FRINGE MASONRY IN ENGLAND 1870-85 By BRO. ELLIC HOWE (14 September-1972) PREFACE-: MY FIRS
FRINGE MASONRY IN ENGLAND
1870-85
By BRO. ELLIC HOWE
(14 September-1972)
PREFACE-:
MY FIRST ENCOUNTER with the concept of 'fringe' Masonry and the
names of Kenneth Mackenzie and Francis George Irwin was in 1961,
when I was baffled by almost everything relating to the origins and
early history of Dr. W. Wynn Westcott's extraordinary androgynous
Magical society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. A. E.
Waite suggested in his auto-biographical Shadows of Life and
Thought, 1938, that Mackenzie might once have owned the Golden
Dawn's legendary Cypher Manuscript, although this seems unlikely.
The provenance of this document is unknown and likely to remain so.
It was in the possession of the Rev. A. F. A. Woodford, a founder
member of Q.C. Lodge, in 1886 and he gave it to Westcott in August
1887. Thereafter we are confronted with a lunatic story of
fabricated letters, invisible Secret Chiefs and, for good measure,
the introduction of a mythical German lady called Fraulein
Sprengel, otherwise the Greatly Honoured Soror Sapiens Dominabitur
Astris, allegedly an eminent 'Rosicrucian' adept. It was she,
according to Westcott, who gave him permission to operate the
Golden Dawn in this country. While all this is great fun for
amateurs of the absurd, it is outside the scope of this paper. (1)
Since Waite tentatively suggested that the Golden Dawn trail led in
the direction of Mackenzie, I followed it via his The Brotherhood
of the Rosy Cross, 1924, and there I first came across Irwin's
name.
Certain statements made by Waite attracted my attention. 'For a
period of about twenty-five years, dating approximately from 1860,'
he wrote, 'the existence of amateur manufactories of Rites in
England is made evident by the facts of their output, for which all
antecedent history is wanting, except in a pseudo-traditional
sense, which is that of occult invention.' The convoluted prose
style is typical of Waite's writing. He inferred, too, that
Mackenzie was connected with what he called a 'manufactory, mint or
studio of Degrees'. He described Irwin as 'a believer in occult
arts within the measure of a thinking and reading person of his
particular mental class', adding that 'for the rest [he] was
satisfied apparently with the pursuits of spiritualism, to the
truth of which his circle bears witness in unpublished writings'.
Finally Waite mentioned that Irwin 'was a zealous and amiable
Mason, with a passion for Rites and an ambition to add to their
number'. (2)
Waite antedated the 'studio of Degrees' by about ten years. My
belief is that Irwin was always far more preoccupied with
Freemasonry ('fringe' and otherwise) than with spiritualism.
Unable to make any headway with the Golden Dawn problem I turned to
other eccentricities. (3) I might never have returned to Mackenzie
et alii but for the fact that in the autumn of 1969 I was again
back in the Golden Dawn territory and fated to remain there for the
next two years. Then in October 1970 Bro. A. R. Hewitt, Librarian
of the United Grand Lodge of England, showed me a collection of c.
6oo letters which F. G. Irwin had received from twenty-five
different correspondents between 1868 and 1891. (4) The majority of
them were from Kenneth Mackenzie and Benjamin Cox. For the most
part they were written during the 1870s.
(1) See Ellic Howe, The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary
History of a Magical Order, 1887-1923, London, Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1972.
(2) See A, E. Waite, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, 1924, pp.
568ff.
(3) These included a still uncompleted study ofthe Germanen Order
in relation to the prehistory of German National Socialism. The
G.O. (.fl. 1911-c. 22) was a pseudo-Masonic (and anti-Masonic!)
secret society with a psychopathic anti-semitic bias. By 19I4 it
had a dozen 'lodges' scattered throughout Germany.
(4) Irwin died on 26 July 1893. There is no reference in his will
to the disposal of his books and papers, but his widow presented
them to Grand Lodge in March 1894. Apart from the letters, which
are preserved in three small boxes, other documents from this
source are in 'special subject' folders under such headings as 'Sat
B'hai' and 'Swedenborg Rite'. There is also an interesting
collection of MS. rituals, all for pseudo-Masonic rites, in Irwin's
handwriting or copied for him by his friend Benjamin Cox. For a
check list of Irwin's correspondents see Appendix 1.
When I first read these letters I realised that it would now be
possible to document Mackenzie and Irwin, also the amateur
manufactories of rites, in greater detail than had been possible in
the past. Indeed, the correspondence threw new light upon the
whole area of 'fringe' Masonry during the late Victorian era.
The term 'fringe Masonry' is used here for want of a better
alternative. It was not 'irregular' Masonry because those who
promoted the rites did not initiate Masons, i.e. confer the three
Craft degrees or the Holy Royal Arch. Hence they did not encroach
upon Grand Lodge's and Grand Chapter's exclusive preserve.
The appearance during the second half of the nineteenth century of
various 'additional', 'higher' or 'side' degrees indicates a loose
interpretation of the last sentence in Article II of the Act of
Union in 1813. This merely stated that it was 'not intended to
prevent any Lodge or Chapter from holding a meeting in any of the
Degrees of the Orders of Chivalry according to the constitutions of
the said Orders'.
A Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees was formed in 1884. Rule
I of its original Constitution stated:
In view of the rapid increase of Lodges of various Orders
recognising no central authority and acknowledging no common form
of goverrunent, a Ruling Body has been formed to take under its
direction all Lodges of such various Orders in England and Wales
and the Colonies and Dependencies of the Bridsh Crown as may be
willing to join it.
It will be seen that submission to the Grand Council's authority
was a matter of choice.(1) Furthermore, it never occurred to Irwin
or Mackenzie and their friends to apply for, let alone accept, the
Grand Council's jurisdiction over their 'inventions'. (2)
The emergence of a variety of 'additional degrees' after c. 1860 -
those that later came under the authority of the Grand Council of
Allied Degrees, and the 'stray' rites in which Mackenzie & Co. had
a hand - happened at a time when the Craft was rapidly expanding in
England, with a consequent increase in the number of lodges. It
was coincidental that there was a widespread contemporary public
interest in spiritualism and alleged mediumistic phenomena. There
was no connection between the new spiritualist movement and
Freemasonry, but men like Mackenzie and Irwin, who were active in
'fringe' Masonry, were often spiritualists. Furthermore they and
many others in their particular circle were also identified with
occultism. They did not represent anything remotely like a mass
movement within Craft Masonry. We are merely confronted with a
small and amorphous group of men, most of whom knew one another.
The same names will be found time and again.
Since I have in turn referred to a Magical Society, i.e. the Golden
Dawn, mentioned Waite's hypothesis that Mackenzie might have had
some connection with its pre-history, and identified Irwin as a
believer in the occult arts, some may suppose that I have a
personal involvement with occultism. This is not the case. As a
historian of ideas I am solely concerned with the historical fact
of the persistent survival of beliefs which can be equated with the
concept of 'Rejected Knowledge', meaning knowledge which is
rejected by the Establishment at large because it is held to be
superstitious, lacking a rational basis, unscientific, and so on.
Astrology is a typical example.
This paper's subject matter is outside the main stream of the
history of Freemasonry in nineteenth-century England. However, it
concerns an obscure area which nobody else has hitherto wanted to
describe. And that, perhaps, is its only justification.
(1) In 1902 the Grand Council extended its authority and claimed
'the superintendence of all such Degrees or Orders as may hereafter
be established in England and Wales with, and by consent of, The
Supreme Council 33 degree, Great Priory, Grand Lodge of Mark Master
Masons, Grand Council of Roval and Select Masters and Grand
Imperial Conclave of the Red Cross of Constantine, but not under
the superintendence of such governing bodies'. By this time there
was little or no interest in the creation of additional rites.
(2) Mackenzie and Invin were discussing the formation of a Council
of Side Degrees as early as 1875. On 11 June Mackenzie informed
Irwin that 'I have put the question as to a Council of Side Degrees
to my uncle Bro. Hervey [Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge
of England] and if he sees nothing improper in the matter I shall
have no hesitation in acting conjointly with yourself in putting
such a plan forward. It would in one way regulate the conferring
of these degrees', of which there are some 270 in existence and
thus prevent a good deal of imposture. . . . ' A day later letter
(4 February 1876) explains what Mackenzie had in mind. Groups of
these degrees would be successively available to Mark Masters, R.
A. Companions, and, according to seniority, to members of the A. &
A. Rite. Their projected Council was never formed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks are due to the Board of General Purposes of the United
Grand Lodge of England for permission to use material in Grand
Lodge Library, also to Bro. A. R. Hewitt, Librarian and Curator,
Bro. T. O. Haunch, Assistant Librarian, and Bro. John Hamill,
Library Assistant, for their help and countless acts of kindness.
I also express my gratitude to Bro. Harry Carr and Bro. Roy Wells
for their constant encouragement.
Four Brethren, in particular, have helped to smooth research's
sometimes stony path and I thank Bro. Cohn F. W. Dyer (Secretary
of Emulation Lodge of Improvement) for notes on Frederick Hockley
and John Hogg; Bro. S.W.V.P. Fletcher (Royal Somerset House and
Inverness Lodge No. 4) for delving at the Public Record Office and
Somerset House on my behalf; Bro. A. L. Peavot (Secretary of Oak
Lodge No. 190) for showing me the Lodge's minute book for 1870-1;
and Bro. P. M. Rae (Secretary of Lodce Canongate Kilwinning, No. 2,
Edinburgh) for the hours he spent searching in his own lodge's
minutes in quest of Kenneth Mackenzie's elusive name; and finally
Bro. Dr. Henry Gillespie, a member of my own Lodge (St. George's
No. 370) for metaphorically placing me in a position, in his own
inimitable way, to undertake this particular research.
My thanks are also due to Miss Sibylla Jane Flower, Miss Winifred
Heard (Chiswick District Library), Miss E. Talbot Rice (National
Army Museum, London), Mr. Christopher McIntosh, Mr. Gerald Yorke
(for the almost indefinite loan of S.R.I.A. material), Lieut.-Col.
J. E. South (Librarian, Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham),
Dr. F. N. L. Poynter (Wellcome Institute for the History of
Medicine), Mr. J. C. Morgan (Archives Dept., Westminster City
Library), The Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa, and the City
Librarians at Birmingham and Bristol.
As so often in the past I have to thank old friends on the stain of
the London Library and the Warburg Institute, University of London.
GRAND LODGE AND THE RITE OF MEMPHIS
The History of the rite, which was of French origin, in England is
of interest for several reasons. For about seventeen years after
1850 in this country it was in the hands of Frenchmen. Up to 1859
it was possible that they only initiated their compatriots. It is
conceivable that Grand Lodge knew nothing about it until the latter
year when it learned, to its displeasure, of the existence at
Stratford, Essex, of a Memphis 'Craft' lodge whose members were all
British. Under the heading 'Answers to Correspondents' in its
issue of 14 October 1871 The Freemason stated that 'The Rite of
Memphis is the only so-called Masonic Rite which has incurred the
denunciation of the Grand Lodge of England.' This was because the
'Equality Lodge King of Prussia' at Stratford had never been
warranted by Grand Lodge and was therefore in every respect
irregular. It is unlikely that the rite still survived in England
under its French rulership as late as 187I. However, in i872 John
Yarker imported it from the U.S.A., but since he did not confer its
first three degrees, meaning that he did not initiate Masons, the
rite was not 'irregular'. On the other hand it was areatly
disliked by the Supreme Council 33 degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Rite which had already expelled Yarker in 1870. I will
refer to Yarker's extraordinary career in 'fringe' Masonry later.
The multifarious information - or more often misinformation - about
the early history of the Rite of Memphis, which has been
transmitted from one book or encyclopaedia to another, cannot be
condensed into a few lines. (1) The usual story is that it was
established with ninety five degrees by Samuel Honis at Cairo in
1814. He brought it to France in 1815 and a lodge ('Les Disciples
de Memphis') was founded on 30 April at Montauban by Honis, Gabriel
Mathieu Marconis de Negre and others. This lodge was closed on 7
March 1816 and Honis and Marconis de Negre conveniently disappear
from the scene. Next we encounter the latter's son Jacques-Etienne
Marconis de Negre, commonly known as Marconis, at Paris in 1838.
A few lodges were formed but it is evident that J.-E. Marconis,
Grand Hierophant 96 degree, failed to attract much of a following.
In 1841 the police intervened, no doubt after receiving a gentle
nudge from the Grand Orient or the French Supreme Council 33
degree, and the rite went underground until 1848, the
(1) Here I have mainly used Albert Lantoine, Histoire de la
franc-maconnerie francaise, Paris, 1925, pp. 287-97; articles or
references in The Freemason, 1869-72; Albert Mackey, An
Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, Philadelphia, 1875 (not in Wolfstieg
but probably a more or less exact reprint of the first 1874
edition); and the 'historical' article on John Yarker's Antient and
Primitive Rite of Masonry in his periodical The Kneph, Vol. 1, No.
8, August 1881. The latter contains many misrepresentations.
'Year of Revolutions'. Then, under a more liberal regime, Marconis
was able to revive it. Lantoine (seefootnote 1, previous page)
inferred that the rite suffered a debacle totale in December 1851
and that Marconis then allowed it to 'slumber', furthermore that
its somnolence was permanent. This may well have been the case in
France, but there was an export market for a novelty that offered
a grand total of ninety-five degrees and during the next decade it
was sold - it is inconceivable that Marconis offered all those
degrees as friendly gifts - to the U.S.A., Egypt and Roumania. The
rite also reached England in 1850, but in the possession of
Frenchmen who had previously belonged to it in France. Their
status, both as 'Memphis' Masons and as individuals is of
considerable interest and I will refer to this later. Honis
surrendered the rite, or rather its corpse, to the Grand Orient in
1862 and relinquished any form of jurisdiction over it. The G.O.
regularised its French members by recognising them as Craft Masons
and placed all its higher degrees upon what it hoped was a
conveniently high shelf. Marconis, however, did not keep faith
with the G.O. and dispensed warrants outside France, claiming that
his renunciation only applied to France itself. He died on 21
November 1869, unregretted as far as the G.O. was concerned.
Grand Lodge first became aware of the rite's eastence in the autumn
of 1859, although it appears to have been quietly active here since
1850. On 24 October I859 the Grand Secretary, William Gray Clarke,
sent a circular letter to the Masters of all lodges in the English
constitution. This document included a facsimile reproduction of
a Memphis certificate issued by the 'Loge Egalite, O[rientl de
Stratford' from which the name of the recipient and various
emblematical devices had been deleted.(1)
The Grand Secretary's letter began: 'I am directed to inform you
... that there are at present existing in London and elsewhere in
this country, spurious Lodges claiming to be Freemasons.' He warned
Masters to be careful not to admit any irregular 'Memphis' Masons
to their own lodges and emphasised that 'the Brethren of your Lodge
... can hold no communication with irregular lodges without
incurring the penalty of expulsion from the Order, and the
liability to be proceeded against under Act 39, George III, for
taking part in the Meetings of illegal secret Societies'.
Some weeks later the Grand Secretary received a polite letter from
Stratford. It disclosed that the lodge there was being joined by
members of the artisan class who could not afford to join regular
lodges. The letter did not reveal that the heads of the rite in
England were French radical republicans who had fled from France in
1849-50 after Prince Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was elected President
of the Republic in December 1848. It is possible that the
Stratford lodge might have been 'political' to an extent uknown in
English Craft lodces, in which all political controversy was
forbidden (see Antient Charges, VI, 2). (2) The letter was signed
by Robert Meikle, Leamen Stephens, David Booth, Charles Ashdown,
Charles Turner, Stephen Smith and another whose name is illegible.
Its first paragraph follows:
Equality Lodge King of Prussia Stratford
The 4th day of December 1859 V.'. E.'. Sir and Brother,
As it appears from a Circular issued by the Board-for [sicl General
Purposes addressed to The Masonic body in England, that a great
misconception exists in the minds of the Members of that Board as
to the real objects and character of the Brethren comprising the
Equality Lodge at Stratford we are instructed by the W.M. and
Council of the Lodge to forward to you for the information of the
Board such facts as may be useful to make known at the Quarterly
communication. In the first place Stratford and its neighbourhood
contains a population of some thousands of Skilled Mechanics,
Artisans and Engineers, many of whom from their superior
attainments or from the exigiencies of Trade are called upon to
pursue their avocations in the various states of Continental Europe
or in our own colonial possessions (3) and to whom therefore the
advantages rising from Masonic Fraternity are of great consequence.
A desire therefore has long existed for the erection of a Masonic
Temple in this district and one or two abortive
(1) The certificate, with parallel texts in French and English, was
undoubtedly designed and printed in France. It is headed: 'Au Nom
du G .'. Conseil Gen .'. de l'Ordre Mac .'. Reforme de Memphis,
sous les auspices de la Gr .'. Loge des Philadelphes'. The
signatures of the seven lodge officers (Le Ven[erable] de la
L[oge], Le ier Surveillant) etc. were all of Englishmen. The
signatures of three 'Grand Officers' were those of Frenchmen.
(2) The analysis and discussion of various documents relating to
the Rite of Memphis in France and England, 1850-70, are reserved
for a separate article.
(3) There was a Memphis lodge at Ballarat, Australia, during the
1860s.
attempts have been made for this purpose by Brethren in connection
with your G.L., the failure arising chiefly from the large sums
necessary for Initiations and raisings. The matter would probably
have rested here, had it not happened some eighteen months since
that several parties now Brethren of this Lodge were brought into
communication with a number of Foreign Brothers meeting in London
... We feel honoured therefore by our association with those
Intellectual and Honourable men to whom we owe our existence as a
body; we are sympathetic to their misfortunes, and regret the
causes that have made them exiles from their native land.
In 1869 almost ten years had passed since Grand Lodge issued its
warning that the Rite of Memphis was irregular. It still existed
in England although it cannot have had many members. The amnesties
of 1859 and 1869 had made it possible for its French brethren to
return to France. Robert Wentworth Little, the editor of the
recently established weekly periodical The Freemason (No. 1, 13
March 1869) and second clerk and cashier in the Grand Secretary's
office at Freemasons' Hall, referred to the rite in the issue of 3
April i869. An extract from his leading article follows:
We are induced to use very strong language in allusion to this
pretended rite, from the fact that its adherents have dared to
erect their 'ateliers' or workshops in the heart of London, and
because they now claim to be connected, on terms of amity and
alliance, with some Masonic bodies on the continent, notably with
one or two lodges in the south of France, and even with the Supreme
Council of the 33rd degree at Turin . . .
We grieve to learn, however, that doubtless in ignorance of this
caution [i.e. the Grand Secretary's warning in 1859], some members
of English lodges have given countenance to the 'Philadelphes', by
attending their soirees and balls, where, tricked out in fantastic
finery, as 'Hierophants of the Star of Sirius', 'Sovereign Pontiffs
of Eleusis' and 'Grand Masters of the redoubtable sacred Sadah',
these imposters libel the simplicity and purity of our noble Craft
... The gravest rumours are also in circulation as to the designs
of these intriguing 'Philadelphes', the most revolutionarv ideas,
it is said, have been broached in their mystic assemblies, and
Orsini like conspirators have been seen emerging from their dark
and dangerous dens. (1)
At the Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge held on 7 June 1871
the Rite of Memphis and, by implication, Little's name were
mentioned in the same context. The subsequent fracas was to occupy
Grand Lodge's worried attention until a year later.
THE RITE OF MISRAIN (OR MIZRAIM)
The annals of this rite, which reached England under somewhat
incongruous circumstances late in 1870, are not unlike those of the
Rite of Memphis. Once again we encounter a mainly French origin,
picturesque characters in the background and a monstrous collection
of degrees. But whereas Memphis was declared irregular as soon as
Grand Lodge learned that it was poaching in its preserves, Mismaim
was not officially attacked because it did not initiate Masons.
However, by today's more critical standards, on English soil it was
an aberration.
Whether or not the rite originated in Italy in 1805 with ninety
degrees - plus three more for its 'Secret Chiefs' - and was brought
to France in 1814 (or 1815) by the three Bedarride brothers is of
no great consequence. Any synthesis of the information available
from a variety of sources is likely to be inaccurate. Thus instead
of perpetuating traditional 'legends' my account of the rite's
background in France has been reduced to a few lines.
The Grand Orient declared the rite irregular in 1816. The police
visited Marc Bedarride, the eldest of the three brothers, in
September 1822 but found nothing suspicious. (Jacques Etienne
Marconis was briefly a 'Misraimite' before he revived Memphis in
1839. He was expelled at Paris in 1833 as J.-E. Marconis and again
at Lyons in 1834 under the name of de Negre). According to Lenhoff
and Posner (Internationales Freimaurer Lexikon, 1932, art.
Misraim-Ritus), like its Memphis rival the Rite of Mismaim was
repeatedly forbidden by the French authorities, but always rose to
the surface again. Indeed, for a brief period from 1882-90 the
Grand Orient gave it recognition. Its mother lodge in France, the
'Arc en Ciel' was still working as late as 1925.
(1) Felice Orsini (1819-58), Italian conspirator who attempted to
assassinate Napoleon III on 14 January 1858. He was guillotined.
The Memphis Freemasons were meeting at the Eclectic Hall, Soho, in
1871 (article on the Rites of Mismaim and Memphis signed R.E.X. in
The Freemason, 15 April 1871).
The Ancient and Primitive Rite of Misraim arrived in England - out
of thin rather than any other kind of air -late in 1870. The
Freemason reported on 31 December that a 'Supreme Council General
of the 90 degree, had been regularly formed here 'under the
authority conveyed in a diploma granted to the Ill. .'. Bro. .'.
Cremieux, 33 degree of the Rite Ecossais, and a member of the Grand
College of Rites in France'.
In England the rite's three Conservators-General, all 90 degree,
were the Earl of Limerick, Sigismund Rosenthal and Robert Wentworth
Little, who was then thirty years of age and, as I mentioned above,
employed in the Grand Secretary's office at Freemasons' Hall.
Little, as we will learn, was an energetic promoter of 'addidonal
degrees'.
The Rite of Misraim's inaugural meeting was held at the Freemasons'
Tavern on 28 December 1870 with Bros. Little, Limerick and
Rosenthal in the three principal chairs. The main items on the
agenda were to form the 'Bective Sanctuary of Levites' (named after
the Earl of Bective, who had accepted office as Sovereign Grand
Master), and to confer the 33 degree upon between eighty and a
hundred brethren who were present. After being admitted seven at
a time, the new 33 degree members elected six of their number to be
66 degree. It can be inferred that the three Conservators-General
had previously nominated themselves 90 degree. In the report in The
Freemason the name of Major E. H. Finney 90 degree also appears,
but without comment. The fact that he was not identified in any
particular manner was significant.
Almost without exception those present were members of the 'Red
Cross Order', meaning the Imperial, Ecclesiastical and Military
Order of the Knights of the Red Cross of Rome and Constantine,
which Little had 'revived' in 1865. It was announced that the
Antient and Primitive Rite of Mismaim would be attached to the 'Red
Cross Order' for admistrative purposes. At this inaugural meeting
'the alms collected amounted to 2 pounds Os- 3d.' -say 6d. per
head -'and the brethren adjourned to supper, separating at an early
hour'.
It is necessary to relate these 'Misraimic' events in London to the
current situation in France. Napoleon III had declared war on
Germany on in July 1870 and on 12 September surrendered at Sedan
with 104,000 men. By 19 September six German corps surrounded
Paris, which was effectively cut off from the outside world. A few
days earlier a government of national defence was formed in the
capital. The war, which continued, was conducted by a Delegation
of the government which had made its way to Tours a few days before
Paris was invested by the German armies. Between 19 September 1870
and until shortly after 28 January 1871 Paris had no normal postal
communication with the French provinces or abroad.
Isaac Adolphe Cremieux was a well-known lawyer and liberal
politician. At Tours, together with Leon Gambetta (a Freemason
since 1869), he was a leading member of the Delegation, which had
assumed the functions of a government-in-exile. On 8 December
1870, following the retreat of the Army of the Loire, Cremieux
decided to transfer the Delegation to Bordeaux. Furthermore, there
is documentary evidence that he was there on 28 December 1870, the
day when the inaugural meeting of the Rite of Misraim was held in
London. (1) This fact is important in relation to later events.
When postal communication with France was resumed, Bro. John
Montagu, Grand Secretary General of the Supreme Council 33 degree,
whose offices were at Golden Square, wrote on 11 March 1871 to Bro.
Thevenot, Grand Secretary of the Grand Orient at Paris, to ask if
Cremieux had the G.O.'s authority to issue a diploma for the
establishment of the Rite of Misraim in London. Thevenot replied
on 24 March and emphatically stated that no one, including
Cremieux, had been given any such permission. (2) Montagu forthwith
sent copies of the correspondence to the editor of the Freemasons'
Magazine and Masonic Mirror. It would appear that its rival
publication The Freemason was not on Montagu's mailing list,
possibly because R. W. Little had a close connection with this
periodical. (3) The Freemasons' Magazine
(1) See S. Posener, Adolphe Cremieux (1796-1880), 2 vols., Paris,
1934, which is the standard biography. Posener reprinted the text
of a telegram despatched by Cremieux from Bordeaux to Paris
on 28 December. See Vol. II, p. 215.
(2) It will be noted that Montagu wrote to Thevenot at the Grand
Orient rather than to his own opposite number at the French Supreme
Council 33 degree, or even to Cremieux. The latter had been the
Supreme Council's Sovereign-Grand Commander (i.e. head) since 1869.
Here we encounter part of an extremely complex chapter in the
history of French Freemasonry - it concerns the current
relationships between the Grand Orient and the Supreme Council -
which cannot be discussed here. For Cremieux's Masonic career see
Posener, op. cit., Vol.II, pp. 164-7; A. Lantoine, La
Franc-Maconnerie ecossaise en France, Paris, 1931; and the
biographical note in Lenhoff and Posner, Internationales Freimaurer
Lexikon, 1932.
(3) According to Little's obituary in The Rosicrucian and Masonic
Record, April 1878, he 'edited the earlier numbers of The
Freemason'. The date when he relinquished the editorship is not
known.
and Masonic Mirror published the Montagu-Thevenot correspondence
without delay on 1 April 1871. The editor, or perhaps someone else
who wanted to stoke the fire, expressed a doubt whether 'any
authority had been given for the establishment of the Rite of
Mizraim [in London], which was then [in The Freemason of 31
December 1870] asserted to have been the case'. The writer
continued: 'The fact of Paris then being in a state of siege
prevented any enquiries being made on the subject.' Then a bomb
with a relatively short time-fuse was planted: ' . . . how long',
the writer asked, '[will] the Board of General Purposes ... permit
this systematic trading upon Masonry on the part of those in the
employ of Grand Lodge, whose connection with it gives a colour to
their misrepresentations, and which connection is most likely to
lead many to believe that these proceedings, if not authorised by
Grand Lodge, are at least sanctioned by it.'
A week later, on 8 April 1871, The Freemason published an unsigned
article headed 'The Rite of Misraim, by a Conservator-General 90
degree. This was undoubtedly written by Little. He began by
accusing the Supreme Council of the A. & A. Rite of having had
plans to annex the Rite of Misraim, presumably before the inaugural
meeting on 28 December 1870. (1) Indeed, he described the Supreme
Council's allegedly nefarious designs with a surprising lack of
moderation. These purple passages need not be reprinted, but
Little's account of what happened on 28 December is fascinating:
... a meeting of brethren desirous of establishing the Rite upon a
legal basis was held, and this meeting was attended by a pupil of
Marc Bedarride, the 'Premier Grand Conservateur' of the Order, and
who had received its degrees thirty-seven years previously from the
Great Chief himself. This distinguished brother assented to the
Rite being reorganised under his auspices, and without his presence
and leadership not a step in the matter was made by the present
Conservators-General. It is quite true that for reasons easily
understood by those who are acquainted with the inquisitorial
system pursued by the S. G. C. 33 degree, the illustrious brother
alluded to thought it expedient to keep his name out of sight until
the Rite was firmly consolidated, and it is equally true that he
sought cooperation and aid from Ill. Bro. Cremieux, 33 degree, of
France, who was then in London. It is further beyond question that
Brother Cremieux would have attended the inaugural meeting of the
'Bective Sanctuary' had he not been unavoidably prevented by urgent
business.
However, on 28 December 1870 Crdmieux's 'urgent business' was being
conducted at Bordeaux. Little continued:
Bro.C., however, as a proof of his willingness to assist, sent to
the meeting his diploma as a member of the French Grand College of
Rites, and this diploma was placed upon the table during the
proceedings, and was examined by several out of the hundred Masons
present. It was also understood that Bro. C.'s diploma invested
him with the power to found rites or orders recognised by the Grand
Orient of France (the Rite of Misraim being one) in all countries
where no such rites existed, and this statement was accepted as
confirming and endorsing the previous action of the prime mover,
Marc Bedarride's pupil and friend.
Thevenot's letter to Montagu was brusquely brushed aside:
... in reality it is a matter of indifference, inasmuch as the
organisation of the Rite in England rests upon another and surer
foundation - its title being derived ... from the great Bedarride
himself, and not from any foreign jurisdiction however 'ancient and
accepted'.
As for the nature of the diploma which was 'examined by several out
of the hundred Masons present', one can only speculate. The
inference is that Little either manufactured it himself, or that
the document was faked for him by someone else.
It remains to identify the 'pupil of Marc Bedarride' who had
received the Misraim degrees thirty-seven years earlier, and who
'thought it expedient to keep his name out of sight', no doubt at
Little's behest. He was probably Major E. H. Finney 90 degree,
mentioned above, because apart from the three Conservators-General,
i.e. Little, the Earl of Limerick and Sigismund
(1) The Supreme Council may have had an obscure claim to the rite.
See Arnold Whitaker Oxford, The Origin and Progress of the Supreme
Council 33 degree of the Ancient and Accepted (Scottish) Rite for
England etc., Oxford University Press, 1933) PP- 37-40. Oxford
briefly mentioned the rite in connection with the Rose Croix
members of the Antiquity Encampment of Knights Templar at Bath in
1866.
Rosenthal, he was the only 90 degree recorded as being, present at
the famous meeting held on 28 December.
EMBARRASSING QUESTIONS IN GRAND LODGE
The publication of the Montagu-Thevenot letters and Little's
'defence' did not remain unnoticed. Three months later, at the
Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge on 7 June 1871, Bro. Sir
Patrick Colquhoun rose to his feet and asked a question.
'Whether Grand Lodge countenance the Rite of Misraim of 90 degree,
the Rite of Memphis and the Order of Rome and Constantine? and if
not, whether it be consistent with the position of a subaltern in
the Grand Secretary's office that he take a lead in these
unrecognised degrees?' This enquiry set the cat among the Masonic
pigeons because the 'subaltern' was none other than Robert
Wentworth Little who, although only thirty-one years of age, was
already a well known personality in the Craft. (1)
The lengthy deliberations at successive Quarterly Communications
and the Board of General Purposes' investigation of Little's
alleged activities need not be described here. However, the
Quarterly Communication's minutes show that some Grand Officers,
and Bro. Matthew Cooke (P.M. Globe Lodge No. 23) in particular,
had an incorrect or confused knowledge of the status of certain
Orders or additional degrees. It was Cooke who raised the
temperature at the next Quarterly Communication on 6 September
1871.
'Within the last six or seven years a great innovation has crept
in, that ought to be looked to or stopped before it grew to too
great a height', he declared. 'In the Book of Constitutions it is
held forth that it is not in the power of any man, or body of men,
to make innovations in the body of Masonry.' He then metaphorically
pointed an accusing finger at the clerks in the Grand Secretary's
office who, he said, 'on their own account formulate, tabulate, and
send abroad other degrees, and they make the office the place from
which they emanate.'
Bro. John Havers, P.G.W., protested that Cooke's remarks were
libellous. The Grand Master, clearly embarrassed, asked Cooke to
'moderate his language and confine himself to his motion'. In due
course Cooke moved:
That whilst this Grand Lodge recognises the private right of every
Brother to belong to any extraneous Masonic organisation he may
choose, it firmly forbids, now and at any future time, all Brethren
while engaged as salaried officials under this Grand Lodge to mix
themselves up in any way with such bodies as the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite; the Rites of Misraim and Memphis; the
spurious orders of Rome and Constantine -, the schismatic body
styling itself the Grand Mark Lodge of England, or any other
exterior Masonic organisation whatever, (even that of the Orders of
Knights Templar, which is alone recognised by the Articles of
Union) under the pain of immediate dismissal from employment by
this Grand Lodge.
The Grand Mark Lodge of England could hardly be described as
schismatic because in 1856 Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter had
jointly decided that the Mark Mason's degree was a graceful
addition' to that of Fellow Craft. Furthermore, Grand Lodge had
not objected to the recent establishment of what Cooke loosely
referred to as 'the spurious orders of Rome and Constantine'.(2)
Cooke's motion was referred to the Board of General Purposes, whose
report to Grand Lodge, dated 22 November 1871, was discussed at the
Quarterly Communication on 6 December. The Board had thought it
desirable to circulate once again the previous Grand
(1) R.W. Little (1840-78) was initiated in the Royal Union Lodge
No. 382 at Uxbridge in May 1861 and was a founder of the Rose of
Denmark Lodge No. 975 (1863), Villiers Lodge No. 1194 (1867) and
Burdett Lodge No. 1293 (1869). He was also a joining member of
Royal Albert Lodge No. 907 (1862) and Whittington Lodge No. 862
(1867). In Royal Arch he was exalted in Domatic Chapter No. 177 in
1863 and was a member of other R.A. Chapters. These details
account for his career in Craft Masonry up to 1871. By 1878, when
he died, he was an honorary member of about ninety Lodges and
Chapters.
(2) The Imperial Ecclesiastical and Military Order of the Knights
of the Red Cross of Rome and Constantine, now the Masonic and
Military Order of the Red Cross of Constantine, was 'revived' by
Little in 1865 when he was only twenty-six years old. The Order
achieved an immediate popularity. Between May 1865 and September
1871 sixty-two Conclaves were chartered. Of these fourteen were in
Canada, eighteen in the U.S.A. and eight in India. The anonymous
author of a pamphlet recently published under the authority of the
Order's Grand Imperial Conclave in London refuted Little's
proposition that he had resuscitated an Order with a lengthy
previous history. See The History and Origin of the Masonic and
Military Order of the Red Cross of Constantine, London, privately
printed 1971.
Secretary's letter of 4 October 1859, also the facsimile of the
Memphis certificate, which warned the Craft not to have any
intercourse with irregular lodges. The Board had established that
Little had assisted on one occasion for twenty minutes or less 'at
a Meeting held on the premises of the Craft for purposes connected
with a Society not recognised by Grand Lodge', also that, on
several occasions payments had been made to and received by the
Clerk in question at the Grand Secretary's office for purposes not
connected with the Craft'. By and large he was white washed.
My brief summary of the discussions in Grand Lodge in 1871-2 omits
much relating to contemporary individual attitudes to the degrees
outside the Craft and Royal Arch. However, the minutes highlight
the fact that, pace Bro. Cooke, during the last few years 'a great
innovation had crept in', namely the introduction of so-called
additional degrees. It can be inferred, too, that Little was very
active in this territory. (1)
R. W. LITTLE AND KENNETH MACKENZIE
In 1866, the year after he 'revived' the Knights of the Red Cross
of Rome and Constantine, Little founded the Rosicrucian Society of
England, now the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, more familiarly
known as the Soc. Ros. or by its initials S.R.I.A. Unlike the 'Red
Cross Order', as it was often called, it did not represent an
'additional degree'. Then, as now, it was a Masonic study croup.
However, it had nine grades and worked its own brief rituals. At
this point I must emphasise that all my references to the
Rosicrucian Society or S.R.I.A. relate to its distant past. I know
little about its affairs and membership after 1914. Here I am
mainly concerned with Mackenzie's alleged participation in its
origins.
Important in the context of this study is that during its early
years it provided a meeting place for Master Masons who were
interested in one or other variety of 'Rejected Knowledge'. In the
1870s a fair number of its members can be identified as
spiritualists. A decade later Dr. W. Wynn Westcott, Dr. W. R.
Woodman (2) and S. L. MacGregor Mathers - in 1887 they became the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's founding Chiefs - led the
Society in the direction of the western Hermetic tradition, e.g.
the study of the Cabbala and alchemical symbolism. In 1900
Westcott described its members as 'students of the curious and
mystical lore, remaining still for investigation, as to the work
and philosophy of the old Rosicrucians, Alchymists, and Mystics of
past ages'. (3)
When Madame Blavatsky settled permanently in London in 1887 a good
many members joined the Theosophical Society and at least thirty
were in the Golden Dawn at various times between 1887 and the early
1920s.(4) In effect, a small number of Freemasons whose interests
veered in the direction of spiritualism and occultism, tended to
find their way to the S.R.I.A. I cannot sufficiently emphasise that
it was a small-scale affair and catered for minority interests.
The average Freemason, and particularly the vast majority that did
not bother to read the Masonic press, would not even have been
aware that it existed.
As to the Rosicrucian Society's foundation, the traditional story,
as told by Dr. Westcott, is that Little found some old papers
containing 'ritual information' at Freemasons' Hall and enlisted
Mackenzie's help. (5) Westcott searched for these papers at Great
Queen Street in 1900 but was unable to find them. It is possible
that the documents were in German. If this was the
(1) In November 1872 Little was elected Secretary of the Royal
Masonic Institution for Girls. It is possible that a lobby was
organised on his behalf because he polled 305 votes, the other
three candidates sharing only fifteen between them. His departure
from the Grand Secretary's office clearly removed a source of
embarrassment.
(2) Dr. W. R. Woodman (1828-91), a physician, was initiated in 1857
in St. George's Lodge No. 129 (now 112) at Exeter. He was
successively Grand Recorder and Grand Treasurer of the Red Cross
Order of Rome and Constantine. There was some overlapping of
membership between the two bodies.
(3) W. Wynn Westcort, History of the Societas Rosicruciana in
Anglia, London, privately printed, 1900, p. 31.
(4) Between March and August 1888 about forty people were initiated
in the G.D., which was open to members of both sexes. Of the
twenty-eight males who joined at that time no less than eighteen
were already members of the S.R.I.A. During the G.D.'s early period
(1888-92) it was a perfectly innocent little secret society which
worked half a dozen rituals composed by MacGregor Mathers, and
whose members studied the elements of so-called occultism. In 1892
Mathers began to teach the theory and practice of Rirual Magic to
a carefully selected minority. These thaumaturgic activities were
supposed to be most secret. There must have been leakages of
information because some highly respectable and senior members of
the S.R.I.A. resigned at this time.
5 W. Wynn Westcort, op. cit., p. 6.
case then Mackenzie, who had a first-class knowledge of that
language, would have been able to translate them. (1)
Mackenzie's help appears to have been important in another respect
because, again quoting Westcott: 'Little availed himself of certain
knowledge and authority which belonged to Brother Kenneth R. H.
Mackenzie who had, during a stay in earlier life, been in
communication with German Adepts who claimed a descent from
previous generations of Rosicrucians. German Adepts had admitted
him to some grades of their system, and had permitted him to
attempt the foundation of a group of Rosicrucian students in
England, who under the Rosicrucian name of the information that
might form a partly esoteric society.'(2) Westcott is also the
source of the information that Mackenzie received his Rosicrucian
initiation in Austria, 'while living with Count Apponyi as an
English tutor'. (3)
Westcott's, and by inference Little's, acceptance of Mackenzie's
alleged authority should be noted. It does not appear necessary to
take Mackenzie's supposed Rosicrucian affiliations very seriously.
Firstly, no contemporary Austrian or German 'Rosicrucian' group of
which he might have been a member can be identified. Secondly, it
can be established that, although he was abroad during his late
teens, he was in London from early in 1851 onwards, namely at least
ten months before his eighteenth birthday. It is unlikely that a
mere youth would be admitted to any initiatory society, hence his
own later claim to be a 'Rosicrucian adept' probably owed more to
invention than truth. Waite observed, seemingly not without
reason: 'On Rosicrucian subjects at least the record of Kenneth
Mackenzie is one of recurring mendacity.' (4)
Westcott did not join the Rosicrucian Society until 1880, two years
after Little's death, and there is no evidence that he ever met
him. He wrote, perhaps with intentional caution: 'The share of
Mackenzie in the origin of the Society depends at the present time
on his letters to Dr. Woodman (5) and Dr. Westcott, and on his
personal conversations during the years 1876-86 with Dr. Westcott.'
(6)
While Mackenzie may have helped Little to launch the Rosicrucian
Society in 1866, he was ineligible for membership because,
according to Westcott, 'he was not an English Freemason'. It is
doubtful whether he had ever previously been initiated under any
other Obedience. When he eventually joined Oak Lodge, No. 190, in
London four years later his career in Regular Freemasonry was to be
surprisingly brief. His preoccupation with 'fringe'-Masonic
aberrations had already begun.
Mackenzie's letters to F. G. Irwin contain interesting information
about the Rosicrucian Society's affairs during the 1870s. I have
used very little of this material, preferring to leave it to the
attention of the S.R.I.A.
CAPTAIN FRANCIS GEORGE IRWIN
The man whom A. E. Waite loftily described as 'a zealous and an
amiable Mason with a passion for Rites and an ambition to add to
their number' possibly deserves a less patronising appraisal. He
was born on 19 June 1828. Benjamin Cox mentioned the date in a
letter written in September 1885 when he discussed his own and
Irwin's horoscopes. Apart from the brief biographical
(1) It is conceivable that the papers referred to the late
eighteenth-century German 'Gold-und Rosenkreuzer Orden', an
offshoot of the Strict Observance. The Rosicrucian Society adopted
the latter's grade scheme and nomenclature, i.e. Zelator,
Theoricus, Practicus, Philosophus, etc. The grade names will be
found in the extraordinary table of so-called Rosicrucian degrees
in Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia, 1877. Mackenzie wrote
that this information 'had never before been published ... and the
statements therein are derived from many sources of an authentic
character, but have never been collected before.' This was a
barefaced lie. He translated the complete table directly from
Magister Pianco (i.e. Hans Heinrich von Ecker und Eckhoffen), Der
Rosenkreuzer in seiner Blosse, 1781.
(2) W. Wvnn Westcott, op. cit., P. 6.
(3) ibid., Data of the History of the Rosicrucians, London, J.M.
Watkins for the S.R.I.A., 1916, p.8.
(4) A. E. Waite, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, 1924, p. 566.
(5) When R. W. Little died in April 1878, Dr. W. R. Woodman
succeeded him as Supreme Magus of the Rosicrucian Society.
Westcott followed Woodman as S.M. when the latter died in December
1891. William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) was initiated in the
Parrett and Axe Lodge, No. 814, at Crewkerne, Somersetshire, in
1871, soon after he qualified as a physician. He was then a
partner in an uncle's medical practice at nearby Martock. He was
invested as P.A.G.D.C. on 26 November 1877. In c. 1879 he moved to
London and 'went into retirement at Hendon for two years, which
were entirely devoted to the study of Kabalistic philosophy, the
works of Hermetic writers, and the remains of the Alchymists and
Rosicrucians' (AQC 38, 1925, P. 224).
(6) W. Wynn Westcott, History of the Societas Rosicruciana in
Anglia, London, 1900, P. 7.
note in AQC 1, 1886-8, the only source of information for his early
life is Robert Freke Gould's obituary notice in AQC 6, 1893. (1)
According to Gould he enlisted in the Royal Sappers and Miners on
8 November 1842 when he was fourteen years old. The Sappers and
Miners were then N.C.O's. or other ranks with Royal Engineer
officers. Members of the Corps were employed in various capacities
at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and the Lance-Corporal Francis
Irwin who received a bronze medal, a certificate signed by the
Prince Consort and a present of a box of drawing instruments was
probably our Irwin.(2) We next encounter him at Gibraltar in 1857.
On 3 June 1857 he was initiated in the Gibraltar Lodge (also known
as the Rock Lodge), No. 325, Irish Constitution. Gould, then a
young subaltern in the 31 st Regiment of Foot and a Master Mason of
two years standing, met Sergeant Irwin, now R.E., early in 1858
when he and another sergeant requested him to ask the D.P.G.M. for
permission for them to revive the defunct Inhabitants Lodge, now
No. 153. The lodge was resuscitated in February 1858 with Gould as
W.M. and Irwin as S.W. Gould's regiment soon left for South Africa
and Irwin succeeded him as W.M.. Gould mentioned that it was at
Gibraltar that Irwin first met Lieutenant Charles Warren, R.E., who
was initiated there in the Lodge of Friendship No. 278 on 30
December 1859. Gould recalled, too, that Warren had a great
respect for Irwin, both as a Freemason and a soldier. Many years
later Q.C. Lodge provided yet another link between these three men.
(3)
Irwin appears to have remained in Gibraltar until 1862 and from
there may have gone to Malta. He can next be traced at Devonport
(Plymouth), where he joined the St. Aubyn Lodge No. 954 on 11 April
1865. It is likely that it was he who introduced the Knight of
Constantinople degree to English Freemasonry in that year. (4)
In 1866 Irwin moved to Bristol. He had served in the ranks for
almost twenty-four years and on 7 May 1866 was appointed Adjutant
of the 1st Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteer Corps with the rank
of Captain. He was to remain at Bristol until his death in 1893.
When we encounter him in the first of Benjamin Cox's letters to him
in September 1868 he had been a member of the Craft for eleven
years and had just been installed as the first W.M. of St. Kew
Lodge No. 1222 at Weston-super-Mare, then a quiet seaside resort
about fifteen miles from Bristol. In 1869 he was appointed
P.J.G.W. in the Province of Somersetshire and in the same year was
made an honorary member of the Loge Etoiles Reunis at Liege,
Belgium. According to Gould ' . . . there was scarcely a degree in
existence, if within his range, that he did not become a member of.
Indeed, he became late in life a diligent student of the French and
German languages, in order that he might peruse the Masonic
literature of each in the vernacular'. A number of MS.
translations of French rituals' either in his own small and
distinctive handwriting or transcribed for him by the indefatigable
Benjamin Cox, bear witness to his knowledge of French.
The obituary published in the Bristol Times and Mirror upon his
death on 26 July 1893 referred to his great interest in Freemasonry
and suggested that 'he hardly occupied the position his education
and abilities qualified him for'.
K. R. H. MACKENZIE - EARLY LIFE AND CAREER TO 1872
If Mackenzie is remembered at all in Masonic circles today it is as
the compiler of The Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia which was published
in parts by John Hogg in 1875-7. A. E. Waite's disparaging remarks
about him in his New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, 1921, and The
(1) Gould's information concerning Irwin's military career is not
always accurate, hence a few corrections have been made.
(2) See T. W. J. Connally, The History of the Corps of Sappers and
Miners, 2 vols., 1855. About two hundred Sappers and Miners were
employed at the Great Exhibition, e.g. on maintenance work.
(3) When Q.C. Lodge was consecrated on 12 March 1886, Lieut.-Col.
Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., F.R.S., was its first W.M. R.F.
Gould, whose famous History of Freemasonry, 6 vols., 1882-7, was
nearing completion, was another of the lodge's nine founder
members. On 7 April 1886 Irwin was one of the first six joining
members to be elected. He and Gould met one another for the first
time since i858 at the Q.C. Lodge meeting on 3 June 1886.
(4) The following is from F. L. Pick and G. Norman Knight, The
Pocket History of Freemasonry, 5th edition, 1969, P. 249: 'This is
a real "side" degree in the sensc that, many years ago, it was
customary for one Brother to confer it on another. He would take
him aside at the end of a Lodge meeting, for instance, administer
a simple obligation and entrust him with the secrets. The origin
of the degree is not known .... It first came to England in 1865,
brought to Plymouth from Malta by a military Brother, and three
Councils were erected there to work it in full form.' W. Hearder's
pamphlet Past Illustrious Sovereign of Knight of Constantinople
Jewel, 1916, records that 'on the 17th of January, 1865 ... the
Eminent and Perfect Illustrious Brother F. G. Irwin formed the
first Council at the St. Aubyn Lodge, Devonport, and several
eminent Masons were entrusted with the secrets of the Order, and
were elevated to the degree of Knights of Constantinople....'
Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, 1924, had intrigued me long before
I saw his letters to Irwin. When I read these documents, which
revealed and yet at the same time hid so much, I sensed that it
would be impossible to understand Mackenzie's role in 'fringe'
Masonry without knowing more about his early life. A brief passage
in a letter to Irwin (16 March 1879) showed that something had gone
wrong. 'At one time I was well off and kept my carriage and had
the world at my feet so to speak .... 'he wrote. My premise was
that the disappearance of the carriage and the world no longer
being at his feet might have a connection, however tenuous, with
his 'fringe'-Masonic interests during the 1870s and after. My
search for Mackenzie's trail now began.
Kenneth Robert Henderson Mackenzie was the son of Dr. Rowland Hill
Mackenzie and his wife Gertrude. She was the sister of John Morant
Hervey, Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England from
August 1868 until ill-health compelled him to retire in 1879. He
was born on 31 October 1833. (1) According to the 1851 Census the
birth took place at Deptford in south-east London, but no baptismal
record can be found there. The Census entry also shows that his
mother was about twenty years old in 1833.
By 1834 the family was at Vienna where Dr. Mackenzie, who
specialised in midwifery, had a hospital appointment. (2) He
probably returned to London in 1840, although the annual membership
lists ofthe Royal College of Surgeons locate him at Vienna until as
late as 31 August 1842. (3) He was a general practitioner, first at
61 Berners Street (1841-3) and subsequently at 68 Mortimer Street,
Cavendish Square. Hence he had a West End practice. He held an
appointment as Surgeon to the Scottish Hospital and Corporation
(1845-52?), and by 1845 had been twice President of the German
Literary Society of London.
Kenneth Mackenzie was seven years old when his parents settled in
London in 1840. Furthermore, he must have been bilingual in
English and German. A passage from the Preface to his Tyll
Eulenspiegel translation, published by Trubner & Co. in 1859 as The
Marvellous Adventures and Rare Conceits of Master Tyll Owlglass,
indicates that he read German at a very early age. 'I well
remember how, as a very little boy, I made the friendship of the
[book's] lithe though clumsy hero', he wrote. In the Preface to
the second edition, dated Christmas Eve 1859, he mentioned that 'it
was almost the first book I ever possessed, and I remember to this
day the circumstances under which it was given to me.'
My belief is that he was largely educated abroad and that the
unusually wide range of cultural interests which he displayed
before he was twenty cannot have been merely the result of a period
spent in Count Apponyi's employment as a tutor. (See two pages
above.) The 1851 Census and the surprisingly erudite series of
seventeen contributions to ivotes and Queries in the same year
indicate that he was now (aet. 17-18) back in London and the
possessor of a polymathic storehouse of learning which could hardly
have been acquired at any contemporary British public or grammar
school. (4)
(1) The only evidence for the date and place of his birth are the
marginal notes made by Christopher Cooke on the same pages of two
interleaved and heavily annotated copies (Mrs. P. I. Naylor's and
my own) of his extraordinary autobiographical work Curiosities of
Occult Literature, London, privately printed, 1863. (This book's
title is misleading. It contains a detailed account of its
author's unsatisfactory relationship with Lieut. R. J. Morrison,
R.N. retd., a well-known contemporary professional astrologer and
promoter of dud companies. Under the pseudonym Zadkiel he edited
a widely-read annual prophetic almanac. See Ellic Howe, Urania's
Children: The Strange World of the Astrologer 1967, PP- 33-47.)
Cooke was acquainted with Mackenzie and both were enthusiastic
astrologers. Hence when Cooke wrote that Mackenzie was born in
London on 31 October 1833 at 10 a.m. the date is likely to be
correct since he would have learned it from Mackenzie himself.
(2) I have not been able to discover when and where Mackenzie
gained his first medical qualification. According to the London
Medical Directory for 1845 he was M.D. Vienna in 1834 and M.R.C.S.
England on 31 August 1840. This source reveals that he was
'Assistant Surgeon in the Imperial Hospital, Vienna (containing
4,000 beds), Midwifery Department'.
(3) On 23 May 1840 the Athenaeum published his translation of a
communication by his friend Professor Berres, of Vienna, on 'A
method of permanently fixing, engraving and printing from
Daguerrotype plates'. This may have been written at Vienna. An
article in the Lancet (9 January 1841) on 'Statistics of Multiple
Births' was completed at 21 College Street, Chelsea, on 9 December
1840. This was based on Vienna hospital records for the period
July 1839-July 1840 and was probably written just before he became
M.R.C.S. England. Thus the available evidence suggests that he was
in London from the summer of 1840 onwards.
(4) During 1851 Notes and Queries published communications from him
on such diverse topics as the location of a fragment of an oration
against Demosthenes, the presumed textual connections between
certain works by Sallust and Tacitus, observations on the works of
Homer, comments on a translation of Apulcius, and particulars of
the manuscripts of hitherto unpublished English seventeenth century
poems which he had discovered at the British Museum.
His 'A Word to the Literary Men of England' in Notes and Queries,
1 March 1851, proposed the foundation of a learned society whose
task would be to rescue old manuscripts in Greek, Latin,
Anglo-Saxon, Norwegian, Zend (an ancient language allied to
Sanscrit), and a dozen other middle-eastern and oriental tongues.
Some months later he reported that 'I have so far accomplished my
purpose, as lately, while residing on the continent, and also since
my return, to establish in Russia, Siberia and Tartary, Persia and
Eastern Europe, stations for the search after MSS. worth
attention.'
The issue of Notes and Queries for 6 September 1851 shows that at
one time he was far from Austria and had visited the then remote
Prussian province of Pomerania, where he discussed the reputed site
of Julin with Count Keyserling, a member of a renowned Baltic
landowning family. (1) His 'Notes on Julin' contains a lengthy
translation from the German which could only have been achieved by
someone with a first-class knowledge of the language.
In the Preface to the second edition of his Tyll Eulenspiegel
translation he mentioned that even as a child he had literary
ambitions. His first important work was his translation of K. R.
Lepsius, Briefe aus Aegypten, Aethiopen, etc., 1842-5, 1852, which
Richard Bentley published in London in 1852 within a few months of
the appearance of the original German edition. (2) Discoveries in
Egypt, Ethiopia and the Peninsula of Sinai was a remarkable
performance for a nineteen year-old boy. Mackenzie's own
additional notes display an impressive knowledge of Latin, Greek
and Hebrew, also a familiarity with the current scholarly
literature relating to Egyptian antiquities. He was elected a
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in January 1854,
nine months before his twenty-first birthday. Membership of this
distinguished learned society cannot have been normally granted to
minors and it may have been given in recognition of his edition of
Lepsius's book. (3)
Mackenzie now began the career in letters which had been his
ambition as a child. In 1852 he supplied the articles on Peking,
America and Scandinavia for his friend the Rev. Theodore Alois
Buckley's Great Cities of the Ancient World, which was published by
George Routledge. In 1853 he helped the elderly and eccentric
Walter Savage Landor to prepare a new edition of his Imaginary
Conversations. (4) In the same year Routledge published his Burmah
and the Burmese, yet another surprisingly mature and self-confident
product. For Routledge in 1854-5 he edited translations from the
German (by other hands) of Friedrich Wagner's Schamyl and Circassia
and J. W. Wolf's Fairy Tales, Collected in the Odenwaid. Both these
books reflect his erudition. His scholarly inclinations are
particularly evident in his Tyll Eulenspiegel translation (1859),
with its admirable bibliographical appendix.
In a letter to Irwin (9 May 1878) he mentioned that he had written
'side by side with B. Disraeli for years and learned to love his
cordial frankness of heart'. The only identifiable period when he
could have had a literary association with Benjamin Disraeli was
when the latter was proprietor of the weekly periodical The Press.
This would have been during the early 1850s. (5)
Mackenzie was already interested in the 'Rejected Knowledge' area
by 1858, when he published (at his own expense) four issues of The
Biological Review: A Monthly Repertory of the Science of Life
(October 1858-January 1859). This periodical, which soon failed
for lack of support, was particularly concerned with mesmerism's
medical applications, homoeopathy, a novelty called
'electro-dentistry', and what Mackenzie described as 'the finer
Physics generally'.
(1) Julin was an ancient Wendish trading post and mentioned in 1075
as being the largest town in Europe. Mackenzie had visited Wollin,
which was assumed by archaeologists to be the probable location of
Julin. It was not far from Swinemund, later a popular Baltic
seaside resort and now in Polish territory.
(2) K. R. Lepsius was a renowned scholar and at that time had the
chair for Egyptology at the University of Berlin. In the German
edition the author's Preface is dated 2 June 1852, Mackenzie's
translation was reviewed in the Athenaeum as early as 21 August
1852. It appeared so soon after the original German text was
published that it is likely that Mackenzie had a copy of Lepsius's
manuscript long before 2 June 1852. Since Bentley would hardly have
conimissioned a youth still in his teens to translate such an
important work, my hypothesis is that Mackenzie, who was already an
enthusiastic Egyptologist, had attended Lepsius's lectures and had
persuaded him to allow him to translate the book.
(3) See the Society's Proceedings, first series, iii, PP- 48, 58,
98, 101, 111, 174 for details of his communications and exhibits in
854.
(4) See R. H. Super, Walter Savage Landor, New York, 1954, passim.
(5) The only known run of this periodical in Great Britain is at
the Birmingham Public Library. The City Librarian informed me that
he was unable to trace any contributions signed by Mackenzie or
with his initials.
He was greatly interested in medical matters and like so many
occultists, then as now, dabbled with fringe medicine and
mesmerism. (1)
In December 1861 (aet. 28) he was in Paris and visited Eliphas Levi
(i.e. the Abbe Alphonse-Louis Constant, 1810-75), the author of
Dogme et rituel de la haute magie, 1856, and already renowned as an
authority on Magic. When Mackenzie returned to London he
immediately dictated an account of his two meetings with the Magus
to Frederick Hockley, then his close friend and mentor in
occultism.(2) According to Levi's unpublished correspondence,
quoted by his biographer Paul Chacornac, he found Mackenzie very
intelligent but excessively involved with Magic and spiritualism.
(3)
Until recently I supposed that Mackenzie's trip to Paris in 1861
was undertaken solely for the purpose of sitting at Eliphas Levi's
feet, but there may have been another reason. His father had moved
to Paris in 1857-8 and apparently never returned to London. (4)
So far I have discovered nothing edited, translated or written by
Mackenzie between 1859 and 1870, when James Hogg, & Son published
his translation of J. G. L. Hesekiel's The Life Of Bismarck. To
all intents and purposes he seems to have gone underground.
However, we do not entirely lose track of him, although
biographical information which has no connection with Freemasonry,
'fringe' or regular, must be relegated to a footnote. (5)
When Mackenzie's account of his two meetings with Eliphas Levi in
December 1861 was published with minor alterations in the April
1873 issue of The Rosicrucian, he mentioned that 'these hasty notes
of my conversations might never have been recorded at all had it
not been for the patience with which an equally profound occult
student in this country, Bro. F. Hockley, P.G.S., recorded them at
my dictation, a very few days after the interviews had taken
place.'
(1) He wrote to Irwin on 4 February 1876: 'I wish that I could
learn that Mrs. Irwin's health was reestablished on a firm basis.
If I knew the particulars of the complaint perhaps I could suggest
some thing as I cure everyone who chooses to consult me. I have a
peculiar knowledge of the properties of Sympathia - and I find them
rather increase in power than otherwise. I was brought up to
medicine under Dr. Hassall at St. George's Hospital, Hyde Park -
but I do not practice as I never took an English degree, although
I am "licensed to kill" anywhere out of England.' There is no
evidence in the registers at St. George's Hospital Medical School
that he ever registered as a student there. Perhaps he merely
'walked the wards' there as a matter of interest. His claim that
he had a foreign medical qualification was obviously the product of
an excessively lively imagination.
(2) Mr. Gerald Yorke possesses a manuscript version in Mackenzie's
handwriting: 'An account of what passed between Eliphas Levi Zahed
(Abbe Constant), Occult Philosopher, and Baphometus (Kenneth R. H.
Mackenzie), Astrologer and Spiritualist, in the City of Paris,
December 1861'. On the last page Mackenzie wrote: 'The foregoing
was committed to paper on Monday 10th December 1861 and was
transcribed by the undersigned on the 9th and 10th May 1863.' This
fair copy was written at 3 Victoria Street, Westminster. For the
significance of this address see footnote 5.
(3) There is a reference to Mackenzie's visit in Paul Chacornac,
Eliphas Levi, renovateur de l'occultisme en France, 1926, PP-
201-3. Levi's works were being read by members of the Rosicrucian
Society long before they were translated into English. See William
Carpenter's article in The Rosicrucian, January 1870, in which he
mentioned that Levi's books were 'very little known even among the
members of our mystic and secret orders' (p. 83). Carpenter may be
the source for the first printed reference in the English language
to the alleged occult significance of the Tarot cards (ibid., p.
81).
(4) The Royal College of Surgeons membership lists, published
annually in mid-July, locate Dr. Mackenzie at Paris from 1858 until
as late as 1900. He was probably already dead by the late 1870s
since his son's letters to Irwin indicate that his aged mother was
a member of his household.
(5) MEMBERSHIP OF LEARNED SOCIETIES - The Preface to The Life of
Bismarck was written at 4 St. Martin's Court, Trafalgar Square, on
6 December 1869. This was the address ofthe Ethnographical Society
of London, which merged with the Anthropological Society of London
in 1871- Mackenzie joined the latter on 19 April 1864 and was an
active member until May 1870, although he paid no subscriptions
after 1868. In a letter to Irwin (24 September 1875) he referred
to the period when he 'was editing the Anthropological Review', but
his name cannot be found in any editorial capacity in contemporary
volumes of that journal. His connection with the Society of
Antiquaries also ceased in 1870 when his membership was cancelled
because his subscription was in arrears. He was a member of the
Royal Asiatic Society from 1855-61. Long after 1870 he was still
using the initials F.S.A. and M.R.A.S. after his name.
BOGUS ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS - His claim to doctorates of philosophy
and law can hardly be genuine. His Preface to the translation of
J. M. Wolf's Fairy Tales, 1855, was signed by 'Kenneth R.H.
Mackenzie, Ph.D., F.S.A., M.R.A.S.' He also appears as a Ph.D. in
the 1856-7 Post Office directories. Thereafter he ceased to be a
Ph.D. and by c. 1873 had become a doctor of laws. The first six
issues of John Yarker's periodical The Kneph: Official Journal of
the Antient and Primitive Rite were edited by 'Bro. Kenneth R. H.
Mackenzie, IX degree, L.L.D. [sic], 32 degree'.
AT THE SAME ADDRESS AS JOHN HERVEY - His name appears
intermittently in the Post Office directories during the period
1857-64. His whereabouts would be only of passing interest except
for the fact that he was sometimes at the same address as his uncle
John Hervey (Grand Secretary, of the United Grand Lodge of England
(1868-79). Thus they were together at 35 Bernard Street, Russell
Square, in 1859 and at 3 Victoria Street, Westminster in 1864.
Hervey was listed as the Secretary of the Para Gas Company Ltd. at
that address in 1863-4.
Frederick Hockley (1808-85), an accountant by profession, was well
known in circles which cultivated 'Rejected Knowledge'. He was
about twenty-five years older than Mackenzie, who probably first
met him when he was editing the Biological Review in 1858-9. Apart
from his scrying experiments with crystals and so-called 'Magic
Mirrors', which were used to induce trance states, he was a
diligent copyist of old magical manuscripts. (1) He became a
Freemason rather late in life in 1864 (aet. 56), but his career in
the Craft was not without distinction. (2) He was also Mackenzie's
guru in occult matters. The time came, however, when his pupil
became tiresome. His letter to Irwin of 23 March 1873 explains why
Mackenzie's career had gone to seed, hence why he no longer had his
carriage and the world at his feet. Hockley wrote:
I have the utmost reluctance even to refer to Mr. Kenneth
Mackenzie. I made his acquaintance about 15 or 16 years since. I
found him then a very young man who having been educated in Germany
possessed a thorough knowledge of German and French and his
translations having been highly praised by the press, exceedingly
desirous of investigating the Occult Sciences, and when sober one
of the most companiable persons I ever met. Unfortunately his
intemperate habits compelled me three different times to break off
our friendship after 6 or 7 years endurance and since then he has
once so grossly insulted me in a letter than I cannot possibly hold
any communication with him. I regret this the more on a/c of his
mother who is a most estimable lady and his uncle our esteemed
Grand Secretary Bro. Hervey who has long favoured me with his
acquaintance ... I saw in the last issue of The Freemason his
marriage announced. I sincerely hope it will be the turning flood.
(3) Of course Mr. M.'s information is only derived from his
intimate knowledge of French and German, and when you have mastered
that difficulty, a vastly enlarged field of occult science will
furnish you with Original matter, as well as others ... I do not
know Mr. M.'s address but a letter thro' Bro. Kenning would
doubtless reach him.
Mackenzie at long last became a Freemason in 1870 when he was in
his thirty-eighth year. One might have expected that his uncle
John Hervey would have proposed him in one of his own lodges, but
this was not the case The minute book of Oak Lodge No. 190 reveals
that on 19 January 1870 he was proposed by the W.M., Bro. H. W.
Hemsworth and seconded by Bro. John Hogg ('acting Sec'.) for
initiation at the next regular meeting at Freemasons' Hall on 16
February.(4) He was not present on 16 February but was ballotted
for and Initiated at an Emergency Meeting on 9 March. (According to
the minute book he was an author and resided at Tavistock Place.
This was also John Harvey's address at the time.) He was Passed on
20 April and Raised on 18 May. He attended the lodge's next
meeting on 16 November and that was the last that the Oak Lodge
brethren saw of him. On 18 January 1871 the W.M. read a letter
from Mackenzie in which he stated that he wished to resign. The
minutes record that his resignation would be accepted 'after
payment of his fees in full'.
Thereafter his interest in Craft Freemasonry appears to have been
nil. His letters to Irwin contain only one reference to a visit to
a Craft lodge. Now a Master Mason he did not even apply for
membership of the Rosicrucian Society, which he had supposedly
helped to establish. It was no doubt R. W. Little who persuaded
him to accept honorary membership and he was admitted to the
Society's first or Zelator grade on 17 October 1872. (John Hervey
was made an honorary member in October 1870.)
(1) cf. his article in The Rosicrucian and Masonic Record, April
1877, on 'Evenings with the Indwellers of the World of the Spirits:
being a paper read at a Meeting of the Bristol Rosicrucian
College'. Westcott incorrectly attributed this to Irwin in his
History of the Societes Rosicruciana in Anglia, 1900, p. 18.
Hockley mentioned that in 1854 after working for thirty years with
crystals and mirrors he had prepared and consecrated a large mirror
'dedicated to a spirit known to me as C.A. [Chief Adept?], for the
purpose of receiving visions and responses to metaphysical
questions . . .' The inference is that Hockley was trying his hand
at scrying as early as 1824, when he was only sixteen years old.
This was long before the beginning of the spiritualist movement.
(2) Hockley was initiated in the British Lodge No. 8 in March 1864.
He joined Emulation Lodge of Improvement some weeks later and
attended its meetings with exemplary regularity until 1868. He was
elected to the Emulation committee in October 1866 but resigned
after his year as Master of British Lodge in 1868. He was J.W. of
Grand Stewards' Lodge in 1875 and its Secretary from 1877 until his
death in 1885.
(3) The 'last issue of The Freemason' did not refer to Mackenzie's
impending marriage. It had taken place the previous June.
(4) John Hogg, who was to publish Mackenzie's Royal Masonic
Cyclopaedia in 1875-7, came to London from Edinburgh in c. 1868.
He was initiated in Oak Lodge on 4 August 1869 but resigned in
March 1871. He published the Perfect Ceremonies of Craft Masonry,
which purported to give the Emulation Working, in 1870. Thereafter
he specialised in Masonic publications.
When Mackenzie deigned to appear in Rosicrucian circles he had
recently married Alexandrina Aydon, aged twenty-three and fifteen
years his junior. She was the daughter of Enoch Harrison Aydon, a
civil engineer and member of the Craft, of 2 Axmouth Villas,
Cambridge Road, Chiswick. The ceremony was performed at the
Brentford register office on 17 June 1872. He and his wife
installed themselves at Oxford House, Chiswick Mall, whether in
rented rooms or as sole occupiers is uncertain. Furthermore, as we
will learn in due course, his drinking habits were now strictly
temperate.
BENJAMIN COX AND THE FRATRES LUCIS
Benjamin Cox, F. G. Irwin's fidus Achates, was born on 28 May 1828.
When St. Kew Lodge No. 1222 was consecrated at the Assembly Rooms
at Weston-super-Mare on 7 July 1868 - Irwin was its first W.M. - he
was forty years of age and Chief Accountant of the local Board of
Health at an annual salary of 180 pounds. He was later promoted to
Town Accountant (Borough Treasurer). (1)
Cox quickly ascended the Masonic ladder. At an Emergency Meeting
of St. Kew Lodge held on 16 July 1868 he was ballotted for,
initiated and forthwith invested with the Secretary's collar and
jewel. Ignorant of the finer points of Masonic etiquette he soon
turned to Irwin for advice. On 16 September he wrote:
A member [i.e. Cox himself] having paid all dues and passed to F.C.
can he propose a candidate for Freemasonry or do [sic] that
privilege belong exclusively to M.M.'s [?]. I have purchased of
Bro. Breamer ... a M.M.'s apron. I suppose as a F.C. I can wear
such apron in a Lodge if I cover the rosette[s] on the flap until
I am raised. I must apologise for so many questions wishing to act
truly Masonic in all things.
Masonic activities were soon in full swing at Weston-super-Mare.
On 27 October 1868 Cox suggested to Irwin that 'if we intend to
work Craft, Mark and 2 Chivalric Orders it will occupy the whole of
the first Wednesday of every month ... only one sum being paid for
the whole day it will be cheaper for us while we retain the present
rooms to work any of the Orders on that day.' The inference is that
Cox was already a Mark Mason and had joined two Chivalric Orders.
One of them must have been the recently established Rose and Lily
Conclave No. 10 of the Red Cross of Rome and Constantine.
In April 1869 Irwin received permission to form a Bristol College
of the Rosicrucian Society. Membership was to be restricted to
twelve including himself as Chief Adept. Cox, now indispensable for
such duties, was its Secretary. There was a snag in the person of
Bro. Major General Gore Boland Munbee, Indian Army (retired), who
brought a breath of Poona, where he had been a member of Lodge
Orion in the West, No. 415, to placid Weston-super-Mare. The
General succeeded Irwin as W.M. of St. Kew Lodge in 1870 and Cox
found him difficult. W.Bro. Munbee was a member of the Bristol
College and about to become its Celebrant, an office corresponding
to the W.M. of a Craft lodge. Cox wrote to Irwin on 19 December
1870:
I will do everything in my power to help work the College (Rosic.)
with any member you like to appoint Celebrant except Bro. Munbee.
I have fully made up my mind never to accept another office under
him (Masonically). I should have resigned some which I at present
hold, had not members pressed me not to do so ... I do not fall out
with the General because I can control my temper, yet sometimes the
remarks he makes is [sic] as bitter as wormwood.
If the General was a tartar, there were compensations. Cox was
appointed a Provincial Grand Steward on 16 September 1869 and was
soon to lay the foundations of his unusually large collection of
additional degrees. However, his letter of 31 December 1870 reveals
little enthusiasm for the latest novelty. 'I see that Bro. Little
has at last got hold of authority to work the Rite of Misraim', he
observed. 'What next? Good heavens 99 degree to work and then be
entitled to write [sign?] Sir Knt. "Bellowsblower". This will beat
Bro. Parfitt's "Rosi Crucis" by a long way.' (2)
By 27 February 1871 Cox was less contemptuous. Furthermore, he had
a few pressing favours to ask. He wrote, somewhat breathlessly:
(1) I know nothing about his earlier life except that he was the
author of A Compilation of Various Interesting Historical Facts ...
principally relating, to the Country of Somersetshire, published at
Weston-super-Mare in 1852.
(2)I have not been able to identify either Bro. Parfitt or his
'Rosi Crucis'.
Now I want you Bro. Irwin while in London to get permission to give
me the Order of Misraim [i.e. by communication]. Bro. [Dr. W. R.]
Woodman has offered to give it to me any time when I am in London
which I expect I will be there on a fortnight's official duty very
shortly, but I would much rather that you gave it to me because
every Order which I have taken has been given by you (except
sovereign R. Cross) if possible please get permission to give me
the 66 degree I will pay for the dispensation for same if one is
required. I suppose it would not be possible for you to get Bro.
Little to give me, through you a minor official Grand Council
collar at this meeting. I do not care so much for the honour but
I want to let Bro. [Major-General] Munbee see that I have friends
[underlined three times] elsewhere, and I am quite certain that you
can get me a Gd Ark Mariners collar from Bro. Edwards ... I should
very much like to receive the Order of the Kt. of Holy Sepulchre
[an appendant of the Red Cross of Rome and Constantine], however I
am quite certain my interests will not be lost sight of by you.
The letter ends with an allusion to Cox's belief in astrology.
Within the past week he had given 'true judgments' in every case
out of the five submitted to him. '4 of the parties I never saw or
did not know of their existence until informed so . . .' He had
recently acquired a crystal and on 6 February 1871 wrote: 'I expect
full instructions for working the Crystal (which I have by me) this
day from Mr. Cross. (1) You seem undecided as to believing in
occult science. I have not a shadow of doubt in the matter.'
During the summer and autumn of 1873 Cox's letters to Irwin contain
allusions to the Ritual of the Knight of the Hermetic Cross. Irwin
was translating it, probably from the French, and Cox offered to
make a fair copy. He asked on 28 August if it had any connection
with John Yarker's Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry and on 1
October if it was part of Yarker's Rite of Memphis. (2) Irwin did
not satisfy his curiosity.
By 23 February 1874 Irwin must have already vaguely hinted at the
existence of a very secret affair called the Order of the Brothers
of (swastica symbol) and implied that Cox might be allowed to join
it. Thus when Cox wrote to Irwin on that day he proclaimed that
... the one desire of my heart is to become a member of some Order
wherein I may learn the mysteries of nature and truth so that I may
not only benefit myself but that of [sc. also] my fellow men. I
have, as you know, ever considered the knowledge of occult science
the one sure and safe means whereby we can obtain truth and wisdom.
I will be glad by your proposing me a member of the 'Order of the
Brothers of (swastica symbol) and will gladly pay the yearly sum
you have named, also pledge myself to my promise or O.B. under your
guidance.
Cox appears to have supposed that the Order of the Brothers of
(swastica symbol) was Masonic because he added: 'I have sent you on
a separate paper a few of the degrees which I have taken in masonry
and which you can vouch for as correct.' (3) Above the list of
degrees someone wrote 'Useless'. The handwriting does not appear
to be Irwin's. On 9 March 1874 Cox wrote to Irwin to
(1) R. T. Cross (1850-1923), then a young professional astrologer.
He edited Raphael's Prophetic Messenger Almanack from 1875 until
his death.
(2) I have not been able to discuss Yarker's Masonic career and
'fringe' promotions in this paper, largely because of lack of time
to examine the available material. Today it is customary in
Masonic circles - and not least in QC Lodge - to raise a
disapproving eyebrow when Yarker's name is mentioned. However, he
deserves further srudy in a historical context. He was the joker
in the Masonic pack, an engaging maverick who fought impartially
with all-comers. The heterodox activities of Irwin, Mackenzie, and
after 1880 Westcott, escaped public criticism because they were
discreet. Yarker was a noisy fellow and therefore attracted
attention. It should be recorded that he was an early and
enthusiastic supporter of QC Lodge. In a letter to Irwin (5 May
1888) written soon after the Lodge's consecration, he declared; 'It
is a treat to me and a pleasure to find that there are still Masons
in existence who are above prejudices and I am very much interested
in Lodge 2076. It amounts almost to a revolution in Masonry.' AQC
contains no fewer than twenty-six articles contributedby him: the
first in 1886 and the last in 1912, shortly before his death in
1913.
(3) Cox stated that he was 'A Past Master in the Craft, a Principal
in the Royal Arch; and W. Master in Mark Masonry. Fellow of the
Masonic Archaeological Society. Member of the seventh grade of the
Rosicrucian Society of England. Past M.P.Sovr of the Red Cross of
[Rome and] Constantine and Knt of the Holy Sepulchre. Knt of the
Black Eagle and Knt of the Hermetic Cross. Member of the 18 degree
of the Ancient and Accepted Rite and Commander of Royal Ark
Mariners. Member of the Royal Ark Council of Advice to the Most W.
the Gd Mark Master for England, Wales and the Dependencies of the
British Crown. Past Provincial Grand Steward in Craft Masonry.
Provincial Senior Gd Mark Warden for Somerset, a Grand Steward of
the Grand Mark Lodge of England etc.' The Masonic Archaeological
Society was founded during the summer of 1868 with W. Hyde Pullen
as honorary secretary. The members of this precursor of QC Lodge
were not identified with 'Rejected Knowledge.'
express his pleasure that he had been accepted as a candidate for
the Order of (swastica symbol). By 28 March he was aware that
Order was known as the Frates Lucis. Furthermore he knew that
Irwin had recently been in Paris and had allegedly met members of
the Order there. He wrote: 'I am very glad to hear that you met
with such a warm reception from members of the Order in Paris.' (1)
The weeks passed by and the impatient Bro. Cox still knew little or
nothing about the Order except its name. Indeed, at one moment he
feared that his candidature had been rejected. He wrote to Irwin on
13 July:
By mid day train I sent you MS. of Knt. of Hermetic Cross, &c....
I want to ask 3 questions: viz. 1. Is the Knt of Hermetic Cross and
the Fratres Lucis Order one and the same? 2. Is there any member of
the Fratres Lucis now living in Bath? Is it true that Bro. Bird [a
member of St. Kew Lodge who dabbled with astrology] and myself have
been rejected by the Fratres as unsuitable for the Order?
Irwin replied on 14 July:
TO ASPIRANTS ONLY - Strictly Confidential
1. Is the Knt of Hermetic Cross and the Fratres Lucis Order one and
the same? NO!!! It may have had some connection with it as had the
Rites of Cagliostro, Swedenborg, etc.
2. Is there any member of the Fratres Lucis now living in Bath?
There is no member of the English Temple now living in Bath ... if
a member of any Foreign Temple came to England I would be advised,
for there were only twenty-seven members five years ago so not much
difficulty in learning the whereabouts of each Bro. as we are bound
to keep our immediate Chiefs posted up in all our movements.
3. Is it true that Bro. Bird and myself have been rejected by the
Fratres as not being considered fitting candidates for the Order of
(swastica symbol)? It is not true!!! Something about the Order has
been communicated to Mr. Robert Cross [the astrologer who supplied
Cox's crystal - see above]. My attention was called to it and an
explanation is required.
Cox's letter of 27 July 1874 was apologetic: ' . . . you shall
never have cause again (for I will never speak of it again to any
one except yourself) to correct my indiscretion,' he wrote. Irwin
continued to keep him waiting. On 17 November Cox wrote: 'I am
glad there is a prospect of my receiving the first grade of the
(swastica symbol) as I am anxious to know more of its true
principles and real value.' A sentence in an undated letter from
Irwin to Cox reads: 'The (swastica symbol) shall be given you but
twill be a Great favour [both words underlined three times]. I
must at any cost keep my word.' The 'great favour' was granted in
January 1875.
In Grand Lodge Library there is a manuscript copy in Irwin's
handwriting of the 'Ritual of Fratris [sic] Lucis or Brethren of
the Cross of Light'. It is prefaced by a traditional 'history'
which begins:
In Florence there now eusts, and has existed for a great number of
years a body of men who possess some of the most extraordinary
secrets, that ever man has known. Cagliostro learned from them
some of the most wonderful secrets in Magic and Chymistry, they
converse with those who have crossed the river.
The members of this society are bound by a solemn oath to meet once
a year, whether they are living or have passed the boundary. They
are ruled by an officer, styled Supreme and Sublime Magus ... The
brethren take Hebrew names. There are branches of the order in
Rome, Paris and Vienna. Vaughan (Dr.), Fludd, Count St. Germain,
Count Cagliostro, Mesmer, Swedenborg and Martinez de Pasquales were
members of the order as also Schussler.
They have made animal magnetism their chief study and have carried
it nearly to perfection. It was through being a member of this
society that Mesmer practised his healing power and founded his
Mesmeric Lodge on the principles of the Order.
Swedenborg derived his Rite from the same source, and from it Count
Cagliostro derived the knowledge that enabled him to found the
Egyptian Order; those three Rites represent three of the four
grades into which this society is divided.
When I read this delightful nonsense I recalled two little
duodecimo notebooks containing a record of Irwin's spiritualist or
scrying seances during the years 1872-3. His most interesting
communicator was none other than Cagliostro, in his day a notable
exponent of 'fringe' Masonry.
(1) There was no conceivable connection between Irwin's 'Brothers
of Light' and the eighteenth-century Fratres Lucis. See A. E.
Waite's The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, 1924, PP. 503-28.
On Sunday 19 (month omitted) 1873 Cagliostro told him that 'the
Crystal you have will be of little use. It is charged with an
antagonistic principle.' Cagliostro came again on 29 October
1873: 'I am afraid that at present I cannot give (u) anything to be
coninuous.' Thereafter, between 31 October and 9 November
Cagliostro communicated on four separate occasions and, according
to Irwin's 'Spiritual ournal', dictated almost word for word the
substance of the 'historical introduction' to the Fratres Lucis
ritual which I have quoted above.
The manuscript which Irwin chose to call a ritual merelv consists
of the notes for his scheme for a secret society of occultists.
Under the heading 'Ceremony' we only learn that the 'Aspirant is
conducted to a kind of labyrinth', and in due course 'invested with
the Cross of gold swastuca symbol) and enjoined to fit himself for
that state of mind of which it is the emblem'. It is uncertain
whether Irwin, in his imagination, intended to restrict membership
of the brotherhood to Master Masons or their discarnate spirits -
one must not forget that according to Cagliostro's utterings
membership continued after death! The information below has been
slightly condensed from his notes, and is not presented in its
original sequence.
'Only 81 members are permitted to belong to the first grade
connected with the Empire of Great Britain ... In the first degree
the number of officers is nine.
'There is now an annual fee of one guinea required. The Induction
fee for England is not yet settled.
'The fee for Initiation is made high for the purpose of deterring
persons from being. initiated out of mere curiosity. Half the fee
to be devoted to charitable purposes, and the other half to the
formation of a library. Meetings take place four times a year.
The obligatory meeting is in the month of June. At this the
Brethren are pledged to be present in body or in spirit.
'The aspirant is kept one year on probation ... during the term of
probation the aspirants are obliged to appear at all meetings
enveloped in a black mantle.
'The society is pledged to study the following subjects. Natural
Magic - Mesmerism -The Science of Death and of Life - Immortality
- The Cabala - Alchemy - Necromancy - Astrology - and Magic in all
its branches.
'Annual dinner - cost 4s. The fare to consist of Bread, Butter,
Cheese, Confectionery, fruits and wine. The surplus money to be
added to the charitable fund.
This document, however nonsensical, is important because it throws
so much light on Irwin's character. Hidden within the disciplined
professional soldier - furthermore one who had served for years in
the Royal Engineers, a Corps whose functions are nothing if not
practical - we encounter a personality in which reality and fantasy
must always have been in some kind of conflict.
Irwin's Fratres Lucis must have been a very modest affair, meaning
that a handful of occultists, probably all Freemasons who were well
known to Irwin, became members. It is inconceivable, too, that it
was an international fraternity. It is difficult to believe that
there were 'twenty-seven members five years ago', as Irwin claimed
in his letter to Cox of 14 July 1874. This would have been four
years before 'Cagliostro', who was the product of Irwin's
subconscious mind, gave him the idea for the Order. In fact, apart
from Irwin I have only been able to identify three other members,
although there may have been a few more.
We know about Cox's intense desire to be admitted to the select
circle. On 9 January 1875 he announced his intention of coming to
Bristol, bringing with him an 'old Latin Bible for Ob[ligation]'.
Irwin was in no hurry to confer membership upon Mackenzie, perhaps
because he feared that he would get drunk at the annual dinner at
which, as we know, the 'Festive Board' was nothing if not frugal.
On 20 September 1875 Mackenzie wrote reassuringly: 'I never drink
spirits or wine if I can avoid them - only fourpenny ale,' and some
months later on 4 February 1876: 'As to Fratres Lucis I shall
indeed be obliged for the article and should also be glad to be a
member of the Brotherhood. I think you may trust me as to
temperance as I drink nothing but tea, coffee and very small ale
and not much of that - rarely wine - and never spirits - nor have
I done the latter since my marriage more than four years ago.' When
Frederick Hockley died in November 1885, Cox observed: ' . . .
there is now one member less of the Order of (swastica symbol).' He
seems to have implied that few were now left. Almost exactly two
years later Westcott was busy launching the Order of the Golden
Dawn, which had a far greater vitality - one might say elan - than
the Fratres Lucis ever achieved. (1)
(1) Westcott apparently did not serve his 'magical apprenticeship'
in the Fratres Lucis. In a letter written during the late 1950s to
Mr. Gerald Yorke the late Captain E. J. Langford Garstin, who was
active in one of the Golden Dawn's successor Orders after c. 1920,
mentioned that 'Hockley, Mackenzie and Irwin all disliked and
mistrusted S[apere] A[ude - i.e. Westcott], which is why he was
refused admission to the Fratres Lucis.' Something that calls
itself the Fratres Lucis still exists today. According to the
Aquarian Guide to Occult, Mystical, Religious, Magical London &
Around, London, The Aquarian Press, 1970, P. 19, 'this Order was
established in Florence in 1498, by representatives of many of the
religions and philosophies suppressed by the Roman Church'. Irwin
mentioned Florence in connection with the 'early history' ofthe
F.L. and it is extraordinary how this Florentine archetype has
survived to this day. 'The Brothers will find you when you are
ready, but it is no good looking for them,' the guide-book states,
and then provides a British Monomark accommodation address in
London.
KENNETH MACKENZIE AND THE ROSICRUCIAN SOCIETY
The Rosicrucian Society's members experienced a more than usually
entertaining evening on 24 April 1873 when Mackenzie, who had
recently become an honorary member, read a paper describing his
visit to Eliphas Levi in December 1861. To commemorate the event
the Society thereupon elected Levi as an Honorary Foreign Member.
Mackenzie's text was forthwith published in The Rosicrucian. This
version is the same as the MS. one with one important exception.
In the latter Mackenzie recalled that Levi 'mentioned Sir Edward
Bulwer-Lytton as a gentleman of versatile talents, but of little
real knowledge in relation to the Cabala'. This was now amended to
read: ' . . . he rendered a tribute to the versatile knowledge of
Lord, then Sir Bulwer-Lytton, and returned to his favourite topic,
the Cabbala upon which he dwelt with emphasis.'
Lord Lytton's connection with the Rosicrucian Society was an
involuntary one. On 14 July 1870 R.W. Little proposed 'that the Rt.
Hon. Lord Lytton be elected an Hon. Member of this Society and be
requested to accept the office of Grand Patron of the Order'.
A candidate for election to the Society had to be a Master Mason.
There is no evidence that Lytton was then or ever had been a member
of the Craft. Either Little had not bothered to enquire or
supposed that, whether or not Lytton was a Freemason, he had
received a genuine Rosicrucian initiation and was therefore
eligible for honorary membership. In his pamphlet Data of the
History of the Rosicrucians, 1916, Westcott wrote: 'In 1850 the
very old Rosicrucian Lodge at Frankfort-on-the-Main fell into
abeyance; in this Lodge the first Lord Lytton was received into the
Adeptship and became imbued with the ideas he displayed in his
novel "Zanoni" and other works' (p. 8). Nothing whatever is known
about this Lodge.
However, Lytton's name did not appear as Grand Patron in The
Rosicrucian until July 1872. Nobody informed him of the honour
that had been bestowed upon him. Indeed, he does not appear to have
known about it until the end of 1872 when, on 16 December, he wrote
a letter of complaint to John Yarker. It is impossible to suggest
why his Lordship should have written to Yarker, who was merely a
leading member of the Society's Manchester College, which was
founded early in 1871. Yarker, whose letters are notable for their
acerbity, despatched an uncharacteristically apologetic reply on 16
December. (1) Lytton conveniently died on 18 January 1873 and the
Society lost its involuntary Grand Patron.
Mackenzie now became a regular contributor to The Rosicruician.
Hitherto its editorial contents had been almost unbelievably dull,
and with the exception of his Eliphas Levi piece Mackenzie's
articles were no better. One would never suppose that they could
have been written by the 'bright young man' that Mackenzie
represented during the early 1850s. (2) He was appointed the
Society's Assistant Secretary General on 8 January 1874. His
correspondence with Irwin began ten months later and in the very
first of his letters (12 October 1874) he wrote- 'I certainly have
the lightest duties that ever fell to the lot of an Assistant
Secretary as Dr. W[oodman] does all the work and I only write
papers of more or less general interest.'
In the spring of 1875 the Society's affairs were in a state of mild
confusion. R. W. Little was threatening to resign and Dr. Woodman
was living at Exeter and too far away to be able to intervene
effectively. As for Little (according to Mackenzie on 9 April
1875): ' . . . he has so many irons in the fire it is impossible
for him to keep them all right. If he would take things more
coolly and not waste so much of his time in the Refreshment Room at
Freemasons' Hall it would be better.' (3)
(1) The letter is in the Lytton Knebworth Papers on loan to the
Hertfordshire County Record Office at Hertford. Miss Sibylla Jane
Flower, who is writing a biography of Lytton, told me that there
are no other papers of Masonic interest there.
(2) See 'The Hermetic Cross of Praise' (February 1873), 'The Aims
of Rosicrucian Science' (April 1874) and 'Roscrucianism: Religious
and Scientific' (November 1874).
(3) Some of Mackenzie's letters to Irwin of this period were
written on the heading of the Order of the Red Cross of Rome and
Constantine, whose office was at 17 Great James Street, Bedford
Row. Mackenzie was assisting Little, who was the Order's Grand
Recorder. Mackenzie retired from the scene in January 1875. 'I
have had so much trouble with Little and his arbitrary arrangements
... I was glad when he proposed to have a clerk at 8/- a week (more
than he paid me) to be there.'
Mackenzie's letter of 9 April 1875 indicates that he was now aware
that Frederick Hockley, his erstwhile friend and mentor, had been
proposed as a joining member of the Society's Metropolitan College.
Hockley, who lived in London, had been a member of Irwin's Bristol
College since January 1872. Quite recently Mackenzie had asked
Irwin to approach Hockley on his behalf; thus on 23 October 1874 he
wrote: 'Can you be a peacemaker between us? I am willing to do or
say anything to that purpose.' Hockley offered no olive branch.
Embarrassed at the prospect of being publicly snubbed by Hockley at
the Metropolitan College's meetings, and irritated by Little's
vagaries, his letter of resignation from the Society was read at
its Quarterly Convocation on 30 April 1875.
Six years later in a letter to Westcott (24 March 1881) Mackenzie
emphasised that his former fellow-members could scarcely be
considered as genuine Rosicrucians while he, of course, could claim
that distinction. This document illustrates Mackenzie's
occasionally paranoid temperament.
... I have always held aloof from the English Society of late
years. I possess the real degrees but I may not by my tenure give
them to any one in the world without a long and severe probation to
which few would consent to submit. It has taken me a quarter of a
century to obtain them and the whole of the degrees are different
to anything known to the Rosi. Society of England - those few who
have these degrees dare not communicate them.' Read H[argrave]
Jennings again (2) and [Bulwer-Lytton's] Zanoni. (3) Even Lytton
who knew so much was only a Neophyte and could not reply when I
tested him. How then could Little claim that he had them [i.e. the
degrees]? I know how many real Rosicrucians there are in the
islands.
When Mackenzie resigned from the Rosicrucian Society in the spring
of 1875 he was busy writing the first fascicule of his Royal
Masonic Cyclopaedia, a book whose current price in the antiquarian
market is out of all proportion to its value as a work of
reference.
MACKENZIE's ROYAL MASONIC CYCLOPAEDIA
The first edition of Albert Mackey's massive Encyclopaedia of
Freemasonry was published in the U.S.A. early in 1874. The Rev.
A.F.A. Woodford reviewed the book in The Masonic Mirror in May
(Vol. 1, No.ii), hence copies were circulating in this country by
12 October, when Mackenzie wrote in the first of his letters to
Irwin: 'I am engaged in preparing a new Masonic Cyclopaedia, of
which you shall hear more ere long.' It is likely that it was
Mackey's book which gave Mackenzie and John Hogg, his prospective
publisher, the idea for a less compendious work for the British
market.
According to a prospectus issued in October 1874 the book was to be
issued in 'Six HalfCrown Parts, of 128 pages each' and publication
was scheduled to begin early in 1875. Mackenzie hoped to receive
permission to dedicate the work to the Prince of Wales (letter to
Irwin, 29 January 1875) but when the 'pretims' for the bound volume
were printed in 1877 it was his uncle, John Hervey, who was
accorded this token of respect.
It is unnecessary to discuss the Cyclopaedia's contents at any
great length. There was a wholesale process of pillage from
Mackey, whose articles were condensed and paraphrased. The
prospectus mentioned his indebtedness to other Masonic authors,
although he did not specify the titles of their books. (4) In some
respects the most interesting articles are those in which Mackenzie
displayed his inventive ability. Among the best examples, are 'The
Hermetic Order of Egypt' and 'The Rite of Ishmael', which will be
mentioned again later. The story of his quest for information for
his piece about Cagliostro reflects his 'scholarly' approach.
(1) Nor was Mackenzie prepared to reveal the allegedly arcane
secrets contained in the Tarot cards. In a letter to Westcott
about the Tarot (7 August 1879) he said: 'I am not disposed to
communicate the Tarot system indiscriminately although I am
acquainted with it. To do so would put a most dangerous weapon
into the hands of persons less scrupulous than I am.'
(2) He was referring to Hargrave Jennings's eccentric book The
Rosicrucians; Their Rites and Mysteries, 1870, which is nonsense
from start to finish. If Mackenzie supposed that Jennings knew
anything about the 'Rosicrucians' he was capable of believing
anything.
(3) Bulwer-Lytton's famous 'Rosicrucian' novel Zanoni, 1842, was
required reading for nineteenthcentury occultists. Cf. S.L.
MacGregor Mathers's reference to it in his Introduction to The Book
of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage, 1898.
(4) It can be inferred that he drew heavily upon J. C. Gadicke,
Freimaurer Lexikon, 1818, 2nd edit. 1831; G. B. Kloss, Geschichte
der Freimaurerei in England, Schortland und Ireland, 1847, and
Geschichte der Freimauerei in Frankreich, 2 VOLS., 1852-3; R.
Macoy, General History, Cyclopaedia and Dictionary, of Freemasonry,
New York, 1867, later editions 1869, 1872. His reliance on Mackey
is very obvious.
It will be recalled that in 1873 Irwin supposed that he was in
touch with the departed spirit of Cagliostro. In August 1875 it
occurred to Mackenzie to apply to Cagliostro, through Irwin, for
authentic biographical material. Thus on 29 August he wrote:
I have a request to make to you which may seem odd, but it is not
inappropriate. I have understood that you are in communication
with a Spt calling himself Cagliostro. Now I am very anxious in
the article I am writing concerning Joseph Balsamo, to bear very
much more lightly upon him than Carlyle, the Freemasons generally
and the Papalini have done ... If your spirit friend would
condescend to take an interest in the matter, not as a publicly
avowed spiritualistic matter, but simply by way of correction or
hints it would be very valuable. I cannot in the present state of
my wife's health institute spiritual seances just now. (1)
The article was completed by 17 September 1875 and Mackenzie hoped
that Irwin would read it to Cagliostro. 'Re Cagliostro article,'
he wrote. 'Of course I cannot say that the Count himself is to see
this, but I much want him to do so.'
Mackenzie corrected the last of the Cyclopaedia proofs early in
1877. He wrote to Irwin on 20 January: 'The Cyclo is finished. I
have nothing particular to do and feel like a fish out of water.
I think I shall take up my unfinished work on Railway Springs and
the Theory of the Spring in general and get it out.' He told Cox on
28 January that 'it is a purely practical work of an engineering
character with tables of formulae and differential calculus etc.'
He completed the manuscript by 26 February. The book does not
appear to have been published.
The Cyclopaedia was never critically reviewed in the British
Masonic press. Brief paragraphs were printed in The Freemason and
The Freemasons' Chronicle from time to time throughout 1875-7 but
these contained little more than the view that it was a 'wonderful
undertaking of benefit to all Masons' etc. etc. G. J. Findel, the
editor of the German Masonic periodical Die Bauhiitte reviewed the
first three fascicules early in 1876 and was content to ignore the
later ones. (2) His respect for Mackenzie's performance was
minimal, although the book had one redeeming feature: 'It is better
than similar books in English that have come our way,' Findel
wrote. As for Mackenzie: 'The author is a High-grade Mason (IX
degree), hence his predilection for aberrations and mystical
rubbish generally . . . ' (3) Findel's praise was reserved for
Kenning's Masonic Cyclopaedia and Handbook of Archaeology, edited
by the Rev. A.F.A. Woodford, which was published in 1878. Unlike
Mackenzie he publicly acknowledged his debt to Findel. This tactful
gesture did not pass unnoticcd. (4)
THE HERMETIC ORDER OF EGYPT
Mackenzie briefly referred to the Hermetic Order of Egypt in the
April 1874 issue of The Rosicrucian on p. 109: 'The Hermetic Order
of Egypt is one of a very exclusive character,' he
(1) The correspondence contains a number of references to
Mackenzie's and Irwin's involvement in spiritualism. The
quotations are from Mackenzie's letters. 'My mother is a very good
writing medium and my wife has the faculty but in a lesser degree
. . . ' (1 March 1875). Irwin's son Herbert, a medical student at
Bristol, died of an overdose of laudanum on 8 January 1879.
Thereafter there were frequent attempts to establish contact with
him. Irwin did not succeed and Mackenzie fared no better. 'With
reference to crystal-gazing I can only say it is a long and weary
business to develop the sight - even if the power exists ... my
wife has been too ill for any attempts on our part but we will try
from time to time to get news of poor Herbert' (28 February 1879).
Later, in 1882-3, Mackenzie was trying to contact him with the help
of an amateur medium. On 24 February 1883 he returned Herbert's
necktie and locket, which Irwin had sent to him for mediumistic
purposes, and wrote: 'The visions in the C[rystal] and Mirror
through her [the medium] took a widely different form from those
our friend Hockley [they were reconciled in 1878] and myself had
obtained and although interesting did not permit of departed
persons being summoned.' Finally on 4 February 1876 Mackenzie
mentioned that his house at 2 Chiswick Square - he and his wife had
recently moved from Chiswick Mall - was haunted. ' . . . not that
either of us care for that. She has no fear, and I am too much
accustomed to the ultra-mundane world.'
(2) See Die Bauhutte, Vol. XIX, 22 January, p. 29, and 19 February
1876, pp. 62-3.
(3) Mackenzie had been IX degree in the Rosicrucian Society, but
this was not a 'higher degree' in the accepted sense of the term.
According to the title-page he was 'Hon. Member of the Canongate
Kilwinning Lodge, No. 2, in Scotland', i.e. Edinburgh, where the
Cyclopaedia was printed by the consider the Commercial Printing
Company. In November 1876 the Lodge formed a committee to
possibility of publishing a bi-centenary history. The Lodge
resolved to offer Mackenzie honorary membership on 13 December.
Bro.P.A.Rae, its present Secretary, suggested in a letter to me
that I this may have been the first rather crafty step in a move to
persuade Mackenzie to undertake the work.' If the commission was
ever offered to him he did not accept it.
(4) See Die Bauhutte, Vol. XXI, 5 June 1878.
wrote. 'I have only met with six individuals who possessed it and
of these two were Germans, two Frenchmen and two of other nations.'
Irwin was in Paris during the autumn of 1874 and visited Eliphas
Levi. Unfortunately he forgot to ask Levi about the Order. When
he returned to Bristol he applied to Mackenzie for information.
Mackenzie replied on 23 October and was evasive. 'I can give you
very little information about the Hermetic Order of Egypt.
Constant [i.e. Levi] could have given you far more than I could -
he was one of my preceptors.' (1)
However, what could not be disclosed to Irwin was revealed at some
length in the Cyclopaedia where the Order was described as the
Hermetic Brothers of Egypt and as
an occult fraternity which has endured from very ancient times,
having a hierarchy of officers, secret signs and passwords, and a
peculiar method of instruction in science, moral philosophy and
religion. The body is never very numerous, and if we may believe
those who at the present time profess to belong to it, the
philosopher's stone, the elixir of life, the art of invisibility,
and the power of communication with the ultramundane life, are part
of the inheritance they possess.
By the time the Cyclopaedia article was written the number of the
Order's members had been reduced to three. Mackenzie's further
'information' about the Brotherhood is of considerable interest
because here may be found echoes of the original legend of the
Rosicrucian Brotherhood as published in the Fama Fraternitatis R.C.
at Cassel in 1614. He did not claim that the Order had any Masonic
affiliations but then, after all, he had somehow to fill more than
seven hundred pages. The Cyclopaedia article continues:
The writer has met with only three persons who maintained the
actual existence of this body of religious philosophers, and who
hinted that they themselves were actually members. There was no
reason to doubt the good faith of these individuals - apparently
unknown to each other, and men of moderate competence, blameless
lives, austere manners, and almost ascetic in their habits. They
all appeared to be men of forty to forty-five years of age, and
evidently of vast erudition. Their conversation was simple and
unaffected, and their knowledge of languages not doubted.
So far this might be a portrait of Mackenzie as he currently saw
himself. He was then about forty-two years of age. He continued:
They cheerfwly answered questions, but appeared not to court
enquiries. They never remained long in one country, but passed
away without creating notice, or wishing for undue respect to be
paid to them. To their former lives they never referred, and, when
speaking of the past, seemed to say what they had to say with an
air of authority, and an appearance of an intimate personal
knowledge of all circumstances. They courted no publicity, and, in
any communications with them, uniformly treated the subjects under
discussion as very familiar things, although to be treated with a
species of reverence not always found among occult professors.
THE ORDER OF ISHMAEL
According to John Yarker's article on 'Arab Masonry' in AQC 19, P.
243, 'in 1872 the late Bro. Mackenzie organised the "Order of
Ishmael" of 36 degrees, the basis of which, he informed me, he had
from an Arab in Paris'. The introduction of a mysterious Arab is
so typical of Mackenzie that no further comment is necessary.
According to Mackenzie's Cyclopaedia the Order of Ishmael, or of
Esau and Reconciliation, had eighteen degrees divided into four
classes.
The government of the Order is vested in three supreme and equal
powers, respectively known as Patriarch, Priest and King. The
consent of all three must be obtained before the admission of any
candidate. The postulant must be of mature age, of good breeding
and education, and must not be a Roman Catholic ... It is not
necessary, on the continent, that he should be a Freemason, but if
so, many secrets are given to him not
(1) Levi died a few months later and could no longer be consulted.
Mackenzie referred to his death on 11 June 1875; 'I am sorry to
hear Eliphaz Levi has left us but I presume he would not be
difficult to find [i.e. at a spiritualist seance] as he was so well
known to those who preceded him and his contemporaries. I don't
know whether I can get at him through my wife, who is a medium, but
I will try.' The possibility of contacting Levi was mentioned as
casually as if, in a later day and age, Mackenzie hoped to
telephone him if he could find his number.
otherwise disclosed. Until very recent years there was a political
section to the Order, but this has been altogether suppressed, and
objects for which the Order exists consist of mutual aid,
instruction, and ceneral enlightenment. The Chiefs of the Order
reside habitually in the East, and two of the three chiefs must
always be east of Jerusalem. Branches of this Order, under
Arch-Chancellors, exist in Russia, Turkey, Greece, Austria, Italy,
Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Spain, Portugal, Africa,
and the United Kingdom.
Thus we encounter an Order with Secret Chiefs - a typical Mackenzie
elaboration - and busy in a dozen countries but unknown to the
Masonic world until Mackenzie's revelations were published in the
Cyclopaedia. It seems, however, that the Order had no ritual until
Mackenzie obliged by furnishing one. According to Yarker, it was
'far too lengthy for general practice' and MS. copies were so
costly that nobody wanted to pay for them. (1)
Letters written by Mackenzie to Irwin late in 1874 indicate that
the Grand Patron's representative (i.e. Mackenzie) hoped that Irwin
would become a member.
[23 October 1874]. As to the Rite of Ishmael, presuming you to have
taken the degree of Rose Croix, you would then begin to have
glimmerings of it ... The Rite has existed side by side with
Freemasonry for thousands of years and forms a completion by
working back to the Entered Appr: degree ... The ceremonies are of
a most august nature and teach the invariability of God, His
Providence, and the instability of Man.
[7 November 1874]. As to the Order of Ishmael I will do what I can
within the next few months but it is impossible to move in the
matter until the spring - annual meetings only take place and
properly speaking on the first of May. I may however as well
inform you that I hold an official position in that body for
England, and of course will be glad to forward your views ... In
your admission your Masonic rank will receive due recognition.
[6 December 1874]- We will talk about the Order of Ishmael when we
meet - several things have to be considered before the Ob[ligation]
can be given, as portions of the Koran have to be taken as of
authority. As however Saladin gave the rite to Coeur de Lion we
have good precedent for the admission of Christians.
Irwin may have been admitted to the Order in June 1875. (2)
On 29 August 1875 Mackenzie explained that 'the Ishmaelite degree
can only be given personally - it is impossible for anyone to
understand it otherwise - and it opens a field to all who embrace
its sublime teachings - to me it has ever seemed the highest point
and completion of Masonry, altho' it does not start from the same
basis.'
Benjamin Cox was another potential recruit. On 21 November 1875 he
wrote: 'I do not think I shall oo to London next week - if I do so
it will be to see Mackenzie to receive the Order of Ishmael which
he promised to give me if I came to London.' He had not joined by
13 January 1877 when he remarked to Irwin: 'I am very glad that you
re ain communication with some other person than Mackenzie about
the Rite of Ishmael as Bro. M. has always [made] such a fuss about
the Order.'
With customers few and far between, the Order of Ishmael remained
in more or less cold storage until John Yarker inherited it after
Mackenzie's death in 1886.
KENNETH MACKENZIE-DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, 1875-83
Before dealing with Mackenzie's fringe-Masonic preoccupations
during the late 1870s - one of them, the Royal Oriental Order of
the Sat B'hai, was by far the most ludicrous promotion of the
period - some brief information about his domestic life is
necessary. His sources of income are unknown but he probably made
a very modest livinG, from miscellancous journalism. The
Cyclopaedia did not benefit him financially.
(1) This information is from a late and condensed recension of the
ritual (August 1907) formerlY in Yarker's possession but not in his
handwriting. Grand Lodge Library has recently acquired (F.E. Gould
Bequest) an apparently complete text which was copied for Irwin by
Benjamin Cox. Mackenzie's introductory 'History' and notes, dated
26 May 1872, describe him as 'Representative for Grand Patron'.
The ritual is unbelievably turgid.
(2) Grand Lodge Museum has four Order of Ishmael jewels which once
belonged to Irwin. According to the engraved legends he was
advanced to Guardian of the Temple IX degree on 20 June, Elevated
to Auxiliator 18 degree on 8 October, and Exalted to Providentia 27
degree on 8 November 1875. Finally on 8 January 1879 he was
Perfected to Chevalier of Darius, Prince of Ishmael 36 degree, on
8 January 1879.
On 13 August 1875, when he was busy writing the first fascicules,
he optimistically mentioned to Irwin that 'when this book is
finished, I shall, very likely, run over to Canada. My father in
law Harrison Aydon is carrying all before him and I am in
correspondence with my cousin Alexander Mackenzie the Prermier [of
Canada].' This statement led me up a long genealogical blind alley
because no relationship of any kind could be established. Perhaps
for Mackenzie any namesake was a 'cousin' and the Premier of Canada
a more than usually impressive one. (1) If Harrison Aydon returned
to London with his pockets lined with gold, neither Mackenzie nor
his wife appear to havc benefited.
During 1876 the Mackenzies moved from Chiswick to a more modest
address: 2 Mark Cottages, Staines Road, Hounslow. Whether or not
he could afford an occasional bet, it pleased him to forecast the
winners of the classic turf events. (2)
By August 1877 they had left 2 Mark Cottages and were at 1 Flint
Villas, Wellington Road, Hounslow. 'We have a carpenter's shop
next door in full work from 1/4 past 4 in the morning and shall
leave when I find another house,' he wrote. They endured the noise
until November 1880 when they moved to a quieter house in the same
road. They were next (1882-3) at 23 Ryder Terrace, Twickenham.
His uncle John Hervey died on 2 July 1880. 'He has been more of a
father to me than my own father,' he told Irwin a few months
carlier when Hervey would obviously not survive for long. Hervey
left about 4,000 pounds. His sister (Mackenzie's mother) was left
a life interest after a few modest legacies had been paid and
Mackenzie and a cousin were the residuary legatees in moiety.
Hervey's estate was not settled until September 1883.
At about this time Mackenzie acquired an eighty-six years lease of
a house in Twickenham for 400 pounds. He told Irwin that the
purchase had been made under good astrological aspects and that the
bank had lent him part of the money. On 25 October 1885, however,
he informed Invin that his financial prospects were dismal. 'When
my mother dies ... I and my wife will just have 35 pounds per annum
to live on, and what I precariously earn. The Freemasons have
never done a thing for me, though I have done much for Masonry, and
I don't expect they ever will ... I never hear of [Dr. W.R.]
Woodman for he deserted me when he found I was not my uncle's heir,
nor have I seen him since the day of the funeral of my uncle.'
During this period there was one redeeming feature. Frederick
Hockley had agreed to a reconciliation and in November 1878 invited
him to a meeting of Grand Stewards' Lodge.
THE ROYAL ORIENTAL ORDER OF THE SAT B'HAI
The Order of the Sat B'hai was not Mackenzie's invention, still
less Irwin's, although Mackenzie had a hand in the inflation of
this comic pseudo-Masonic balloon, which rose a few feet into the
air, wobbled briefly and then quietly collapsed without the average
member of the Craft knowing that the thing had ever existed.
The Sat B'hai's advent was obscurely heralded in a letter signed
'Historicus' which was published in The Freemason on 14 January
1871. The prose style is not unlike Mackenzie's. If so, he was
unaware that his misinformation referred to the 'rite' which was to
occupy so much of his time a few years later.
A brother informs us that a 34 degree of this rite is in existence
called the 'Apex', thus corresponding with the 90 degree of the
Ancient and Primitive Rite of Misraim. There are only three
holders of the 'Apex' in the whole world, who exist by the
succession of triplicate warrants from Frederick the Great of
Prussia, signed immediately after the Grand Constitutions. The
symbols are the cord and the dagger; the ceremonials are very
august, (3) and detail the legendary history and object of the
degree, which is to draw the funds and energies of all the councils
of the world to one great centre. Grave purposes are said to be in
view, but whether such is the expulsion of the Turks from
Constantinople, or the estabhshment of a single empire either on
the Continent or in America, is not known.
(1) Alexander Mackenzie (b. 28 January 1822 at Logierat,
Perthshire, d. 1892 at Toronto) emigrated to Canada in 1842. He
was elected a member of the first Dominion House of Commons in 1867
and was prime minister of Canada 1871-8.
(2) On 1 June 1887 he wrote: 'I have a method [astrological or
numerological?] of pitching on the right animals. Look at the
enclosed. It is not 12 o'clock yet, but I wrote these three names
down three days ago: Oaks, June 1, 1877. Three hours before the
race. Note whether I am right. 1. Muscatel, 2 Lady Golightly, 3
Placida.' Placida won the race, Muscatel came third and Lady
Golightly fourth.
(3) Cf. Mackenzie's letter to Irwin of 23 October 1874 quoted on p.
265 above, in which he described the Order of Ishmael's ceremonies
as being 'of a most august nature'.
A letter correcting the inaccuracies perpetrated by 'Historicus'
appeared about a month later in The Freemason of 18 February 1871.
Whoever wrote it knew the substance of the Sat B'hai or Apex legend
much in the form in which it was subsequently developed.
THE APEX- 49 degree = 81 degree
A very serious mistake occurs in The Freemason of the 16th [sic]
ult., in which it is affirmed that 'there are only three holders of
the Apex in the world, who exist by a succession of triplicate
warrants from Frederick the Great', and that the symbols of the
degree are a 'Cord and Dagger'.
Now, brethren should not be precipitate in their revelations on the
subject of this climax of our Grand Historics-Masonic mysteries,
for I am in a position to assert, most emphatically, that the
warrants in question were not promulgated by Frederick the Great,
and that the three so-called Apexes were, in fact, no other than
the three sponsors of the ONE SUPREME APEX, whose very style
proclaims his crowning and solitary grandeur, and the succession of
whose high office comes by an Act of Grace on the part of the
existing Apex, who, under circumstances of the strictest solemnity,
and himself strictly veiled, transmits to his successor (if
practicable, in the presence of one or more of the sponsors) the
rituals of all other orders (some of which are scarcely known in
England), contained in an antique leaden casket cased in cedar of
Libanus (or Lebanon). By this means the Apex-elect is, if of one
of the lower degrees (but in no case under that of a P.M.) under a
peculiar dispensation.
So far, so good: this is a super-Masonic Order and the Apex-elect
must be a P.M. Furthermore, he has the status of a 'Secret Chief'.
This particular archetype made its Masonic debut in the German
'Strict Observance' (c. 1750) and in a non-Masonic context will be
found in Westcott's 'Golden Dawn' (The Secret Chiefs of the Third
Order