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  • Dec. 24, 1859
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  • MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES.
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Dec. 24, 1859: Page 9

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Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

AIANCIIESTEi ; MASONIC RIFLR CORPS . AT a time Avhen our native isle is again bristling with bayonets , and . our Manchester brethren are contemplating the formation of a Masonic Rifle Corps , it may be of more than usual interest to inquire what was the conduct of the Lancashire Masons fifty-six years ago ? Born some years after the unholy contest between the two mighty neig hbouring nations of Prance and Britain had

ceased , as every true Mason will hope , never again to he renewed on the field of battle—to me the excitement caused in this country in 1803 , by the threatened invasion of the first Napoleon , is mere matter of history , rendered vivid by the descriptions of a volunteer grandsire , at whose knees T . haA'e often listened in childhood Avith anxious ears . Believing that thc majority of the readers of the Freemasons' j \[ agaziae are similarly situated , and that those who

are old enough to remember that period will have no objection to review the past , I make no ceremony in forwarding you the following scraps of Masonic history , in the hope that other brethren Avill be stimulated to furnish further particulars , so that we may , bit by bit , accumulate materials in your pages for the future historian of the Craft . In the year I have just mentioned ( 1803 ) , I find a "Loyal Masonic Volunteer Rifle Corps" formed in Manchester and its vicinage , under the command of Bro . Joseph

Hanson , Esq ., of Strange-ways Hall , Manchester ; and , on the 21 st of December , of the same 3 ear , Bro . Col . Hanson Avas presented at court , and commanded byhis Majesty ( George III . ) to appear in the regimentals of his corps , and to keep his hat on . Bro . Hanson appears to haA e been at that time highly popular ; and , it is Avorthy of remark , that of the nine regiments or companies of volunteers then raised in Manchester and its suburbs ,

that of the Freemasons was the only rifle corps . On Thursday , April 12 th , 1304 , I find His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester , accompanied by his son , Bro . Prince William of Gloucester , reviewing the volunteers of Manchester and its neighbourhood , on Sale Moor , when Bro . Hanson is mentioned as " Lieutenant Colonel , " and his regiment , which at that time numbered six hundred and seA'enty-six volunteers , is called the

" Manchester , Salford , Bury , and Stockport Rifle and Pike Men . " On the 30 th of September they were again reviewed or inspected , with the other volunteers of the vicinage , on Ardwick Green , by the Duke of Gloucester , accompanied by his son , as before ; the latter had been initiated into Masonry nine years previously . In the following year ( 1805 ) I find the officers of this corps presenting Bro . Col . Hanson with a splendid sword , a valuable brace of pistols , and a pike of elegant workmanship , as a token of the high estimation in which he was held . On the 10 th of December .

1807 , Bro . Hanson appears to haA-c resigned the command of the Rifle Corps , in consequence of some slander which his sensitive nature could not brook . Bro . Hanson seems to have been , as every true Freemason is , a man of strong sympathies for the distressed , and if I can obtain any good materials for a notice of him , I will- communicate them to the Magazine . In the mean time , perhaps , some brother will furnish farther particulars relating to this or any similar corps . —GEORGE MAUKHAM TWEDDEU ..

THE OLD FREEMASONS MAGAZINE . I have six volumes of the Freemasons' Magazine , which was commenced in 1793 , and haA'e just been informed that my set is incomplete . Is this so ? and if so , where can I get the others to complete it?—C . BEAI . E . [ The old magazine was published in eleven volumes , and the ei ghth volume , issued in 1797 , bore a different titleits name being changed to The Scientific Magazine and

Free-, masons' depository ; it was discontinued at the close of the year 1798 . In reply to where it may be obtained , we cannot answer our correspondent , as it has long been out of print ; but there may be some of our readers AVIIO may have a set to dispose of , or know of such , and if they will communicate with us , " C . Beale" shall have the benefit of their reply ] .

CAPTAIN GEORfiE SMITH . On the title page of The Use and Abase of Freemasonry , Svo ., London , 1785 , its author , Captain George Smith , thus describes himself;—Inspector of the Koyal Military Academy at Woolwich ; Prov . G . M . for the county of Kent ; and It . A . He was also author of Engclschc en Nedernitsche SpraaMionst , 8 vo ., Utrecht , 1758 Meg ' s Commercial Fetters , Translated from the German , Svo ., 177

Bremen , G ; Universal Military Dictionary , or a Copious Explanation of the Technical ' Terms , frc ., usetl in the Equipment , Machinery , Mocemcnls , and Military Operations of au Army , 4 to ., London 177 i >; and Bibhlheca Miliktris , or , a Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Military Boots , in eccry Language in Europe , with Historical , CWiici . / , and Explanatory Notes . < ito . ^ London , 178 : 1 . Wanted

further particulars as to Ins family , arms , services , and death , by —ANOTHER SMITH . LIEUT . DRAKE ON MASONRY . In the European Magazine , for February , 1792 , p . 124 , there is " a very curious essay by Lieut . Drake , and as the Magazine has long been out of print , I send you a copy , which may he found interesting by our younger brethren . —LL . IJ .

" On Masonry . —To brother Masons . I have presumed in this small treatise to deliver my thoughts on the originality of the word Mason ; ancM have likewise given my reasons from whence that sacred appeal , or obligation , by which we are bound , is derived ; for they being in separably united , I have endeavoured to shew how for they were conjunctively allied iu their primeval state ; and have hazarded some few conjectures on their religious "foundation . Though I may have dissented very materiallfrom the derivation of the name of oursacred institution

y . , which we are taught to believe sprang from the erection of Solomon ' s temple , yet I have proved the creed which is laid down as the established doctrine of our Masonic faith to be founded on moral and religious duty . I trust that whatever I may advance may not be deemed a renunciation of any part of that most honourable Order of which I am a . member , but be received as a humble attempt , to elucidate that which the hand of time having nearly obliterated , conjecture must now supply .

"As the origin of the religious ceremony of this island began with the Druids , and their language being Celtic ( which is supposed by the learned to have been the universal elementary language of Europe ) , I shall build my argument upon the ground work of their divine institutions , assisted by their tongue , which has been corrupted and thrown ' into the mutilated form it now bears . Numerous are the instances I can produce of words carrying a very different figure and signification to their first formation and intentionwere I to take up your time by

enume-, ration ; but as a few of them may prove strong evidences towards validating my subject , I shall produce them to shew that I have not Ijuilfc my hypothesis upon a sandy foundation . The word " religion" being given to us as a Latin derivative , I shall beg leave to point out is corrupted , from the Celtic rea and lirjio ; rea signifying a ray or circle , and ligio , to be bound , which alludes to a circle drawn round prisoners arraigned iu the name of . justice , with , wlueli in those days religion was incorporated , and out of which ray or circle it was tho highest crime to escape .

Nothing , in general , is more false or more forced than the derivations from the Gallic writers ; they will tell you " curate" is derived from citrati , the cure or cave of souls ; but it certainly comes more naturally from , the Celtic word curaish , which , signifies a preacher . Again , tho Avord physic is given to us from the Greek work <^ VBIQ , nature ; but the Celtic is icys-ahe , or skill in distempers , which offers a more natural etymology . So Avith , respect to the Avord "bishop , " which is from the Greek word E : n . < 7 % o 7 roe , i . e . overseer ; whereas the Celtic appears to be more just

from b-cy ' s-op , the president of religion . But to come to tho word "Mason "—it appears to me to have taken its rise from the Celtic word ? Ufays-on , a religious institution of the Druids called ' The Religion of the Groves . ' I shall observe that , in the sense of the bough , or office of justice , the word May is primitive to the month of May and to Maia the goddess of justice . Considering too that the Maypole was eminently tho great sign of Druidism , as the Cross was of Christianity , is there any thingforced in this conjecture that the adherents to Druidism should have

taken the name of Thc Men- of May , or Mays-on ? Hence the word . Mafs-on comes near to our present pronunciation ; the Avord on stands for homme , as it does in the politest French to this day , as on- elk for homme dit , & c . What still adds strength to my observation is / that the word Hiram , which is the corner stone of Masonry , signifies preeisely the high pole or holy bough ; it exists to this day in the provincial word ram-pike , the ram meaning a dead or withered bough ; hence I { i . -ram , or the high withered bough or maypole ; round which their dancing constituted an essential part of their religious worship .

Tlmthe words Mason and Hiram being so joined as to form the foundation of Masonry , and likewise the establishment of Druidical worship , I shall proceed to show how far the obligation is connected with them both . The Druids , agreeably to their system of preferring the night to the day , and the shades to the broad dajdight , chose for their places of abode to teach their disciples , the gloomiest groves and subterraneous cells , as Pomponius Mela says— 'Decent Drnidu ! innlta ndbilivrimos ycnlis , clam , c ' . diu , rirjinti annis , in upe . cu ant , in abdit'is saUibiui . ' ' The Druids teach ,

the nobility long and secretly for twenty years together , in caves , cell ? ,-or the most hidden recesses of the woods . ' ] S o wonder then this double privacy of the nightly meetings and sacred abodes inspired the enemies of Druidism with sinister suspicions , and more particularly as they were not wholly exempt from the propitiation of the infernal powers Inhuman victims , as say Strabo and Cato . But what still increased the number of their enemies was , they being included in tho name of the Magi ; and the magic wand and the circle being not only Avholly

abolisbed by disuse and supplanted by other forms of judicial procedure , but also proscribed by Jtoman paganism which had then crept in , and next by Christianity , could not but reduce the unhappy remnant of the Druidical votaries to ruin and despair . In France they never appeared after the destruction of the Allrigensc . s , and in Britain after tho i-Vc / a ; but Druidism , which had been for thousands of years the established religion of the Gauls , and especially Britain , could not be supposed i ,. lose , on a sudden , its hold on the minds o [ nations , therefore , such a- -, held out against the new religion would naturally form assemblies lor

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1859-12-24, Page 9” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 16 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_24121859/page/9/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
OUR ARCHITECTURAL CHAPTER. Article 1
BASILICA ANGLICANA—VII. Article 2
TASTE IN ARCHITECTURE GOVERNED BY. DOMESTIC MANNERS. Article 4
ON THE ORIGIN AND OBSERVANCE OF CHRISTMAS. Article 6
MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 9
Literature. Article 10
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 12
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 13
ROYAL ARCH. Article 17
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED RITE. Article 17
IRELAND. Article 17
SCOTLAND. Article 17
AUSTRALIA. Article 17
THE WEEK. Article 19
TO COEEESPOJSTDENTS. Article 20
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

AIANCIIESTEi ; MASONIC RIFLR CORPS . AT a time Avhen our native isle is again bristling with bayonets , and . our Manchester brethren are contemplating the formation of a Masonic Rifle Corps , it may be of more than usual interest to inquire what was the conduct of the Lancashire Masons fifty-six years ago ? Born some years after the unholy contest between the two mighty neig hbouring nations of Prance and Britain had

ceased , as every true Mason will hope , never again to he renewed on the field of battle—to me the excitement caused in this country in 1803 , by the threatened invasion of the first Napoleon , is mere matter of history , rendered vivid by the descriptions of a volunteer grandsire , at whose knees T . haA'e often listened in childhood Avith anxious ears . Believing that thc majority of the readers of the Freemasons' j \[ agaziae are similarly situated , and that those who

are old enough to remember that period will have no objection to review the past , I make no ceremony in forwarding you the following scraps of Masonic history , in the hope that other brethren Avill be stimulated to furnish further particulars , so that we may , bit by bit , accumulate materials in your pages for the future historian of the Craft . In the year I have just mentioned ( 1803 ) , I find a "Loyal Masonic Volunteer Rifle Corps" formed in Manchester and its vicinage , under the command of Bro . Joseph

Hanson , Esq ., of Strange-ways Hall , Manchester ; and , on the 21 st of December , of the same 3 ear , Bro . Col . Hanson Avas presented at court , and commanded byhis Majesty ( George III . ) to appear in the regimentals of his corps , and to keep his hat on . Bro . Hanson appears to haA e been at that time highly popular ; and , it is Avorthy of remark , that of the nine regiments or companies of volunteers then raised in Manchester and its suburbs ,

that of the Freemasons was the only rifle corps . On Thursday , April 12 th , 1304 , I find His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester , accompanied by his son , Bro . Prince William of Gloucester , reviewing the volunteers of Manchester and its neighbourhood , on Sale Moor , when Bro . Hanson is mentioned as " Lieutenant Colonel , " and his regiment , which at that time numbered six hundred and seA'enty-six volunteers , is called the

" Manchester , Salford , Bury , and Stockport Rifle and Pike Men . " On the 30 th of September they were again reviewed or inspected , with the other volunteers of the vicinage , on Ardwick Green , by the Duke of Gloucester , accompanied by his son , as before ; the latter had been initiated into Masonry nine years previously . In the following year ( 1805 ) I find the officers of this corps presenting Bro . Col . Hanson with a splendid sword , a valuable brace of pistols , and a pike of elegant workmanship , as a token of the high estimation in which he was held . On the 10 th of December .

1807 , Bro . Hanson appears to haA-c resigned the command of the Rifle Corps , in consequence of some slander which his sensitive nature could not brook . Bro . Hanson seems to have been , as every true Freemason is , a man of strong sympathies for the distressed , and if I can obtain any good materials for a notice of him , I will- communicate them to the Magazine . In the mean time , perhaps , some brother will furnish farther particulars relating to this or any similar corps . —GEORGE MAUKHAM TWEDDEU ..

THE OLD FREEMASONS MAGAZINE . I have six volumes of the Freemasons' Magazine , which was commenced in 1793 , and haA'e just been informed that my set is incomplete . Is this so ? and if so , where can I get the others to complete it?—C . BEAI . E . [ The old magazine was published in eleven volumes , and the ei ghth volume , issued in 1797 , bore a different titleits name being changed to The Scientific Magazine and

Free-, masons' depository ; it was discontinued at the close of the year 1798 . In reply to where it may be obtained , we cannot answer our correspondent , as it has long been out of print ; but there may be some of our readers AVIIO may have a set to dispose of , or know of such , and if they will communicate with us , " C . Beale" shall have the benefit of their reply ] .

CAPTAIN GEORfiE SMITH . On the title page of The Use and Abase of Freemasonry , Svo ., London , 1785 , its author , Captain George Smith , thus describes himself;—Inspector of the Koyal Military Academy at Woolwich ; Prov . G . M . for the county of Kent ; and It . A . He was also author of Engclschc en Nedernitsche SpraaMionst , 8 vo ., Utrecht , 1758 Meg ' s Commercial Fetters , Translated from the German , Svo ., 177

Bremen , G ; Universal Military Dictionary , or a Copious Explanation of the Technical ' Terms , frc ., usetl in the Equipment , Machinery , Mocemcnls , and Military Operations of au Army , 4 to ., London 177 i >; and Bibhlheca Miliktris , or , a Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Military Boots , in eccry Language in Europe , with Historical , CWiici . / , and Explanatory Notes . < ito . ^ London , 178 : 1 . Wanted

further particulars as to Ins family , arms , services , and death , by —ANOTHER SMITH . LIEUT . DRAKE ON MASONRY . In the European Magazine , for February , 1792 , p . 124 , there is " a very curious essay by Lieut . Drake , and as the Magazine has long been out of print , I send you a copy , which may he found interesting by our younger brethren . —LL . IJ .

" On Masonry . —To brother Masons . I have presumed in this small treatise to deliver my thoughts on the originality of the word Mason ; ancM have likewise given my reasons from whence that sacred appeal , or obligation , by which we are bound , is derived ; for they being in separably united , I have endeavoured to shew how for they were conjunctively allied iu their primeval state ; and have hazarded some few conjectures on their religious "foundation . Though I may have dissented very materiallfrom the derivation of the name of oursacred institution

y . , which we are taught to believe sprang from the erection of Solomon ' s temple , yet I have proved the creed which is laid down as the established doctrine of our Masonic faith to be founded on moral and religious duty . I trust that whatever I may advance may not be deemed a renunciation of any part of that most honourable Order of which I am a . member , but be received as a humble attempt , to elucidate that which the hand of time having nearly obliterated , conjecture must now supply .

"As the origin of the religious ceremony of this island began with the Druids , and their language being Celtic ( which is supposed by the learned to have been the universal elementary language of Europe ) , I shall build my argument upon the ground work of their divine institutions , assisted by their tongue , which has been corrupted and thrown ' into the mutilated form it now bears . Numerous are the instances I can produce of words carrying a very different figure and signification to their first formation and intentionwere I to take up your time by

enume-, ration ; but as a few of them may prove strong evidences towards validating my subject , I shall produce them to shew that I have not Ijuilfc my hypothesis upon a sandy foundation . The word " religion" being given to us as a Latin derivative , I shall beg leave to point out is corrupted , from the Celtic rea and lirjio ; rea signifying a ray or circle , and ligio , to be bound , which alludes to a circle drawn round prisoners arraigned iu the name of . justice , with , wlueli in those days religion was incorporated , and out of which ray or circle it was tho highest crime to escape .

Nothing , in general , is more false or more forced than the derivations from the Gallic writers ; they will tell you " curate" is derived from citrati , the cure or cave of souls ; but it certainly comes more naturally from , the Celtic word curaish , which , signifies a preacher . Again , tho Avord physic is given to us from the Greek work <^ VBIQ , nature ; but the Celtic is icys-ahe , or skill in distempers , which offers a more natural etymology . So Avith , respect to the Avord "bishop , " which is from the Greek word E : n . < 7 % o 7 roe , i . e . overseer ; whereas the Celtic appears to be more just

from b-cy ' s-op , the president of religion . But to come to tho word "Mason "—it appears to me to have taken its rise from the Celtic word ? Ufays-on , a religious institution of the Druids called ' The Religion of the Groves . ' I shall observe that , in the sense of the bough , or office of justice , the word May is primitive to the month of May and to Maia the goddess of justice . Considering too that the Maypole was eminently tho great sign of Druidism , as the Cross was of Christianity , is there any thingforced in this conjecture that the adherents to Druidism should have

taken the name of Thc Men- of May , or Mays-on ? Hence the word . Mafs-on comes near to our present pronunciation ; the Avord on stands for homme , as it does in the politest French to this day , as on- elk for homme dit , & c . What still adds strength to my observation is / that the word Hiram , which is the corner stone of Masonry , signifies preeisely the high pole or holy bough ; it exists to this day in the provincial word ram-pike , the ram meaning a dead or withered bough ; hence I { i . -ram , or the high withered bough or maypole ; round which their dancing constituted an essential part of their religious worship .

Tlmthe words Mason and Hiram being so joined as to form the foundation of Masonry , and likewise the establishment of Druidical worship , I shall proceed to show how far the obligation is connected with them both . The Druids , agreeably to their system of preferring the night to the day , and the shades to the broad dajdight , chose for their places of abode to teach their disciples , the gloomiest groves and subterraneous cells , as Pomponius Mela says— 'Decent Drnidu ! innlta ndbilivrimos ycnlis , clam , c ' . diu , rirjinti annis , in upe . cu ant , in abdit'is saUibiui . ' ' The Druids teach ,

the nobility long and secretly for twenty years together , in caves , cell ? ,-or the most hidden recesses of the woods . ' ] S o wonder then this double privacy of the nightly meetings and sacred abodes inspired the enemies of Druidism with sinister suspicions , and more particularly as they were not wholly exempt from the propitiation of the infernal powers Inhuman victims , as say Strabo and Cato . But what still increased the number of their enemies was , they being included in tho name of the Magi ; and the magic wand and the circle being not only Avholly

abolisbed by disuse and supplanted by other forms of judicial procedure , but also proscribed by Jtoman paganism which had then crept in , and next by Christianity , could not but reduce the unhappy remnant of the Druidical votaries to ruin and despair . In France they never appeared after the destruction of the Allrigensc . s , and in Britain after tho i-Vc / a ; but Druidism , which had been for thousands of years the established religion of the Gauls , and especially Britain , could not be supposed i ,. lose , on a sudden , its hold on the minds o [ nations , therefore , such a- -, held out against the new religion would naturally form assemblies lor

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