Masons Of England And Their Works.

MASONS OF ENGLAND AND THEIR WORKS .

The folloAving paper on the Superintendents of English Buildings in the Middle Ages ; Collections for an Historical Account of Masons , their Customs , Institutions , & c , Avas read at the meeting of the Eoyal Institute of British Architects , 2 nd December , 1861 , by Wyatt Papworth , Fellow ; and Avill be found to bear out the " Masonic Eacts " which have from

time to time ' appeared in our Magazine . In the course of the observations I am about to submit , it is proposed first , to mention the names of the masons obtained in these researches , and the p laces at AA'hich they Avorked ; then to notice their customsremunerationand some matters relating

, , thereto ; their Avorkshops ; the guilds or companies ; their constitutions ; their trade designations ; and the confraternities for building purposes ; closing with a few remarks on the lodges of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries . In this first seriescomprising many familiar names

, , some of the few traits found recorded as to the position and ability of the ivorkmen employed have been introduced ; otherwise it has been necessarily condensed into mere statements of the names of persons and of places , because any elaborated description or remarks Avould have occupied one paper aloneand

, are not essential to the purposes of the present inquiry . It has also been an object to recover the exact term by Avhich each person was designated in the documents consulted : the spelling has also been retained .

Omitting all mention of their predecessors employed during the period preA-ious to the Conquest , the earliest and the only notice in the eleventh century is that of Eobertus , cementarius , employed at St . Alban ' s , 1077 , who for his skill and labour , in which he is stated to have excelled all the Masons of his timehad granted to him and his heirscertain

, , lands , and a house in the toAvn . In the twelfth century , Arnold , a lay brother of Croyland Abbey , 1113 , is designated " of the art of masonry a most scientific master . " Of the employment of William of Sens , a layman , ancl of William the Englishman , both engaged at Canterbury Cathedral , I need not say anything ,

except to add , that the latter has been supposed the same as a certain William or Walter of Coventry , " one of the most renoivned architects in England , " AA'ho is said to have designed Gloucester Cathedral in 1199 . At the commencement of the thirteenth century ( about 1200 ) , the Abbot of St . Alban ' s assembled

a "number of chosen eementarii , of whom M * Hugo de Goldcliff was the chief , a deceitful but clever workman " ( artifex ) , as he is styled by the chronicler , who further states that " it happened by the design of the said Hugh , in addition to stealth , fraud , impertinence , and above all , extravagance , before the

average of the Avork ( the front Avail of the abbey church ) had risen to the boarded shed , the abbot grew tired , Aveary , and timid , and the work languished —the walls were covered up for the winter- —they became fractured and fell with their own weight , so that the wreck of images and flowers became the

laughing stock of beholders . The Avorkmen therefore quitted in despair , nor did any Avages reivard their labours . " Eobertus , cementarius , ruled ( rexit ) the the works at Salisbury Cathedral for twenty-five years from their commencement in 1217 , M . Albericus in 1253 , Avas paid for task work of the form pieces , that

is , Avindow tracery , probably for Westminster Abbey Church . John of Gloucester , 1257-60 , the king ' s mason , was reAvarded , 1257-8 , by Henry III ., - with his freedom for life from all tallage and tolls throughout the realm . He was employed at Guildford , on statutes for St . Martin ' s-le- Grandat Woodstock

, , -Westminster , and Windsor . Eobert De BeA'erley , mason , 1259-76 , Avas engaged at the palace at Westminster , on a tomb at Windsor , on repairs at Westminster Hall , at the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey by Henry III ., 1267-76 , on works for the coronation of King Edward I ., on the mews at Charing Cross ,

and on the king ' s kitchen garden ; he received an annuity of sixpence per day , and became keeper of the works at Westminster . Walter Dixi , cementarius , de BerneAvelle , 1277 , conveyed certain lands to his son Lawrence ; the legend of the seal has " S' Walter le Masun" Avith a monogram . Eichard de Stow

, , cementarius , executed the Eleanor Cross at Lincoln , 1291-4 , and Avas most probably the Stow who , 1306 , contracted for the Avorks of the tower at Lincoln Cathedral . William de Hibernia carved some of the

sculpture for the crosses at Lincoln , Northampton , aud Stoney Stratford . John de Bello , or de la Bataille , cementarius , executed those at Stoney Stratford , Northampton , Woburn , Dunstable , and * St . Alban ' s . That at Waltham was chiefly executed by Dymenge de Legeri , or Nicholas Dymenge de Eeyns , as well as the Eleanor tomb at Lincoln . M . Michael of

Canterbury , cementarius , worked on that at Westcheap in London , while that at Charing was begun by M . Eichard de Crundale , cementarius ( who executed the tomb in the abbey ) , and finished by M . Eoger de Crundale , AA'ho supplied some marble for the tomb . William de Hoo , cementarius , Avas employed in the

church of the Blackfriars , where a record of the queen was placed . The above-mentioned Michael of Canterbury is no doubt the same mason Avho prepared the foundations in 1292 of the Eoyal Chapel at Westminster . Of this century , also , is the still existing incised grave-stone of Eichard de Gaynisburgh , cementarius of Lincoln Cathedral ; it is the only one I have to mention .

During the fourteenth eentury , Henry , surnamed Latomus from his trade , and carefully recorded as a monk , was largely employed at Evesham Abbey , and probably at St . Lawrence Church adjoining it . A contract , 1314 , in Erench , all the former documents having been compiled in Latin , was taken by William

Heose , " masoune , " to erect a house of freestone _ ; and another contract , 1321 , enabled William de Eeylesteds , mason , to pull doAvn and rebuild Darley Hall , Derbyshire . Of this period are the well-knoAvn works at Ely Cathedral , carried out imder the direction of John de Wisbeach and of Alan de Walsinghamboth

, monks ; but unless M . John Attgrene be the master mason , instead of the " bricklayer , " as he is called , * we have not yet arrived at the name of that officer . M . Thomas of Canterbury , mason , began work in 1330 , at St . Stephen ' s Chapel , Westminster . At