THE OLD CHARGES OF BRITISH FREEMASONS.
;6
represented in the Britisli Museum.
he " does not attach
identity), saj-s
"
Masonic Student ' (whose nom de plume is not
much value to such works as Briscoe's pamphlet
"
A
sufficient to hide his
.
.
.
many
of the
'
'
ohservances are purely imaginary, meant, in fact, as a skit upon the order, resembling Dean Swift's more
These well-deserved strictures are fulminated against the
humorous, but equally idle, attack on Freemasonry."
facetious manner, "An Accidental Discovery of
compilation under review, wherein is narrated, in a somewhat
the Ceremonies made u* of in the several Lodges, upon the admittance of a Brother as a Free and Accepted
"
Mason." I have, however, to deal simply with the printed copy of the Old Charges," and I am persuaded that
the reasons for this view are conclusive to my mind, and have been
substantially it is founded on No. 12
;
partially given
" Masonic
the
It does not appear to have been again reprinted in
by Huglian.^
Magazine," and in the "Freemason's Chronicle," 1876.
46.
"
full, until
October 1873, in
* 17tli
Century.
Baker."
" Old
well to register all references to the
Charges," I have inserted this one in the enumeration.
It occurs in a foot-note by Dr Rawlinson, in the copy of his MS. in explanation of the legend of King Athelstan
As
it is
"
having caused a Roll or Book to be made, which declared how this Science was first invented ; . . . which
Eoll or Book he Commanded to be read and plainly recited when a man was to be made a Free Mason, that he
might fully understand what Articles, Rules, and Orders he laid himself under, well and truly keep and
"
observe to the utmost of his power," ^ as follows
One of these Rolls I have seen in the possession of Mr Baker,
"
a carpenter in Moorfields."
I am anxious to note this reference to a
Boll," because of the error previously
alluded to in confounding it with No. 2.
:
47.
As
(MSS. 8
&
"
32)
* 17th
Century.
Cole."
probable that No. 32, the original of Benjamin Cole's engraved editions of 1728-29 and 1731,
8, it is but fair to class the present number as a representative at least of a seventeenth
I tiiink it
was derived from No.
centur}' version
and of
;
all
reproductions,
it
was the
finest issued
in the last century.
book was printed from engraved plates, dedicated in 1728-29
interesting
Kingston, Grand Master, and though not dated, the dedication is sufficient to
to the
little
fix
The whole
of the
Right Hon. the Lord
the period of
its
advent.*
Ordinary editions were published in 1751, etc. ; but it was not until 1869 that a facsimile of the engo-aved serie.s
was issued, when Hughan made it an attractive feature of his first literary venture the " Constitutions of the
Freemasons." Dr Kloss is incorrect in classing this version with No. 45.^
—
48.
Mr
Spencer
"
printer, or editor,
period.
&
32)
* 17th
Century.
"Dodd."
thinks that from one or two differences " and minor alterations in portions of the text, the
had never seen Cole's book ; " but Hughan is of opinion that the one is a reproduction of the
other, with simply a
Mr
(MSS. 8
few fanciful changes, for which an example had been set by masonic historians of the
whom it was purchased at the " Spencer-Sale," concurs in this view, and adds
—
Carson, for
appears to me that Cole's Editions, 1728-31-51, etc., and the Spencer manuscript now in my
collection, and the present reprint, are substantially, though not identically, one and the same Constitutions."'
"therefore
it
Two copies are known to be in the United
Mr R. F. Bower. Mr Spencer knew of three
one herein described, and another owned by
Mr E. T. Carson
all.
for the first time, the original being a small quarto of twenty pages.
The title is " The Beginning and
(1876)
first Foundation of the most worthy Craft of
Masonry, with the Charges thereimto belonging," and it is sai d to
'
*
States, viz., the
in
It has
been faithfully reproduced by
^
Freemason, March 29, 1873.
/j;,?.^ April 5_ 1873.
The second edition was dedicated in 1731 to Lord Level, the Grand Master.
the Grand Lodge Lists, 1745-1766 {mde Four Old Lodges, p. 16).
'
As previously noticed,
Bibliographie der Freimaurer, p. 125.
Magazine
^
'
for
1794
;
The Publisher
it is
this
s
Masonic Magazine, 1S76,
p. 102.
Benjamin Cole was the engraver of
MS. that was printed
not No. 3.
to the Subscribers of the Old Constitutions,
p. xxv.
Introduction to " the third reprint by the Masonic Archteological Society of Cincinnati,' 1S76.
in the Freemasons'