Edmund Reid

Entry for Frederick Abberline and Arthur Hare (highlighted) in the Zetland Lodge register
process of investigation and getting to know him, the Lodge would have voted to decide whether to accept his
petition or not. Once the Lodge voted in favour then Abberline would have been then invited to the next meeting
to receive his Entered Apprentice degree. This is where candidates are initiated into the Fraternity. 4
The few membership records of Zetland Lodge that survive inform us that Abberline was listed (abbreviated)
as an Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department aged 46. He was initiated on the same day in 1889 as
Mr Arthur Alfred Hare, a 34-year-old CID Inspector at Scotland Yard who had worked on the recent Thames Torso
Murders and was probably good friends with Abberline. The two initiates would have done part of the rituals in
the ceremony separately, and other parts would have been completed together.
During the Ceremony of Initiation, the candidate is expected to swear (usually on a volume of a sacred text
appropriate to their personal faith) to fulfil certain obligations as a mason. In the course of three Degrees, the
new member promises to keep the secrets of their Degree from lower Degrees and outsiders. They also pledge to
support a fellow mason in distress as far as the law permits. 5 The Degrees of Freemasonry retain the three grades
of medieval craft guilds: those of Apprentice, Fellow (now called Fellow craft) and Master Mason. These three are
what are known as Craft Freemasonry.
The Masonic Lodge Freemasonry is an organisational unit of Freemasonry and it meets regularly to conduct
formal business such as paying bills, organising charitable events and to elect new members. In addition to this
formal business, meetings may be used to perform ceremonies to confer a masonic Degree or to present lectures
on masonic history or rituals.
Candidates are progressively initiated into freemasonry in the first Degree as an Entered Apprentice. They
are then Passed into the second degree of Fellowcraft and are finally Raised to the Third Degree level of Master
Mason. The registers tell us Abberline was Passed to the second Degree Freemasonry on 5 February 1890 and
Raised to become a Master Mason on 2 April 1890. He progressed quite quickly through the three Degrees of Blue
Lodge Freemasonry, as sometimes this can take many months to achieve.
The column in the Registers saying the word Raised is as Mackey’s Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry explains:
When a candidate has received the Third degree he is said to have been raised to the sublime Degree of
Master mason. The expression refers materially to a portion of the ceremony of initiation, symbolically
to the resurrection which it is the object of the Degree to exemplify… and also means the acceptance
of the candidate officially by the fraternity. 6
The Register also reveals that Abberline obtained his Certificates on 11 April 1890. This refers to a Grand Lodge
certificate, which a member receives on completion of his three Degrees. Freemasonic certificates recognise
a Master Mason’s special achievement of having been raised to the highest degree in Craft Freemasonry being
rewarded in recognition of three main things.
Firstly, your devotion to your Lodge, the Craft and the Brotherhood overall. Secondly, it represents your personal
dedication and commitments to the principles which organise Freemasonry. Thirdly, it symbolises your continual
journey in the quest for more (spiritual) light. 7 It is necessary for a mason to be certificated and the certificates
themselves are regarded as a kind of Masonic passport to help gain admission to other Lodges.
4 ‘What happens behind the scenes of a freemason’s initiation ceremony’ by Joel Montgomery, Master Mason on www.quora.com.
5 www.wikipedia.org/freemasonry.
6 Mackey’s Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry on www.masonicdictionary.com.
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