Memoir Of Elias Ashmole.

did not contain some particulars respecting a Society which conferred upon him an honour , not then or since disdained of kings and princes and the nobles of the land , namely , the honour of being received as a member into one of its lodges or assemblies . But though Ashmole is the first known instance of an English " gentleman " having been admitted into a lodge of what are generally believed

to have been " operative" Masons , * and though the English Craft is proud of the fact that this first gentleman Mason should likewise have been a man so distinguished , as well as so universally esteemed and respected , as was this historian of the Most Noble Order of the Garter ; yet outside this scanty array of indubitable facts , but little seems ever to have been said or written of one who , in his clay , played many parts , and played them one and all admirably and

conscientiously . Ashmole may or may not be entitled to a very foremost place among antiquaries , yet he was a diligent and painstaking student of antiquarian lore . He may or may not be among the greatest authorities on heraldry , and yet heraldry was one of the branches of stud y he most affected , and in which he was most successful . In fine , Ashmole , from whatever point of view we regard him , is worthy of fuller notice than is usually accorded him , especially in the

pages of a periodical whose sole business is to promote the interests of the Craft of Masonry . In these circumstances , the following brief memoir of Ashmole ' s life , compiled from excellent sources , will not be without its interest to the readers of the Masonic Magazine . Elias Ashmole , only son of Simon Ashmole , of Lichfield , Staffordshire , saddler , by his wife Anne , daughter of Mr . Anthony Bowyer , of Coventry , Warwickshire , woollen draper , was born early on the morning of the 23 rd May , 1617 . Of his earlier years , he tells us in his diary , he remembered but little . He had " the measles ( but a few only ) , the swines' fever , " and various of

the diseases incidental to childhood . He was educated at a grammar school in his native city , and having evinced an inclination for music was instructed in it , and in time made a chorister in Lichfield Cathedral , an appointment or piece of promotion for which he was indebted to a cousin , Mr . Thomas Paget , the second son of Mr . James Paget , one of the Barons of the Exchequer , by his wife , who was sister of Ashmole ' s mother . It was to this Mr . T . Paget that Ashmole ascribes his subsequent success iii life ; and he refers to him in his

diary as having been " the chief instrument of my future preferments , which I acknowledge with all gratitude to his memory . " At the age of sixteen he was sent up to London , where he was received into the family of Mr . Baron Paget . In June of the following year he lost his father , of whom , while noting his failings , lie speaks with affection and respect . " Though he was an honest fairconditioned man , and kind to others , yet through ill husbandry , he became a

great enemy to himself ancl poor family . " On the 27 th March , 1638 , when he had not yet completed his one-and-twentieth year , he married Eleanor , daughter of Mr . Peter Mainwaring , of Smallwood , Cheshire , and , by this great and influential marriage , became connected with the family of the Mainwarings , one of whose representives , Colonel Henry Mainwaring , of Kermincham , was initiated into Freemasonry , in the same lodge , at

Warrington , Lancashire , and the same day—16 th October , 1646—as the subject of this memoir _ In Michaelmas term of the same year—in the sketch prefixed to Ashmole ' s " Antiquities of Berkshire , " the year 1639 is given , but Anthony a Wood agrees with the writer of the notice in the " Biographia Britannica , " to which I am chiefly indebted for my details—he was entered a solicitor in the Court of Chancery , and , according to Anthony a , Wood , " did the business of his profession for the Honourable Peter Venables , Baron of Kinderton , in Cheshire . " On Llth February , 1641—or according to Wood , 1640—he was sworn in an attorney of the Court of Common Pleas , and became a member