Freemasons’ origins unearthed by Liverpool University professor

Source: Liverpool Daily Post

A MERSEYSIDE man has written a book unearthing the roots of what remains one of the world’s most mysterious and secretive of brotherhoods, the Freemasons.

Dr David Harrison’s The Genesis of Freemasonry reconstructs the history of the movement through its formative years in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, beginning with its connections to the medieval trade guild societies.

It also delves into the study of alchemy and necromancy which many of the early Masons indulged in, and which Dr Harrison accepts is one of the reasons why the fraternal organisation, with its estimated five million worldwide membership, is still treated with some suspicion today.

“But back then alchemy, the search to turn base metal into gold, was seen as a science not magic,” said Dr Harrison, 39, who lectures in history at the University of Liverpool as well as for the Adult Education Service.

“In fact, some of the founding members of the Royal Society in the 17th century, which became the bedrock for the development of modern-day science, were both alchemists and freemasons.”

One of them was Elias Ashmole, a Royalist soldier on the run who sought refuge in Warrington in 1646 where he was accepted to the Lodge there.

Dr Harrison said: “The Lodge was the only place where both sides of the political spectrum could meet. A place where Parliamentarians and Royalists could come together without literally killing each other, which is what they would have done if they had met outside. Issues of politics or religion were not allowed to be discussed within its realms, a principal that still applies to the present day.”

He added that this bonding principle of Masonry did help to stabilise Britain in the subsequent years following the upheaval caused by the Civil War.

Ashmole, who became one of the founding members of the Royal Society in 1661, is just one of the local characters and significant events documented.

One of them is the Liverpool Masonic Rebellion of 1823.

Dr Harrison explained: “Basically a load of Liverpool merchants and tradesmen wanted to go it alone. They’d had enough of being pushed around by the United Grand Lodge in London whom they felt had been interfering too much with affairs of the provincial Lodges. So they bonded together to form their own Grand Lodge.”

Local bickering set in soon after however, and a contingent of Wigan masons left to form their own Grand Lodge.

“I suppose you could say it was one of the first examples of differences being expressed between Woollybacks and Scousers, with the Liverpudlians being left to their own devices by the Wiganites!” joked Dr Harrison.

Pre-orders for the book, which is due to be published in March, have been encouraging and publishers Lewis Masonic have already asked Dr Harrison to write a follow-up.

“They’re not being written with academics or Masons in mind, but hopefully as works which will be received as being of general historical interest to lots of others,” said Dr Harrison.