Lancaster Church there is another brass, to "Ellen, Relict of Thomas Gardner of Lancaster. "Died May ye 26th 1715, in ye 73rd Year of her Age"-probably the widow of Thomas Gardner, who survived her husband three years. There was also a John Gardner, whose claims in connection with the building of the town-hall in 1670 were referred to arbitration. No doubt they were members of the same family, perhaps father and son. Various 66 Companyes of Tradesmen" were established in Lancaster by royal warrant in 1688. The masons, however. are not included. From the above information, so kindly furnished by Mr. Roper, it is clear that Thomas Gardner was an operative mason of some considerable importance, being elected mayor in 1710. It is singular that the masons are not found among the other incorporated trades; perhaps they had already been established in Lancaster some time previously. They often occupied a prominent place among the trades, as at Gateshead, where,. in the deed of incorporation given by John Cosin, Bishop of Durham, dated 24 April, 1671, the "ffree masons" occupy the first place in the list of trades incorporated, followed immediately by the carvers, stonecutters, and sculptures, under the name of a "Communitie, ffellowshipp and Company." Their annual assembly was to be held on the four & twentieth day of June, commonly "called the feast of St. John Baptist." The parish register of Lymm, county Chester, records that on the 29th April, 1711, Jemima the daughter of John Gatley, freemason, was baptised. Other monuments occur: that in the churchyard 14 The name Gardner is found among the members of the Masons' Company of London in the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. at Rochdale:-"Here lyeth Benj. Brearly's Free "Mason, who died Feby. 1737." It is interesting to note that a very handsome jewel in the possession of Mr. M. C. Peck, of Hull, which bears on the reverse "J. Brearley, fecit." Mr. Clarke, to whom the jewel originally belonged, stated that the two Brearleys were brothers.16 Of town guilds, that of Preston is one of the most interesting in the country. Little appears to be known of the company of masons in particular (or perhaps no one has thought it worth while to make the necessary search for them), except that at various times they walked in the procession at the Guild Merchant. Curious engravings of the of the procession ["B. Mayor, "del. et sculp. Pub accords to Act, 1762, by "T. Anderton "] will be found in the History of Preston in Lancashire, together with the Guild Merchant, London, 1822. These are taken from an earlier work, The Guild Merchant of Preston, or Preston Guild Corporation, Manchester, Thomas Anderton, 1762, which is a very rare book. that of the masons I give a reduced facsimile. In the same work there is also a plate of the arms. The history of the Masons' Company of Preston would be an interesting subject for enquiry. Of I may call attention to the long aprons and the squares worn round the neck by the members of the company. Preceded by "music," consisting of a fiddle and a pipe, followed by a banner bearing the arms, walk two figures carrying short batons, and wearing short aprons; then six men, two and two, 15 An account, with a woodcut, of the grave stone of Thomas Brierly, in the church-yard at Mellor, appeared in the Stretford Division Advertiser of August the 25th, 1898. The stone records "he made his ingress July 16th, 1785." As this is the only date mentioned in the paper, it is not clear that It refers to his birth. The stone is covered with masonic emblems. 46 16 Note by Mr. W. J. Hugham, in the "Hist. of the Royal Union Lodge, Cheltenham, 1813-1888." and wearing long aprons, reaching below the knee. It must, however, be remembered in considering the aprons that in 1762 Freemasonry was firmly established as a society, and some of the figures in the procession of masons may be intended for both operatives and speculatives. The arms are given on plate iii. Another plate is given of the Company of Carpenters," who wear rounded aprons much smaller in size than those of the masons. The carpenters of Preston appear to have been incorporated in 1477, but I have been unable to trace the date of the incorporation of the masons, which seems at some time to have included the bricklayers and builders. At a later period the Free Masons joined in the procession, and in 1822 they appeared in the thirteenth place, immediately before the Corporation, "in full suits of black, united to the number "of 4 or 500 in one Craft Lodge, and supported by the presence of Thos. Parr, Esq. of Poole, "D.P.G.M. for the county of Dorset." (I. Wilcockson, The Guild Merchant of Preston, in the year 1822, p. 59.) The Chester guild of masons was joined to the goldsmiths. I must not omit to mention here the miracle plays performed by the trades of Chester during three days at Whitsuntide. To the goldsmiths and masons was given "The Slaughter of "the Innocents." 18 It has several times been 17 The Arms of the "Masons" is, Sable, a chevron Argent between_three single towers; Crest, a single tower; Motto, In God is all our Trust. Behind is a trophy of masons' working tools, compasses, mallet, square, etc. The Arms of the "Carpenters, etc.," are given, Quarterly, 1, The Carpenters' Company; 2, Coopers' (wrongly engraved); 3, Joiners'; 4, one quartering of the Painter Stainers; Crest, a stag's head erased; supporters, two stags. 18 It is, perhaps, worth noting that in York the "Masonns" were responsible for "The coming of the three Kings to Herod," and the "Golde Smythis," "The coming of the three Kings to Herod: the adoration." At Coventry the Painters were associated with the Masons. In 1581, the Masons of Newcastle had "the plaie antiently named 'The Buriall of our Lady Saint "Mary the Virgin."" |