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

The fact that "A Prayer to be said at the opening of a Lodge, or making of a Brother", reprinted on page 245 above, was first printed,
so far as is known, in John Pennell's Constitutions of 1730, certainly suggests that it originated in Ireland. The charge to new
admitted Brethren, so far as we are aware, was first printed in Smith's London edition of A Pocket Companion for Free-Masons,(1)
which was published either in December 1734, or quite early in 1735.
1 On the problems raised by this book, see Cecil Adams, "The Freemasons' Pocket Companions of the Eighteenth Century",
A.Q.C., xlv (1932), 166 72; Lionel Vibert, "Smith's Pocket Companion of 1735", Misc. Lat., xi (1926 7), 81 4, 97 104; Chetwode
Crawley, "The Pocket Companion, 1734 5," Caem. Hib., ii (1896), 7 21 [251]
The Irish edition of the following May, however, contains an Approbation by the Grand Lodge of Ireland which immediately follows
the charge in question, and has by some been considered as applying to it more especially. On the other hand, Smith may have
secured the approbation as a counterblast to the resolution passed by the Grand Lodge of England on 24 February 1734/5,
discountenancing the purchase of his book on the ground that it pirated a considerable part of Anderson's Constitutions of 1723.(1)
In that case it has no special bearing on the origin of the charge.
Internal evidence seems to point to "W. Smith" being an Irish mason resident in England, a conclusion which would fit in with
Anderson's cautious or suspicious phrase, "said to be a Mason".(2) The paragraphs on Irish building, added by him to the summary
of Anderson's 'History' of Masonry, suggest that Smith was either an Irishman or an Englishman with Irish connections (3).
1 Q.C.A., x, 244.
2 Ibid.
3 Our colleague, Douglas Hamer, offers the following note. The discussion concerning William Smith has usually involved the theory
that he was either an Irishman or an Englishman: he may, however, have been an Irishman living in London, or an Englishman who
had spent many years in Ireland and had become 'pro Irish'. The latter might be either an English merchant or an English official,
and but for the destruction of the Four Courts in Dublin early in the 1920s, with the loss of the great collection of Irish historical
documents, it might have been possible to find a merchant or an official of that name.
There is, however, other evidence. In 1732 the following work was published in London: B Description of the City of Dublin ... By a
Citizen of LONDON, who liv'd twenty Years in Ireland ... and has travelled most Parts of the Kingdom, and is lately returned from
DUBLIN. London, Printed, and Sold by the Author, 1732. Our colleague suggests that the anonymous writer was the William Smith
who three years later published the Pocket Companion (London, 1734 5; Dublin, 1735). The latter had evident Irish associations,
and a knowledge of new buildings in Ireland: the author of the Description also was interested in new buildings in the. Irish capital.
He mentions the churches, the Cathedral of St. Patrick, the Collegiate Church of Christ, the new buildings in the city and suburbs,
the new Parliament House, Trinity College, the Custom House, the Hospitals, the Four Courts, the King's Inns, the mayoral palace,
and the Tholsel. His aim is not Masonic, but to present Dublin as a metropolis as civilised as London. It is interesting that he, like
Smith, should describe the Tholsel as 'stately'. Though the list of buildings is not identical with Smith's, here is a man who satisfies
the condition of the Pocket Companion, that a man with a first hand knowledge of Ireland, and especially of Dublin, is required.
Such a condition is also satisfied by the association of William Smith with an Irish printer working in London in 1735, and by the
probable, though not proven, identification of the author of the Pocket Companion with the William Smith who belonged to a London
lodge which contained a number of Irishmen. If William Smith was the same as the author of the Description of Dublin, and had
been a freemason in Dublin before his return to London, then three further conditions are satisfied: (a) that he was acquainted at
first hand with the `Ladies' Stanza' as sung in Ireland, (b) that, as an Irish freemason, and perhaps Master of a Dublin lodge, he had
some `right' to approach Grand Lodge of Ireland for an Approbation for the Dublin edition of the Pocket Companion, and (c) that he
knew just how to modify his London edition of the Pocket Companion to suit Irish freemasonry, and that he knew that a special Irish
edition would be accepted by Irish freemasons. He also recognised the divergences between English and Irish Masonic practices
and theories, and seems to have remained faithful to the latter. [252] was, a man well acquainted with Dublin. The admonition
against innovations contained in his preface: "I ... must here beg leave to exhort the Brotherhood that avoiding all innovations they
adhere strictly to the antient Practices of the Order . . .", seems to indicate that he was one of those masons, the forerunners of the
Brethren, mainly Irish, who formed the Grand Lodge of the Antients in 1751, who disapproved of the changes introduced by the
premier Grand Lodge about 1730 as a protection against irregular masons. The fact that the Pocket Companion was first published
in London, and that it was based on Anderson's Constitutions of 1723, and not on Pennell's Constitutions of 1730, seems to point to
the editor being resident in England, if not to London. To recognise that 'W. Smith' was probably an Irish mason resident in England,
is not the same thing as suggesting that the charge is of Irish origin, still less as admitting that Smith was possibly the writer of the
charge. In our opinion it probably took form gradually, as indicated on page 256 below; in any case, in view of Smith's admonition
directed against innovations, it would seem highly unlikely that he was himself responsible for introducing an innovation by
formulating the charge.
The earliest known certain reference to three distinct [253] grades of mason, each with its own secrets, is found in the Trinity
College, Dublin, MS. of 1711,(1) a document forming part of the collected papers of Sir Thomas Molyneux (1661 1733), a famous
Dublin doctor and scientist, and in the opinion (2) of Dr. J. Gilbart Smyly, Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, possibly written by
Molyneux. Thus, until rebutting evidence can be produced, there would appear to be a prima facie case for attributing the
development of the trigradal system to Irish masons. The remaining innovation, as compared with operative practice the ceremony
of constituting a new lodge and of installing the master of a lodge was first described in Anderson's Constitutions of 1723, so that it
is not unreasonable to attribute the origin of the new ceremony to masons associated with the premier Grand Lodge, if not to
Anderson himself.
1 E.M.C., 63.
2 In a letter of 23 November 1937 to Douglas Knoop. [254]
http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/SirThomasMolyneux.php
Sir Thomas Molyneux, Bart., State Physician, younger brother of William, was born in Cook-street, Dublin, 14 Apr 1661. He
was educated in Trinity College, and took out his degree of Bachelor of Medicine, and afterwards visited London, Oxford,
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