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These range from a report of the arrest
of a Freemason in Padua in 1794 to the
Masonic certificate of the Regency
Dandy ‘Beau’ Brummel. The collections
even include the Masonic apron of Lord
Carnarvon, a 19th century Pro Grand Master.
Apart from library and archive
catalogues, the internet makes more widely
available a number of specialist research
tools. For Masonic researchers in England,
the most important of these is probably the
searchable version of John Lane’s historical
directory listing all Masonic Lodges
warranted by the English Grand Lodges
between 1717 and 1894. This has been made
available jointly by the Centre for Research
into Freemasonry at the University of
Sheffield and the Library and Museum of
Freemasonry (freemasonry.london.museum/Lane_v3/ui/frame.htm).
There has been a recent announcement
of a joint project between the search engine
Google, the Bodleian Library and a number
of American research libraries to make
available on the internet full-text versions of
large parts of their collections.
It is the prospect of obtaining access
at home to the complete texts of books
and documents in these major research
collections which will most excite the
researcher. But we do not need to wait
for the completion of this exciting project.
Already many transcripts and images of books
and documents of value to the Masonic
researcher can be obtained on the internet.
The National Archives runs a service called
‘Documents Online’ (www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk), which allows users
to purchase probate copies of wills for £3.50
each. For this price, you can purchase copies
of the wills of such celebrated Masonic figures
as Desaguliers, Dermott and Dunckerley.
For those investigating the lives of members
of a particular Lodge, the online censuses,
for which there is also a charge, are invaluable
tools (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census).
The New Opportunities Fund (NOF),
part of the National Lottery, has recently
funded an enormous portfolio of digitisation
projects by many libraries and museums,
which again contain many items of Masonic
interest. A full directory of these projects
is available at: www.enrichuk.net. It is
possible here only to give some random
examples of projects which include
Masonic material.
The Old Bailey Proceedings are reports
of criminal trials in London between 1674
and 1839. They have been transcribed
and placed online by the Universities
of Sheffield and Hertfordshire
(www.oldbaileyonline.org).
They reveal aspects of London’s everyday
life which are not recorded elsewhere, and
among the trials will be found details of a theft
during a Masonic initiation at the Goose
and Gridiron in 1767, and the appearance
of John Pine, the engraver of the first Book
of Constitutions, as an expert witness in the
trial of a man accused of forging a seal die.
The most fascinating material in the various
NOF sites for the Masonic researcher are
probably the various photographs of Masonic
activities and artefacts. The ‘Gathering the
Jewels’ site from Wales includes a digitised
copy of the programme of a Masonic bazaar
held in Wrexham in 1912, and a procession
of Freemasons, which was part of the civic
procession to mark Queen Victoria’s
Diamond Jubilee in 1897 (www.gtj.org.uk).
The Imagine York website features a
photograph of James Melrose, who was
Lord Mayor of York in 1876, lived to be
100, and was a Freemason for more than
75 years (www.imagineyork.co.uk).
But the most remarkable Masonic material
on the internet is on the British Pathé website
(www.britishpathe.com). This remarkable
project has digitised the entire film archive of
the famous newsreel firm.
All the clips are available for free download
in a low resolution form, and higher
resolution clips can be purchased online.
The archive gives extraordinary insights
into every conceivable aspect of British life
during the 20th century, and includes a
number of films of Masonic stone-layings
and processions in the 1920s, including the
launch of the Masonic lifeboat The Duke of
Connaught at Peterhead in 1922 and the
unveiling of a memorial window at Sheffield
Cathedral in 1920.
It has only been possible here to give a
hint of the potential of the internet for the
Masonic researcher. Anybody who spends
an afternoon browsing through some of the
sites mentioned here will certainly find an
aspect of the history of Freemasonry that
has not previously been noticed. However,
to research and write the history of
Freemasonry, simply unearthing new
facts and documents is not enough.
It is necessary to place any discoveries in
the context of current scholarly discussions
and concerns. To establish what these are,
the key tool still remains, for the time being,
an old-fashioned library.
Professor Andrew Prescott is Director of the
Centre for Research into Freemasonry at the
University of Sheffield
Left:
Search screen of the on-line versions of John Lane's Masonic Records
Right:
Freemasons join a procession in Welshpool to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. Reproduced by permission of Powysland Museum and Montgomery Canal Centre
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Copyright 2002-2007
MQ Magazine
Web site created by Mark Griffin
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