FREEMASONS AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY Alphabetical List of ...

Fellows of the Royal Society who are or were Freemasons, listed alphabetically
Educ at home by his father at Thorley Parsonage, Hertfordshire, before being admitted, 24 Oct 1751, at Trinity
Hall, Cambridge, to read for a civil law degree. On 25 Jan 1755, entered Middle Temple, returning to Trinity Hall 2
years later, taking his LLB, 1758, but had by then decided to abandon the law for the church.
Ordained deacon, 16 Jul 1758, and priest, 24 Sep 1758, the latter by his godfather, Zachary Pearce, Bishop of
Rochester, 1756–74.
On 18 Jan 1759, installed Rector of Newington Butts, a rural parish close to London, which his father had vacated
for him, but was a non-resident incumbent, and lived in London. In Nov 1767, incorporated at Christ Chuch, Oxford,
where he tutored the eldest son 283 of Heneage Finch, 3 rd Earl of Aylesford (1715–1777), privately, who took his MA
16 Jun 1770. For the next decade, it was the RS that became the focus of his intellectual life. Elected 30 Nov 1771 to
Council, attended meetings regularly and elected one of the two secretaries. Worked hard to revive and develop the
Socy’s library and, after receiving through the Earl and Robert Lowth (1710–1787), Bishop of Oxford 1766–77,
whose domestic chaplain he became and a prebendary of St Paul’s, 1777, various minor preferments, which by
dispensations he combined with his first living, was installed, 1781, archdeacon of St Albans, prebendary of
Gloucester Cathedral, 19 Apr 1787.
Consecrated Bishop of St David’s, 11 May 1788, became Dean of Westminster, Nov 1793, translated to
Rochester, 7 Dec 1793, and to St Asaph, 3 Jul 1802, remaining there until his death.
Science was the field in which he first became widely known. Horsley completed an edn of Sir Isaac Newton’s
works in 1785, but he is particularly remembered for the controversy (1783–90) with Joseph Priestly concerning the
doctrine of Christ’s incarnation, in which Horsley defended the orthodox view. His books include mathematical and
theological works.
Twice married, both wives died, the first in 1777, after less than 3 years of marriage, leaving 2 infant children; the
2 nd lasted much longer from c.1778 to 1805, but they had no children. Died at Brighton after a short illness, insolvent.
Bur, after a funeral service in Westminster Abbey, at St Mary’s, Newington, but when that church was demolished in
1876 to accommodate a railway, his remains were removed to Thorley.
Scottish Freemason.
Howard, The Hon Charles, FRS [18 Jun 1767], later [20 Sep 1777] styled Earl of Surrey [by which title he was
generally known], and Earl of Arundel, then [31 Aug 1786] 11 th Duke of Norfolk, FSA (5 Mar 1746–16 Dec 1815),
succeeded to the titles on 31 Aug 1786 when his father, Charles Howard, 10 th Duke of Norfolk, FRS, FSA [24 Mar
1768] (b. 1 Dec 1720) died. Earl Marshal, as he had embraced Protestantism, as a direct result of the Gordon Riots,
1780.
Married twice, his first wife dying in childbirth. His 2 nd wife, Frances Scudamore (1750–1820), was the dau and
sole heir of Charles FitzRoy Scudamore, natural son of Charles FitzRoy, 2 nd Duke of Grafton, KG, PC (1683–
1757). 284 They had no children, but he fathered several natural children by different mistresses.
Died 16 Dec 1815 after a short illness; bur 23 Dec 1815, St Martin’s Church, Dorking, Surrey, with all the pomp
of a deceased Earl Marshal, his broken baton of office being thrown into the grave after him. 285
Freemason, 286 but date of Initiation and L. in which it took place currently unknown; attended Palladian L. No.
196 (now No. 120), the only one in Hereford or in Herefordshire in the late 1780s. Joined 3 Ls.: as Charles Howard,
later Earl of Surrey, 11 Mar 1772, L. of Friendship No. 3 (now No. 6), London, his membership ceasing prior to
1813; as Earl of Surrey, 9 Jan 1778, Weymouth L. No. 493, Weymouth, Dorset; and as Duke of Norfolk, 4 Apr
1815, 287 Palladian L. No. 196, not long before his death, ProvGM, Herefordshire, 1789–90, succeeded by Thomas
Dunckerley (1724–1795). Invited by letter dated 30 Dec 1813 by The Duke of Sussex, KG, FRS, GM, UGLE [qv,
below] to become Deputy [or more probably Acting or Pro] GM, in the following terms, but he never responded:
‘I am well aware that you are not a Mason [he was, as indicated above], but at any time previous to my institution,
which is to take place, St George’s Day, in the month of Apr next, this may be done privately either at Norfolk House or
Kensington Palace as may be most agreeable’. He went on to explain that Norfolk’s supposed Catholic faith [already
abandoned] would not be an obstacle, mentioning that ‘one of your Grace’s ancestors [Thomas, 8 th Duke of Norfolk, GM,
PGL, 1730–31] was at the head of our Socy formerly and we possess monuments of his munificence towards us’.
283 Heneage Finch (1751–181), who succeeded his father in 1777, having been elected a FRS, 25 Feb 1773, FSA and PC 1783.
284 The Scudamores had a strain of hereditary madness, which shortly after the wedding made its appearance in the Duchess and she had to be
shut away as insane in the Scudamore family home of Holme Lacy, near Hereford, until her death there on 22 Oct 1820, where she is bur.
As she outlived him, it was impossible for the Duke to remarry or to have a legitimate son to succeed him, so he consoled himself with a series
of mistresses, one of whom eventually became his ‘official’ mistress, Mary Ann Gibbon, granddau of the Dean of Carlisle and a cousin of the
historian Edward Gibbon, a freemason. Another was Charlotte Tidswell who, when she was cast off by The Duke became a small-part member of
the Drury Lane Theatre Company and the mistress of Moses Kean, uncle of the actor Edmund Kean (1789–1833), who may have been a
Freemason, whom she adopted as an infant.
285 John Martin Robinson (Fitzalan Pursuivant Extraordinary 1982 and Maltravers Herald Extraordinary from 1989 and Librarian to Miles, 17 th
Duke of Norfolk, KG, 1978–2002, and Edward, 18 th Duke of Norfolk, 2002–date), The Dukes of Norfolk (OUP: 1st published 1983; Phillimore:
revised edn, 1995), 184.
286 He was the 2nder when HRH George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, KG, was initiated, passed and raised on 6 Feb 1787 in a special
L. at the Star and Garter Tavern, Pall Mall, London, convened for that purpose by the command of his proposer and uncle, HRH The Duke of
Cumberland and Strathearn, KG, GM, who carried out the ceremony.
287 This date is recorded in the Palladian L. Returns to GL, as appears in the copy thereof made available to the compiler by Mrs Diane
Clements, Dir, LMF, for which he is most grateful.
63