Brother Elias Ashmole was born on the 23rd May 1617 in Lichfield at the age of sixteen he left Lichfield to move to London it was there that he began keeping a diary of his life, one of his entries on the 16th October 1646 he writes at “4.30pm I was made a Free Mason at Warrington in Lancashire with Coll: Henry Mainwaring of Karincham in Cheshire. The names of those that were then of the Lodge, Mr: Rich Penket Warden, Mr: James Collier, Mr: Rich: Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam, Rich: Ellam & Hugh Brewer.”
There is only one other mention of Masonic activity recorded in his diary. On the 10th March 1682 he wrote: “About 5pm. I received a Summons to appear at a Lodge to held the next day, at Masons Hall London.” The following day, 11th March 1682, he wrote: “Accordingly, I went … I was the Senior Fellow among them (it being 35 years since I was admitted) … We all dined at the halfe Moone Taverne in Cheapside, at a Noble Dinner prepared at the charge of the New-accepted Masons.”
Bro Ashlome was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer, and student of alchemy. he supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of King Charles II he was rewarded with several lucrative offices.
Bro Ashmole was an antiquary with a strong Baconian leaning towards the study of nature. His library reflected his intellectual outlook, including works on English history, law, numismatics, chorography, alchemy, astrology, astronomy and botany. Although he was one of the founding Fellows of the Royal Society, a key institution in the development of experimental science, his interests were antiquarian and mystical as well as scientific.
Bro Ashmole’s notes are one of the earliest references to Freemasonry known in England, he passed to the Grand Lodge Above on the 18th May 1692
