The Origins of Freemasonry and the Invention of Tradition
1688 . 42 Moreover , it is evident that the London masons lodges were organised and conscious of their traditions . The lodge at the Goose and Gridiron jealously guarded manuscripts of the Old Charges , some associated with the London masons ’ company . Some of these manuscripts include additional charges said to have been made at a general assembly of masons in 1663 and , since these are mentioned in multiple manuscripts , it may be that there is more evidence for such an assembly in 1663 than in 1717 . 43 In short , there are many landmarks in the history of freemasonry , but no starting points . 1721 , 1813 , 1583 in Scotland , these are all important dates , but none of them represents the birth of freemasonry .
The creation of the Grand Lodge in 1721 was driven by Whig nobles who saw in freemasonry the potential for a powerful instrument to support the Hanoverian monarchy . Nevertheless , the appeal to the past and the invention of tradition had a prominent role . The prestige of the Goose and Gridiron Lodge was due to its custody of the oldest London copies of the legendary history of Freemasonry . The possession of such old manuscripts was vital to masonic authority and power . However , George Payne , the civil servant who marshalled the creation of Grand Lodge on behalf of the Duke of Montagu , managed to get custody of the Cooke manuscript , which he claimed was nearly 800 years old and embodied the ancient secrets of freemasonry . It was the possession of the legendary history of the Cooke manuscript which gave Payne and his colleagues the authority to drive through the creation of Grand Lodge .
This process in turn gave rise to another wholesale reinvention of history . Montagu , Payne and others were convinced that the medieval monks who had transcribed the Cooke manuscript had mangled the text . They felt that these monkish errors hid the true secrets of architecture and the ancient knowledge of the masons . James Anderson was commissioned to rescue these secrets by revising the medieval texts . Anderson produced a history of masonry and architecture freed from gothic errors and kitted out in a new Palladian dress . But , like the medieval charges , Anderson traced masonry back to the beginnings of time , declaring that there was no doubt that Adam taught his sons geometry . Anderson ’ s work in reworking the legendary history into something appropriate for the age of Newton was contentious . The London publisher James Roberts complained that Anderson had made the Constitutions unnecessarily lengthy at the expense and damage of the society , and had had them printed without authorisation . 44 Doubt was expressed as to whether Anderson ’ s work had been properly authorised and the first mo-
42 Allan McInnes , ' Jacobitism in Scotland : Episodic Cause or National Movement ?', Scottish Historical Review 86 ( 2007 ), pp . 248-9 .
43 These ' Additional Charges ' are listed in Grand Lodge MS 2 , London , British Library Harleian MS 1942 and in the Constitutions published by James Roberts in 1722 : Hughan , Old Charges , pp . 121-5 .
44 Prescott and Sommers , ' Did Anything Happen in 1717 ?', p . 50 .
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