted in Europe. Some historians have even claimed that Freemasonry derives in some way from the shadowy and mysterious Rosicrucian Brotherhood, which may or may not have existed in Europe in the early . All of these theories have been looked at repeatedly but no hard evidence has yet been found to give any of them credibility. The honest answers to the questions when where and why Freemasonry originated are that we simply do not know. Early evidence for Freemasonry is very meagre and not enough has yet been discovered - if indeed it even exists - to prove any theory.

ELIAS ASHMOLE (1617-1692)

It is in England that the first evidence of a Lodge completely made up of non-operative Masons is found. It is now well established that (May 23, 1617 – May 18, 1692) was the first English speculative Freemason because there is a record of it in his diary entry for October 16, 1646 - it reads in part: "I was made a Free Mason at Warrington in Lancashire, with Coll: Henry Mainwaring of Karincham in Cheshire."

Elias Ashmole was made a Freemason in a Lodge held for that purpose at his father-in-laws house in Warrington in the North West of England. It took place at 4.30 pm in the afternoon. The precise time can be given because he kept a daily diary now housed in the Bodlean Library in . He records who was present, all of whom have been researched and have been found to have no connection with operative masonry. This is the evidence of the first initiation of an English speculative Mason. That is, notwithstanding the fact that those present and listed would have certainly been initiated at an earlier date. Therefore, Ashmole is not identified as the first speculative Mason in history - only the first whose details are known and recorded. In fact, English evidence through the 1600s points to Freemasonry existing apart from any actual or supposed organization of operative stonemasons.

It is also known that Ashmole was an intellectual, and a talented and wealthy man of standing as well as the Antiquary and Founder of the Ashmolean in Oxford. But many questions arise regarding the initiation of Brother Ashmole. In the whole of his extensive manuscript annotations there are only two references to his Masonic activities, dated 1646 and 1682. The names of those present in 1646 as listed by Ashmole in his diary are uncontested.

None of those present belonged to the stonemasons' trade. The Lodge, however, will have consisted of several additional members not present at the initiation and who may well have been working operative stonemasons. There are two perennial questions raised with regard to Elias Ashmole’s initiation in 1646. Why did he join? And why is there no other mention of Freemasonry in his extensive diaries until his visit to London in 1682?

Although there is only one other mention of Masonic activity in his diary he seems to have remained in good standing and well-connected with the fraternity as he was still attending meetings in 1682.

On March 10 that year he wrote: "About 5 H: P.M. I received a Sumons to appeare at a Lodge to held the next day, at Masons Hall London."

The following day, March 11 1682, he wrote: "Accordingly, I went ... I was the Senior Fellow among them (it being 35 yeares since I was admitted) ... We all dyned at the halfe Moone Taverne in Cheapeside, at a Noble Dinner prepaired at the charge of the New-accepted Masons."

Ashmole's notes are one of the earliest references to Freemasonry known in England, but apart from these entries in his autobiographical notes, there are no further details about Ashmole's involvement.

The answer may lie in that Freemasonry was not an organization of particular consequence or sufficient importance for Ashmole to make additional annotations. Ashmole may have joined because by nature he was a joiner. He could not have resisted the temptation to discover the nature of what even then was a mysterious association and he may well have found nothing of consequence in the fraternity for further comment or record. There is the added possibility that in the quiet and secretive ambiance of a Masonic meeting he was able to meet with unrecorded intellectual colleagues to discuss those aspects of esoteric and hermetic studies very much experimental in the scientific world at the time.

Elias Ashmole was born on May 23, 1617 in , , England. He attended Lichfield Grammar School (now King Edward VI School) and became a chorister at . In 1633, he went to live in London for legal training and in 1638, with the help of the patronage of James Pagitt, a Baron of the Exchequer he became a lawyer and established a law practice in London and for a few years law was his principal means of support. Also in 1638 he married Eleanor Mainwaring (1603–1641), of Smallwood in the county of Cheshire, a member of a poor but aristocratic family, who died, suddenly, while pregnant.

Ashmole supported the side of King Charles I in the Civil War in England, and at the outbreak of fighting in 1642, he left London for the house of his father-in-law, Henry Mainwaring, at Smallwood, Cheshire. There he lived a retired life until 1644, when he was appointed King's Commissioner of Excise at Lichfield, his home town. Soon afterwards, at the suggestion of Sir George Wharton, a leading astrologer with strong Royal court connections, Ashmole was given a military post at Oxford, where he served as an ordnance officer for the King's forces.

While in Oxford he entered himself at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and studied physics and mathematics. In late 1645, Ashmole left Oxford and came to London and mixed much in astrological circles, and finding himself a guest at 'the mathematical feast at the White Hart alehouse.' During 1645 and 1646, crucial years in the , Ashmole’s political and military careers developed on parallel lines. In March 1646 he was made a Captain in the King’s Army and he witnessed the defeat of King Charles by Cromwell three months later. He returned to his home town and it was on October 16, 1646 that Elias Ashmole was made a Freemason in Warrington and as reported in his diary.

In 1646–47, Ashmole made several simultaneous approaches to rich widows in the hope of securing a good marriage. A talented and ambitious man, he was able to fulfill many of his dreams after his second marriage in 1649 to the wealthy thrice-widowed Mary, Lady Mainwaring, 20 years his senior and sister of Sir Humphrey Forster. She may have been a relative by marriage of his first wife's family and was the mother of grown children. Her estate established Ashmole’s fortunes, even though he ceased to receive the income from her estate after her death.

In every way except for Ashmole’s finances the marriage was a disaster. The marriage took place over the opposition of the bride's family, and it did not prove to be harmonious: Lady Mainwaring filed suit for separation and alimony but it was dismissed by the courts in 1657. Nevertheless, the marriage provided Ashmole with Mary's first husband's estates which left him wealthy enough to pursue his interests, now including botany and , without concern for his livelihood. He retired at the age of 32 and pursued personal interests thereafter. On April 1, 1668, Lady Mainwaring died, and on November 3 the same year Ashmole married Elizabeth Dugdale (1632– 1701), the much younger daughter of his friend and fellow , the Sir (1605-86). All of Elizabeth's pregnancies ended in stillbirths or miscarriages, and Brother Ashmole remained childless.

Ashmole's most significant appointment was to the as of Arms in Ordinary in June 1660. In this position he devoted himself to the study of the history of the (founded in 1348) which had been a special interest of his since the 1650s, and proposed a design for the Royal Society's . His great work, the 'Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter,' which was published in 1672 brought him many tokens of honour, both from his own and foreign countries. It is certainly a noble example of antiquarian zeal and research. In 1675, he resigned as Windsor Herald, perhaps because of factional strife within the College of Arms. He was offered the post of Garter Principal , which traditionally came with a knighthood, but he turned it down in favour of his father-in-law Sir William Dugdale.

Brother Ashmole became one of the founding members of The Royal Society in 1661, but he was not a very active member. In the beginning of the Speculative Fraternity under the Grand Lodge system the Freemasons avowed their devotion to the sciences more boldly, and even dramatically. The Royal Society was in the British public mind synonymous with science, and for more than a century it, and its offshoots, were the only exponents and practitioners of science in Britain. The first President elected in 1661 was the Scottish Freemason, Sir Robert Moray (1609- 73). It seems that a lodge largely composed of Royal Society members met in a room belonging to the Royal Society Club in London. At a time when preachers and newspapers thundered against scientists, street crowds shouted at them, and neither Oxford nor Cambridge would admit science courses, Masonic lodges invited Royal Society members in for lectures, many of which were accompanied by scientific demonstrations.

In 1677, Ashmole was determined to bestow a museum he had inherited, with his own additions consisting of his library and manuscripts, upon the , on condition of a suitable building being provided for its reception. The gift was accepted on these terms, and the collection was removed to Oxford upon the completion of the building in 1682 and named the that is still open to this day.

In 1685, Ashmole was invited to represent his native city in Parliament, but desisted from his candidature. In 1690, he was magnificently entertained by the University of Oxford, and while he took no degree, they had some years earlier conferred upon him the degree of Doctorate in Medicine. The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, has indeed secured its donor a celebrity which he could not have obtained by his writings.

Ashmole was nevertheless no ordinary man. His industry was most exemplary, he was disinterestedly attached to the pursuit of knowledge, and his antiquarian researches, at all events, were guided by great good sense. His addiction to astrology was no mark of weakness of judgment in that age. He can hardly have been more attached to it, but he had more leisure and perseverance for its pursuit. Alchemy, he seems to have quietly dropped. He appears in his diary as a man by no means unfeeling or ungenerous, constant and affectionate in his friendships, and placable towards his adversaries. He had evidently however a very keen eye to his own interest, and acquisitiveness was his master passion. His munificence nevertheless, speaks for itself, and was frequently exercised on unlooked-for occasions, as when he erected monuments to his astrological friends.

Brother Ashmole may have attended Masonic meetings unrecorded in his diary until the summons to the Masons Company in London in 1682. It is then that he mentions Freemasonry for the second and only additional time in the 2000 odd pages of his diaries. The entry is dated March 10, 1682, thirty-five years after his initiation. The same curious questions arise in this instance as they did with regard to the first entry. What ceremony did Ashmole exactly attend in London?

He was The Senior Fellow among them thus he was a speculative Freemason gathering in an operative environment of the Masons Company of London. What was he doing there? The recorded ceremony of the acception in the Masons Company has yet to be explained. It appears to be a ‘club within the club’ to which selected individuals were admitted as members. Ashmole’s presence here may be seen as evidence, or at least suggest, that Ashmole’s own lodge into which he was initiated in 1646 was of a similar composition. Elias Ashmole, in 1646, may well have experienced in an operative Lodge an aspect of an acception ceremony he was to attend several decades later in London.

So we find that Ashmole may have found access to an esoteric content in some or other aspect of the Craft proceedings. He may have had colleagues similarly inclined. There are interesting hints in the diary annotations at the nature of Masonic activity at the time. Colonel Henry Mainwaring, with whom Ashmole was initiated, was a Roundhead parliamentarian friend, diametrically opposed to the Royalists who Ashmole supported. The implication is that Freemasonry, from these very early days, recognized no political boundaries. Furthermore Ashmole took his obligation on the Sloane Manuscript, an ancient Charge, which was expressly composed for the ceremony of his initiation. Thus we see that the structure of Freemasonry has been reasonably consistent through the centuries. Thus whilst the structure or format of the institution did not change over the years, the content, the ritual and ceremony and, more importantly, the academic quality of its membership, may well have been diluted. The departure of academics and their replacement by ‘Gentlemen’ may have caused a decline in quality over the years.

Unfortunately little is known of Masonic activity in England for 70 years after Ashmole’s initiation in 1646 except that general London Club life became very popular. When organized Freemasonry began in London on June 24, 1717 it consisted entirely of ‘gentlemen’ intent on drinking and dining and having a good time in general. The Society may well have altered completely, emerging finally as just another one of the many London clubs of the period. How and why the change, between 1646 and 1717, from an apparently aristocratic institution emerging 70 years later as nothing more than a Gentlemen's Club at best?

Brother Ashmole's health began to deteriorate during the 1680s and he closed his industrious and prosperous life at 74 years of age on May 18, 1692, and is interred in St. Mary's Church, , South London, under a black marble slab with a Latin inscription, promising that his name shall endure as long as his museum. Ashmole's widow, Elizabeth, married a stonemason, John Reynolds, on March 15, 1694. They had no children and on her death seven years later the house and lands in Lambeth passed into Reynolds's hands.

Information

It was in London that in 1717 a group of like-minded men got together and devised a non- sectarian, socially egalitarian forum in which men of integrity could fraternize, while avoiding the vexed issues of religion and politics. They took as their guiding metaphor the trade of stonemasonry, hence the symbols of Freemasonry – the square, compass and apron – and its three degrees of evolution, Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason. There are, however, no known credible direct links between operative and speculative Freemasons in England at any point in history. It was not until the late 1800s that any investigation into the history of Masonry really began. There are an infinite number of unanswered and unanswerable questions in the rich and they will continue to baffle and delight Masonic historians, researchers, and general readers forever it seems.

SMIB

I recently found a reference to Elias Ashmole in the Transactions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge, volume 65, 1953 as follows: “Professor C.H. Johnston, in his researches on Elias Ashmole, has found that- “Timothy and John Gadbury dedicated their Astronomical Tables First Invented by George Hartgill, London 1656, ‘To the truly noble and most accomplished encyclopaedian Elias Ashmole Esquire’. The letter of dedication praises Ashmole’s knowledge in all sciences (especially in the mathematiques) and calls him the most fit and honourable guardian to protect and keep a child of Urania. To Masonic scholars it may be of interest that at the end of the letter the authors commend Ashmole to the safeguard of the Great Architect of Heaven and Earth.”

R.W. Bro Robert Taylor