Why Bro. Gould Discredits Wren's Connection With Freemasonry.

WHY BRO . GOULD DISCREDITS WREN'S CONNECTION WITH FREEMASONRY .

BT Buo . JACOB NORTON . Continued from Vol . XIX . page 387 . ONCE npon a timo a prisoner was charged with sheep stealing . The lawyer engaged to defend him saw at once that tho testimony of the government witnesses could

not be shaken ; but , as he was determined to clear his client , onr smart lawyer hired a dozen scoundrels who were instructed to corroborate the testimony of the prosecuting witness , but as each of tho hired witnesses , on cross-examination , was proved to have served on the

treadmill , or in some prison , and their statements conflicted all round , the crafty lawyer was enabled by his logical inferences to persuade the jury that the government witness was on a par with all the rest ; or , in other words , that the statements of all the witnesses against the prisoner were

alike unfounded . And in a like manner our so-called Masonic historians have written so many vagaries about Sir Christopher Wren , and about other events , all of which upon impartial investigation have been proved utterly groundless , that even Aubrey ' s disinterested testimony

to Wren ' s reception by the old Lodge , in 1691 , seems now to bo very unreliable and dubious . Aubrey and Wren were both Fellows of the Eoyal Society , and there is no donbt of their having been intimate friends . Aubrey commenced writing his " Natural

History of Wiltshire " in 1656 , and finished it 21 st April 1 G 86 . The whole book was written on one side of each leaf only , and , on the blank side of page 73 , Mr . Halliwell discovered , about forty or more years ago , the following statement , in Aubrey ' s handwriting :

" Sir William Dugdale told me , mauy years since , that about Henry the Third's time the Pope gave a bull or patents to a company of Italian Freemasons , to travel up and down all over Europe to build churches . From those are derived the Fraternity of Adopted Masons . They

are known to one another by certain signs and watchwords ; it continues to this day . They have several Lodges in several counties for their reception ; and when any of them fall into decay the brotherhood is to relieve him , & o . The manner of their adoption is very formal , and with an oath of secrecy . "

And on the back of page 72 Mr . Halliwell also found the following statement : — " Memorandum . This day , May the 18 tb , being Monday , 1691 , after Bogation Sunday , is a great convention at St ,

Paul ' s Chnrch of the Fraternity of the adopted masons , where Sir Christopher Wren is to be adopted a brother , and Sir Henry Goodric of the Tower , and clivers others . There have been Kings tbat have been of this sodality . "

The custom of conferring the freedom of the city upon a prince , nobleman , & c . is still practised by the guilds or companies of the city of London . It seems funny to read the speech of a high personage , when thanking the company for having conferred the honour upon him by

making him a Bro . Fishmonger or Tailor , & c . Now , onr learned Bro . C . L . Woodbury , our Philadelphia learned Bro . MacCalla , and all our learned and unlearned American Masonic Grand Lodges in creation , are ready at any moment to swear tbat St . John the Baptist was a bona fide Bro . Freemason . But it seems that the London Tailors

Guild have at least as good a reason for believing that St . John the Baptist was a bona fide Bro . Free Tailor , and consequently they have a grand feast on every 24 th of June . In 1607 King James and his son Henry , and a host of courtiers , dined with the London Tailors on St . John ' s

Day , upon which occasion Prince Henry and the courtiers were all Tailorized . His Majesty was also invited to be made an accepted Bro . Tailor , which honour he declined ,

because he was already an accepted Bro . Cordwainer . Elias Ashmole , founder of the Ashmolian Museum at Oxford ( and if we recollect right he was a member of the Royal Society ) , recorded in his Diary as follows : —

" 1646 . Oct . 16 , 4 . 30 p . m . I was made a Freemason at Warrington , in Lancashire , with Col . Henry Mainwaring of Kermincham , Cheshire . The names of those that were then in the Lodge , Mr . Richard Penket Warden [ or W . M . ] Mr . James Collier , Mr . Rich Sankey , Henry Littler , John Elam , Rich . Elam , and Hugh Brewer . " The next mention of Masons in the Diary is in March 1682 , as follows : —

Why Bro. Gould Discredits Wren's Connection With Freemasonry.

" 10 . About 5 p . m . I received a sumons to appr , at a Lodge to be held next day , [ at ] Masons' Hall , London . " 11 . Accordingly I went , and about noon were

admitted in Fellowship of Free Masons . " Sir William Wilson Knight , Capt . Rich Boithwick Mr . Will Woodman , Mr . Wm . Gray , Mr . Samuel Taylor , ' ancl Mr . William Wise .

" I was tho Senior Fellow among them , ( it being thirty , five years since I was admitted ) . Thero were present besides myself the Fellows after named . Mr . Tho Wise ,

Mr . of the Masons Company this present year , Mr . Thomas Shorthouso , Mi * . Thomas Shadbolt , — Wainsford Esqr ., Mr . Nich Young , Mr . John Shovthovtso , Mr . William Hatnon , Mr . John Thompson , and Mr . Will Stanton .

" Wee all dyned at the Halfe Moone Taverne in Cheapside , at a noble dinner prepared at the charge of the Newaccepted Masons . "

This Lodge which Ashmole visited in 1682 is still a puzzle to us . Nor can we positively state whether Ashmole visited the London Masons Company and dined with them *

We have given Bro . Ashmole ' s Masonic jottings in full because , in the first place , they prove that non-operatives were then transmogrified into " Accepted Masons ; " and second , we learn from them that the "Knife and Fork Degree" was in full blast in the then Masonic Lodges .

Dr . Plot , Secretary of the Royal Society , a triend of Aubrey , Ashmole , Wren , & c . in his " Natural History of Staffordshire , " printed in 1686 , has also something to say about Masons ; he , however , describes the humbler class of Masons , who held their meetings not in great taverns , but

in public houses , and he bears evidence to the existence of the Knife and Fork Degree even among them . Governor Belcher , of Massachusetts , claimed to have been made a Mason in London , in 1704 . The fashion of gentlemen joining the Masonic Brotherhood was certainly in full blast in

1691 , when Aubrey penned his memorandum that Sir Christopher Wren was going on that very day to be accepted by the Masons . And , what is more ! The Grand Lodge of England , in 1729 , furnished additional evidence to prove that a convention of Masons was actually held in

the neighbourhood of Sfc . Paul's in 1691 , for in the engraved Lodge list of 1729 the oldest Lodge is said to have been constituted in 1691 . There would not , therefore , have been any reason to doubt Wren ' s admission into the Masonic Fraternity , as stated by Aubrey , if Anderson , Preston and Co . had never have written their Masonic

histories . But , in the first place , Anderson was not cute enough to Masonize Wren in 1723 ; and , second , our simple-minded Bro . Anderson over-Masonized Wren in 1738 ; for , if Anderson ' s history was true , that Wren was a Grand Warden in 1663 , then Aubrey ' s statement that

Wren was not a Mason before 1691 must be false , and vice versa . Besides which , Anderson Grand Wardened Wren more than fifty years before the Masons had Grands . These conflicting statements roused the suspicions of our

old friend Bro . W . P . Buchan , of Glasgow , when , after disposing of the worthlessness of the testimony of the reporter of the Postboy , of 1723 , he reasons thus ( see Freemason , London 1875 , pp 352-3 ) : —

" The only real piece of evidence that I have yet seen . . . . is the quotation from Aubrey ' s 'Natural History of Wiltshire , ' but that quotation does not sate that he ( Wren ) was enrolled among the members of the Fraternity ; it merely states that . . . . ' he is to be adopted a brother . ' .

. . . Of course we read in Preston ' s ' Illustrations of Masonry' that Wren was a Grand Warden in 1663 , and a Deputy G . M . in 1666 , but as both of these dates occur at a considerable time previous to the 18 th of