James Anderson

The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (London, 1723) was compiled by James Anderson from a number of old manuscripts, one of which was purchased in 1859 by the British Museum and published by Matthew Cooke in 1861. It was noted that there were similarities between the Cooke manuscript and another medieval manuscript in the British Museum. This second manuscript became known as the Regius Manuscript, because it had been purchased by Charles II as part of the library of a Gloucestershire antiquary, who died in 1673 and passed with the rest of the Royal collection to the British Museum on its establishment.

Both the Cooke and Regius manuscripts are written in a script that is consistent with production during the first half of the fifteenth century. It has been suggested that the dialect of these manuscripts is consistent with the text being composed around 1400 in the Midlands. It has been noted that the Regius manuscript includes a poem by a cannon of the Augustinian Priory of Lilleshall in Shropshire, which was composed during the 1380's. The Cooke manuscript may be an amplification and reworking of the Regius manuscript.

By the fifteenth century artisans were owning and using manuscript books, which was associated with the greater use of English in official documents. In 1422 the brewers of London decided to keep their records in English, becasue many of them could read English but not Latin or French. Later in the fifteenth century, some of the London livery companies required their apprentices to be literate.

Of about 450 returns of guilds from 1388, that survive in the National Archives, 59 are in English. The main function of the stonemasons guilds in Lincoln and Norwich appears to have been the maintenace of altar candles. Responsibility for the regulation of trade was imposed on these fraternities by succesive royal and civil ordinances as a response to the labour shortages after The Black Death. Carpenters and masons were particularly successful in negotiating higher wages. Journeymen of various trades formed fraternities and adopted distinctive livery to strengthen their bargaining position with the Masters of their craft.

The Regius and Cook manuscripts may be attempts to demonstrate that all masons are equal on the basis of the equality of all stonemasons in their shared craft. These manuscripts show how artisans could articulate their loyalty to the craft through intellectual and symbolic constructs, they are a textual means of conferring social capital and legitimacy on building workers.

Anderson was also able to consider a number of paper rolls produced during the seventeenth century. The Frontispiece to the Constitutions of Free Masonry shows the Duke of Montagu as Grand Master passing a scroll to his successor the Duke of Wharton.