The history of Freemasonry encompasses the origins, evolution and defining events of the fraternal organisation known as Freemasonry. It covers three phases. Firstly, the emergence of organised lodges of operative masons during the Middle Ages, then the admission of lay members as "accepted" (a term reflecting the ceremonial "acception" process that made non-stone masons members of an operative lodge) or "speculative" masons, and finally the evolution of purely speculative lodges, and the emergence of Grand Lodges to govern them. The watershed in this process is generally taken to be the formation of the first Grand Lodge in London on the Gregorian 24 June 1717. The two difficulties facing historians are the paucity of written material, even down to the 19th century, and the misinformation generated by masons and non-masons alike from the earliest years.
Freemasonry's long history includes its early development from organised bodies of operative stonemasons to the modern system of speculative lodges organised around regional or national "Grand Lodges".
Origin myths and theories Early Masonic sources The earliest masonic texts each contain some sort of a history of the craft of masonry. The oldest known work of this type, the Halliwell Manuscript (also known as Regius Poem) dates from between 1390 and 1425. This document has a brief history in its introduction, stating that the "craft of masonry" began with Euclid in Egypt, and came to England in the reign of King Athelstan (924–939).Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon The Halliwell Manuscript, retrieved 22 June 2012 Shortly afterwards, the Matthew Cooke Manuscript traces masonry to Jabal, son of Lamech (Genesis 4: 20–22), and tells how this knowledge came to Euclid, from him to the Children of Israel (while they were in Egypt), and so on through an elaborate path to Athelstan.Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon The Matthew Cooke Manuscript with Translation, retrieved 22 June 2012 This myth formed the basis for subsequent manuscript constitutions, all tracing masonry back to biblical times, and fixing its institutional establishment in England during the reign of Athelstan.G. W. Speth, Quatuor Coronatorum Antigrapha, Vol I, 1888, part III, vi–vii
Shortly after the formation of the Premier Grand Lodge of England, James Anderson was commissioned to digest these "Gothic Constitutions" in a palatable, modern form. The resulting constitutions are prefaced by a history more extensive than any before, again tracing the history of what was now freemasonry back to biblical roots, again forging Euclid into the chain. True to his material, Anderson fixes the first grand assembly of English Masons at York, under Athelstan's son, Edwin, who is otherwise unknown to history.Anderson's Constitutions Franklin's reprint, retrieved 22 June 2012 Expanded, revised, and republished, Anderson's 1738 constitutions listed the Grand Masters since Augustine of Canterbury, listed as Austin the Monk.J. Anderson, The New Book of Constitutions, p140, Quatuor Coronatorum Antigrapha, Vol VII, 1900 William Preston's Illustrations of Freemasonry enlarged and expanded on this masonic creation myth.Preston's Illustrations of Freemasonry on Google Books retrieved 22 June 2012
In France, the 1737 lecture of Chevalier Ramsay added the crusaders to the lineage. He maintained that Crusader Masons had revived the craft with secrets recovered in the Holy Land, under the patronage of the Knights Hospitaller. At this point, the history of the craft in Continental Freemasonry diverged from that in England.Pietre-Stones Biography of Ramsay retrieved 22 June 2012
Speculative histories Anderson's histories of 1723 and 1738, Ramsay's romanticisation, together with the internal allegory of masonic ritual, centred on King Solomon’s Temple and its architect, Hiram Abiff, have provided ample material for further speculation.
The earliest known ritual places the first masonic lodge in the porchway of King Solomon’s Temple.Edinburgh Registry House MS, see Robert L.D. Cooper, Cracking the Freemason's Code, Rider 2006, p215 Following Anderson, it has also been possible to trace Freemasonry to Euclid, Pythagoras, Moses, the Essenes, and the Culdees.Coil, Henry W. (1967). Freemasonry Through Six Centuries. 2 vols., Vol. I, pg. 6. Richmond, Va: Macoy Publ. Co. Preston started his history with the Druids, while Anderson's description of masons as "Noachides", extrapolated by Albert Mackey, put Noah into the equation.Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon Anti-masonry Frequently Asked Questions, VIII Religion, retrieved 4 February 2013
Following Ramsay's introduction of Crusader masons, the Knights Templar became involved in the myth, starting with Karl Gotthelf von Hund's Rite of Strict Observance, which also linked in the exiled House of Stuart.Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon Karl Gotthelf Hund, retrieved 4 February 2013 The murder of Hiram Abiff was taken as an allegory for the death of Charles I of England. Oliver Cromwell emerges as the founder of Freemasonry in an anonymous anti-masonic work of 1745, commonly attributed to Abbé Larudan. Mackey states that "The propositions of Larudan are distinguished for their absolute independence of all historical authority and for the bold assumptions which are presented to the reader in the place of facts."A. G. Mackey, The History of Freemasonry, Chapters XXX–XXXII The anti-masonic writings of Christoph Friedrich Nicolai implicated Francis Bacon and the Rosicrucians,Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon Anti-masonry Frequently Asked Questions, III People, retrieved 5 February 2013 while Christopher Wren's connection with the craft was omitted from Anderson's first book of constitutions, but appeared in the second when Wren was dead.Pietre Stones Martin I. MacGregor, The Life and Times of Sir Christopher Wren, 2005, retrieved 5 February 2013
The seed or the myth of Stuart Jacobite influence on Freemasonry may have been a careless and unsubstantiated remark made by John Noorthouk in the 1784 Book of Constitutions of the Premier Grand Lodge of London. It was stated, without support, that King Charles II (older brother and predecessor to James II) was made a Freemason in the Netherlands during the years of his exile (1649–60). However, there were no documented lodges of Freemasons on the continent during those years. The statement may have been made to flatter the fraternity by claiming a previous monarch as a member. This folly was then embellished by John Robison (1739–1805), a professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, in his 1797 work Proofs of a Conspiracy, an anti-Masonic polemic accusing Freemasonry of being infiltrated by Weishaupt's Order of the Illuminati. The lack of scholarship exhibited by Robison in that work caused the Encyclopædia Britannica to denounce it.Coil, Henry W. (1961) Article: "Stuart Masonry", pp. 634–637; and Article: "Robison, John", pp. 569–570. Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia (rev. ed. 1996). Richmond, Va: Macoy Publ. Co. Inc.
A German bookseller and Freemason, living in Paris, working under the assumed name of C. Lenning, embellished the story further in a manuscript titled "Encyclopedia of Freemasonry" probably written between 1822 and 1828 at Leipzig. This manuscript was later revised and published by another German Freemason named Friedrich Mossdorf (1757–1830).Coil, Henry W. (1961) Article: "Lenning, C." pp. 377–378; and "Mossdorf, Friedrich", pg. 435. Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia (rev. ed. 1996). Richmond, Va: Macoy Publ. Co. Inc. Lenning stated that King James II of England, after his flight to France in 1688, resided at the Jesuit College of Clermont, where his followers fabricated certain degrees for the purpose of carrying out their political ends.Mackey, Albert G. (1909) Article: "Stuart Masonry" pp. 981–982. Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (rev. ed. 1946). Chicago, IL: Masonic History Co.
By the mid-19th century, the story had gained currency. The well-known English Masonic writer, Dr. George Oliver (1782–1867), in his Historical Landmarks, 1846, carried the story forward and even claimed that King Charles II was active in his attendance at meetings—an obvious invention, for if it had been true, it would not have escaped the notice of the historians of the time.
Similarly, attempts to root Freemasonry in the French Compagnonnage have produced no concrete links.Masonic World Oliver D. Street, Continental Freemasonry before A. D. 1723, The American Freemason, Feb. 1914, retrieved 5 February 2013 Connections to the Roman Collegia and Comacine masters are similarly tenuous, although some Freemasons see them as exemplars rather than ancestors.Freemasonry and the Roman Collegia by H.L. Haywood, The Builder, 1923 – Freemasonry and the Roman CollegiaFreemasonry and the Comacine masters by H.L. Haywood, The Builder, 1923 – Freemasonry and the Comacine Masters Thomas Paine traced Freemasonry to Ancient Egypt,Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon Thomas Paine, The Origins of Freemasonry, New York, 1818 as did Cagliostro, who went so far as to supply the ritual.
More recently, several authors have attempted to link the Templars to the timeline of Freemasonry through the imagery of the carvings in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, where the Templars are rumoured to have sought refuge after the dissolution of the order.See, for instance, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, The Temple and the Lodge, Arrow Books, 1998 In The Hiram Key, Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight describe a timeline starting in ancient Egypt, and taking in Jesus, the Templars, and Rosslyn before arriving at modern Freemasonry.Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas. The Hiram Key. London, 1996. These claims are challenged by Robert Cooper, the curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland's library and museum, in his book The Rosslyn Hoax.Robert L. D. Cooper, The Rosslyn Hoax, Lewis Masonic, 2006
Emergence of modern masonic studies The first rational study of masonic history was published in Germany, but Georg Kloss's 1847 work, Geschichte der Freimaurerei in England, Irland und Schottland was never translated. When Findel's History of Freemasonry was translated from German to English in 1866, Woodford in England and Murray-Lyon in Scotland were already active writers on the subject. Woodford was Findel's guide when he visited York to inspect manuscripts, and would shortly collaborate with Hughan in collecting, dating and classifying the old manuscript constitutions. Albert Mackey was no less active in America. The list of his published works start in 1844 with "A Lexicon of Freemasonry", and extend to his monumental Encyclopedia of Freemasonry in 1874.Wikisource Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Mackey, John, 1900 Increasing interest, and participation, in masonic studies led, in 1886, to the formation in London of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, the first lodge dedicated to masonic research.Quatuor Coronati website Article on foundation of Quatuor Coronati, partially taken from Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol 1, pp1–3, 1888
From origin to Grand Lodge Freemasonry Origin of the term "Freemason" The earliest official English documents to refer to masons are written in Latin — "" (London 1212), "" (Oxford 1391) — or Norman French — "" (Statute of Labourers 1351 (25 Edw. 3. Stat. 2)). These all signify a worker in freestone, a grainless sandstone or limestone suitable for ornamental masonry. In the 17th century, building accounts of Wadham College the terms freemason and freestone mason are used interchangeably. Freemason also contrasts with "Rough Mason" or "Layer", as a more skilled worker who worked or laid dressed stone.Douglas Knoop, "The Genesis of Freemasonry", Manchester University Press, 1947