Elias Ashmole
1617 – 1692 English antiquary, alchemist, founding member of the Royal Society
Antiquary and alchemist whose diary records one of the first speculative Masonic initiations.
- Religion
- Anglican Christianity combined with a keen interest in alchemy, astrology, and Hermetic learning.
- Affiliations
- One of the earliest recorded speculative Freemasons. Founding fellow of the Royal Society.
Elias Ashmole was a collector, antiquary, and student of alchemy and astrology whose diary records his admission to a Masonic lodge in 1646, one of the earliest documented cases of a non-working, or speculative, Freemason. He edited the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, a major anthology of English alchemical verse. His collections became the founding core of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Connections
- influenced James Anderson — Ashmole's early speculative Masonry preceded the organized Grand Lodge Anderson served.
In the timeline
- 1646 Initiation of Elias Ashmole central figure
- 1646 Elias Ashmole inducted into a Masonic order central figure
- 1646 Accepted: how gentlemen joined the stonemasons mentioned