- Middlesex PPGstB;
- Mercury - editorial Team;
- Royal History Society of England ;
- Huguenot Society of GB & Ireland;
- Pinner Local History Society;
- Author of several Masonic articles and of the book: "The Middlesex Pinner Lodge's Pavarotti - Life and Time of Bro Joseph Emile Ceci"
The Solicitor, a Forensic Scientist, and the Shadow of the Ardlamont Murder
In Scottish law, the unique Murder Not Proven verdict exists alongside Guilty and Not Guilty. Dating back to the 18th century, it allows jurors to express that, though they suspect wrongdoing, the evidence falls short of removing reasonable doubts. Jack House, author of the book Murder Not Proven—later adapted for television by the BBC—argued that Victorian trials were not only shaped by evidence, but by respectability. In his view, social standing often protected the accused. The more respectable the defendant was or even looked, the greater the chance of escaping justice. A telling example of this was the 1893 trial known as the Ardlamont Case (12/12/1893 – 22/12/1893), in which Arthur Toovey, a solicitor and Middlesex Freemason, was called to testify.
The Ardlamont Case: Murder or Misadventure?
The trial commenced on 12th December 1893 at the Edinburgh High Court. It centred on the suspicious death of Cecil Hambrough, the simple-minded son of an English aristocrat family weighed down by financial difficulties, who died during a shooting trip at the Ardlamont estate in Argyllshire, Scotland. Hambrough, in his early twenties, was accompanied by his tutor, the 33 years old Alfred John Monson, and a man introduced as Edward Scott who was later unmasked as a career criminal.
Alfred John Monson (left) – Photo from Murder Not Proven by Jack House and Cecil Hambrough (right) – Photo courtesy of the Worcester College
Just two days before he left for Ardlamont, Monson had secured a £20,000 life insurance policy on Hambrough’s life—naming himself the sole beneficiary and funding the initial premium by drawing on other fully assigned policies. It was a sophisticated confidence trick.
On August 10th, Hambrough was found shot in the back of the head while out game shooting with Monson and Scott—just a day after the duo’s attempt to drown him in the estate’s lake had miserably failed.
Monson claimed the rifle the young man was carrying had discharged accidentally as he was attempting to climb a fence. But suspicion mounted rapidly when Monson’s dubious past, and his questionable financial deals came to light.
The case presented a classic situation: a motive, no eyewitnesses, circumstantial evidence, but no incontrovertible proof. Ultimately, Monson was acquitted—with the jury returning a verdict of Not Proven.
TheTestimony of Brother Arthur Toovey
Among those called to give evidence at the trial was Arthur Toovey (11 December 1852 – 6 April 1915), a well-regarded solicitor based at 18 Orchard Street, Marylebone, London. In 1890, he had taken up residence at Mount Cottage, Pinner, shortly after the Metropolitan Railway had been extended from Baker Street—just a stone’s throw from Marylebone—making commuting from places on the outskirt of London, both practical and convenient.
Photo of A. Toovey from the Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette of Friday, 16 April 1915
In Pinner, Toovey quickly emerged as a force for change and in 1894, he led a successful campaign to preserve its rural status, fending off a proposal to place Pinner under urban powers. As a mark of merit, the following year he was elected Councillor and Vice-Chairman of the newly independent Parish.
After a period of silence, I am pleased to announce that Tetraktys is returning with new contents, under my temporary management. All previously published papers have been retained. I do not believe in censorship, debate is healthy and must always be present in a modern and free society.
Soon I will be posting a number of my papers which explore the historical past, curiosities, and connection to Freemasonry of the area I live in.
Outside contributions will of course always be welcome.
The influence of inns and innkeepers in the expansion of Freemasonry is indisputable. In the early days Masonic lodges commonly met in inns and taverns—venues that offered both practicality and hospitality in an era with few other options. These informal settings provided more than just shelter; they fostered a relaxed and sociable atmosphere, free from the constraints of long travel at a time when motorcars did not yet exist. Before the establishment of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Middlesex, several of the first Lodges in the area convened in such places. The following list is by courtesy of WBro Stan Marut, and it shows the first lodges established in the Middlesex area – even before the Provincial Grand Lodge – which met in taverns.
LODGE No
NAME
CONSECRATED
FIRST MEETING PLACE
72
Royal Jubelee
1810
Golden Lion, Goodman’s Fields*
255
Lodge of Harmony
1785
Toy Inn, Hampton Court
382
Royal Union Lodge
1825
King’s Arms Inn, Uxbridge
778
Bard of Avon
1859
Golden Lion Hote, Stratford-upon-Aven, later moving to Middlesex
788
Crescent
1859
King’s Head Hotel, Eel Pie Island, Twickenham
858
South Middlesex
1861
Beaufort Hotel, North End, Fulham
* Goodman’s Fields was essentially outside of the City walls in what is now E1. In 1810 it would have been in Middlesex. Perhaps the first Middlesex Lodge in that area? Many others met in what we might call West/South West Middlesex. Indeed, there is perhaps a whole other history to be written about these early meeting places.
Now read on.
IN THE BEGINNING
Taverns, lnns and Coffee Houses played a meaningful role in the expansion of Freemasonry on the British Isles. The first Grand Lodge of England of speculative Freemasons was itself established at a tavern called The Goose and Gridiron, St Paul’s Churchyard, London. It was June 1717 and over the next six decades the Grand Lodge went on to meet at similar establishments in and around London. Only in 1775, the original Freemasons’ Hall was erected in Great Queen Street, London.
ln medieval time, there was a Free Mason’s Arms inn about every 16 to 20 miles on England’s highways, where operative Freemasons traveled in search of employment. In his diary entry for 1644, Samuel Pepys observed that Freemasons gathered solely in unique inns during their breaks from labour. They were required by regulations to stay in venues that were deemed honest and where only civil company was present. The Fraternity’s Arms were often painted on a sign board installed above the establishment’s porch-way and served to identify such places.
The landlord of every recognized Free Mason’s Arms inn was sworn in as a Serving Brother—continues Pepys — before being allowed to enter the lodge. His wife was sworn in as a “Mason’s Dame” so that if necessary she could work as a waitress and her conduct was explicitly stipulated for in her “oath.”
ln his diary, Samuel Pepy’s was, of course, referring to Freemason who were “operative” and belonged to their exclusive trade corporation called a Guild or Livery if based in the Square Mile i.e., the City of London. The Worshipful Company of lnnholders or Hostelers was established under Royal Charter in 1514. ln the City of London both operative and speculative masons met at the Masons’ Hall, a property today demolished but which once stood on Masons’s Lane, off Basinghall Street, near the Guildhall.
After the 1666 Great Fire of London savaged the City, whose buildings were mainly made of timber, an extensive restoration program began under the leadership of Christopher Wren. A year earlier in 1665, the plague had ravaged the country, leading to the deaths of many local Freemasons. Those vacancies were filled by craftsmen from other cities as well as from abroad; but on completion of the rebuilding of London, they moved back out of the capital, driving Freemasonry to turn into a “speculative” Order for survival.
London was the 18th century wonder capital of Europe. It had been rebuilt following the Great Fire of 1666 and had an extremely new look. The merchants had withdrawn from the City and moved into fashionable terrace houses in the parishes of Soho, Mayfair, and in St. James, which had broad streets and paved squares.
And yet, London continued to be surrounded by miasma and be a city broadly tarnished by horse-dung. In the absence of an adequate sewerage structure, many servants still discharged their master’s chamber pot upon the heads of passersby and because of the coal burning in the fireplaces, layers upon layers of black soot coated the buildings and made the air not healthy to inhale. Violence and street crime were rampant.
THE WORLD OF THE OPERA IN LONDON
It was in this almost surreal habitat that deep connections were established between Freemasonry and the world of music, and they have never been stronger than during those years.
With the upper social classes having so much available time in hand and a strong love for entertainment, London turned into a Mecca for foreign artists. Since 1708, the Italian Opera had been constantly performing, with varying fortunes, at the Queen’s Theater in Haymarket, London, which is now called Her Majesty’s Theater. Built in 1705 and renamed the King’s Theater in 1714 upon the ascension to the throne of Great Britain of the German born George I (1626-1727), the theater also became identified for a period as The Italian Opera House.
The ceaseless comings and goings of French, German and Italian musicians, singers and impresarios continued strongly into the following century and the King’s Theater audience was never entertained with as many comic operas as it was in the season 1768-69.
The international artists all detested the English climate, which brought them colds and fevers, but they never regarded this poor factor as a reason for not coming back if awarded a contract. Aliens had also learned to put up stoically with the infamously atrocious English food and an Italian representative of the 1763 King’s Theater recounted his experience of it in these terms:
“In this expensive metropolis, we poor Christians are reduced during Lent to the melancholy alternative of either fasting like our founder, or living on rotten eggs, stinking fish, train-oil, and frost-bitten roots and herbage’’.
The old King’s Theater
The current Her Majesty’s Theater
HOSTILITY TOWARDS FOREIGNERS
The Italian literatus Giuseppe Baretti (1719-1789), compiler of the first English-to-Italian vocabulary, devoted most of his life in London and denounced the poverty that existed among Italian singers in London, which was created by inadequate earnings and exceedingly costly existence. He did so in a letter printed in The Public Ledger of 16 September 1760, which received this response:
“We can now see into the penury and meanness of those who have gained thousands by our folly and extravagance – we know, while in England. how miserably they live, because they will save all they can to spend in their own country; (…) such is their hatred of the nation that caresses them, that if it were possible to live upon the dirt or filth of the streets, they would rather do it than the least farthing should come back again into an Englishman’s pocket“.
The London society, had always harbored animosity towards aliens–the 1666 Great Fire of London was attributed on a French catholic, after all – and accused the Italians of avarice for their meager spending, neglecting that the aristocrats kept artists waiting around without work or payment for days or even weeks at a time. They did not understand the struggles the touring musicians suffered and would not have cared less even if they did.
Samuel Johnson declared that in London one discovered the “full tide of human existence,” and that although the Capital of England was “a place with a diversity of greed and evil (…) slight vexations do not fix upon the heart” of its residents. In my opinion, he never asked them.
THE NINE MUSES LODGE
Networking was an important chore for all the foreigners who visited England, whether they were artists, merchants, aristocrats, or rich gentlemen. At best, it assured admittance into affluent and patrician circles, at worst it guaranteed contracts and even a profitable office.
And what better way to network than by joining a Masonic Lodge?
On January 14, 1777, these individuals convened in the Thatched House Tavern on St. James’s Street, Westminster–which at the time was regarded as being part of the County of Middlesex – and on the 23rd, after securing a warrant, formed the Lodge of the Nine Muses No. 502.
Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury was the most distinguished medical detective in England and a Freemason, like some of his colleagues and the criminals he helped bring to jail. Only the imaginary character of Sherlock Holmes exceeds him in popularity.
Spilsbury was responsible, with Scotland Yard, for the introduction of the “Murder Bag” following the “Crumbles murder” case in 1924. Patrick Mahon had killed Emily Kaye, his lover, and then dismembered her body and when Spilsbury arrived on the murder scene, he was surprised to find investigators picking up body parts with their bare hands. As a result, he devised a kit consisting of a collection of instruments – tweezers, evidence bags, and other items -which forensic detectives presently still use.
Spilsbury was also responsible for establishing the character of the “legal expert” by integrating pathology and cause-of-death examinations into the legal criminal context.
— *** —
Bernard Henry Spilsbury was born on January 16, 1877, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England and was one of four offspring from the union between Marion Elizabeth Joy and James Spilsbury, a chemist. Bernard adopted his father’s passion for science but – according to the crime author Michael J Buchanan-Dunne – he also absorbed his coldness, arrogance and lack of empathy. After receiving home education, at the age of nine Bernard was sent to boarding school for three years and at the age of 15, with his parents living in Crouch End in London, he went to study chemistry, physics and biology at the Owen’s College in Manchester.
In 1895 Bernard Spilsbury enrolled at the Magdalen College, Oxford and earned his BA in natural science in 1899. He subsequently attended St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in Paddington’s Praed Street, London, where he meant to qualify as a general practitioner. Instead, he went on to study pathology and never repented.
There is a time-immemorial tradition, both in Masonry and outside it, of the wearing and giving of gloves”
Bernard E. Jones
The function of the gloves is to protect and avoid injury to our hands and skin. The Medieval Knights wore them in fight to have a stronger grip on the sword. Later, their metal version was introduced; called gauntlets, they better protected against blows. The gloves thus took on a meaning of strength, courage and authority, with Kings and nobles also wearing them to affirm their supremacy over the simple folks. But they were also a useful tool for avoiding direct contact with dirty objects and not so hygienic people. Once upon a time In the Catholic Church, even the Pope and high prelates wore white gloves to indicate their chastity, which albeit only a few observed.
In the middle ages, the so-called “sweet gloves”, were gloves saturated with the perfumes of herbs and spices and they served to hide the nasty odour of the skin browned with…dung. They were in use across the Continent by both men and women.
Catherine de ‘Medici, an Italian-born monarch of France, made these fragrant gloves renowned at the Court in the 16th century. She was even accused of poisoning one of her greatest enemies, a Huguenot named Jeanne d’Albret, with a pair of gloves she had gifted him. Centuries later, the French author Alexandre Dumas, spun the story of this poisoning Queen into a historical novel called “La Reine Margot.”
Today the gloves are employed for the more refined purpose of maintaining hygiene and preserving aseptic conditions and to be worn in the most accurate tasks, such as those performed by a surgeon on the human body.
Jacob’s Ladder is possibly among the most enigmatic and obscure of all the symbols found in Freemasonry. Its name can be traced back to a metaphorical allusion in the Bible, but more on this later.
Both the First Degree Tracing Board and the Second Degree working tools (long version) include the Jacob’s Ladder. This symbol can also be found on the Mark Tracing Board, as well as in Holy Royal Arch Chapter.
Thomas Dunckerley , founder of Mark Masonry, is credited with introducing the Masonic emblem of the ladder into the Masonic ritual in 1776. I recommend that you read the interesting life of this well-known Freemason, but doubtful character, by visiting this page at Tetraktys.
The ancients thought there could be no evolution without previous involution and indeed the Scripts say: “no man hath ascended up to heaven but he who came down from heaven” (John 3.13).
Man is a composite of natural elements that have been assimilated into him; the mineral kingdom is in his bones, the vegetable kingdom in his tissues and the animal world is in his brute impulses and appetite. He’s basically a microcosm; a synthesis of all that is present in the planes of existence beneath him.
Samuel Johnson, regarded as one of the greatest English figures of 18th-century life and letters, once said of the celebrated poet and author Geoffrey Chaucer , defined by some as the father of English literature, that he “took much from the Italians”. He was of course referring to Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”, a set of twenty four stories very much inspired by the “Decameron”, an original work by the Italian writer and poet Giovanni Boccaccio.
Petruccio Ubaldini was an Italian exile who arrived in England from Florence in 1545 and was known for his account in Italian, of the English victory over the Spanish Armada. The Tudor Queen , Elizabeth I, liked Petruccio so much as to give him a pension.
The English writer Daniel Defoe–creator of the novel Robinson Crusoe and of A Journal of the Plague Year in London in 1665 – championed not just the Italians but all newcomers to England. In 1709 he wrote:
opening the nation’s doors to foreigners, has been the most direct and immediate reason of our wealth and… has brought us from a nation of slaves and mere soldiers to a rich, opulent, free and mighty people
But sadly the mood against the foreigners was hardening and the conservative Parliamentary members of the day– history constantly repeats itself! – soon began denouncing the presence of the aliens as a threat and a drain on the resources of the Nation.
Italian literature was barely known in England before the first half of the 18th century, when Giuseppe Baretti, a friend of Dr Johnson, began championing the Italian literary cause during his exile here. The first Italian-into-English dictionary was the creature of his labour.
Dr Johnson and Giuseppe Baretti
Other Italians – and they can be counted in the hundreds – who achieved success and fame in England were:
Giovanni Battista Cipriani ; founder member of the Royal Academy and a Freemason.
Antonio Canal from Venice (better known as Canaletto) , who devoted a decade in Soho in 1746 to painting the Grand Canal from memory.
Giacomo Casanova, a famous philosopher, philanderer and Freemason who came to London in 1763 with the intention of establishing a Lottery and repeat the success he had had in France with it .
In Georgian England, Italian actors, dancers and singers performed in theatres as part of the Opera Buffa and Italian jesters were always present at local Fairs. The most celebrated comic entertainer of the time was Giuseppe Grimaldi.
In conclusion, aside from representatives of the performing arts, Italy also exported to England bankers, theatre impresarios, music virtuoso [1] and from the medical field , the Chevalier Ruspini, a surgeon-dentist who won the confidence of a King and the love and respect of the population of this island for his skill, medical care and sincere benevolence.
BARTOLOMEO RUSPINI
Bartolomeo Ruspini was born in 1728/1730 at Romacoto (Bergamo), a village about 40 miles north-east of Milan, Italy. His father Andrea came from the village of Grumello (Bergamo) and was a minor member of a patrician family that originated from the ancient Italian region of Como. He was ‘the eldest of the eight children of Giovanni Andrea Ruspini (1707–1769) and his wife, Bartolomea (1708–1788.)
Bartolomeo claimed to have qualified as a surgeon in Bergamo in 1758, and to have trained under Pierre Fauchard (January 2, 1679–March 21, 1761) who was a French physician, credited as being the “father of modern dentistry” and the Court dentist of Louis XV of France who suffered with dental abscesses. Ruspini self-styled himself as a specialist “surgeon-dentist” and commenced practicing in England around 1750, initially in Bath and Bristol and later in London.
The limited and expensive medical relief that doctors provided before Nations set up free healthcare systems for their people, cleared the way for opportunistic shady individuals to take over the “poor man” territory. Fear and pain made people turn to quackery and its fake remedies.
The famous 19th century French novelist Alexandre Dumas senior, one day argued in these terms with an insolent man who had insulted him for his looks:
Sir,
My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a negro,
and my great grandfather was a monkey.
So you see, Sir,
My family starts where yours ends!
Alexander Dumas senior was the author of “The Count of MonteCristo”, “The Three Musketeers”, “The Man in the Iron Mask” and many other brilliant historical novels. The most extensively read French writers in the world was also a mulatto[1]. This essay, however, concerns another Dumas [2]; it is about the life of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, whose life is rarely told in books.
Most of us know that men of colour fought in the 1861 American War of Secession but not that black people , almost a century earlier, had defended the principles of “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” both in France and in its overseas territories. Saint Domingue, or Haiti, was the first of the Antilles islands in 1794 to wipe out slavery and to proclaim its people free and equal. And in France, during both the Revolution and the Republican years, many black individuals reached unimaginable heights of authority. Napoleon Bonaparte recognised their gallantry in battle and rewarded their courage, only to then favour “lucky generals” over valiant or competent military commanders.
THOMAS-ALEXANDER DUMAS
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was born as Thomas–Alexandre Davy at Jeremie, on the island of Saint Domingue, on March 25th 1762. His father, Antoine Davy, was the youngest offspring of a lesser noble family that owned a chateau at Bielleville-en-Caux, a pretty village near Bolbec in the Haute Normandie, France.
In the XVIII century the French colony of Saint Domingue was the most successful territory of the Antilles in exporting sugar, cocoa and coffee; a trade in which Antoine’s elder brother had made a fortune by 1748. Full of grand expectations for himself, Antoine joined his sibling on the island to co-manage the business. But the partnership was spoiled by arguments and it soon ended with Antoine purchasing from Monsieur de Maubielle a valuable plantation and setting up business for himself. The land also came with a beautiful black slave called Marie-Cesette Dumas who gave Antoine four illegitimate children; three daughters and one son. According to Antoine, his mother died of dysentery in 1777, but there are notary documents that suggest Cesette was alive in 1801.
With his business failing, Antoine cut his losses and absconded. He only reappeared, years later, when his brother’s death gave him the opportunity to claim the title of Marquis and to inherit the family’s estate upon his return to France. Having little or no money to pay for the crossing, in 1775 Antoine sold his four children and common wife Marie Cesette as slaves to a Monsieur Caron and made the journey to France to become the new Marquis De La Pailetterie. A few months later his son, Thomas-Alexandre, joined him from Saint Domingue; the only member of the family whose freedom Antoine had cared to redeem !
Notwithstanding his background and skin colour, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, whom we shall henceforth address as Alex, received a distinguished education from the age of 14 and developed into a towering fellow with a herculean physique, and strong personality. Thanks to his father’s rich maintenance, Alex lived his youth in Paris where he met
Chevalier de Saint George
Joseph Boulogne, the famous mulatto “Chevalier de Saint-George”. Joseph was an esteemed musician born in a family of musketeers that was well known at the Court of Queen Marie Antoinette of France. In Joseph’s company, Alex lived two years of the “belle vie” by attending theatre and soirée, seducing women and of course fighting duels.
But clouds were gathering on the horizon.
On 2 June 1786, Antoine Davy Marquis De La Pailetterie, married his governess Francoise Retou, a woman thirty years his junior and cut off the subsidy to his profligate son. Determined to find a place in the world, Alex enlisted as a Privateer in the Queen’s Dragoons Regiment using his mother’s name of Dumas, perhaps on his father’s desire to not blight the family’s name. The Regiment was under the command of the Duc de Guiche [3], a Freemason and an admirer of handsome garcons who gave Alex the opportunity to distinguish himself in service and to make the acquaintance of three future grand Generals of the French Empire : Jean-Louis Espagne, Louis-Chretien Carriere de Beaumont and Joseph Piston. All were serving in the same Division and were also Freemasons.
FREEMASONRY IN THE FRENCH ARMY
Many prominent French revolutionaries like the Marquis de Lafayette, Mirabeau, Danton and the Duke of Orléans to name but a few, were in the Craft and so was a great part of the French Army. In the Penthievre Regiment, for example, 53% of the officers were Freemasons and 2500 of the Brethren living in Paris were also in the military. General Kleber, took part with Napoleon in the Egyptian Campaign and founded the Lodge “Isis” in Cairo shortly after the troops subdued the city. Gaspard Monge was a member of the Military Lodge “The Perfect Union” of Mezieres and Dominique Vivant Denon of “The Perfect Meeting” Lodge in Paris; both were among the military strategists who turned around the fortunes of Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. Whether the great man himself was a Freemason, we do not know for certain. Some claim he underwent initiation in Malta in 1798 when he took possession of the island for France, on his way to Egypt. Others say he was initiated in the “Perfect Sincerity” Lodge in Marseilles, the same Lodge that later initiated his brother Joseph Bonaparte who went on to become the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France and King of Naples.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Why was Napoleon never a Freemason, or at least why he never openly admitted it, may perhaps be attributed to his character. It was not enough for Napoleon to be “first among equals”, he had to be “above” equality. Can you envisage him allowing anyone to call him “Brother” ? What we know for certain is that the finest years of Freemasonry in France were those that followed Napoleon’s coup d’etait in November 1799. The event, renowned in history as “18 Brumaire” [4], saw the overthrow of the Directory and the installation of a three-man Consulate of which Napoleon was the Leader. The progress of Freemasonry in France lasted fifteen years and saw its Lodge number increase from 300 to 1220 in the space of a few Anni Lucis. Napoleon looked upon all this with contentment, knowing that he benefited both politically and military from the support of the Craft.
The escalation of membership in Masonic military-only lodges in France provided a great cohesion of the troops in battle and saw the French Army go from strength to strength.
The list of eminent and influential individuals who were Freemasons during Napoleon’s regime is lengthy and remarkable: Princes,Admirals, Senators, Ambassadors, Ministers, Academics and so forth. Twenty-two out of Napoleon’s thirty Marshals, five of the six members of the Imperial Military Council and six of the nine ministers in the government were Freemasons. A look at Napoleon Bonaparte’s Dynasty reveals that in addition to Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s other younger brothers -Jerome and Luis- were also Freemasons. His wife, Empress Josephine de Beauharnais was for a while the Grand Master of women’s Freemasonry in France and her son (from her first marriage) Eugène de Beauharnais, was too in the Craft.
In light of such evidence, to think that Alex Dumas attained such an exceptional military career without himself being a Freemason, would be naïve.
THE “LODGE CAROLINA” IN VILLERS–COTTERÊTS
In August 1789, Alex Dumas received orders to travel from his base in Laon to Villers–Cotterêts [5] were he was to keep public order during the disorders of the French Revolution.
King Francis I of France (12.09.1494–31.03.1547) built a Chateau outside the village which he adopted as a base for his hunting trips. In 1539, whilst briefly staying there, he promulgated an edict that suppressed all Trade Federations and Guilds in France and thus prevent workers from going on strike. The decree also imposed “French” as the official language of the kingdom in place of Latin, which was the elite European lingua franca of the age and of the several other regional dialects in use.
We also associate Villers-Cotterêts with the Dukes d’ Orléans. King Louis XIV had gifted the chateau to his brother and years later another Duke d’ Orléans, Louis Philippe II [6] was to spend his exile there.
Louis Philippe- Duc d’Orleans
Louise Philippe II was a cousin of the King Louis XVI. After his grandfather’s death in 1752, Philippe inherited the title of Duke of Chartres and in 1769 married Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, daughter of the richest man in France [7]. Louis Philippe II was also the Grand Master of the Masonic Order of the Grand Orient of France from 1771 to 1793, and being a fellow of highly radical views, he sided with the people of France during the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette hated him for what she regarded as treason and duplicity, and he in turn scorned her for her frivolous behaviour. The populace of Paris, where Louis Philippe II lived during the terrible final days of the revolution, loved him and called him “Philippe Égalité” ; but that did not save him from being indicted and guillotined on 6th November 1793.
The Masonic Lodge “Carolina” was founded in Villers–Cotterêts in February 1787 and had the local Mayor, Nicolas Lalitt, as its Worshipful Master. Louis Philippe II and his personal surgeon Marsolan joined the lodge in the second part of 1787 when in exile there and the two men attended many meetings together. After the Duke’s arrival the Lodge Temple translated from a small pavilion in the adjacent “Clos de Cent Suisse”, to a chamber in the Chateau that is since known as “Sale des Franc-Macons”.
Villers_Cotterets
Monsieur Claude Labouret was the proprietor of the “Hotel de l’Epee” in Villers–Cotterêt and also a member of the Lodge Carolina. On Sunday 15 August 1789, he went outside with his daughter to admire the arrival from Laon of the detachment of Dragoons on horse. Alex Dumas was one of the Dragoons and his deportment and looks were so impressive as to earn him an invite to dine at Laboret’s table that evening. Alex ended up lodging at the hotel for the term of his stay and it is reasonable to assume that it was Claude Labouret who introduced him to Freemasonry. Three years later, on 28th November 1792, Alex will marry Marie Labouret. The Lodge Carolina became thereafter an Aristocratic Lodge par excellence, listing among its members forty eight grand seigneurs of the realm of France, born in families like the Rohan, Noailles, Polignac, La Rochefaucauld, Montmorency,Segur and so forth.
RISE THROUGH THE RANKS
In less than two years, and presumably after being initiated in the Ars Regia, Alex catapulted from the lowest military rank to the highest. Ever since enrolling in 1786 in the “Hussards de la Liberte”, a sequence of fortuitous circumstances, acts of bravery and patrons in high places assisted him in building a truly exceptional military career and shaped his future.
1792
This was the year that Julien Raimond founded the Legion Franche des Americans et du Midi where “American” was a term the French used to identify those who came from its overseas colonies. Although the Legion was not part of the Regular French Army, it fought alongside it frequently and being composed entirely by “free men of colour”, it became known also as “The Black Legion”. Its commanding officer, the Chevalier de Saint Georges, was a member of the powerful Masonic Lodge “Le Neuf Soeurs” of Paris. The Chevalier had given Alex lessons in swordsmanship whilst at La Boessiere’s Academy and had been his partner in many Parisian social evenings and exploits. In 1792 Alex, at the command of only fourteen black legionnaires, defeated a group of forty Dutch soldiers near Lille and made half of them captives. As a reward for his bravery, he received the rank of lieutenant colonel and became the Legion second-in-command.
1793
The General Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte - whom the Convention nominated Minister of War in April of the same year - appointment Alex to the rank of Brigadier General [8] of the Army du Nord which was under the command of General Demounez. Alex Dumas’s heroic defence of Pont-a-Marq in Northern France won him the promotion to General of Division. In September 1793 he became Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Pyrenees and in December he was put in command of the Army of the Alps. With Jean-Louise Brigitte Espagne, Marc Antoine Bonnin de Beaumont and his dear friend Joseph Piston [10], Alex won the battle of the Little San Bernard, seized the enemies’ mortars and turned them against the Austrians. They then charged and took control of the Mont Cenis, made 1700 prisoners and captured 30 enemy’s cannons. Their exploits inspired Alexander Dumas Senior to write the adventures of the Three Musketeers.
1794
In August, after a brief spell in charge of the military Ecole de Mars in Paris , Alex Dumas became Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the West. But the slaughtering by the French troops of thousands of peasants during the Vendee War - a counter revolution against the Regime by the inhabitants of the Region - so abhorred Alex as to induce him to resign his office and earn the pseudonym of “Monsieur l’Humanité”. On 7th December 1794 Alex rejoined the ranks and received orders to swiftly travel to Paris where he was to crush the royalist revolt. But his carriage broke down on the road to the Capital and Paul Barras [11]–the Chief Executive of the Directory regime from 1795 to 1799– replaced him for the task with an unknown young Corsican officer called Napoleon Bonaparte.
1795
In July Alex received the promotion to General of Division [9] and joined a group of four other coloured Generals of African origins who were born like him in Saint Domingue. They were : Louis-Jacques Beauvais, Toussaint Louverture, Andre Rigaud and Jean-Louis Villatte.In September Alex fought in the Army of the Rhine under the command of the General and Freemason Jean Baptste Kleber. After being wounded during the assault to the City of Düsseldorf in November, Alex applied to retire from active service but was ignored.
1796
The General Dumas joined Napoleon to fight in Northern Italy. But a less than frictionless connection between the two men meant that in December Alex received the command of only a minor division. His assignment consisting in putting the Austrian occupied city of Mantua, under siege.
1797
After a gallant struggle to ward off the Austrian reinforcements from reaching Mantua, the General Alex Dumas entered the city in February. Ignoring his victory, some resentful Generals complained of Alex’s unrestrained behaviour to Napoleon, who next sent him to fight under the command of General Massena. This effectively meant a demotion, but Alex continued to distinguish himself in battle and even gained the appellative of “Black Devil” from the Austrians. Transferred to a Division led by General Joubert–a fierce republican like our hero–and again in charge of only a small force, Alex crushed the Austrian positions along the River Adige in northern Italy and pressed back, all on his own, a full enemy squadron on to a bridge outside the municipality of Chiusa. Such new heroics greatly impressed Napoleon who, no longer questioning the General Dumas’s integrity and commitment, promoted him to Cavalry Commander of the French armies in the Tyrol.
The Egyptian campaign
1978 In May the General Alex Dumas travelled to Toulon where Napoleon Bonaparte – who apparently received him whilst in bed with Josephine! - ordered him to board the vessel “Guillaume Tell” sailing for Malta, a small Mediterranean island south of Sicily. With him on the expedition were also the Generals Beaumont, Dermoncourt and Lambert. After capturing the island–ruled by the descendant of the Knights Hospitaller aka Knights of St John–the French fleet and Alex proceed to Egypt. Napoleon had promoted him to the grand sounding rank of Commander of the Cavalry of the Orient Army, but his squadron of 3000 horsemen could only count on 300 horses! Scorched by the unbearable African heat and running short of food rations and medicines, men soon perished of various illnesses, leaving Alex wavering. After conquering Alexandria, the French prepared to advance to Cairo, but the republican General Alex Dumas no longer believed in the military operation; he was by now persuaded that only personal ambition guided Napoleon Bonaparte and that the military campaign on such a far away land brought no benefits to France. He even held meetings in camp tents, with some other unhappy Generals (among whom was Joachim Murat) [12], to agree a refusal to continue fighting. As a justification he wrote to Napoleon that General Berthier, Napoleon’s Aid of Camp, was a coward who in battle “shit himself in his pants”. Napoleon wrote in his diaries that when he found out about Alex’s mutinous tent meetings, he was on the verge of having him shot for sedition.
1799
In January, an intensely irritated Bonaparte agreed to let the sick General Alex Dumas’ return to France. “I can easily replace him with a Brigadier” and “intelligence is not his forte”[14] Napoleon told his Generals. On March 7th 1799, Alex embarked for Marseilles on the vessel “Belle Maltaise”. He took with him some wounded French soldiers, the geologist Deodat de Dolomieu [13] and the General Jean-Baptiste Manscourt du Rozoy. After an unexpected tempest in the Mediterranean caused the vessel to sustain serious damages, the crew veered the ship to Taranto, in Southern Italy. Before sailing from Egypt, news from France had reported that the citizens of the Kingdom of Naples, that included Taranto, had taken up arms against King Ferdinand IV and, supported by French troops, had proclaimed the Parthenopean Republic. In the light of those events Taranto, was rightly seen as a safe, friendly destination for the distressed French ship and those onboard.
But as the Belle Maltaise approached the harbour, the crew noticed with surprise that the Bourbons’ flag was still flying on the fort turrets and the masts of the docked ships. The men were unaware that whilst they were sailing, the royalist Archbishop Ruffo’s units had defeated the Neapolitan republicans and regained the Kingdom for Ferdinand. The Belle Maltaise was laden with too much personal cargo–like the eleven Arab horses that the General Dumas was taking to France for breeding–to the detriment of its defence capability. Its ten cannons could give only a feeble resistance to the firepower of King Ferdinand’s fleet. The Belle Maltaise surrendered and all his men on board were taken captive.
IMPRISONMENT AND RETURN TO FRANCE
Imprisoned in the dungeon of the Castle Aragonese of Taranto, the General Alex Dumas endured a regime of abuses and even an attempt to poison him by the prison governor Marquis De La Schiava (or Della Schiava). Curiously, not far from Alex’s cell was that of General Manscourt, whom became the inspiration of the character of the Abbe’ Faria in the novel “The Count of Montecristo” by Dumas senior!
Aragonese Castle, Taranto
The day the Governor De La Schiava went to General Dumas’s cell with the pretence that he was to transfer him to a better prison in Brindisi–when in truth he plotted to murder him during the journey–there was an almighty altercation. The Marquis unsheathed his sword, but the General fended him and his men off by waiving his walking stick and shouting verbal threats; such was the degree of fear that his figure could still instil on those who defied him. A year after Napoleon installed his former Marshall Joachim Murat as King of Naples in 1805, Alex received a pardon and returned to France. Only six years had passed from his imprisonment in Taranto, but Alex Dumas was now a shadow of the strong man he was. And seeing France now ruled by that young inexperienced officer who had out-smartened him by one day to a military assignment that marked his rise to power and greatness, must have cut his motivation to live even further. A stroke had paralyzed one side of his body, he was almost blind in one eye, half deaf and in constant pain. The General also lived on a miserable military allowance that was utterly inadequate to the status he had held in the Army. Napoleon did not regard General Alex Dumas’s entitlement to be anything more than he received because he had failed to complete the Egypt Campaign and contracted his infirmities in jail rather than on the battlefields. To those who petitioned for justice, Napoleon thundered: “I forbid you ever to speak to me of that man!”.
Pre Napoleonic France was not a racist country. On 7th August 1775, King Louis XVI had signed a political declaration granting admission into his Kingdom to people of colour while at the same time directing the removal to the colonies of illegal settlers. All this changed when Napoleon returned from the Campaign of Egypt in 1802 as he imposed cruel race laws, re-instituted slavery in the colonies and even sent troops to Saint Domingue to kill or arrest any black person who dared wear a French military uniform. Napoleon also tried to bury the memory of General Alex Dumas by never mentioning him in the memoirs he wrote while in exile on the island of Elba. On 26 February 1806, at the age of only forty-four, the destitute General Alex Dumas, died at the Hotel de l’Epee in Villers-Cotterets, from stomach cancer [15] , his health most surely undermined by the arsenic the Marquis De La Schiava administered him in Taranto. Sadly, the Country for which the General had valiantly fought and that had overthrown the old social order in the name of the sacred principles of “freedom, fraternity and equality”, treated him as an alien just when he was most vulnerable and in need of constant care.
CONCLUSION
Although General (Thomas)-Alexander Dumas became a forgotten hero of France, he gave the future generations of his adopted Country and indeed of the whole world, a talented writer who immortalized his life, by casting him in the epic characters of the Count of Montecristo and as one of the four Musketeers. He inspired some of the most famous pages of literature.
Alexandre Dumas Snr
Often we better understand a man after his passing and can look back on the events of his life without being influenced by prejudices. It is for this reason that I have brought to your attention the life and adventures of this very worthy Brother.
The author forbids any reproduction or publication of this article, in full or in part, without his explicit authorization.
[1] a person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially a person with one white and one black parent.
[2] They were: General Thomas-Alexandre (or Alex) Dumas , Alexandre Dumas senior and Alexandre Dumas Jr.
[3] Antoine Louis Marie de Gramont, first Duc de Louvigny then Count de Gramont from 1762, was born in Paris 17 Aug 1755. A military man he became Duc de Guiche in 1780 and was put in charge of the regiment of the Queen’s Dragoon in 1790. He was a Freemason member of the Lodge “La Cauderet” in 1776 and of the Lodge “L’Olympique” in 1786.
[4] An historical Term. Brumaire was the month of mist: the second month of the French revolutionary calendar, extending from Oct 23 to Nov 21.
[5] It is now a town to the north-east of Paris, near Reims
[6] Born 13April 1747 – Died 6 November 1793,. He was affiliated to the Templar Order
[7] It was that financial strength that enabled Louis Philippe to play a political role at Court equal to that of his great grandfather who had been the Regent of France whilst King Louis XV was in childhood.
[8] The lowest ranking general officer and usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general and who is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000 troops (four battalions)
[9] Brigade General Louis Jacques Bauvais (also Beauvais) (1759 – September, 12 1799) was the charismatic and respected leader of the mulatto revolt. French-educated, handsome, and quiet, Bauvais had served in America during the American Revolution.
[10] Lyon 1754-1831. He became a baron of the Napoleonic Empire
[11] Paul François Jean Nicolas, Vicomte de Barras (1755-1829) a former soldier who will become the Head of the Directory and one of the most powerful revolutionaries.
[12] Marshal of France in May 1804, husband of Caroline Bonaparte, King of Naples from August 1808 to May 1815
[13] The discovered of the material called dolomite
[14] Desgenettes, the medical officer of the French Army in Egypt
[15] By Bonaparte’s doctor at Paris Jean-Noel Corvisart
SOURCES
Quel Generale dalla pelle nera by C.L.Sulzberger – La Repubblica 21.01.1986
L’Association des amis du General Dumas (24.03.2009)
In Freemasonry the individual who presents himself at the door of a Masonic Lodge “properly prepared and humbly soliciting to be admitted to the mysteries and privileges of Ancient Freemasonry” is called the “Initiate”. What leads him there, is an act of faith. He comes because in life he has a feeling of incompleteness and because he finds that pursuing ephemeral pleasures does not satisfies his soul.
Every Initiate in every Mystery must pledge secrecy for what will be communicated to him during the ceremony. Such constraint has been imposed on him since time immemorial and evidence exists that this was customary also in the days of the Guilds and of the operative medieval stone masons.
The solemn promise of the modern Initiate, however, is not on a par with the oath of the ancient craftsmen.
According to Bernard Jones [1] “the oath is a solemn appeal to God in support of the truth of a declaration made and in witness that a promise will be kept”; note the words “an appeal to God”. An oath is also neither objectionable nor can it be open to criticism, unless the oath itself is immoral. What an Initiate swears on the Volume of the Sacred Law nowadays is instead an Obligation, which is described as a binding agreement made under pain of a sanction if it is unilaterally broken. Essentially, ritual revisions through time have eroded and eventually removed the authority and intensity initially present in the oath and turned it into a mere promise. For that reason it is felt necessary to give the obligation a mantle of solemnity by asking the Initiate to recite the ritual words in a manner similar to giving testimony in a Court of Law and seal his promise by kissing the VSL.
Both oaths and obligations bind society together and stop it from falling into disorder, confusion, anarchy ; they also insure that justice keeps being administered. All authority custodians, legislators, civil servants and State officials are bound by their oath of office and so too are the politicians, even though the latter regularly commit perjury with a despairing indifference. The Romans punished this sin by tearing the sinner’s tongue out by the roots.
According to Bernard Jones 