The "William Watson Ms." Of A.D. 1687.

THE "WILLIAM WATSON MS . " OF A . D . 1687 .

Attention vvas first drawn to this copy of the " Old Charges " by Mr . Walter Hamilton , a literary gentleman of London , in " Notes and Queries" for December 6 th , 1890 , who asked for information as to the rarity of such a record ; not being a member of the Craft .

Several of us placed ourselves at once in communication with that gentleman , but whilst some were seeking to discover the character of the text , and others were hesitating , Bro . William Watson , of Leeds , to the surprise of us all , became the purchaser , and thus , by his superior generalship and promptitude , secured

the prize . Personally , though one of those who failed to become the owner , I am well pleased that my old and valued friend succeeded , for it has been as promptly secured for the valuable West Yorkshire Masonic Library by the characteristic liberality

of the R . W . Bro . Thomas W . Tew , J . P ., the esteemed Provincial Grand Master . This valuable present is one of very many munificent donations to that grand collection , which might well be entitled The Teto Masonic Museum and Library .

The roll is 12 feet in length by 7 ^ inches wide , and is well written on six strips of parchment of about equal lengths sewn together to make up the scroll . It was presented to Mr . Hamilton some two years ago by his brother-in-law , Mr . John Harper , of Roughside Hall , Riding Mill , Northumberland , and

Gresham House , Newcastle-on-Tyne , who found the roll in an old iron safe which had not been opened for a long time , the key having been lost . This is all the information Mr . Hamilton has been able to supply , and I beg to thank him for his courtesy and kind replies to my numerous questions . The R . W . Bro . Thomas W . Tew has decided to name the

roll the "William Watson MS . " out of compliment to the honorary librarian , whose services beyond question deserve such special recognition and permanent commemoration . Bro . Watson , on my discovery of the important character of its text , might easily have obtained double the amount he paid for the scroll .

My friend was initiated in the Fidelity Lodge , No . 28 9 , Leeds , on August 22 nd , 1867 , and installed as its Master in December , 18 72 . He is one of the founders of the Prudence , No . 206 9 , and served as its Master 188 9-90 . Of course Bro . YVatson was one of the earliest to , join the . " C . C . " of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge ,

and is one of the very few in England elected to the honour of membership in the " Masonic Veterans " of Pennsylvania , which took place as soon as he was eligible as a Craftsman of 21 years ' standing . As a P . G . S . of W . in his own province , and the author

of two or three Masonic brochures of considerable interest , but above all , as librarian of the celebrated collection already noted , he is well known as a most zealous Masonic student , and he himself owns one of the best libraries in England of rare works relating to the Craft .

There are now three copies of the " Old Charges " in the West Yorkshire Library—viz ., the "Thomas W . Tew MS . " ( reproduced by me in the Christmas Freemason for 1888 ) , the " Clapham MS . " ( transcribed for the Freemason , March 29 th , 18 90 , by Bro . William Watson ) , and the one now bein ^ described ,

which is by far the most valuable of the trio , Excepting the " Regius " and " Cooke " MSS ., it is of more interest and importance than almost any other of the remaining 50 copies of these old operative Constitutions preserved in England and Scotland ; so that the R . W . Bro . T , W , Tew and his province are to be congratulated on the last accession to their Masonic museum of

antiquities of the Craft , The roll is the longest I have met with , and might well be described as of " prodigious length , " which was the chief

characteristic of one mentioned in the Records of the " Atholl" Grand Lod ge , December 6 th , 1752 , supposed to have been taken abroad b 7 Bro . John Morgan , its first Grand Secretary , and since" lost sight of .

The "William Watson Ms." Of A.D. 1687.

I have quite failed to connect the document with any of the missing MSS , such as the "York MS ., No . 3 ; " the " Masons ' Co . MS . " ( alluded to by Sir Francis Palgrave in the Edinburgh Review , April , 18 39 ) , or the original of the " Dowland MS . " ( Gent ' s Mag ., Mar ., 1815 . )*

Dr . Plot , in his "Natural History of Staffordshire , " 1686 ( Chap . VIII . ) , certainly notes " a large parchment volum" which brethren ¦ " have amongst them , containing the History and Rules of the Craft of Masonry , which is there deduced , not only from sacred writ , but profane story , particularly that it was brought

into England by St . Amphibal , and first communicated to St Albany All the extracts that credulous historian gives may fairly be credited to the original of the " William Watson MS ., " which bears date exactly one year later than this curious work , and may have been in book form ( a volu ? n ) .

Of no other Roll can this be said , for Dr . Plot states that in " the said Schrole or Parchment volum . . .. . it is also declared that these charges and manners were after perused and approved by King Hen . 6 and his council , both , as to Masters and Fellows of this Right WorshipfULL Craft . " There is but

one Roll known that refers to this King , and that is the document herewith reproduced by me , which recites that " these charges have been seen & perused by our late Soveraigne Lord King Henry ye Sixth , and ye Lords of ye Honourable Councell , and they haue allowed them well and said they were right good & reasonable to be holden . "

It was ordered by the King and Parliament ; A . D . 1437 , that " no new ordinances were to be made or . ' used by the various Crafts , Guilds , & c , unless approved by the special authorities

mentioned , and those then m ^ force were subject to revocation and alteration . On this and other points Bro . Gould's great History should be consulted ( Chap . VII . ) , always , however , in remembrance of the fact that these Crafts conducted their

business in " lour generalx Chapitres assemblez , as he alone points out , and not in " General chapters and assemblies , " , so often , but erroneously , declared . ! This reference to the " late King" may fairly be accepted as

fixing the approximate date of the original MS . from which the " William Watson " Roll was transcribed , viz ., about the latter part of the fifteenth century . Hence this document , so recently brought to light , virtually informs us of the text of a copy of the " Old Charges " used by lodges fully four centuries ago .

The importance of this point cannot well be over-estimated , because we thus become acquainted with the character of a scroll , written some 50 years or more , after the origin of the celebrated " Add . MS . 22 , 19 8 , " ( British Museum ) , popularly known as the " Matthew Cooke MS ., " and which the later MS .

so closely resembles in some 600 lines of the older document . I have inserted every 20 th line of " Cooke ' s MS ., " in brackets , in the following transcript , by which plan my readers will easily trace the extraordinary correspondence of the two versions . Fortunately , the publication of this second oldest MS . of the Craft

by the Quatuor Coronati Lodge , No . 2076 , London , in perfect facsimileX p laces that venerable and veritable gem in the hands of Masonic students for comparison with the later manuscripts , and with Bro . Speth ' s able " Commentary on the Matthew Cooke MS . " in the same splendid volume , leaves nothing to be desired in relation to that document .

Some of Bro . Speth ' s corrections of the senior version , made when the junior copy was unknown , are confirmed by the later roll , but at the time my zealous brother wrote his " Commentary" ( which is the only treatise on the subject extant that is worthy of mention , and ranks with Bro . R . F . Gould's exhaustive " Commentary on the Regius MS . " §) there was no