Welsh Journals

Welsh Freemasonry and the Church: An Historical Enquiry Roger L. Brown William Thomas, the eighteenth-century diarist of Michaelston-super-Ely, gives one of the earliest descriptions of Welsh freemasonry known to me. Writing in 1765 he reported: The first of this month was held at the Bear in Cowbridge, the Society of the Free Masons, being in all about 24, and went to Cowbridge Church by two and two, in their white aprons, with their truels, hammers, and other Instruments as belong to Masonry, according to their rank in the fraternity, and had a sermon preached them by the Revd. Mr John Williams of the Breach near Cowbridge, teacher now of the Free School in Cowbridge.A great crowd admiring and looking at the sight, being the like never before seen here.1 Although Thomas records that members of the Bridgend and Cardiff lodges were present, as was 'Esqr. Jones [Robert Jones of Fonmon the son of John Wesley's friend] as Deputy Provincial Grand Master', thus indicating that freemasonry was active in south Wales, we should note that he records a public procession of masons in their symbolic dress, and a public masonic service in the local church. Today such events are neither seen nor recorded. Freemasonry has almost gone into hiding. But what William Thomas noted in 1765 would be observed and recorded for well over a century from that date, and recorded in such a way as to suggest that the Church and Freemasonry were on extremely good terms with one another. This essay will ask why and how this changed, although any conclusions drawn must be tentative. Cowbridge was one of the first masonic lodges in Wales. According to Philip Jenkins there were six lodges in the country in 1760 and sixteen by 1771. He makes the suggestion that the movement in Wales grew out of the old Jacobite societies such as the Sea Serjeants, and that the two movements were long associated together in the popular mind. The movement attracted radicals, such as Robert Jones of Fonmon who was a Wilkite; or that arch-