FREEMASONS AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY Alphabetical List of ...

Fellows of the Royal Society who are or were Freemasons, listed alphabetically
Acting GM, PGL, 2 May 1790, first to HRH The Duke of Cumberland, KG [qv, above] until his death on 18 Sep
1790 and then to HRH George, Prince of Wales, KG [qv, above], GM, PGL, 1790–1813, until the Prince’s resignation
in May 1813. In 1806 and 1807 Acting GMM, Scot, when HRH George, Prince of Wales, was GMM 1806–1820,
being first elected to that office 1 Dec 1806. Joined, 25 May 1803, L. of Antiquity No. 1, now No. 2, London. 421
As Acting GM, PGL, he was successful in saving the Craft from possible extinction under the Unlawful Societies
Act 1799, but failed in his aim of having GL authority over the regularity of all Ls. given legal standing. Very much
involved with the eventual Union of the 2 rival GLs in Dec 1813. He had a general patent with full powers to act as
GM in India, issued 1813 before he left to become Gov-Gen of India, an office he held, as indicated above, until
1822.
Rawlinson, The Revd Richard, DCL [1719], FRS [29 Jul 1714] (3 Jan 1690–6 Apr 1755), topographer and
antiquarian.
Educ at St John’s Coll, Oxford [BA 1711; MA 1714], ordained priest 1716; enrolled as a student at the univs of
Utrecht in 1719, Leyden in 1719 and Padua in 1722 and became a non-juring Bishop in 1728.
At his death Rawlinson left to the Bodleian Library 5,205 manuscripts bound in vols that include many rare
broadsides and other printed ephemera, his curiosities, and some other property that endowed a Profship of Anglo-
Saxon at Oxford; a benefactor to St John’s Coll, Oxford, where he had been educ.
Member, 1730, unnamed L. No. 40 at St Paul’s Head, Ludgate Street, London; SW, 1730, unnamed L. No. 37 at
Three Tuns, Wood Street, WM 1732; member 1730, unnamed L. No. 63, at Bear and Harrow, Butcher Row, Temple
Bar, London, now St George’s and Corner Stone L. No. 5; Warden, 1732, L. No. 70, at Duke’s Head, Tuesday Market
Place, Lynn Regis [now King’s Lynn], Norfolk; WM, 1733, unnamed L. No. 94 at Oxford Arms, Ludgate Street,
London. [G]Stwd 30 Mar 1734. Compiled unofficial list of 116 Ls., his Common Place Book, 1733, now in the
Bodleian Library, Oxford. 422
Raymond, Robert, 2 nd and last Baron Raymond, FRS [7 Feb 1740], later [7 Jul 1756] PC (c.1717–19 Sep 1756),
only surviving son of Robert Raymond, 1 st Baron Raymond (1673–1733), and his wife Anne Northby (†1721), dau of
Sir Edward Northby, former Att-Gen, of Woodcote Green, Epsom, Surrey.
Travelled in Italy and was reported in a letter, written in French, dated 10 Mar 1737 423 that he was in the coy of
Lords Middlesex 424 and Barrington 425 at a masque in Florence. Chmn, Commee which moved the commitment of
Astley and Cave for printing an account of Lord Lovat’s trial in 1747.
Married, Mary Blundell, 426 with £10,000, 3 rd and youngest dau of Montagu Blundell, 1 st and last Viscount
Blundell (1689–1756), but they had no children so that when he died aged 39 and was bur at Abbots Langley, his
Barony became extinct.
Possibly initiated in and WM, May 1737, the English L., Florence, formed in 1732, of which the first WM had
been Sewallis Shirley (c.1710–1765), 427 until the L. was suspended the following year by order of Inquisition. 428
GM, PGL, 3 May 1739–22 Apr 1740.
Reeves, John, FRS [12 Aug 1817], FLS [1817] (1 May 1774–22 Mar 1856), Natural history collector and artist,
youngest son of The Revd Jonathan Reeves, of West Ham, and probably the nephew of John Reeves, FRS [18 Mar
1790] (? 1752–1829), but left an orphan at an early age.
Educ at Christ’s Hospital; entered the counting-house of a tea-broker and, 1808, became an Inspector of Tea in
England for HEICS, going to China, 1812 becoming an Asst and then Ch Inspector of Tea in Canton. There he
studied natural science and collected specimens of plants, which he sent back to the Horticultural Socy in England,
including Wisteria sinensis. Became a major channel through which new discoveries in China were introduced and
played an important part in gathering information, visiting England twice, 1816 and 1824, taking with him numerous
examples of his natural history finds, including the famous pheasant named after him. His son, John Russell Reeves,
FRS [6 Feb 1834], FLS [1832] (1804–1877), joined him in China in 1827, spending thirty years there. He continued
421 See n. 86.
422 Lane, 13.
423 W. Bristow, in Rome, to Isabella, Countess of Denbigh (c.1693–1769), wife of William Feilding, 5 th Earl of Denbigh and 4 th Earl of
Desmond (1697–1755), and sister of the widowed Maria Catherina, Marchioness of Blandford (†1779), daus of Peter S. C. de Jong[he],
Burgomaster of Utrecht [GEC, Vol. X, 752, n. (c), quoting as its source Hist. MSS. Com., Denbigh MSS, part 5, 212].
424 Charles Sackville, styled Earl of Middlesex 1720–65 (1711–1769), MP: East Grinstead, 1734–42, Sussex, 1742–47, Old Sarum 1747–54,
and East Grinstead, again, 1761–65, son and heir of Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1 st Duke of Dorset, KG (1688–1765), succeeding on his father’s
death, 10 Oct 1765, as 8 th Earl of Dorset and 2 nd Duke of Dorset, PC, and would have been 27 when the latter was written. JW, 1732–33, and WM,
May 1736–May 1737, of the short-lived unnamed English L. in Florence that had been formed in 1732.
425 William Wildman Barrington-Shute, 2 nd Viscount Barrington (1717–1793), son and heir of John Barrington, 1 st Viscount Barrington (1678–
1734), who succeeded his father on 14 Dec 1734 and would have been only 20 when the letter was written.
426 She married (2), 5 Apr 1762, Gen Lord Robert Bertie (†11 Mar 1782), son of Robert Bertie, 17 th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, created 26
Jul 1715, 1 st Duke of Ancaster (1660–1723), and outlived him.
427 7 th son of Robert Shirley, 1 st Earl Ferrers (1650–1717). Sewallis Shirley was the 1st WM, May 1732–May 1733, of the short-lived unnamed
English L. in Florence that had been formed in 1732, being succeeded in May 1733 by Sir Hugh Smithson [qv, below].
428 See C. Matteo Pellizzi, ‘The English L. in Florence 1732–38’ [AQC 105 (1992), 129 & 134–5].
431 Dodsley, p. 140.
97