Slides from a talk by Andrew Prescott for the Open Lectures in Freemasonry, 25 April 2020, describing some of the online resources available for investigating the history of British freemasonry. For more information on the Open Lectures on Freemasonry, go to openlfm.org

1. Research in a Time of Coronavirus:
Resources and Opportunities
Andrew Prescott
University of Glasgow

2. Llanon, Ceredigion, Wales – where I am speaking to you from tonight

3. National Library of
Wales,
Aberystwyth

4. www.library.wales

5. newspapers.libraries.wales

6. Report of the consecration of the Glamorgan Lodge No 33 (Ancients) in The Cambrian newspaper, 12
November 1808

7. Rejoinder to the claim that the Duke
of Athol was Grand Master of
Masons in England and Thomas
Harper Grand Master by George
Bowen, Master of the Indefatigable
Lodge, No. 333 under Premier Grand
Lodge, The Cambrian, 17 December
1808

8. Rejoinder by Plummer to the suggestion
that the meetings of the Glamorgan
Lodge were illegal under the 1799 act,
The Cambrian, 7 January 1809

11. John Lane’s compendious reference work
Masonic Records is now available online in
an updated version:
https://www.dhi.ac.uk/lane/

12. Report of meeting of Grand Lodge with the Secretary of State,
London Journal, 16 June 1722, first published by Alfred Robbins in
1909

13. UGLE Membership records on ancestry.com

14. museumfreemasonry.org.uk

15. Entry for Winston Churchill in the UGLE Membership Registers. Note that he resigned in July 1912.

16. masonicperiodicals.org: a comprehensive searchable archive of major masonic periodicals
and newspapers from England, 1793-1906

17. Masonic periodicals are a fundamental source for tracing the rift between UGLE and the Grand
Orient de France, as these hits from Masonic Periodicals Online illustrate

18. Apron and jewel by Thomas Harper of Sir Christopher Cole as
Provincial Grand Master of South Wales, 1817-20, together with
his Royal Arch jewel, also by Harper. Many images of jewels,
aprons, engravings and photographs are available via the online
catalogue of the Museum of Freemasonry

19. Digital facsimile of the manuscript collections of William Perfect (c. 1734-1809), a London
physician and writer, who was Provincial Grand Master of Kent, now available at the
Museum of Freemasonry:
https://museumfreemasonry.org.uk/william-perfect-manuscript

21. Advertisement denouncing Anderson’s Constitutions, Daily Journal, 25 January 1723

22. Advertisement warning Freemasons against James Roberts’s edition of the Old Charges, Daily Journal, 10 September 1722

25. Oral history interviews mentioning freemasonry available to
listen at home from the British Library: sounds.bl.uk

26. British Museum Collections Online:
https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx

28. Ticket for a Masons’ Subscription concert, 1783, designed
by Giovanni Cipriani and engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi:
British Museum

29. Painted masonic tumbler from Newcastle, 1768: British Museum

30. Badge found at St Issy in Cornwall, September 2015, and recorded in the Portable Antiquities Database:
finds.org.uk

31. Masonic ring, England, made between 1750 and 1775, incorporating tiny masonic symbols such as the
trowel, rule, square and compasses: Victoria and Albert Museum 212-1870

32. bnf.gallica.fr

33. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

35. Prerogative court of Canterbury register copy of will of Stephen Burton, Citizen and Freemason of
London, dated 30 October 1488, probate 13 November 1488

36. Will of William Preston

37. Will of Peter Gilkes (1765-1833), influential masonic teacher and rituaklist

38. Extract from the PCC Register copy
of the will of the bookseller and
masonic ritualist William Finch,
made 20 January 1818, probate 29
October 1818

40. Letter from the Lodge of Affability in
Brentford, protesting that they had been
wrongly accused of plotting against the
King.

41. Letter from James Greene, a lawyer in Leeds, to the Duke of Portland as Secretary of State, describing
revolutionary plots in a masonic lodge, 17 April 1799: The National Archives HO 42/47 ff. 53v-54

42. Detail from Greene’s letter offering to use his membership of the ‘Higher Orders of Masonry’ to
investigate subversive activity under the cover of Knights Templar meetings. ‘Tho’ there are too many
rotten of the Craft Fraternity I can with great Truth aver that the general part of the Mass are strictly
loyal’.

43. Letter by Greene to the Duke of Portland concerning the expulsion from freemasonry of James
Bentley, one of the founders and the first Master of the Philanthropic Lodge in Leeds, for making
counterfeit coins, 1799: The National Archives, HO 42/ 47 ff. 67-67v.

44. General Laws of the United Order of Odd Fellows, 1799. References to closed meetings,
rituals such as making and the imparting of the secrets of the order have been struck
through: The National Archives, HO 42/47, ff. 181-181v

45. Some Journal Publishers Offering Full or Partial
Free Online Access During the Pandemic
Project Muse:
https://about.muse.jhu.edu/resources/news/#covid32620
University of California Press Journals:
https://www.ucpress.edu/blog/49700/free-access-to-all-uc-press-journals-
through-june-2020/
Manchester Hive:
www.manchester-hive.com
MIT Press:
direct.mit.edu
Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals:
www.ripmfulltext.org