Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

DESAGULIERS
DESAGULIERS 207
Lodge in the Rue des Boucheries, which was
followed by the organization of several others,
and Radcliffe, who had taken the title of
Earl of Derwentwater on the death of his
youthful nephew, the son of the last Earl, was
elected Grand Master . Leaving France for a
time, in 1736 he was succeeded in the Grand
Mastership by Lord Harnouester. [Such is
the statement usually made, but R . F . Gould,
in his Concise History of Freemasonry, suggests
that "Harnouester" is a corruption of "Darwentwater"
and that the two persons are
identical, the Earl of Derwentwater being
really elected G . M . in 1736 .-E . L. H .] Radcliffe
made many visits to England after that
time in unsuccessful pursuit of a pardon .
Finally, on the attempt of the young Pretender
to excite a rebellion in 1745, he sailed
from France to join him, and the vessel in
which he had embarked having been captured
by an English cruiser, he was carried to
London and decapitated December 8, 1746 .
Desaguliers, John Theophilus . Of
those who were engaged in the revival of
Freemasonry in the beginning of the eighteenth
century, none performed a more important
part than he to whom may be well
applied the epithet of the Father of Modern
Speculative Masonry, and to whom, perhaps,
more than any other person, is the present
Grand Lodge of England indebted for its existence
. A sketch of his life, drawn from the
scanty materials to be found in Masonic
records, and in the brief notices of a few of
his contemporaries, cannot fail to be interesting
to the student of Masonic history .
The Rev. John Theophilus Desaguliers,
LL .D., F .R .S ., was born on the 12th of March,
1683, at Rochelle, in France . He was the son
of a French Protestant clergyman ; and, his
father having removed to England as a refugee
on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he
was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where
he took lessons of the celebrated Keill in experimental
philosophy . In 1712 he received
the degree of Master of Arts, and in the same
year succeeded . Dr . Keill as a lecturer on experimental
phlosophy at Hert Hall (now
Hertford College) . In the year 1713 he removed
to Westminster, where he continued
his course of lectures, being the first one, it is
said who ever lectured upon physical science
in the metropolis. At this time he attracted
the notice and secured the friendship of Sir
Isaac Newton. His reputation as a philosopher
obtained for him a fellowship in the
Royal Society . He was also about this time
admitted to clerical orders, and appointed by
the Duke of Chandos his chaplain, who also
presented him to the living of Whitchurch .
In 1718 he received from the University of
Oxford the degree of Doctor of Civil Law, and
was presented by the Earl of Sunderland to a
living in Norfolk, which he afterward exchanged
for one in Essex. He maintained,
however, his residence in London, where he
continued to deliver his lectures until his
death in 1744.
His contributions to science consist of a
Treatise on the Construction of Chimneys,
translated from the French, and published in
1716 ; Lectures of Experimental Philosophy, of
which a second edition was issued in 1719 ; A
Course of Experimental Philosophy, in two
volumes, 4to, published in 1734 ; and in 1735
he edited an edition of Gregory la Elements of
Catoptrics and Dioptries . He also translated
from the Latin Gravesandes' Mathematical
Elements of Natural Philosophy .
In the clerical profession he seems not to
have been an ardent worker, and his theological
labors were confined to the publication
of a single sermon on repentance . He
was in fact more distinguished as a scientist
than as a clergyman, and Priestly calls him
"an indefatigable experimental philosopher ."
It is, however, as a Mason that Dr . Desaguliers
will most attract our attention .
But nothing is known as to his connection
with Freemasonry until 1719, when, he was
elevated to the throne of the Grand Lodge,
succeeding George Payne, and being thus the
third Grand Master after the revival. He
paid much attention to the interests of the
Fraternity, and so elevated the character of
the Order, that the records of the Grand Lodge
show that during his administration several
of the older brethren who had hitherto neglected
the Craft resumed their visits to the
Lodges, and many noblemen were initiated
into the Institution .
Dr. Desaguliers was peculiarly zealous in
the investigation and collection of the old
records of the society, and to him we are
principally indebted for the preservation of
the "Charges of a Freemason" and the
preparation of the "General Regulations,"
which are found in the first edition of the
Constitutions; which, although attributed to
Dr. Anderson, were undoubtedly compiled
under the supervision of Desaguliers . Anderson,
we suppose, did the work, while Desaguliers
furnished much of the material and
the thought . One of the first controversial
works in favor of Freemasonry, namely, A
Detection of Dr . Plots' Account of the Freemasons,
was also attributed to his pen ; but he
is said to have repudiated the credit of its
authorship, of which indeed the paper furnishes
no internal evidence . In 1721 he delivered
before the Grand Lodge what the
records call "an eloquent oration about Masons
and Masonry." It does not appear that
it was ever published, at least no copy of it is
extant, although Moss puts the title at the
head of his Catalogue of Masonic Orations . It
is, indeed, the first Masonic address of which
we have any notice, and would be highly interesting,
because it would give us, in all
probability, as Moss remarks, the views of
the Masons of that day in reference to the design
of the Institution .
After his retirement from the office of
Grand Master, in 1720, Desaguliers was three
times appointed Deputy Grand Master : in
1723, by the Duke of Wharton; in June of
the same year, by the Earl of Dalkeith ; in
1725, by Lord Paisley ; and during this period