The Genesis of Freemasonry - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

seventeenth century.(1) The minutes of the Lodge of Aitchison's Haven for 1598 (2) show not merely that a new fellow craft on
being admitted chose two fellow crafts as his intenders and instructors, but that a new entered apprentice on his admission chose
two entered apprentices as his intenders and instructors. As candidates had to give satisfactory proofs of their technical
qualifications before admission, it is difficult to understand what function these intenders discharged, unless it were to instruct the
candidates in the esoteric knowledge associated with their particular grade. Assuming, as seems probable, that these intenders
corresponded to the "youngest mason" and the "youngest master" of the Chetwode Crawley MS.,(3) who taught the candidates the
signs and postures, then it may well be that there were two sets of secrets in 1598, those of the entered apprentice and those of the
fellow craft, and that it was these which the intenders imparted to the newly admitted entered apprentices and fellow crafts
respectively.
1 Lyon, 17.
2 Wallace James, A.Q.C., xxiv, 34
3 E.M.C., 36. According to the closely related Edinburgh Register House MS. of 1696, the candidate for admission as fellow craft
(as well as the candidate for admission as entered apprentice) went out of the company with the "youngest mason" to learn the
signs and postures. Presumably, this is a misscript of the copyist and should read "youngest master". [102]
The fact that the Schaw Statutes required two entered apprentices, together with six masters, to be present when a fellow craft or
master was admitted would not necessarily prevent secrets being communicated to fellow crafts. One possibility is that the entered
apprentices retired for a time when this stage of the proceedings was reached; another is that the candidate retired with his
intenders and received the esoteric knowledge outside the lodge, as was to some extent the method portrayed in the Edinburgh
Register House and Chetwode Crawley MSS; the third possibility is that about 1600 the fellow craft secrets were such as could be
communicated in the presence of entered apprentices, as, for example, a word communicated in a whisper, and possibly a grip. By
1696 there were undoubtedly two sets of secrets, one for entered apprentices, and another for fellow crafts or masters, and the
entered apprentices had to leave the company before fellow crafts were admitted. This problem is discussed more fully in Chapter
X, where the influence on early Masonic ceremonies of the Mason Word, and the practices associated with its communication, are
examined.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE MASON WORD
It may be presumed that the Mason Word, like other institutions, was not fully formed at its beginning, and that the various elements
of which it was composed in the early eighteenth century were not all equally ancient. If, as is probable, the main line of
development was from the relatively simple to the more elaborate, it may be supposed that the process started with a bare word or
words, together, very possibly, with test questions and answers. This would explain why the institution, however elaborate it may
ultimately have become, was apparently always referred to as the Mason Word, tout court. In course of time accretions would occur,
possibly because of the general adoption of local variations introduced by way of additional safeguard or explanation, or arising from
modifications of phrases or gestures, which would take place relatively easily in the days of oral transmission. Gradually the signs
and postures of the entered apprentice and the grip of the fellow craft may have been added, to be followed at a later date by the
postures and five points of fellowship [103] of the fellow craft, the explanatory story being a still later introduction. However that may
be, the Mason Word as an institution may be approximately dated with reference to the circumstances which made it useful and its
working possible.
There are at least five indications which may help to date the institution. (i) As the purpose of the Mason Word was to enable a man
to demonstrate his membership of a trade organization, viz., what we have described as the "territorial lodge", it cannot have come
into existence until that type of lodge was established. From the Schaw Statutes of 1599 we learn that Edinburgh shall be in all time
coming "as of before" the first and principal lodge in Scotland, and that Kilwinning shall be the second lodge "as of before". The
phrase, "as of before", shows that the Lodges of Edinburgh and Kilwinning existed prior to 1599, but how much earlier there is no
evidence to show. (ii) As in our opinion it would have been very difficult to operate the institution without the existence of a
supervisory authority, which at the end of the sixteenth century was the Warden General and King's Principal Master of Work, it
would seem unlikely to have existed before the establishment of those offices. The earliest appointment of King's Principal Master of
Work that we have been able to trace was that of Sir James Hammyltoun in 1539. (iii) As the Mason Word was a privilege
associated with the termination of an apprenticeship or the admission to a fellowship, it might be as old as the system of
apprenticeship which can be traced at Cupar Angus(1) in 1406 and at Edinburgh(2) in 1475. (iv) In so far as the Mason Word was
connected with the admission to the grade of entered apprentice, it could have existed in 1598, by which time that grade was well
established. As entered apprenticeship was connected with limitation of the number of entrants to full membership of the trade, it
might have originated earlier than 1598, for a tendency to exclusiveness in craft organization was by no means new at the close of
the sixteenth
1 Rental Book of the Cistercian Abbey of Cupar Angus, i, 304.
2 Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, 1403 1538, 31 2. [104]
century. On the other hand, entered apprenticeship did not exist as early as 1475, as, according to the Edinburgh seal of cause of
that year,(1) each apprentice at the termination of his seven years' term was to be examined and, if found proficient, admitted a
fellow of the craft. The institution of that part of the Mason Word which enabled fellow crafts to prove their superiority to entered
apprentices was presumably older than 1599 and newer than 1475. (v) In so far as the object of the Mason Word was to protect
qualified masons from the menace of unqualified masons, the problem is to decide when that menace became so serious as to
stimulate the establishment of the institution. We know that the Schaw Statutes of 1598 prohibited masters and fellow crafts from
employing cowans, or sending their servants to work with cowans, under penalty of £20 Scots for each offence, which implies that
the menace existed in a fairly acute form by 1598, but how much earlier it existed in a form which called for action we do not know.
Among unqualified masons, there might be not only (a) drystone wallers, or 'cowans' in the original sense of the word, but (b)
masons who had not served a lawful apprenticeship, and (c) men who had served apprenticeships as masons, but had not been
admitted afterwards "according to the manner and custom of making masons". (2) Men of the second class are described as "loses"
in Melrose MS. No. 2 (1674), where the conditions are defined which make an apprenticeship lawful, conditions approximating very
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