Short Talk Bulletin Vol 11 No 11

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SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XI   November, 1933   No.11 

WOMEN FREEMASONS 

by: Unknown 

The romances of the Ancient Craft include a number of stories of  
women who are said to have become Freemasons, in one or another.  The  
majority are hoaxes, legends or pure fiction. 
For a woman to become a real Freemasons is as impossible as for a man  
to become a mother, a leopard to change his spots.  A female duly  
elected, properly prepared, initiated and obligated, passed and  
raised, who signed the by-laws of a regularly constituted lodge would  
not be a freemason, as all which had been done with her would be  
entirely illegal, and one illegally initiated is not a Freemason.   
The Third of the Old Charges, foundation law of the Craft, states  
emphatically:  “The persons admitted Members of a Lodge must be good  
and true Men, free-born and of mature and discreet age; no bondman,  
no women, or immoral or scandalous Men, but of good report.” 
It would, however, be extraordinary if at some time, in some place,  
some woman was not illegally given a Masonic degree, or obligated as  
a Freemason.  That the instances which rest on anything more reliable  
than tradition and heresay are so few is a remarkable tribute to the  
fidelity of Masons.  It is a point worth noting that the number of  
even possible true instances is much less than the known number of  
exposes of Masonry written and published by foresworn brethren. 
Best known, most often quoted, and most credible of all histories of  
alleged “women Freemasons” is that of the Honorable Elizabeth St.  
Ledger, later Mrs. Richard Aldworth, of Ireland.  Even about her  
strange story has clustered a curious collection of myths and  
legends, which have required some untangling at the hands of skilled  
Masonic historians. 
According to the most reliable accounts, Arthur St. Ledger, 1st Baron  
Kilmayden and Viscount Doneraile, with his sons and a few intimate  
friends, were in the habit (as was the custom in those early days  
when Freemasonry was closing the era of Operative and opening an era  
of Sepculative Masonry), of opening a Lodge and conducting  its  
ceremonies in the family mansion at Doneraile Court, County Cork,  
Ireland. 
When Elizabeth was seventeen years old, the old house underwent  
repairs, including removal and replacement of a partition between the  
library and a back room , in which the Lodge meetings were held. 
One afternoon Miss St. Ledger, in the library, heard voices.  With  
perhaps pardonable feminine curiosity she listened at an opening  
between the bricks of the replaced partition.  Not hearing  
sufficiently well, she removed a loose brick and obtained an  
unobstructed view and complete audition of what occurred.	 
She looked and listened for some time before she realized what she  
saw and heard.  There seems to be no question of her gentle breeding,  
education or high mindedness; when she understood she  became terror- 
struck and fled from the room, intending forever to conceal her  
guilty knowledge. 
Her way out, however, was barred by the Lodge Tiler, her father’s  
butler.  She screamed and fainted.. 
The Tiler summoned the Master; the young woman recovered  
consciousness, and confessed to what she had discovered.  The Lodge  
considered what should be done, and finally decided to have her take  
part in ceremonies similar to those she had witnessed.  Accordingly,  
she was initiated and passed a Fellowcraft.  At this time (1710) the  
third degree, or what the was the “Master’s Part,” was not a separate  
ceremony, so that, granting the story be true. Miss St. Ledger  
received all the light her father’s Lodge had to give. 
Too much corroborative detail surrounds this old tale to pass it by  
as apocryphal. There is today extant in the possession of Lady  
Castletown, Upper Ossory, a painting of Miss St. Ledger in her  
Masonic Regalia.  Two Jewels she wore are preserved, one in the  
possession of the family, the other held by Lodge No.1, Cork.   
Contemporary accounts credit her with acting as Master of the Lodge,  
and riding in Public Masonic processions, clad in Masonic regalia;  
these are doubtless mere inventions.  It is not on record that she  
was permitted to attend any meeting of the Lodge except that in which  
she was initiated and passed. 
Nor has the Lodge been identified; yet this is not surprising, since  
the date (1710) is prior to the formation of the Irish Grand Lodge,  
and seven years before the formation of the Mother Grand Lodge in  
London.  It is supposed that her father received his Masonry in  
London, and brought it home with him, in the easy custom of the olden  
time, making Masons of his friends and with them practicing the  
Speculative Art.  
It is pleasant o chronicle that every version of the story - and they  
are many - sets forth that this Irish Lady, as a girl, a wife, a  
mother and grandmother, highly valued her singular distinction, never  
took advantage of it, and venerated the Craft for all of her eighty  
years of life. 
Among the many versions of this story , one credits Miss St. Ledger  
with “intent” to overhear by concealing herself in a clock-case in  
the Lodge Room. This seems altogether out of character; moreover, the  
clock-case” method of a woman’s getting Masonic secrets has been  
overworked. 
In a letter written in 1879 to Brother Montague Guest, the following  
passage relating to a Dorsetshire Lodge occurs: 
“There was a Lodge about a hundred years ago, held in a house facing  
the Up-Lyme turnpike . . . It was in that lodge that it was said the  
woman hid herself in a clock and was in consequence made a Mason.” 
The clock-case tradition finds an echo in Thackeray’s story of “My  
Grandfather’s Time,” which occurs in one of his papers on SNOBS,  
about . . . 
“. . . my great aunt (whose portrait we still have in the family) who  
got into the clock-case at the Royal Rosicrucian Lodge at Bungay,  
Suffolk, to spy the proceedings of the Society. of which her husband  
was a member, and being frightened by the sudden whirring and  
striking eleven of the clock (just as the Deputy Master was bringing  
in the mystic Gridiron for the reception of a neophyte), rushed out  
into the midst of the Lodge assembled; and was elected by a desperate  
unanimity, Deputy Grand Mistress for life.  Though that admirable and  
courageous female never subsequently breathed a word with regard to  
the secrets of the initiation, yet she inspired all our family with  
such horror regarding the mysteries of Jachin and Boaz, that none of  
our family have ever since joined the society or worn the dreadful  
Masonic insignia. 
There seems to be small doubt that Helene, Countess Hadik Barkoczy,  
born 1833, was actually “made a Mason” in Lodge Egyenloseg, warranted  
by the Grand Orient of Hungary.  The last of her race, at her  
father’s death she was permitted by the Hungarian courts to take the  
place of a son, receiving his full inheritance.  In this was an  
extensive Masonic library in which she became much interested.  In  
1875 the Lodge mentioned admitting her! 
The Grand Orient of Hungary took immediate action on this “breach  of  
Masonic vow, unjustifiably conferring Masonic degrees, doing that  
which degrades a Freemason and Freemasonry, and for knowingly  
violating the statues.”  The Deputy Master of the Lodge was expelled,  
the officers of the Lodge had their names struck from its rolls, and  
the members were suspended for various periods of time.  To the honor  
of the Grand Orient be it said, its final pronouncement - apart from  
these merited punishments - was unequivocal.  It Read: 
“1.   The Grand Orient declares the admission of the Countess Hadik  
Barkoczy to be contrary to the laws, and therefore null and void,  
forbids her admittance into any Lodge of their jurisdiction, under  
penalty of erasion of the Lodge from the rolls, and request all Grand  
Lodges to do the same. 
“2   The Countess is requested to return the invalid certificate  
which she holds, within ten days, in default of which measures will  
be taken to confiscate immediately the certificate whenever produced  
at any of the Lodges.” 
The Chevalier d’Eon is a mysterious and remarkable character, but he  
was not a “woman” Freemason.  It seems highly probable that this  
peculiar person (born 1728 was partially an hermaphrodite, feminine  
in appearance, if sufficiently masculine in nature to become a  
distinguished soldier and one of the best swordsmen in France.   In  
spite of a pronouncement by a court of law that “he” was a woman, his  
male sex was definitely proved after his death.  This is more  
remarkable, as after a masculine career of some distinction (which  
included being made a Mason in London) he voluntarily admitted that  
“he” was a woman, and lived as such for thirty-three years.! 
The world believed him at the time, and great was the stir caused by  
the thought that a regular Lodge had “made a Mason of a woman.”   
Postmortem examination restored confidence; the best explanation of  
his odd life is that he was insane; the worst which may be thought of  
him as a “woman” is that he deceived the world, Masonic and profane  
alike, for many years. 
Melrose Lodge No.1 is on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland,  
preserves the tradition of as woman initiate, Isabella Scoon, known  
in the vernacular as Tib Skin.  The story runs that after removing  
from Newstead, the meetings were held in hired rooms for some years.  
and: 
“The matron, ac true daughter of Eve, somehow obtained more light  
upon the hidden mysteries than was deemed at all expedient, and,  
after due consideration of the case, it was resolved that she must be  
regularly initiated into Freemasonry,” which tradition states was  
actually done, the initiate being greatly impressed with solemnity of  
her obligation, remaining ever a true and faithful Sister among the  
Brethren, and distinguishing herself in works of charity.! 
“The Lodge minutes, however, contain no record of the occurrence.” 
The officers and about forty privates of the 22nd Regiment quartered  
at Newcastle, England, in 1769, being Freemasons, celebrated St.  
John’s Day in Winter by attending services at St. Nicholas’ Church.   
This publicity would appear to have excited the curiosity of the  
landlady under whose roof the Lodge was held, for in the “Newcastle  
Chronicle” of January 6, 1770, the following advertisement was  
inserted: 
“This is to acquaint the public that on Monday the first inst., being  
the Lodge (or monthly meeting night) of the Free and Accepted Masons  
of the 22nd Regiment, held at the Crown Inn, Newgate, Mrs. Bell, the  
landlady of the house, broke open a door (with a poker) that had not  
been opened for some years past, by which means she got into an  
adjacent room, made two holes through the wall and by that stratagem  
discovered the secrets of Masonry, and she, knowing herself to be the  
first woman in the world that ever found out that secret, is willing  
to make it known to all her own sex; so that any lady that is  
desirous of learning the secrets of Freemasonry by applying to that  
well learned woman Mrs. Bell (that lived fifteen years in and about  
Newgate St.) may be instructed in the Secrets of Freemasonry,” 
If Mrs. Bell did actually acquire the knowledge the advertisement  
claims, it is clear that she had by no means learned the lessons  
which were apparently so deeply impressed upon the other “lady  
candidates.”  The story can only be a hoax.  Probably Mrs. Bell heard  
a good deal about the doings of the Lodge held on her premises, and  
was inclined to pretend to know more than really was the case.  The  
advertisement, in the spirit of those times, was doubtless intended  
to hold her up to ridicule and warn her to be more discreet. 
Recording the death, aged eighty-five, on Tuesday, May 11th, 1802, of  
Mrs. Beaton in Norwich, a newspaper notice reads: 
“She was a native of Wales, and commonly called here (i.e. at  
Norwich) the ‘Freemasons’ from the circumstance of her having  
contrived to conceal herself in the waincotting of a lodge room,  
where she learnt that secret, the knowledge of which thousands of her  
sex have in vain attempted to arrive at - She was a singular old  
woman, and as proof of it the Secret dies with her!” 
Capt, J.W. Gambier, a non-Masons, in his,  “Links in my Life on Sea  
and Land”, wrote:- 
“In 1861 I arrived at Chatham and met my father.  We went ashore, and  
dined at the old inn by the pier at Chatham. sacred to the memory of  
Pickwick and his companions, and but for a fat old waiter . . .  
regaling us with pot-house legends . . . we should have been dull  
indeed.  Amongst other anecdotes this venerable old Ganymede told us  
was how once a woman had hidden herself in a cupboard, which he  
showed us in the room, to overhear what went on at a Masonic meeting,  
but that, being discovered, by her dog scenting her out, she had been  
hauled out and then and there made a Mason with all due Masonic  
rites.” 
About 1864, Lodge Tongariro, No.705 E.C., met at the Rutland Hotel,  
at Wanganui, New Zealand.  Part of the premises adjoining the room  
used by the lodge had ceased to be occupied and had become somewhat  
dilapidated.  The following story is told in the history of the  
Lodge: - 
“The landlord, who was a member of the Lodge, had a sister living in  
the house.  She was an elderly lady with a great thirst for  
knowledge, and she was determined to find out all about Freemasonry.   
Accordingly she went to this disused part of the building and  
succeeded in removing a knot from the wooden portion, and from this  
spy-hole was able to witness unobserved some portion of the  
proceedings.  She did not, however, posses the gift of silence, and  
one evening while serving behind the bar, told a gentleman who was at  
that time not a member of the Craft, although he afterwards became a  
Mason and subsequently occupied the Master’s Chair in the Lodge.  The  
good lady was especially impressed with the third degree, which she  
described as ‘very dreadful’.  She stated she was going again that  
night, and that it was her intention to enlarge the hole in order to  
get a better view.  She informed her hearer that there was not a  
great deal to see until the Lodge had been opened about an hour.   
There was to be ‘a third’ that night, and if her friend would join  
her in about half an hour, he might take his turn at the peep-hole.   
Unfortunately for her plan,  her bother, who was standing near,  
though unobserved, overheard this conversation, and when the old lady  
had climbed up to her accustomed place, he crept softly behind her,  
and taking a firm grip on her ear, conducted her without ceremony to  
her rightful place behind the bar.  Unlike the Hon.  Elizabeth St.  
Ledger, the lady who concealed herself in a clock-case at an Irish  
Lodge, she was not initiated into Freemasonry, so could not equal  
this famed lady.” 
Loose bricks, knot-holes, clock-cases, doors pried open with pokers -  
the ladies seemed to have had but one method of “becoming  
Freemasons.” 
A number of supposed “women Freemasons” have received temporary  
notoriety in the United States.  Probably the best authenticated (and  
that very poor) is Mrs. Catherine Babington, “nee” Sweet, who was  
born in Kentucky in 1815, married in 1834, and died in 1886.	  
Brother J.P. Babington, her son, of Cleveland Lodge No.202, Shelby,  
North Carolina, after her death published a biographical sketch of  
his mother, evidently in the sincere belief that what he heard all  
his life was true, and giving a plain  (if inherently improbable)  
account of this “lady Mason.” 
According to this book, which ran into three editions, Catherine  
Sweet spent the greater part of her childhood and young womanhood  
with her Grandfather, Benjamin Ulen, who lived near where she was  
born in Kentucky.  Near her Grandfather’s house was a two-story  
building; a school below, and a room intended as a church above.   
However, it was used by Masons as a Lodge room.  Your Catherine is  
said to have concealed herself in the hollow pulpit not once, but at  
every meeting of the Lodge for more than a year, seeing all the  
degrees and learning all the work, even the most secret 
She was finally discovered by one of her six Uncles, all alleged  
members of the Lodge, and on being closely questioned - and she is  
stated to have refused to answer unless interrogated Masonically -  
she showed a more proficient knowledge of the ritual than any of them  
possessed! 
She was kept in custody for more than a month, while the Lodge  
decided that to do with her.  Finally she was “properly prepared” and  
“made a Mason”  but not a member of the Lodge. 
This estimable lady is said to have talked Masonry on every and any  
occasion even “instructing” brethren whom she considered “bright” and  
was immensely proud of being “the only woman Freemason.”  Critical  
historians, however, look with considerable doubt on the major  
incidents of this tale.  It appears that there was no regular Lodge  
near her Grandfather’s home at the time she was alleged to spy upon  
it (there may have been a spurious Lodge, of course) and no records  
exist that any of her Uncles were Masons. 
There seems to be no doubt that (1) Mrs. Babington lived; (2) that  
she knew at least some Masonic ritual and (3) that hundreds if not  
thousands of her neighbors and friends believed the story. 
Her knowledge of ritual can easily have come from any of a half dozen  
of the so-called exposes of Masonry (such as the Morgan booklet)  
which circulated freely enough and may still be found in libraries  
and second-hand stores.  It is possible that she learned Masonic work  
from her husband (unlikely, inasmuch as he was a Past Master) and  
barely possible that she did get into some spurious Lodge and hear  
from a concealed place.  If the latter is true, why were the  
particulars which her son received from her not of a place and a  
Lodge which could be identified? 
There are tales and tales and still more tales not here mentioned;  
many of the are obviously confusions between the French Rite of  
Adoptive Masonry and the genuine Ancient Craft Masonry, or have to do  
with that odd little bi-product of quasi-fraternity known as “Co- 
Masonry.”  The story of Madam Xaintrailles belongs among the former;  
she was doubtless a member of an Adoptive Lodge, but the story that  
she was later initiated into Craft Masonry at the close of the  
eighteenth century rests almost wholly upon tradition. 
Some supposedly Masonic bodies at one time or another have admitted  
women to membership - one of these in Mexico in a not far distant  
past - but their stories belong in a history of spurious Freemasonry,  
not in the chronicle of curious fiction in which only the illegal  
“making” of the Countess and the accidental discovery of the young  
English girl seem to have genuine claims to credibility.