Enlightenment Females and Freemasonry: Contributions by the Fairer Sex to the Freemasons’ Magazine with Newly Discovered Links to the Freemasons’ Female Charity in England
Issued Date: 30 Dec 2014
Abstract
Providing an overview of poetic contributions by women to the Freemasons’ Magazine, or General and Complete Library, the first English Masonic periodical published between 1793 and 1798, this article identifies an anonymous verse by the poet, Anna Jane Vardill (1781–1852). A member of the Attic Chest literary coterie of Eleanor Anne Porden (1795–1825), Vardill’s poem was set to music and performed by pupils at the Anniversary Concert of the Freemasons’ Royal Cumberland School for Girls in 1797. This poem provides a link for unravelling the ‘her’ stories of the first hundred pupils at the School, established in 1788 by Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini (c.1728–1813) to assist the daughters of deceased or distressed freemasons in 1788, the present–day Royal Masonic School for Girls. This re-examination of previously overlooked information reveals details about the cultural and personal lives of women included in various printed and archive resources held at the Library and Museum of Freemasonry.
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References
Primary Sources
General Committee and Court of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, Minute Book, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Ref: GBR 1991 RMIG 1/1/1/1.
Letters and publications of biographer W.E.A. Axon, 1907–1908, Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Ref: MASC (Cage 1541).
Marriage Register, St Marylebone Parish, Westminster, London, marriage of James Niven and Anna Jane Vardill, 17 May 1822, accessed 3 February 2014 via Ancestry.com, original at London Metropolitan.
Moderns’ Grand Lodge Membership Register, 1768–1813, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, 213.
Archives, Ref: P89/MRY1, Item 192. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Land Tax Records, St Marylebone Parish, Westminster, London, 1797, accessed 3 February 2014, London.
England, Land Tax Records, 1692–1932. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Flaxman Papers, Add MS 39781 vol. II (ff.519); Add MS 39782 vol. III (ff.368); Add MS 39783 vol. IV (ff.419); Add MS 39788 vol. IX (ff.228), British Library, London.
Papers of the Gell family of Hopton, papers re the Attic Chest, 1808–1818, ref: D3311/18–20, Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock.
General Committee and Court Minute Book, the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Ref: GBR 1991 RMIG 1/1/1/1.
Engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi with key of painting by Thomas Stothard of Chevallier Bartholomew Ruspini leading the girls of the Royal Cumberland School around Freemasons’ Hall, London, c.1800,
Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London.
Ticket to concert, engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi from design by Thomas Stothard, Document Collection, Ref: D/BE 28, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London.
List of petitioners, Moderns’ Grand Lodge Committee of Charity, Alexander Jack, 18 November 1803, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, Ref: GBR 1991 HC 12/C/112.
Register of pupils admitted into the Royal Cumberland Free Mason’s School, 1789–1891, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, Ref: GBR 1991 RMIG 3/2/1/1.
Petition for Elizabeth Mannall, 1789, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, Ref: GBR 1991 RMIG 3/1/1/1
Secondary Sources
The European Magazine. London: 1816, 1820, 1821, vol. 69.70, 78 & 79.
Freemasons’ Magazine: or, General and Complete Library. London: June 1793–December 1796, vols. I to VII.
The Scientific Magazine and Free-masons Repository. London: January 1797–December 1798, vols. VIII—XI.
The Sentimental and Masonic Magazine. Dublin: July 1792–August 1795, vols. I –V.
Freemason’s Magazine and General Miscellany. Philadelphia, PA: April 1811–March 1812, vols. I-II.
Axon, William E. A. Anna Jane Vardill Niven [d.1852], the authoress of ‘Christobell’, the sequel to Coleridge’s ‘Christabel’, with a bibliography, and an additional note on ‘Christabel’, by E.H. Coleridge. In Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom, 2nd Series, 28 (1908): 57–88.
Behrendt, Stephen C. ‘Introduction’, Stephen C. Behrendt, British Women Poets and the Romantic Writing Community. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
Cowburn, L. Polished Cornerstones: a History of the Royal Masonic School for Girls 1788–2009. Chippenham, Eastbourne: Anthony Rowe, c.2009, 24, 34.
Jackson, J.R. de J. Jackson Bibliography of Romantic Poetry, University of Toronto Libraries. Available online, http://jacksonbibliography.library.utoronto.ca/, accessed 3 February 2014.
Jackson, J.R de J. Romantic Poetry by Women: a Bibliography, 1770–1835. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Jones, M.G. The Charity School Movement: A Study of Eighteenth Century Puritanism in Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938, 59.
Önnerfors, A. ‘Perfection by Progressive Excellence: An Initial Analysis of the Freemason’s Magazine 1793–1798. In Researching British Freemasonry 1717–2017, vol. 3, eds. Róbert Péter and Andreas Önnerfors. Sheffield: University of Sheffield, 2010, 159–80.
Page, J. A Collection of Hymns … / Composed by Drs Arnold, Dupuis, Callcott, and Busby [and others] … Selected by J. Page … To which are added twelve psalm or hymn tunes & an ode composed by … Jonathan Battishill. London: For the Editor, 1804.
Rennell, T. The British Critic, and Quarterly Theological Review 41 (1813): 536.
Sadler, T., ed. Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, 2nd Edition. London: Macmillan and Co, 1869, vol. II, 159.
Stephan, M.A. ‘Vardill, Anna Jane (1781–1852)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 3 February 2014. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/45865.
Sutherland, K. ‘Porden, Eleanor Anne (1795–1825)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 3 February 2014. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10088
Vardill, A.J., Poems and Translations, from the Minor Greek Poets and Others, Written Chiefly between the Ages of Ten and Sixteen, by a Lady. London: 1809.
General Committee and Court of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, Minute Book, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Ref: GBR 1991 RMIG 1/1/1/1.
Letters and publications of biographer W.E.A. Axon, 1907–1908, Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Ref: MASC (Cage 1541).
Marriage Register, St Marylebone Parish, Westminster, London, marriage of James Niven and Anna Jane Vardill, 17 May 1822, accessed 3 February 2014 via Ancestry.com, original at London Metropolitan.
Moderns’ Grand Lodge Membership Register, 1768–1813, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, 213.
Archives, Ref: P89/MRY1, Item 192. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Land Tax Records, St Marylebone Parish, Westminster, London, 1797, accessed 3 February 2014, London.
England, Land Tax Records, 1692–1932. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Flaxman Papers, Add MS 39781 vol. II (ff.519); Add MS 39782 vol. III (ff.368); Add MS 39783 vol. IV (ff.419); Add MS 39788 vol. IX (ff.228), British Library, London.
Papers of the Gell family of Hopton, papers re the Attic Chest, 1808–1818, ref: D3311/18–20, Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock.
General Committee and Court Minute Book, the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Ref: GBR 1991 RMIG 1/1/1/1.
Engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi with key of painting by Thomas Stothard of Chevallier Bartholomew Ruspini leading the girls of the Royal Cumberland School around Freemasons’ Hall, London, c.1800,
Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London.
Ticket to concert, engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi from design by Thomas Stothard, Document Collection, Ref: D/BE 28, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London.
List of petitioners, Moderns’ Grand Lodge Committee of Charity, Alexander Jack, 18 November 1803, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, Ref: GBR 1991 HC 12/C/112.
Register of pupils admitted into the Royal Cumberland Free Mason’s School, 1789–1891, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, Ref: GBR 1991 RMIG 3/2/1/1.
Petition for Elizabeth Mannall, 1789, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, Ref: GBR 1991 RMIG 3/1/1/1
Secondary Sources
The European Magazine. London: 1816, 1820, 1821, vol. 69.70, 78 & 79.
Freemasons’ Magazine: or, General and Complete Library. London: June 1793–December 1796, vols. I to VII.
The Scientific Magazine and Free-masons Repository. London: January 1797–December 1798, vols. VIII—XI.
The Sentimental and Masonic Magazine. Dublin: July 1792–August 1795, vols. I –V.
Freemason’s Magazine and General Miscellany. Philadelphia, PA: April 1811–March 1812, vols. I-II.
Axon, William E. A. Anna Jane Vardill Niven [d.1852], the authoress of ‘Christobell’, the sequel to Coleridge’s ‘Christabel’, with a bibliography, and an additional note on ‘Christabel’, by E.H. Coleridge. In Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom, 2nd Series, 28 (1908): 57–88.
Behrendt, Stephen C. ‘Introduction’, Stephen C. Behrendt, British Women Poets and the Romantic Writing Community. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
Cowburn, L. Polished Cornerstones: a History of the Royal Masonic School for Girls 1788–2009. Chippenham, Eastbourne: Anthony Rowe, c.2009, 24, 34.
Jackson, J.R. de J. Jackson Bibliography of Romantic Poetry, University of Toronto Libraries. Available online, http://jacksonbibliography.library.utoronto.ca/, accessed 3 February 2014.
Jackson, J.R de J. Romantic Poetry by Women: a Bibliography, 1770–1835. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Jones, M.G. The Charity School Movement: A Study of Eighteenth Century Puritanism in Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938, 59.
Önnerfors, A. ‘Perfection by Progressive Excellence: An Initial Analysis of the Freemason’s Magazine 1793–1798. In Researching British Freemasonry 1717–2017, vol. 3, eds. Róbert Péter and Andreas Önnerfors. Sheffield: University of Sheffield, 2010, 159–80.
Page, J. A Collection of Hymns … / Composed by Drs Arnold, Dupuis, Callcott, and Busby [and others] … Selected by J. Page … To which are added twelve psalm or hymn tunes & an ode composed by … Jonathan Battishill. London: For the Editor, 1804.
Rennell, T. The British Critic, and Quarterly Theological Review 41 (1813): 536.
Sadler, T., ed. Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, 2nd Edition. London: Macmillan and Co, 1869, vol. II, 159.
Stephan, M.A. ‘Vardill, Anna Jane (1781–1852)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 3 February 2014. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/45865.
Sutherland, K. ‘Porden, Eleanor Anne (1795–1825)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 3 February 2014. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10088
Vardill, A.J., Poems and Translations, from the Minor Greek Poets and Others, Written Chiefly between the Ages of Ten and Sixteen, by a Lady. London: 1809.
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