Women in Eighteenth-Century English Freemasonry: the First English Adoption Lodges and their Rituals
Issue: Vol 4 No. 1 (2013) Vol. 4. No 1 - 2 (2013) : Women and Freemasonry
Journal: Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism
Subject Areas: Religious Studies
DOI: 10.1558/jrff.v4i1.60
Abstract:
Drawing on several so-far neglected documents available in the Burney Collection of the British Library as well as in the Library and Museum of Freemasons' Hall in London, this paper investigates the gender structures and roles represented in English masonic constitutions, pamphlets, letters, rituals as well as newspapers of the long eighteenth century. First, it examines the origin and the public perception of the exclusion of women from the fraternity in England and discuses how freemasons defended this 'landmark.' Secondly, it analyses how and why English freemasons invited ladies to participate in various masonic activities including balls, feasts and public masonic ceremonies. Thirdly, it highlights how some English women, following the advice of some liberal-minded 'brethren', managed to subvert this gender-exclusive principle by establishing all-female and / or adoption lodges in the second half of the century. So far scholarship has dated the emergence of such lodges to the twentieth century in England. Finally, the paper will compare the gender constructions of traditional male masonic rituals with the first English ceremonies of adoption lodges admitting both sexes.
Author: Róbert Péter
References :
Primary sources
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Bingley’s Journal, 2–9 May 1772, Issue 101.
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Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, 2 August 1788, Issue 2075.
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Lloyd’s Evening Post, 3–5 October 1792, Issue 5503.
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