Freemasons and Their Contribution to the Economic Development of Worcester c. 1750–1850

ABSTRACT

This article addresses a topic which has been neglected by academic historians – namely, Freemasonry as a business network. Between 1750 and 1850 431 men, predominantly drawn from the business sector, joined freemasons’ lodges in Worcester. Their participation in the economic development of the city in the period is examined through a prosopographical study in which data extracted from locally and centrally held masonic records have been integrated with non-masonic data to create a historic record of their activities. Informal business networks have been the subject of academic research and the extent to which the findings of that research are applicable to the underlying values and organizational structure of Freemasonry is also examined. The article concludes that businessmen who were freemasons actively contributed to the economic development of the city and that membership of Freemasonry had the potential to help them to advance their contribution.

KEYWORDS:

• Business networks
• bridging and bonding links
• Freemasonry
• freemasons
• social capital
• Worcester

Acknowledgments

I thank Dr Malcolm Dick OBE for his constructive comments on an early draft of this paper. Acknowledgements are due for the help given by staff at the many local libraries and archives I have visited, as well as that of Susan Snell and Martin Cherry at the Museum of Freemasonry in London. Gratitude is also given to those Worcester Lodges which have kindly given access to their records.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ This article builds upon the author’s publication, ‘The contribution of Freemasons to social and economic development in North Worcestershire c.1760–1824’, Midland History, 45, 1 (2020), pp.55–74, available at <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0047729X.2020.1712072>.

² R. Burt, ‘Freemasonry and Business Networking during the Victorian period’, The Economic History Review, 56, 4 (2003), 657–88; C. M. Brown, ‘The Influence Members of Freemasons’ Lodges in Lancaster had on its Social and Economic Development from 1848–98’, (MA dissertation, Open University, 2023). https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.000115a08

³ R. Burt, ‘Freemasonry and Business Networking’, p. 658.

⁴ R. Burt, ‘“Wherever dispersed” – The Travelling Mason in the Nineteenth Century’, Revista de Estudios de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña,10, 1 (2018), p. 27.

⁵ J. Saltmarsh, ‘Review of An Introduction to Freemasonry: Knoop and Jones’, Economic History Review, 8, 1 (1937), p. 103.

⁶ M. Jacob, The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2006), p. 5.

⁷ J. Roberts, ‘Freemasonry: Possibilities of a neglected topic’, English Historical Review, 84 (1969), pp. 334–35.

⁸ P. Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 1580–1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 320–24.

⁹ Museum of Freemasony, London (MOF), AR/SN 1184, Worcester Lodge Annual Returns and Membership Register, GBR 1991.

¹⁰ J. Astbury, ‘The Lodge at the Kings Head, Salford in 1727- the first recorded lodge in Lancashire’, in Researching British Freemasonry ed. by A. Önnersfors and R. Péter (Sheffield: Sheffield University, 2010), pp. 57–70.

¹¹ J. Acaster, ‘The Composition of Masonic Membership in Manchester and Salford during the period of early Industrialisation before 1814’, in Researching British Freemasonry, pp. 41–55.

¹² D. Harrison and J. Belton, ‘Society in Flux: The Emergence and Rise of Middle Class Civil Society in Nineteenth Century Industrial North-west England’, in Researching British Freemasonry 1717–2017, pp. 71–97.

¹³ R. Berman, The Foundations of Modern Freemasonry: The Grand Architects and the Scientific Enlightenment 1714–1740 (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2012).

¹⁴ R. Burt, ‘Wherever dispersed – The Travelling Mason in the Nineteenth Century’, Revista de Estudios de la Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña, 10, 1 (2018), 1–34; R. Burt, Miners, Mariners and Masons: The Global Network of Victorian Freemasonry (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2020); R. Burt, ‘Freemasonry and Business Networking during the Victorian period’, The Economic History Review, 56, 4 (2003), pp. 657–88.

¹⁵ Burt, ‘Freemasonry and Business Networking’, p. 663.

¹⁶ Journals containing articles by D. Knoop and G. Jones include Economic History Review, Economic History and the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and they authored the book The Genesis of Freemasonry (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1947).

¹⁷ Clark, British Clubs, p. 2; P. Langford, A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727–1783 (Oxford: Clarendon Press,1989), p. 100.

¹⁸ C. R. Turnbull, ‘Trust, Perceived Cohesion, Social Explanatory Styles in Canadian Freemasons’, (MSc thesis, University of Liverpool, 2017), p. 11.

¹⁹ P. Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’, in Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education ed. by J. G. Richardson (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986), p. 249.

²⁰ Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’, pp. 241–258.

²¹ Rev. J. Ashe, ‘Sermon preached to The Royal Arch Lodge, Dublin, 17 December 1794’, The Scientific Magazine and the Freemasons’ Repository, (March 1797), p. 184.; J. Westby-Gibson, ‘Jonathan Ashe’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,< https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/748> [accessed 21 August 2023].

²² Rev. J. Anderson, Anderson’s Constitutions 1723 and 1738 (London: Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1976).

²³ P. Elliott and S. Daniels, ‘The School of True, Useful and Universal Science? Freemasonry, Natural Philosophy and Scientific Culture in eighteenth century England’, British Journal for the History of Science, 39, 2 (2006), p. 222.

²⁴ J. M. Roberts, The Mythology of the Secret Societies (St Albans: Granada Publishing, 1974), p. 42.

²⁵ L. Tiger, Men in Groups (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, 1970: revised 2007), p. 126.

²⁶ John, cited in Kaplan, D., ‘The Architecture of Collective Intimacy: Masonic Friendships as a Model for Collective Attachments’, American Anthropologist, 116 (2014), p. 87.

²⁷ The Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1732, [Reprinted article from Fog’s Journal, 11 March 1732].

²⁸ J. Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London from the Seventeenth-Century until the Present Day (London: John Camden Hotten, 1872), p. 219.

²⁹ The ‘Antients Grand Lodge’, established in 1751, was a rival grand lodge to the Premier Grand Lodge.

³⁰ Quatuor Coronati Lodge, Anderson’s Constitutions (1738 constitutions), summary formulated from The Charges, pp. 143–9.

³¹ A. Kieser, ‘From freemasons to industrial patriots. Organising and disciplining in 18^th Century Germany’, Organisation Studies, 19, 1 (1998), p. 52.

³² MOF, GBR 1991 AR/SN1184 - Worcester Lodge and GBR 1991 AR/SN1999 – Semper Fidelis Lodge, Membership records: examples include John Collingwood (Independent), John Wheeley Bevington (Quaker), Jacob and Israel Moses (Jewish).

³³ MOF, GBR 1991 AR/SN1770 - Hope and Charity Lodge Membership records; Catholic Magazine, 1(1831), p. 124.

³⁴ Aris’s Birmingham Gazette and Berrow’s Worcester Journal (BWJ) contain references to Freemasonry in the context of meetings, processions and funerals – as when masons, clergy, members of the Corporation of Kidderminster and other dignatories processed to celebrate the coronation of William 4: BWJ, 22 September 1831, p. 3.

³⁵ P. Mirala, Freemasonry in Ulster, 1733–1813: A Social and Political History of the Masonic Brotherhood in the North of Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), p. 103.

³⁶ D. Stevenson, The First Freemasons (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1988), p. 157.

³⁷ MOF, GBR 1991 AR/SN1184 - Worcester Lodge and GBR 1991 AR/SN1999 – Semper Fidelis Lodge, Membership records; Apollo Lodge, Alcester: Minutes and Annual Return 25 March 1831.

³⁸ J. L. Talbot, A Concise History of Worcester Lodge No.280 1790–1990 (Worcester: 1990) available at <http://worcesterlodge280.co.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2017/04/CONCISE_HISTORY_Worcester_Lodge_280.pdf > [accessed 21 August 2023].

³⁹ P. Slack, The English Poor Law (London: MacMillan, 1990), p. 38.

⁴⁰ Talbot, A Concise History of Worcester Lodge No.280.

⁴¹ MOF, ANT 1/1/1 - Minutes of Antients Grand Lodge Vol I, pp. 84–85.

⁴² London Gazette (LG), 21 August 1804, p. 1049.

⁴³ Letter from W White, Secretary of the Moderns Grand Lodge to the Worshipful Master of Worcester Lodge, dated 23 December 1797.

⁴⁴ Worcestershire Archive and Archaeological Service, Worcester (WAAS), 496.5BA9360/A23/Box 1: Returns made under the Secret Societies Act 1799 for 1801 and 1805.

⁴⁵ T. R. Gourvish, ‘The Rise of the Professions’ in Later Victorian Britain 1867–1900 ed. by T. R. and A. O’Day (London: MacMillan, 1988), p. 14.

⁴⁶ Ibid., p. 13.

⁴⁷ M. Casson and M. Della Giusta, ‘Entrepreneurship and Social Capital: Analysing the Impact of Social Networks on Entrepreneurial Activity from a Rational Action Perspective’, International Small Business Journal, 25, 3 (2007), pp. 220–44; R. Pearson and D. Richardson, ‘Business Networking in the Industrial Revolution’, Economic History Review, 54 (2001), pp. 657–79.

⁴⁸ Examples include M. Rose, Firms, Networks and Business Values: The British and American Cotton Industries since 1750 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 61–75; J. Seed, ‘The Role of Unitarianism in the Formation of Liberal Culture 1775–1851: a Social History’, (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Hull, 1981), pp. 220–21.

⁴⁹ Casson and Della Giusta, ‘Entrepreneurship and Social Capital’, p. 229.

⁵⁰ Pearson and Richardson, ‘Business Networking’, p. 657.

⁵¹ The Freemasons’ Magazine, 1 April 1795, p. 71: refers to the bankruptcy of Samuel and Walter Haynes of Worcester (Stonemasons’Arms Lodge).

⁵² MOF, LF/SN1681: Lodge of Faithful – letter dated 10 June 1822 from S. Gibson to W. White.

⁵³ M. Alvesson and L. Lindkvist, ‘Transaction Costs, Clans and Corporate Culture’, Journal of Management Studies, 30 (1993), 430.

⁵⁴ G. B. Magee and A. S. Thompson, Empire and Globalisation, Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 205.

⁵⁵ S. Deschamps, ‘Merchant and Masonic Networks in Eighteenth-Century Colonial India’, Revue de la Société d’études anglo-américaines des XVII et XVIII Siècles (2017), <http://journals.openedition.org/1718/828> [Accessed: 10 June 2019].

⁵⁶ S. E. Human and K. G. Provan, ‘External Resource Exchange and Perceptions of Competitiveness within Organisational Networks’ in Frontiers of Organisational Research ed. by P. D. Reynolds and S. Birley (Wellesley, MA, USA: 1996), pp. 240–67, cited in T. L. Besser, N. Miller and R. Perkins, ‘For the Greater Good: Business Networks and Business Social Responsibility to Communities’, in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 18 (2006), p. 323.

⁵⁷ R. J. Bennett, ‘Network Interlocks: the connected emergence of Chambers of Commerce and Provincial Banks in the British Isles 1767–1823’, Business History, 55, 8 (2013), 1289 and index of members. <www.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/chambersofcommerce/birmingham.pdf > [Accessed: 11 August 2020].

⁵⁸ S. Deschamps, ‘Merchant and Masonic Networks’, <http://journals.openedition.org/1718/828> [Accessed: 10 June 2019].

⁵⁹ MOF, GBR 1991 AR 1342 – Membership Register of Lodge Humility with Fortitude.

⁶⁰ Magee and Thompson, Empire and Globalisation, p. 49.

⁶¹ The National Archives (TNA), PROB 11/992, will of Benjamin Johnson, Snr, proven 17 November 1773; J. Grundy, Worcester Royal Directory (Worcester: J. Grundy, 1790), p. 47.

⁶² Grundy, Worcester Royal Directory; Hall and Lavender, p. 59; LG, 25 June 1822, p. 1061.

⁶³ Farley, Lavender, Owen & Gutch, Worcester Bank, British Banking History, <https://banking-history.org.uk/record/farley-lavender-owen-gutch-worcester-bank/> [Accessed 12 October 2021]; TNA, PROB 11/2039, will of JP Lavender, proven 17 July 1846.

⁶⁴ LG, 23 September 1836, p. 1667.

⁶⁵ LG, 7 January 1853, p. 53.

⁶⁶ WAAS, 899: 749/8782/17/C31/13, mortgage between L. D’Egville and his wife Mary, and bankers G. Farley, J.P. Lavender and J. Owen, co-partners..

⁶⁷ Casson and Della Giusta, ‘Entrepreneurship and Social Capital’, p. 224.

⁶⁸ Ibid, p. 222.

⁶⁹ S. Toms, S., ‘Windows of opportunity in the textile industry: the business strategies of Lancashire entrepreneurs, 1880–1914’, Business History (40) (1) (1998), p. 14.

⁷⁰ W. Pitt, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Worcester (London: 1813), pp. 7–8 and pp. 92–103.

⁷¹ J. D. Chambers and G. E. Mingay, The Agricultural Revolution 1750–1880 (London: B. T. Batsford, 1966), p. 3.

⁷² Chambers and Mingay, The Agricultural Revolution 1750–1880, citing Deane, P. and Cole, A.W., British Economic Growth 1688–1959, Chapt 2, (Cambridge: 1962), p. 208.

⁷³ Lodge 77 (no name), Minutes of Meeting 24 June 1769 show the Viscount as its Worshipful Master, [minutes held by Noah’s Ark Lodge].

⁷⁴ T. J. Raybould, ‘Lord Dudley and the making of the Black Country’, The Blackcountryman, (Vol 3) (1970), pp. 55–56; T. J. Raybould, The Economic Emergence of the Black Country (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1973), pp. 35–44.

⁷⁵ WAAS −899:31, BA3762/2 – Kidderminster Enclosure Act 1774, 14 Geo III c. 52. (John Baker and John Brown – Raven Lodge; John Ingram and George Clarke – Wheatsheaf Lodge); Pigot’s Worcestershire Directory 1835, p. 657; Kingswinford Enclosure Act 1776, 16 Geo III c. 33; John Pidcock – Talbot Lodge, Stourbridge.

⁷⁶ Pitt, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Worcester, pp. 190–2.

⁷⁷ Chambers and Mingay, The Agricultural Revolution, p. 94.

⁷⁸ J. Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Henry Colburn, 1846), p. 1494; Gwynedd Council Archives: D2/15670 – letter dated 29 December 1823; 9 February 1813, p. 301.

⁷⁹ Table 2 – categories ‘Middle Class’ and ‘Farmers’.

⁸⁰ MOF, GBR 1991 AR/SN 1184: Member Register for Worcester Lodge – Samuel Wall; ‘Hallow Park Time-line 1547–1981’, Hallow History Group <https://hallowhistory.blogspot.com/p/hallow-manor.html> [Accessed: 23 October 2022].

⁸¹ J. Chapman, ‘Winners and losers: who gained from land auctions at parliamentary enclosures?’ Agricultural History Review, 62 (2014), p. 290.

⁸² In the North lodges were located in Bewdley, Dudley (2), Kidderminster and Stourbridge (3).

⁸³ Turnpike Roads in English Counties −5.1 turnpike miles per 100 acres see table at webpage createdbyA.Rosevear(2009),<http://www.turnpikes.org.uk/Turnpike%20details.htm> [accessed 13 Sept 2023].

⁸⁴ W. Albert, ‘The Turnpike Trusts’ in Transport in the Industrial Revolution ed. by D. H. Aldcroft and M. J. Freeman (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983), pp. 55–56.

⁸⁵ D. Bogart, ‘Turnpike Trusts and the Transportation Revolution in 18^th Century England’, Explorations in Economic History, 42, 4 (2005), p. 484.

⁸⁶ Names of trustees drawn from the Droitwich Turnpike Act (5 Geo 4, c. 33) and the Worcester-Droitwich Turnpike Act (43 Geo 3, c.64).

⁸⁷ Names of trustees drawn from the Evesham Roads Act (3 Geo 4, c.69) and Turnpike Trusts Act (3 &4 Will 4, c. 80).

⁸⁸ Names of trustees drawn from the Worcester City Roads Acts (56 Geo 3, c. 46) and (5 & 6 Will 4, c. 63); Cameron named in directories such as Pigot’s Worcestershire Directory 1835, p. 670; Smith named in TNA, 1841 Census, Worcester.

⁸⁹ J. Priestley, A Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and Railways of Great Britain (London: Longman, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1831), pp. 205–09.

⁹⁰ An Act for making and maintaining a navigable canal from … Birmingham ... to communicate with the River Severn, near to the City of Worcester – Preamble (31 Geo 3, c. 59).

⁹¹ An Act for making and maintaining a navigable canal from … Birmingham, pp. 2–3 and pp. 15–19.

⁹² An Act for making and maintaining a navigable cut or canal from the River Severn … to or near a place called Chapel Bridge within the borough of Droitwich (8 Geo 3, c. 37).

⁹³ WAAS – B497 BA8445/Parcel 4 – Minutes of Droitwich Canal Co, 1837– 1850, minutes 1841, p. 84.

⁹⁴ ‘Hallow Park Time-line’, Hallow History Group; Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of GB and Ireland (Vol. 2), p. 1494.

⁹⁵ TNA, PROB 11/1495 – will of Richard Chambers; LG, 31January 1792, p. 77.

⁹⁶ A. J. Arnold and S. McCartney, ‘Veritable goldmines before the arrival of railway competition: but did dividends signal rates of return in the English canal system?’ The Economic History Review, 64, 1 (2011), pp. 214–36.

⁹⁷ J. Bentley, Bentleys History, Guide and Alphabetical and Classified Directory of the Borough of Worcester (1842), p. 156; H. S. Grazebrook, The Heraldry of Worcestershire: being a Roll of the Arms borne by the Noble, Knightly and Gentle Families etc (London: J. Russell Smith, 1873), p. 310.

⁹⁸ Grundy, The Worcester Royal Directory, p. 47.

⁹⁹ Parliamentary Papers (PP) 1834 (Vol 34), pp. 504–5; J. Chambers, A General History of Worcester (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, (1819), p. 291.

¹⁰⁰ LG, 13 February 1849, p. 431; TNA – Census 1851, Sudeley Manor, Worcestershire.

¹⁰¹ ‘Edward Leader Williams (1802–1879)’, Grace’s Guide, <https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/index.php?title=Edward_Leader_Williams&oldid = 814389 [accessed 1 July 2022].

¹⁰² J. Bentley, Bentleys History, Guide and Alphabetical and Classified Directory of the Borough of Worcester (1840), p. 33.

¹⁰³ D. C. Lyes, The Leather Glove Industry of Worcester in the Nineteenth Century (Worcester: Worcester Museum and Art Gallery, 1973), p. 25; ‘Dent, Allcroft & Co’., Grace’s Guide -<https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Dent,_Allcroft_and_Co> [Accessed: 1 July 2022].

¹⁰⁴ Lyes, The Leather Glove Industry of Worcester, p. 26.

¹⁰⁵ TNA − 1851 Census, St Martin’s Parish, Worcester, 8 New Street.

¹⁰⁶ Lyes, The Leather Glove Industry of Worcester, p. 29.

¹⁰⁷ Worcestershire Chronicle, 28 January 1848, p. 4.

¹⁰⁸ TNA, National Probate Calendar, 1884, p. 58.

¹⁰⁹ TNA, ‘Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Office: non-ornamental (useful) Designs Act, 22 April 1852.

¹¹⁰ LG, 20 June 1856, p. 2178; AIM 25 – GB 0074 ACC/1616 – Identity Statement re Bevingtons and Sons Ltd (Leather manufacturers) <https://aim25.com/cgibin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=13303&inst_id=118&nv1=search&nv2=basic> [Accessed: 12 November 2020].

¹¹¹ WAAS – B496.5 BA 10,827/330 – planning application for additional premises at Three Springs.

¹¹² R. W. Binns and E. P. Evans, A Guide through the Royal Porcelain Works (Worcester: Worcester Royal Porcelain Co, 1895), pp. 11–15.

¹¹³ R. R. Angerstein, R. R. Angerstein’s Illustrated Travel Diary, 1753–1755: Industry in England and Wales from a Swedish Perspective, translated by T. and P. Berg (London: Science Museum, 2001), p. 172.

¹¹⁴ Binns and Evans, A Guide through the Royal Porcelain Works, p. 30.

¹¹⁵ ‘Robert Hancock (1731–1817) Engraver’, Printed British Pottery and Porcelain <www.printedbritishpotteryandporcelain.com/who-made-it/hancock-1731–1817-engraver> [Accessed: 2 November 2020].

¹¹⁶ Binns and Evans, A Guide through the Royal Porcelain Works, p. 41.

¹¹⁷ LG, 19 April 1833, p. 778; MRW – Box D3 of Chamberlain family papers: Lilly married Ann Margaret Chamberlain.

¹¹⁸ H. van Lemmen, ‘Overview of nineteenth century church tile manufacturers and architects’, Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society, Conference papers 2006, pp. 2–3, <https://tilesoc.org.uk/events/conference2006/papers/pdf/vanlemmen.pdf> [Accessed 23 August 2017].

¹¹⁹ Grundy, Worcester Royal Directory, p. 21.

¹²⁰ V. Green, The History and Antiquities of the City and Suburbs of Worcester … (Vol. 2), (Worcester: Bulmer & Co., 1796), p. 19.

¹²¹ Hunt’s Commercial Directory (London: Hunt & Co., 1847), p. 200.

¹²² LG, 23 March 1858, p. 1538 and 26 March 1861, p. 1325.

¹²³ C. Sellers, Oporto, Old and New; Being a Historical Record of the Port Wine Trade (London: Herbert E. Harper, 1899), p. 168.

¹²⁴ Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 23 February 1867. p. 8.

¹²⁵ Post Office Directory (London: Kelly & Co., 1845), p. 727.

¹²⁶ Coroners – A. Cameron, R Mugg Mence, J. B. Hyde; Town Clerks – B. Johnson, S. Tombs; Master Extraordinary – T. France, R Mugg Mence; Under Sheriff for bad debts – T. France; Deputy Clerk of the peace – R. Mugg Mence; Chair of the Quarter Sessions – B. Johnson (All Worcester Lodge).

¹²⁷ A. Room, ‘Perrins, William Henry (1793–1867)’,ODNB, <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/39633> [Accessed 9 July 2021].

¹²⁸ W. Shurtleff and A. Aoyagi, History of Worcestershire Sauce (1837–2012): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Source Book (Lafayette, CA: Soyinfo Center, 2012), p. 5.

¹²⁹ ‘The Worcester Herald and the Holl Family’, Worcester People and Places <https://www.worcesterpeopleandplaces.org.uk/news/216/146/The-Worcester-Herald-and-the-Holl-Family.html> [Accessed: 5 December 2021].

¹³⁰ Bent’s Monthly Literary Advertiser, 11 January 1836, p. 83.

¹³¹ Proceedings of the Geographical Society of London, Vol. 2 (London: R and J. E. Taylor, 1838), p. 468 – elected a Fellow on 11 May 1836.

¹³² LG, 23 September 1836, p. 1667.

¹³³ TNA, 1861 Census, Claines, Whiston Tything, Worcester – living at 32 Britannia Square.

¹³⁴ A. Brooks and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England – Worcestershire (London: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 63.

¹³⁵ ‘J. Stephens’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, <http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib7_1219752898> [Accessed: 21 May 2020].

¹³⁶ Examples of research undertaken on Freemasonry within the UK include Prof. R Burt: ‘Freemasonry and Business Networking during the Victorian period’, The Economic History Review, 56, 4 (2003), pp. 657–688 and C. Brown, ‘The Influence Members of Freemasons’ Lodges in Lancaster had on its Social and Economic Development from 1848–98’, (MA dissertation, Open University, 2023) available at < https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00015a08≥; research on masonic networking outside of the UK include Prof. R. Burt Miners, Mariners and Masons: The Global Network of Victorian Freemasonry (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2020) and Simon Deschamps ‘Merchant and Masonic Networks in Eighteenth-Century Colonial India’, Revue de la Société d’études anglo-américaines des XVII et XVIII Siècles, 74 (2017) available at <http://journals.openedition.org/1718/828>.

¹³⁷ WAAS, B496.5 BA 9360/C9 Box 2/3 - Articles of Agreement to be observed by a Society of Glovers in the City of Worcester.

¹³⁸ WAAS, B900.40301 BA9392 (i)-(iv) – Worcester City Society of Friends Registers of births 1660–1837.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan T. Robertson

Alan T Robertson is an independent researcher gaining his PhD with University of Birmingham. He is currently researching the history of Royal Arch Masonry in Worcestershire with a view to publishing a book on the same.