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

ALDWORTH
ALEXANDER 45
eraile Court, and it was during one of these I
meetings that the occurrence took place which
is thus related :
" It happened on this particular occasion
that the Lodge was held in a room separated
from another, as is often the case, by stud and
brickwork . The y oung lady, being giddy and
thoughtless and determined to gratify her curiosity,
made her arrangements accordingly,
and, with a pair of scissors, (as she herself related
to the mother of our informant) removed
a portion of a brick from the wall, and
placed herself so as to command a full view of
everything which occurred in the next room ;
so placed, she witnessed the two first degrees
in Masonry, which was the extent of the proceedings
of the Lodge on that night . Becoming
aware, from what she heard, that the
brethren were about to separate, for the first
time she felt tremblingly alive to the awkwardness
and danger of her situation, and
began to consider how she could retire without
observation . She became nervous and agitated
and nearly fainted, but so far recovered
herself as to be fully aware of the necessity of
withdrawing as quickly as possible ; in the act
of doing so, being in the dark, she stumbled
against and overthrew something, said to be a
chair or some ornamental piece of furniture .
The crash was loud ; and the Tiler, who was
on the lobby or landing on which the doors
both of the Lodge room and that where the
Honorable Miss St. Leger was, opened, gave
the alarm, burst open the door and, with a
light in one hand and a drawn sword in the
other, appeared to the now terrified and fainting
lady . He was soon joined by the members
of the Lodge present, and luckily ; for it is asserted
that but for the prompt appearance of
her brother,* Lord Doneraile, and other steady
members, her life would have fallen a sacrifice
to what was then esteemed her crime . The
first care of his Lordship was to resuscitate
the unfortunate lady without alarming the
house, and endeavor to learn from her an explanation
of what had occurred ; having done
so, many of the members being furious at the
transaction, she was placed under guard of
the Tiler and a member, in the room where she
was found. The members reassembled and
deliberated as to what, under the circumstances
was to be done, and over two long
hours sbe could hear the angry discussion and
her death deliberately proposed and seconded .
At length the good sense of the majority succeeded
in calming , in some measure, the angry
and irritated feelings of the rest of the members,
when, of ter much had been said and many
things proposed, it was resolved to give her the
op tion of submitting to the Masonic ordeal to
the extent she had witnessed, (Fellow Craft,)
and if she refused, the brethren were again to
consult . Being waited on to decide, Miss St.
Leger, exhausted and terrified by the storminess
of the debate, which she could not avoid
* This is a mistake ; her father, the first Lord
Doneraile did not die until 1727, when his
daughter had been married for fourteen years .
partially hearing, and yet, notwithstanding
all, with a secret pleasure, gladly and unhesitatingly
accepted the offer. She was accordingly
initiated ."
A very different account is given in the
Freemason's Quarterly Review for 1839 (p. 322)
being reprinted from the Cork Standard of
May 29, 1839 .
According to this story Mrs . Aldworth was
seized with curiosity about the mysteries of
Freemasonry and set herself to discover them ;
so she made friends with the landlady of an
inn in Cork in which a Lodge used to meet,
and with her connivance was concealed in a
clockcase which was placed in the Lodge room ;
however, she was unable to endure the discomfort
of her confinement in such narrow quarters
and betrayed herself b y a scream, on which
she was discovered by the members of the
Lodge and then and there initiated .
It will be observed that accordin g to this version
the lady was already married before she
was initiated. The story is said to be supported
by the testimon y of two members of
Lodge 71, at Cork, in which Lod ge the initiation
is said to have taken place ; this, however,
can hardly be correct, for that Lodge did not
meet at Cork until 1777, whereas, Mrs . Aidworth
died in 1773 .
If, however, the commoner version of the
story is preferred, according to which Miss
St . Leger was initiated as a young girl then
the occurrence must have taken ace before
her marriage in 1713, and therefore before the
establishment of Grand Lodges and the introduction
of warranted and numbered Lodges
and it is therefore a proof of the existence oI
at least one Lod g e of Speculative Masons in
Ireland at an early period .
After her marriage Mrs . Aldworth seems to
have kept up her connection with the Craft,
for her portrait in Masonic clothing, her apron
and jewels, are still in existence, and her name
occurs among the subscribers to Dassigny's
Enquiry of 1744 • and it has even been stated
that she presided as Master of her Lodge .
The story has been fully discussed by Bros.
Conder, Crawley, and others in the eighth volume
(1895) of the Transactions of the Quatuor
Coronati Lodge of London, to which the curious
are referred for further information [E . L . H .)
Alethophilote, Lover of Truth . Given
by Thory as the Fifth Degree of the Order of
African Architects . (Acts Latomorum, i ., 292 .)
Alexander I ., Emperor of Russia . Alexander
I . succeeded Paul I . in the year 1801
and immediately after his accession renewed
the severe prohibitions of his predecessor
against all secret societies, and especially Freemasonry
. In 1803, M . Boeber, counselor
of state and director of the military school at
St . Petersburg, resolved to remove, if possible,
from the mind of the Emperor the prejudices
which he had conceived against the Order .
Accordingly, in an audience which he had solicited
and obtained, he described the object
of the Institution and the doctrine of its myateries
in such a way as to lead the Emperor to