It was not till after the year 1839, when Mr. J. O. Halliwell surprised the Masonic world by reading before the Society of Antiquaries an essay on “The Introduction of Freemasonry into England,” giving an account of a manuscript discovered by him in the British Museum, that any interest was taken in what are now known as the Old Charges. Some twenty years afterwards Bros. Hughan and Woodford commenced their researches as to these manuscript Constitutions of the Operative Masons, which have led to such valuable results. Others have followed in their wake, bat for a full description of the various versions we must refer to Bro. Hughan’s classic work, “The Old Charges of the British Freemasons,” the first edition of which was published in 1872, the second in 1895.
In the second edition Bro. Hughan was able to describe no less than 66 manuscripts, in addition to nine printed versions. During the last ton years a few more manuscripts have come to light, and now I have the pleasure of announcing the discovery of yet another, which has recently come into my possession, and of which a transcript is given below. The manuscript is contained in a copy of the 1738—the second—edition of the Book of Constitutions. It is written, as will be seen by the accompanying photographs, in what may be best described as ” copper-plate ” (with the exception of a few words in printing characters) on both sides of six of the nine fly leaves at the commencement of the volume, each page having a catchword. The pages measure 7 3/8 in. by 5 1/2 in. Dr. Warner, the Keeper of the MSS. at the British Museum, who very kindly examined the manuscript for me, gave it as his opinion that it was written in the first half of the eighteenth century, probably about the year 1740. The water-mark, with its inscription Pro Patria, is, unfortunately, too common to afford any clue to the date.