Origin
of the Word "Freemason"
by Bird H. Dolby, PGHP
THE ROYAL ARCH MASON WINTER 1964
In
the Winter 1963 issue of THE ROYAL ARCH MASON magazine there is
an article entitled "Earliest use of word 'Freemason'" which
indicates that the first known use of that word was in 1526, and
then states that an earlier use of that word, if found, would
arrest immediate attention among Masonic students. It then gives
the opinion that correctly fixing the date when this word was
first used would tell when the history of the craft took definite
form. This latter conclusion would seem to be in error
after consideration of the following information. I have a
paperback edition of a book written by G.G. Coupon of St. Johns
College, Cambridge, England, entitled Medieval Faith
and Symbolism (published by Harper and Brothers, New York).
This book is Part I of a larger work entitled Art and the
Reformation. This is not a Masonic book, but is a learned and
extensive documented survey of Medieval architecture and the
related arts covering the period of roughly A.D. 1000 to 1600. It
gives a mass of detailed information and data regarding the
operative stone masons of that period who were the architects,
builders and sculptors of the great cathedrals, castles and
government buildings with their accompanying statuary, gargoyles
and ornaments. In his study Mr. Coulton examined the original
records, contracts, building accounts and payrolls which have
been preserved with many of these ancient buildings, as well as
the statutes affecting them. The information following is all
extracted from that book. Mr. Coupon states that prior to
1350 all masons came under the general term caemantarii which had
been a common name for them in much earlier times, but in 1350 a
statute was passed which fixed the wages of "master freestone
masons" at four pennies a day, of other masons at three pennies,
and of their servants (apprentices) at one and one-half pennies.
He says this phrase Mestre mason de franche pere is most
significant for the probable origin of the term "freemason." In
1360 the statute was amended which fixed the wages of the "chief
masters of masons" (chiefs mestres de maceons) at four pennies a
day, and the other masons at two pennies or three pennies
according to their worth, and then went on to provide that: "All
alliances and covines of masons and carpenters, and
congregations, chapters, ordinances and oaths betwixt them made,
or to be made, shall be from henceforth void and wholly annulled;
so that every mason and carpenter, of what condition that he be,
shall be compelled by his master to whom he serveth to do every
work that to him pertaineth to do, or of free stone, or of rough
stone." Here again is an indication suggestive of the original
derivation of "freemason" from "free stone." Many of the
masons were bondmen or serfs under the old feudal system, but no
serf or bondman was accepted into the masons' guilds. Many
masons, who had enough work near their homes and had no need to
travel, did not join the guilds. But the guild was of extreme
importance to those masons who traveled from place to place for
work. Mr. Coulton surmises that the term "freemason" might have
grown up; it did gradually come to connote certain privileges
enjoyed by the master masons who belonged to
the guilds. About 1830, Wycliff, the English reformer, was
much concerned at the self-seeking which the guilds encouraged,
and specially "Men of subtle craft, as freemasons and others, who
conspire together to refuse statutory wages and insist upon a
rise." Here is the first instance that Mr. Coulton found of the
use of the word freemason. In the original building records
of Eton College near Oxford (which was begun in February 1441)
Mr. Coulton states that often the same man would be called
"mason," "freemason" or "master mason," just as an English
college teacher might be called "master," "doctor" or
"professor." The accountant at first calls the freemasons simply
"masons" and adds the full title as time goes on, but by February
1442 the payroll listed 41 employees as "freemasons," which was a
separate classification of masons. The payroll listed, for
instance, on the week ending May 28, 1442: 49 freemasons, 14
rough masons, 16 carpenters, 2 sawyers, 2 daubers, 1 jacker, 1
tiler, 10 hard hewers and 28 labourers. Six years later, an
estimate for the chapel work in the same building reckons
the need of 40 to 60 "freemasons," 12 to 20 masons of Kent
called "hard hewers" and 12 layers. In 1444 we have the
first statutory occurrence of the name freemason - "frank mason."
Such freemasons, like master carpenters, are to take five pennies
a day, while the rough-mason and under-carpenter take only four
pennies. In 1495 the statute is in English, and the word is
"freemason." He and the rough-mason are now valued at the same
wage of six pennies a day. In 1513 the master-mason who
contracted to finish King's College Chapel undertook to "keep
continually 60 'freemasons' working upon the same works." In 1515
the "freemasons, rough-masons and carpenters" of the City of
London sent a petition to the King. In 1548, for the first time
in any one statute, comes the three-fold classification of
"freemasons, rough- masons, and hard-hewers." In Sir
Thomas Elyot's Latin Dictionary (1538) caementarium is translated
"rough masons, which do make only walls." In Cooper's Latin
Dictionary (1578) caementarius is translated "a dauber,
a pargeter, a rough-mason"; and latomas is translated as "a
mason, one that cutteth and diggeth stones." In 1602 the Oxford
English Dictionary states that at Burford, the "master freemason"
and the "master roughmason" who were employed together on a job
were paid five pennies a day. Mr. Coulton says that in the
Eton College accounts the "hard-hewers" are evidently connected
with the Kentish rag-stone, of which large quantities were used
in the upper courses of the chapel. Their job was rather that of
quarryman than of the skilled mason, and they probably worked
with axes, not with chisels. The hard-hewer, then, dealt with
stone in its most elementary form, and it is probable that he was
often regularly employed in preparing the work for his more
skilled colleagues. For those who may be interested, the
above book by G. G. Coulton also has a chapter dealing with the
masons' marks on stones, and another chapter regarding the stone
masons' grip and signs and means of recognition, and still
another chapter dealing with the advancement of apprentices to
journeymen and then to master-masons. back to top
|
