the first recorded initiation in england
by Dudley Wright
The Builder
At Neucastell the 20 day off May, 1641. The quilk day
ane serten nomber off Mester and others being lafule conveined, doeth admit Mr
the Right Honerabell Mr Robert Moray, General quarter Mr to the Armie of Scotlan,
and the same bing aproven be the hell Mester off the Mesone of the Log off
Edenroth, quherto they heaue set to ther handes or markes. A. Hamilton, R.
Moray, Johne Mylln. James Hamilton. Thus runs the
entry of the first ascertained recorded Masonic initiation on English soil into
Speculative Freemasonry. It is the record of the initiation of one of the most
remarkable men of his time. His name, by writers other than himself - for he
always signed his name in bold characters as R. Moray - is spelt
variously as Moray, Murray, and Murrey, and a singular mistake occurs in the
standard edition of Evelyn's Diary, where the entries occur as Murray,
while in the Correspondence, the only letter that appears from Moray is, of
course, signed in the correct manner, with the result that both forms appear in
the General Index. In Chester's Registers of Westminster he is described as a
son of Sir Robert Moray of Craigie, by a daughter of George Halket, of Pitferran,
but Burke's History of the Landed Gentry and other authoritative works of
reference state that he was a son of Sir Mungo Murray, and this undoubtedly is
correct.
Sir Robert Moray was a descendant of an ancient and noble Highland family. He
was educated partly at the University of St. Andrew's and partly in France, in
which country he secured military employment under Louis XIII. He gained very
high favour with Cardinal Richelieu, to such a degree that French historians
have remarked that few foreigners were so highly esteemed by that great minister
as was he. It was possibly through the influence of the all-powerful
Cardinal-statesman that Moray was raised to the rank of Colonel in the French
army. When, however, the difficulties of Charles I increased, Moray returned to
Scotland and was appointed General of Ordnance when the Presbyterians first set
up and maintained their government. He was in charge of the Scottish army at
Newcastle at the time of his initiation, which took place two months before that
city was evacuated by the soldiers. Moray was knighted at Oxford on 10th of
January, 1643, by Charles I.
Moray was also on good terms with Mazarin and fought with his regiment in
Germany, and, in 1645, he was made a prisoner of war in Bavaria. About the same
time he was appointed Colonel of the Scotch regiment in succession to James
Campbell, Earl of Irvine, and he was nominated by the Scots as a secret envoy to
negotiate a treaty between France and Scotland, by which it was proposed to
attempt the restoration of Charles I. His release in Bavaria was therefore
obtained and he returned to England. In December, 1646, when Charles was with
the Scottish army in Newcastle, Moray prepared a scheme for the escape of the
king. One, William Moray, afterwards Earl of Dysert, provided a vessel at
Tynemouth, onto which Sir Robert Moray was to conduct the king, who was to
assume a disguise. The king put on the disguise and even went down the back
stairs with Sir Robert, but fearing that it would scarcely be possible
successfully to pass all the guards without being discovered and judging
it highly indecent, says Burnet, to be taken in such a condition,
he changed his resolution and went back
After the accession of Charles II to the throne of Scotland, Moray, in May,
1651, was appointed Justice-clerk, an office which had been vacant since the
deprivation of Sir John Hamilton, in 1649. A few days afterwards, he was sworn
as a privy councillor, and, in the following month, was nominated a lord of
session, though he never officiated as a judge. His various appointments were,
however, merely nominal, in order to secure his support to the government,
particularly if it be true, as Wood asserts, that he was presbyterianly
affected. His uncle, the Rev. John Moray, was a great opponent of the
bishops and suffered imprisonment for his opinions. However, at the Restoration,
Sir Robert Moray was re-appointed justice-clerk and a lord of session, in
addition to being made one of the lords auditors of the exchequer.
The Royal Society may be said to have been founded by Moray: it was certainly
the outcome of suggestions made by him, and Bishop Burnet says that while
he lived he was the life and soul of the Royal Society.
A quibble has frequently been raised over the statement made by writers that
Moray was the first president of the Royal Society, since the name of Viscount
Brouncker appears in that capacity on the Charter. Moray was the sole president
of the Society from its first formal meeting on 28th November, 1660, until its
incorporation on 15th July, 1662, with the exception of one month from 14th May
to 11th June, 1662, during which short period Dr. Wilkins occupied that
honourable position, though in a Latin letter addressed to M. de Montmor,
president of the Academy at Paris, dated 22 July, 1661, he styled himself
Societatis ad Tempe Praeses. Nor is too much to say that it was through
his influence the charter of incorporation was obtained. He was the bearer of
the message from Charles II to the effect that his Majesty Approved the objects
of the Society and was willing to encourage it and, generally he was the organ
of communication between the king and the Society. Moray was also the prime
mover in the framing of the statutes and regulations.
Wood, the well-known Oxford historian, states that he was a single man and
an abhorrer of woman, but here he is in error, for he married the Hon.
Sophia Lindsay, elder daughter of the first Earl of Balcarres, who died, without
issue, at Edinburgh, and was buried at Balcarres on 11th January, 1653. If the
daughter inherited the tastes and pursuits of her father, the marriage must,
indeed, have been a felicitous one, since it is recorded that Sir David Lindsay,
the first Earl of Balcarres, chose a private life without ambition, was
learned, and had the best collection of books in his time and was a laborious
chymist. There is in the library of Balcarres ten volumes written by his own
hand upon the then fashionable subject of the philosopher's stone. He was
raised to the peerage when Charles I visited Scotland in June, 1633.
After the death of his wife, which apparently affected him greatly, Moray lived,
apart from his philosophical meetings, a hermit-like existence. In a letter
dated 23rd February, 1658, he wrote to a friend who had accused him of being in
love: If you think no more of a mistress not take more pains to look after
one than I do, I know not why one may not think that you may lead apes among
your fellow virgins when you dy. You never maet with such a cold wooer as I:
since ever I came to this place I never visited male nor female but two or three
cousins, and they never three times. The truth is I never go out of doors but to
the church except I have some glasses to make, and then I go to the glass house.
Nor do I receive visits from anybody once in two months, except it be the
commander, so that I am here a very hermit.
In his correspondence with Kincardin during that year (1658), he describes how
he was making chemical experiments on a large scale. At one period, when he was
at Maestricht, he had two rooms with a kitchen and cellar. One of the first he
converted into a laboratory and there he spent his days in perfect content.
You never saw such a shop as my laboratory, he wrote, so
there's a braw name for you, though means matters. He constantly speaks
of his chemical labours in the language of an enthusiast. It is somewhat
considerable that I afford you such volumes in the amount of my chemicall
operations. I have had seven stills going these two days with one fire, most
upon juniper berries, some with water, some with sack, and some dry.
Moray was naturally of a retiring disposition. During a portion of his life he
was called upon to take up a prominent position, but he never cared to be in the
limelight in politics and he did his best to keep out of the political
arena altogether. His books, his chemical furnaces and retorts, his music, his
medical and mechanical investigations, and his philosophical friends were more
to him than such stuff, as he once impatiently caged politics. He was
happier, far more satisfied to be President of the Royal Society than Deputy
Secretary for Scotland, Lord of Commission, or Privy Councillor. There are few
characters in history, particularly among those who have undertaken peculiarly
difficult, and even dangerous, diplomatic tasks, so generally revered as was Sir
Robert Moray. Birch, one of the historians of the Royal Society, describes him
as being universally loved and esteemed and eminent for his piety,
spending many hours a day in devotion in the midst of armies and courts. He had
an equality of temper in him that nothing could alter, and was in practice a
stoic, with a tincture of one of the principles of that sect, the persuasion of
absolute decrees. He had a most diffused love to mankind and delighted in every
occasion of doing good, which he managed with great zeal and discretion. His
comprehension was superior to that of most men. He was considerably skilled in
mathematics and remarkably so in the history of nature.
Nor is Birch a solitary appreciator of his character. Bishop Burnet, a historian
of higher rank, styled him the wisest and worthiest man of his age;
and, on another occasion, he wrote: I have every joy that next to my
father I owe more to him than to any other man. To Evelyn he was a
deare and excellent friend; Sheldon, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was
absolutely won by his charm of manner; Pepys speaks of him as a most
excellent man of reason and learning, and understands the doctrine of music and
everything else I could discourse of very finely; while his sovereign and
personal friend, King Charles II, tersely gave expression to his independence of
character by the statement that he (Moray) was head of his own church.
A writer in the Scottish Review for January, 1885, said: To the beautiful
and remarkable character of Robert Moray justice has yet to be done. Few men of
so strong and decided a personality have left behind them so little trace upon
the public documents of their time: except in a few Privy council letters his
signature does not appear at all. A writer in the Biographica Britannica
says that his general character was excellent in the highest degree. He
was beloved and esteemed by men of every party and station.
But these expressions of opinion found some exception. Was ever man placed in a
position of responsibility and influence who did not encounter enemies? From
1660 to 1670 the influence of Moray affected the whole course of the Scottish
government, and he guided, controlled, and supported Lauderdale against the
cabals that were formed to oust him. Thus it was that Sharp, Alexander Burnet,
and other apostles of repression came to look upon him as an enemy to be
dreaded, and one, Lord Glencairn, made an attempt to break and ruin him. A
letter was pretended to be found at Antwerp, as written by him to one William
Murray, formerly whipping-boy to Charles I. This letter gave an account of a
bargain alleged to have been made by Moray with another man for murdering the
king, the plan to be put into execution by William Murray. Sir Robert was
questioned and put under arrest, and the rumour got abroad that he had intended
to kill the king, but, says Burnet, the historian, upon this occasion Sir
Robert practised in a very eminent manner his true Christian philosophy without
showing so much as a cloud in his whole behaviour.
It was in the society of such men as Andrew Marvell, John Evelyn, and Robert
Moray that Charles II loved to linger; his delight was not, as some have
asserted, in consorting with less noble types of humanity. Wood is of opinion
that the degree of intimacy existing between Charles II and Sir Robert Moray was
probably more upon a philosophical than a political basis for he was
employed by Charles II in his chemical processes and was indeed the conductor of
his laboratory. Birch says that it was Moray who first interested the
sovereign in philosophical pursuits. Charles II was a frequent visitor to the
laboratory in Whitehall, which, though nominally Moray's workshop, is said to
have been conducted by him for and on behalf of the king, and there may be truth
in the opinion more than once expressed that Charles II was also a royal
initiate of the ancient and honourable order known as Freemasons. In any case,
assuming, which is very unlikely and improbable, that Sir Robert Moray was the
first non- operative to be initiated into the mysteries of the Craft in England,
Freemasonry has no reason to be ashamed when it looks to the rock whence it was
hewn.
Moray was the friend and benefactor of the well-known mystic, Thomas Vaughan,
who, says Wood, settled in London under the protection and patronage of
that noted chymist, Sir Robert Murray, or Moray, Knight, Secretary of State for
the kingdom of Scotland. At the time of the plague, Vaughan accompanied
Moray to Oxford and the latter was with Vaughan when he died there. Vaughan was
buried in the church of Aldbury, or Oldbury, about eight miles from the
university city, by care and charge of the said Sir Robert Moray.
This was in 1673, shortly before Moray's own death and but a few hours after he
had informed Wood of the passing of Vaughan.
Moray's life came to an end in a very sudden manner. It occurred on 4th July,
1673, and Burnet, recording the event, wrote: How much I lost in so
critical a conjuncture, being bereft of the truest and faithfullest friend I had
ever known: and so I say I was in danger of committing great errors for want of
so kind a monitor.
Under date of 6th July, 1673, Evelyn wrote in his Diary: This evening I
went to the funeral of my dear and excellent friend, that good man and
accomplished gentleman, Sir Robert Murray, Secretary of Scotland. He was buried
by order of his Majesty in Westminster Abbey, and then he added in a
footnote: He delighted in every occasion of doing good. He had a
superiority of genius and comprehension. Moray was not only buried in the
Abbey by the King's express command, but also at the King's personal expense.
His grave is by the Vestry, door, close to the grave of Sir William Davenant,
sometime laureate to Charles II; the name appearing in the register as Sir
Robert Murray.
His memory remained green with John Evelyn, for six years afterwards - on 11th
July, 1679 - writing to Dr. Beale, he said, referring to the Royal Society:
You know what pillars we have lost, Palmer [Dudley Palmer, d. 1666, one of
the first council, with Moray, of the Royal Society], Moray, Chester [Dr. John
Wilkins, Bishop of Chester], Oldenburg, etc.
Evelyn made frequent mention of Moray in his Diary, as will be seen from the
following excerpts:
9th March, 1661. I went with that excellent person and philosopher, Sir
Robert Murray, to visit Mr. Boyle at Chelsea, and saw divers effects of the
coliple for weighing air.
9th May, 1661. At Sir Robert Murray's, where I met Dr. Wallis, Professor
of Geometry at Oxford, where was discourse of several mathematical subjects.
22nd August, 1662 (the day after Evelyn was sworn one of the Council of
the Royal Society), I dined with my Lord Brouncker and Sir Robert Murray.
25th January, 1665. This night being at Whitehall his Majesty came to me
standing in the withdrawing room, and gave me thanks for publishing The Mystery
of Jesuitism, which he said he had carried two days in his pocket, read it, and
encouraged me; at which I did not a little wonder; I suppose Sir Robert Murray
had given it to him.
19th July, 1670. I accompanied my worthy friend, that excellent man, Sir
Robert Murray, with Mr. Slingsby, Master of the Mint, to see the latter's seat
and estate at Barrow-Green in Cambridgeshire.
Wood, recording the demise of Moray, wrote: He had the king's ear as much
as any other person and was indefatigable in his undertakings. . . . He was most
renowned chymist, a great patron of the Rosi-Crucians, and an excellent
mathematician. His several relations and matters of experiment, which are in the
Philosophical Transactions (of the Royal Society, many of which referred to the
phenomena of the tides) show him to be a man well vers'd in experimental
philosophy.
After his initiation into the Craft there is only one other record of his
attendance at a meeting of the Lodge of Edinburgh, which was on 27th July, 1647,
on the occasion of the admission of William Maxwell, doctor off Fisick
ordinate to his Maj'stie hines, when he signed the minute of the meeting.
ln his correspondence, however, he frequently made use of his Masonic mark (a
five-pointed star), particularly in his correspondence with Lauderdale, and this
has been reproduced in the Lauderdale Papers without comment, beyond the mere
statement that Moray frequently made use of his Mason mark when he referred to
himself or had anything of importance to communicate. If this had been an
unusual occurrence in correspondence at that day one would think that more
notice would have been taken of such an incident.
An interesting story might be woven around Moray and his Circle, for the men who
composed that circle bore names which are familiar to every student of the
history of the Craft. Such men as Wren, Ashmole, Brouncker, and others, all of
whom are accredited with having been initiated into Freemasonry. Moray's name,
together with that of Christopher Wren, is to be met with on almost every page
of the early volumes of the Journal of the Society.
It is also of interest - may it not even be said, of significance - to compare
the constitutions of the Royal Society with those of the Masonic Order. Sprat,
the earliest historian of the Royal Society, says that they freely admitted men
of different religions, countries, and professions. This they were obliged
to do, or else they would come far short of the largeness of their own
declarations. For they openly profess not to lay the foundation of an English,
Scotch, Irish, Popish, or Protestant Philosophy, but a Philosophy of Mankind.
Members were elected by ballot, being proposed at one meeting and balloted for
at another. The duties of the President were to call and dissolve the meetings,
to propose the subjects for discussion or experiment, to regulate the
proceedings, to change the enquiry from one thing to another, to admit the
members elected. The President, on his installation, took an oath as follows:
I . . . do promise to deal faithfully and honestly in all things belonging to
the Trust committed to me, as President of the Royal Society of London for
improving Natural Knowledge. So help me God.
Whatever, however, may be the deductions on this ground, it will unhesitatingly
be admitted that none could more have sought the study of the liberal arts and
sciences that came within the compass of his attainment than did Brother Sir
Robert Moray, the first known initiate into the Craft of Freemasonry on English
soil.
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