The Origins of Freemasonry and the Invention of Tradition
tinguished craftsmen as John Orgar , the chief mason of the Bridge House trust in London whose will was proved in 1546 , 8 and John Bentley , the Yorkshire freemason recruited by Sir Henry Savile to work on the Bodleian Library in Oxford whose will was proved in 1616 . 9 Many other wills of freemasons can be found in other archives .
The freemasons who appear in these wills were not humble operative craftsmen but successful and well-todo businessmen , like Thomas Jordan , a freemason of London whose will was proved in 1635 , 10 who had lent Abraham Baker , a citizen and weaver of London , four hundred pounds , taking land in Kent as security . Jordan stipulated that three pounds should be given to ' such of the livery of the Company of Freemasons London as shalbe present in their liveryes at my funerall ... to be disposed of at the discretion of the Master Wardens and assistants of the said company '. Jordan also left three pounds to be divided among the ' most indigent members of the said company '. In 1488 , Stephen Burton , a freemason of London , left 4d ' unto every pore woman of my Crafte within London '. 11 George Dallow , a freemason from Comley in Shropshire whose will was proved in 1611 , listed over thirteen pounds of payments due to him at the time of his death for work at such nearby places as Condover church , Montford bridge and Frodesley Hall . 12 Among the payments owing to Thomas Fells , a freemason of East Greenwich whose will was proved in 1609 , was £ 6 15s from Sir William Cornwallis the elder , the essayist and friend of Ben Jonson , for transport of 300 feet of square stone , eighteen inches square , from Bishopsgate in London to Cornwallis ' s property at Brome in Northamptonshire . 13 Preoccupied with seeking the point of origin , there has been insufficient study of these wills which cast light on the economic and social conditions of stone masons in the period preceding the establishment of Grand Lodge and thereby help us understand the significance of its creation . The idol of origins saps our understanding of freemasonry .
Freemasonry is particularly prone to the worship of the idol of origins because it claims to preserve ancient landmarks of ritual and wisdom and sees itself as the incarnation of pure ancient masonry . Confronted with these claims , it is natural to ask where this pure ancient masonry comes from and what it represents . The rituals impart ancient secrets which purport to have been handed down through generations
8 London , The National Archives , PROB 11 / 31 / 367 ; J . H . Harvey , English Medieval Architects : a Biographical Dictionary down to 1550 ( London : Batsford , 1954 ), p . 201 .
9 London , The National Archives , PROB 11 / 127 / 133 ; ' The Bodleian library ', in A History of the County of Oxford : Volume 3 , the University of Oxford , ed . H . E . Salter and Mary D . Lobel ( London : Victoria History of the Counties of England , 1954 ), pp . 44-47 : British History Online http :// www . british-history . ac . uk / vch / oxon / vol3 / pp44-47 ( Accessed 8 December 2019 ).
10 London , The National Archives , PROB 11 / 169 / 152 . 11 London , The National Archives , PROB 11 / 8 / 271 . 12 London , The National Archives , PROB 11 / 117 / 198 . 13 London , The National Archives , PROB 11 / 113 / 312 .
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