It is most unfortunate that we know nothing of the early custody or history of the “Bain MS.,” nor, for that matter, are we any better situated as respects the “Phillipps MSS.,” Nos. 1 and 2, save that the senior document of the two was probably transcribed for Mr. Richard Banckes, who was elected to the Court of Assistants of the Masons’ Company in 1677, and whose father was Master in 1647; or it may have been written for the latter by Mr. William Hammond who was Clerk to the Company, 1677-1678.
The discovery of the “Phillipps MSS.” was due to the well directed researches of the late Rev. A. F. A. Woodford, M.A. (my lamented collaborator in the study of the ” Old Charges,”) and the late Bro. G. W. Speth, so long the beloved Secretary of our Lodge. Bro. Woodford found that the ” Wilson MSS.” were bought by Sir Thomas Phillipps, and that the present owners are the Rev. J. E. A. Fenwick and Mrs. Fenwick, Thurlestano House, Cheltenham ; so he applied for permission to have what he deemed to be the ” Wilson MS. ” (noted in the manifesto of the ” Lodge of Antiquity ” of A.D. 1778) duly copied. The transcript was published in the Masonic Magazine for April, 1876, and in the ” Archssological Library, vol i., of A.D. 1878, with a few lines in facsimile.