The Life Of Bro. George Oliver, D.D.

information in relation to Masonic usages . Dr . Oliver was initiated by his father in the year 1801 , in St . Peter ' s Lodge , in the city of Peterborough . Ho was at that time but nineteen years of ago , and was

admitted by dispensation during his minority , according to the practice then prevailing , as a Lewis , or tho son of a Mason . Under the tuition of his father , ho made much progress in the rites and ceremonies then in use among the lodges . He

read with great attention every Masonic book within his reach , and began to collect that store of knowledge which he afterwards used with so much advantage to the Craft . Soon after his appointmentasheadmaster

of King Edward ' s Grammar School at Grimsby , he established a lodge in the borough , the chair of which ho occupied for fourteen years . So strenuous were his exertions for the advancement of Masonry , that in 1812 he was enabled to lay the

first stone of a Masonic hall in the town where three years before there had been scarcely a Mason residing . About this time ho was exalted as a

Royal Arch Mason in the Chapter attached to the Rodney Lodge at Kingston-on-Hull . In Chapters and Consistories connected with the same lodge he also received the high degrees and those of Masonic knighthood . In 1813 , ho was appointed a Provincial Grand Stewardin 1810 Provincial

, Grand Chaplain , and in 1832 Provincial Deputy Grand Master , of the Province of Lincolnshire . These are all the official honours that he received , except that of Past Deputy Grand Master conferred as an honorary title by the Grand Lodge of

Massachusetts . In 1810 , Dr . Crucefix had undeservedl y incurred the displeasure of the Grand Master , the Duke of Sussex . Dr . Oliver , between whom and Dr . Crucefix there had always been a warm personal friendship , assisted in a public

demonstration of the Fraternity in honour of his friend and brother . This involved him in tho odium , and caused the Provincial Grand Master of Lincolnshire , Brother Charles Tennyson D'Eyncourt , to request the resignation of Dr . Oliver as

his deputy . He complied with the resignation , and after that time withdrew from all active participation in the labours of the lodge . The transaction was not

considered by any means as creditable to the independence of character or sense of justice of the Provincial Grand Master , and tho Craft very generally expressed their indignation of the course which he had pursued and their warm appreciation of the

Masonic services of Dr . Oliver . In 1841 , this appreciation was marked by tho presentation of an offering of plate , which had been very generally subscribed for by tho Craft throughout tho kingdom . Dr . Oliver ' s first contribution to the

literature of Freemasonry , except a few Atasonic sermons , was a work entitled " The Antiquities of Freemasonry , comprising Illustrations of the Five Grand Periods of Masonry , from the Creation of the World to the Dedication of King Solomon ' s Temple" which was published

, in 1823 . His next production was a little worlc entitled " Tho Star in tho East , " intended to show , from the testimony of Masonic writers , tho connection between Freemasonry and Religion . In 1841 , he published twelve lectures on the "Signs

and Symbols" of Freemasonry , in which he wont into a learned detail of the history and signification of all the recognized symbols of the Order . His next important contribution to Freemasonry was "Tho History of Initiationin twelve

, lectures , comprising a detailed account of the Rites and Ceremonies , Doctrines and Discipline , of all the Secret and Mysterious Institutions of the Ancient World , " published in 1840 . Tho professed object of the author was to show the

resemblances between these ancient systems of initiation and the Masonic , and to trace them to a common origin , a theory which under some modification has been very generally accepted by Masonic scholars . Following this was "The Theocratic Philosophy of Freemasonry , " a highly

interesting work , in which ho discusses the speculative character of the Institution .-A "History of Freemasonry from 1829 to 1840 , " has proved a valuable appendix to the work of Preston , an edition of which he had previously edited in the former

year . His next and his most important , most interesting , and most learned production was his "Historical Landmarks and other Evidences of Freemasonry Explained . " No work , with such an amount of facts in reference to the Masonic system , had ever before been published by any author . It