Did Ashmole Ever Ride On Our Masonic Goat?

DID ASHMOLE EVER RIDE ON OUR MASONIC GOAT ?

BY BRO . JACOB NORTON .

BEFORE Bro . Findel ' s History of Masonry was published no ono doubted in Anderson ' s list of pre-1717 Grand Masters , but now no intelligent Mason believes that either of the dignitaries in the said list were twit in any way connected with a Masonic organization . Again ,

within four or five years no one doubted the statement ot Bro . Fellows , printed at Leipsic , in 1848 , that tbe German operative Masons in the middle ages used to open thoir

Lodges every morning in due form before they went to work , and closed their Lodges in duo form after their day ' s work was finished . Bro . Speth , in the first part ofthe Proceedings of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge , has ,

however , demonstrated that the German Masons in the middle ages knew nothing of opening or closing a Lodge , or about any other kind of Masonic ceremony . Still again , we all believed that Chevalier Ramsay was the manufacturer of

Masomc " High Degrees ; " but Bro . Gould clearly proved that Ramsay was not the maker of High Degrees . The above facts should satisfy every one that Masons can be deceived for a long time . Now , it seems to rae , that we have been deceived in claiming Elias Ashmole as a Brother Mason .

The doubt about Ashmole ' s Masonry entered my mind when I was writing my criticism on Bro . Fellow ' s theory about " Speculative Masons , " as he ailed Ashmole , and his conclusion that the " upper ten " class of Masons in the

middle ages must havo invented some kind of high degrees . Well , I had sone conversation about my doubt in Ashmole's initiation into Masonry with a well informed brother , who seemed to agree with me . 1 should , however , not havo

troubled the public with my doubts , at least for somo time , if I had not happened to read an article by Bro . Hughan , in the Freemason of 1 st June , headed " Ashmole as a Freemason . " As Bro . Hughan refers to the best informed

writer upon the question , viz ., to Bro . Ryland ' s article in the Masonio Magazine , December 1881 . Ire-perused the said article , which , however , failed to remove my doubt . Briefly , then , the evidence of Ashmole ' s initiation into Masonry rests upon two paragraphs in Ashmole ' s Diary ;

1 st , he says : 16 th October . Hor . 30 minutes post merid . I was made

a Freemason at Warrington in Lancashire , with Colonel Henry Maimuaring , of Karticham , iu Cheshire . Tho names of thoso that were then at the Lodgo , Mr . Richard Penhet

Warden , Mr . James CJl ' er , Mr . Richard Sanlcay , Henry Littler , Richard Ellam , aud Hugh Brewer . About tho said Warrington Lodge , Bro . Ryland says :

If I were asked to express an opinion on the Warrington Lodge of 1646 [ when Ashmole joined it ] I should feel obliged to say that , so far as I am able to judge , there is not

a scrap of evidence that there was a single operative Mason present on the afternoon of tho 16 th October 1646 . In fact , the whole of the evidence seems to point quite in the opposite direction .

That a town guild in 1646 consisted of non-operatives is not very surprising , for in a recent published book on English Guilds ( I forget its name ) I found that Alderman

Cotton ( I believe ) stated , before a Parliamentary Com

mission , that even five hundred years ago the majority of the members of each guild were not of tho trade which tho guild represented , and I doubt very much whether the

London Guild of Masons in the days of Charles 2 nd numbered many who were connected with the buildinc trade , and it is not impossible that wheu Ashmole visited the London Guild , iu 1682 , that not even one of its members

was an operative Mason or builder . But bo that as it may , it is certain that the London Masons' Guild , since the days of Charles 2 nd , wero an un-Masonic body , according to our notions of Masonry ; hence , I have not tho slightest doubt

that the Warden and even the Master of the said London Guild ofthe 17 th century could never have been allowed to visit a Lodge of our progenitors , merely because they were dignitaries of the London Masons' Guild " ; for in order to

gain admission iuto a Lodge , of our progenitors , such , for instance , as theLodge in St . Paul ' s of 17 l 7 , it was necessary to show a sign , to give a grip , and to whisper a word , but

the London Masons' Gnild was signless , gripless and wordless . In short , the mysteries appertaining to riding the Masonic goat were unknown in Masons' Hall in the City

Did Ashmole Ever Ride On Our Masonic Goat?

of London . While , on the other hand , the mystic Masons , our forefathers , as described by Dr . Plott , a friend of Ashmole , wero so skilled in Masonic science that a sign given by a Mason would bring another Mason down from the top of a Church steeple to inquire what he wanted .

Now Dr . Plott , who was a great friend of Ashmole , and

was under obligations to Ashmole , was the first man who undertook to ridicule Masmiry . As he wrote daring tho lifetime of Ashmole , it seems to mo that the Masonry which Plott ridiculed must have been a different kind of

Masonry to that which Ashmole received at Warrington in 1646 . In order to satisfy myself about the above suggestions , I consulted about half-a-dozen histories of the guilds , but

found very little about Masons' Guilds in either of them . I next rummaged here and thero in Bro . Gould ' s History of Freemasonry , and in tho 2 nd Volume , ou page 305 , I found as follows . Bro . Gould says :

"Also it does notseem clear whether the building trades generally [ meaning the Goat Riding Masons ' ] had any connection with the Masons' Company of London , and I shonld be inclined to think that the building trades associations

[ meaning those Masons who had grips , words , signs , and secrefc ceremonies ] were trades union societies , differing from the guilds , which partook more of a corporate character , and which , hence , more closely resembled the Collegia . "

The second entry in Ashmole s Diary about Masonry is as follows : — " 1682 , Mar . 10 . About 5 Hor . post merid . I received a summons to appear at a Lodge to be held the next day at Masons' Hall , in London .

" 11 . Accordingly I went , and about noon was admitted into the Fellowship of Freemasons , by Sir William Wilson , Knight ; Captain Richard Borthwick , Mr . William Wodman , Mr . William Grey , Mr . Samnel Taylour , and Mr . William Wise .

" I was the Senior Fellow among them ( it being 35 years since I was admitted ) . There were present , besides myself , the Fellows after named : —Mr . Thomas Wise Master of the Masons' Company this present year , Mr . Thomas

Shorthose , Mr . Thomas Shadbolt , Waidsfford Esq ., Mr . Nicholas Young , Mr . John Shorthose , Mr . William Haraon , Mr . John Thompson , and Mr . William Stanton . We all dined at the Half-Moon Tavern , in Cheapside , at a noble Dinner , propared at the new accepted Mason .

The reader will see now that the London Lodge , which summoned Elias Ashmole to a dinner in 1682 , and of which

he claimed proudly tho title of " Senior Fellow , " was no other than the London Masons' Guild , which , as already shown , had neither any sign , word , grip , or ceremony , save and except that of a grand dinner ( the last , however , was

not peculiarly a Masonic ceremony ) . The inference , therefore , is , that the Lodge at Warrington , where Ashmole was Masonized ( after a fashion ) , in 1646 , was also minus of Masonic words , grips , signs , and the Masonic essential

of riding upon the goat Snch being the case , Elias Ashmole is no more entitled to be called by us " Bro . Mason " than the gentleman who was Masonized by the London Guild in 1682 , and who paid for the grand dinner , as above

stated , can consistently be called our " Bro . Mason . " The members of the London Masons' Guild , of 1682 , did not recognise our " ancient brethren " as Brother Masons , their successors of to-day do not acknowledge us of the " mystic

tie " as Brother Masons , and vice versa . In short , except the name , there was no sympathy or connection then , any more than there is now , between the said Masons ' Lodges . Hence , unless either Bro . Hughan or Bro . Eyland

can prove that the Warrington Lodge , in 1646 , as well aa the London Guild , in 1682 , when Ashmole claimed to be its " Senior Fellow , " were Masonic in accordance with our

idea about Masonics , it would be high time , in my opinion , to erase the name of Elias Ashmole from our list of " Old Masonic Worthies . " Boston , U . S . 14 th June 1889 .

A Lodge , established upon a temperance basis , in connection with the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales , having proved so satisfactory , the Koyal Arch Masons have established a Chapter upon the same basis .

Ar00302

FUNERALS properly carried out and personally attended , in fjondon and Country , by Bro . G . A . HUTTON * , 17 Newcastle Street , Strand , "W . O . Monuments erected . Valuations made .