Who wrote the first Constitutions of Freemasonry?

Abstract

This article addresses the problematic authorship of The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1723). Traditionally associated with James Anderson, using stylometry, we examine whether and, if so, where John T. Desaguliers, the prime mover of early English institutionalized Freemasonry, contributed to this publication. Our corpus includes writings by Anderson, Desaguliers, and two contemporary Freemasons used as distractors. The transcribed works contain texts from different genres and of varying lengths. In our methodology, we employ a wide range of robust, multivariate, unsupervised, and cross-validated supervised tests, verified through significance testing, which can hopefully contribute to the establishment of standards for historical authorship attribution. Our results suggest, in line with historical evidence, that the legendary history of the Constitutions was most likely primarily authored by Anderson. However, several of the Charges including the first one ‘Concerning God and religion’, one of the most disputed texts in the history of Freemasonry, are closer to the style of Desaguliers. The General Regulations concerning the organization of the lodges, hitherto attributed to George Payne, played a fundamental role in spreading Freemasonry worldwide. Our analyses show that the stylistic affinity of fifteen of the thirty-nine regulations has a pronounced closeness to Anderson’s style, five align more closely with Desaguliers’ style. The authorship of the rest remains inconclusive partly due to the insufficient length of texts by Payne. These novel findings are also supported by a close reading of the Constitutions and other contemporary primary sources.