A FEMALE FREEMASON
THE MASONIC REVIEW - 1858
It is generally known to the Craft that
Masonry has had the honor of numbering among
its members one woman; but few, however,
especially among the younger brethren, are
acquainted with the facts of this unique and
anomalous case. We have been requested to
publish what is known in regard to it, that
the curious may be gratified and the facts
placed within the reach of all. We comply
with the request with great pleasure; merely
remarking, however, that this case gives no
countenance to the system of female Masonry,
alias, side degrees, unfortunately so
prevalent and popular in some localities at
the present day. The lady who became a
freemason was a genuine one; her Masonry was
legitimate and ancient, and such as would be
recognized in any part of the world by a
legitimate Mason, "But have you not told us
heretofore that no woman can be made a
Freemason?" We have, and now repeat it. Yet
the case before us is sui generis; it has no
parallel; it stands alone in the history of
the Order from the remotest antiquity. It
grew out of necessity, and that, it is said,
"knows no law:" rather, it rises above all
law and bends it imperiously to its purpose.
The Lodge was compelled to initiate the lady,
or submit to consequences fatal to the
interests, possibly to the existence - of
Masonry in that region. But let the facts
speak for themselves. Unfortunately the
documents
as within our reach do not furnish the exact
dates of the events referred to, but they
occurred during the last century.
Eliza St. Leger was the daughter of Arthur
St. Leger, Lord V. Doneraile, and Baron
Kilmeaden. Her father was descended from an
ancient Irish family of distinction, and the
virtues of a noble ancestry seem to have been
transmitted to his daughter, for she is
represented as eminent for the goodness and
purity of her heart, as she was for the solid
and brilliant powers of her mind. She was
married to Richard Aldworth, Esq., of
Newmarket, in the county of Cork, a highly
respectable and ancient family, long
celebrated for their hospitality and other
virtues, and now deriving additional honor
from this lady's having been the only female
who was ever initiated into the Ancient and
Honorable mystery of Freemasonry. How she
attained this honor, we shall now lay before
our readers.
"Lord Doneraile, Mrs. Aldworth's father, who
was a very zealous Mason, held a warrant in
his own hands, and occasionally opened a
Lodge at Doneraile House, his sons and some
intimate friends in the neighborhood
assisting; and it is said that never were the
masonic duties more rigidly performed, or the
business of the Craft more sincerely pursued,
than by the brethren of the Lodge in which
she was initiated.
"It appears that previous to the initiation
of a gentleman to the first steps of Masonry,
Mrs. Aldworth, who was then a young girl,
happened to be in an apartment adjoining the
room, usually used as a Lodge room; this room
at the time undergoing some repair and
alteration - among other things the wall was
considerably reduced in one part, for the
purpose of making a saloon. The young woman
having distinctly heard the voices, and
prompted by the curiosity natural to all to
see somewhat of this mystery, so long and so
secretly locked up from the public view, she
had the courage with scissors to pick a brick
from the wall, and actually witnessed the
awful and mysterious ceremony through the two
first steps. Curiosity gratified, fear at
once took possession of her mind; and those
who understand this passage, well know what
the feelings must be of any person who could
have the same opportunity of unlawfully
beholding that ceremony, let them then judge
what must be the feelings of a young girl!
She saw no mode of escape but through the
very room where the concluding part of the
second step was still performing; and that
being at the far end, and the room a very
large one, she had again resolution
sufficient to attempt her escape that way,
and with light but trembling steps, and
almost suspended breath, she glided along
unobserved by the Lodge, laid her hand on the
handle, and softly opening the door, before
her stood the Tyler with his drawn sword! Her
shriek alarmed the Lodge, who all rushing to
the door, were informed by the Tyler that she
had been in the room during the ceremony. It
was then immediately proposed that she should
be regularly initiated; this she agreed to,
and they conducted the beautiful and
terrified young creature through those trials
which are sometimes more than enough for
Masculine resolution, little thinking they
were taking into the bosom of the Craft a
member that would afterwards reflect a lustre
on the annals of Masonry.
"Mrs. Aldworth is said to have possessed that
construction of countenance which may not
claim the appellation of beautiful; but a
remain air of dignity, to which the
benevolence of her hear and sweetness of her
disposition gave a character irresistibly
attractive, more than compensated the
deficiency. It was a countenance that gave
encouragement to the unfortunate to put in
their petitions, and assurance that their
distresses would be alleviated; having
however obtained the foregoing particulars
from persons who only knew this lady in the
last years of her life, what she might have
been in her youth, we can only collect from
her portrait which, though taken at an
advanced period, still retains, if not the
resemblance of beauty, the traits and
lineaments of, a fine countenance, only a
little shaken and defaced by time.
"Though the memory of Mrs. Aldworth's beauty
may have passed away, which in a long life of
eighty years is no improbable conjecture,
though the bloom and charms of the young St.
Leger may be sought for in vain in the
countenance of our benevolent sister, the
almost divine character which it pleased
heaven to stamp upon her uncommon mind, has
left so many memorials behind, that to doubt
this part of her history must indeed be blind
incredulity.
"The truth is, her heart and hand, ever open
to the sufferings and to the claims of sorrow
and distress, almost prevented supplication
by their promptitude to relieve, nor let it
be supposed that this spirit of beneficence
circumscribed a circle round its action, or
confined its influence - no; for though her
brethren in distress had the first claims on
her liberality, it was not the less open or
the less bountiful to the unenlightened. Best
of women, mother to the motherless, friend to
the friendless, benignant and generous soul
who from the bosom of affluence didst hear
the wretch's cry, and fly from the table of
luxury to bear comfort to the hovel of
wretchedness and wipe the unobtrusive tear
from the eye of retired misery. In the active
gratification of her hospitable and
benevolent heart, she did not neglect the
other duties of the Craft; she was, as far as
she went, a most exemplary Mason, and has
presided as Master of her Lodge, which she
headed frequently in masonic order of
procession, and it was her custom on those
occasions to precede the Lodge in an open
phaeton. Her liberality to Masons it is
unnecessary to dwell upon, one of whom in
distress never turned his back upon her
magnificent and hospitable dwelling
unrelieved. One circumstance, before we
conclude, deserves notice, as it is a
handsome lesson to those who boast the
superiority of manly discretion and
understanding, yet err in this particular.
Mrs. A. had such a veneration for Masonry,
that she would never suffer it to be spoken
lightly of in her hearing, nor would she
touch on the subject but with the greatest
caution, in company even with her most
intimate friends, whom she did not know to be
Masons; and when she did, it was under
evident embarrassment, and a trembling
apprehension lest she should, in a moment of
inadvertence, commit a breach of masonic
duty. Thus lived this pattern of female
excellence, we had almost said of human
perfection, dispensing, like a principle of
good, comfort and happiness to all around
her, till He who gave, thought proper to call
her to participate in the joys of His eternal
kingdom. Her death, it is said, was
occasioned by the imprudent administration of
laudanum in a slight indisposition."
A print of the day in noticing her death,
says:
"On Monday last, died at Newmarket in this
county, the Hon. Mrs. Aldworth, the wife of
Richard Aldworth, Esq., M.P. She lived to the
age of eighty, and such were the effects of
her early education, and her own happy
disposition, that from her infancy perhaps
there passed not a day which might not have
been distinguished by some one act of her
benevolence or charity. She lived for the
most part of her time in the country, in the
midst of tenants to whom her house afforded
the most cheerful hospitality; the meanest of
them, when their wants required it, had
access to her, and when the indigent or sick
called on her, she never failed to dispense
her favors with bounty and humanity, which a
large fortune enabled her, and a still larger
soul induced her, to bestow. Indeed, Heaven
seemed to have appointed her guardian of the
poor, whom she relieved without ostentation.
She possessed the fairest sentiments of
religion, and spent her last hours without
the least pain; her mind being quite
disengaged from a world in which she did her
own duty, whilst the tears and lamentations
of thousands about her expressed their
feelings for their kind benefactress."
We hinted above, that it was impossible to
give the exact dates of Mrs. A's initiation.
Her father died in July, 1727, and his eldest
son succeeded to the title and estates. Mrs.
A. was the youngest child of her father, and
was born about the year 1713. It is settled
on very substantial testimony that she was
initiated in Lodge No. 44, under the Grand
Lodge of Ireland. The Warrant for that Lodge
was issued in 1735, and the best authorities
among our English brethren agree that her
initiation took place about the year 1739.
Her brother, Lord Doneraile, was present -
the Lodge being held in his house in the
country on that occasion, as it was sometimes
by right - although its permanent location
was in the town.
As she had, unknown to the members, and in
the way already described, witnessed the
ceremonies of the first two degrees, it is
not probable that she ever passed beyond the
degree of Fellow Craft. The masonic jewel
which she wore is still extant, an engraved
likeness of which we have examined. The face
of it is covered with masonic emblems: in the
centre is the Holy Bible, open, with Square
and Compasses resting on it, and the eye of a
Craftsman will at once discover the insignia
of the F. C. From this fact, and the
additional one that the third degree was then
rarely given except at Grand Lodge, or after
long service, it is presumed she never passed
beyond that point in masonic progress.
We have now given all that is known
concerning this singular case. The necessity
for her initiation rose above all masonic
law, and cannot therefore be pleaded in
justification for the initiation of others of
the sex.
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