The Only Woman Free Mason.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 335, 9 May 1885, Page 11

The Only Woman Free Mason.

The uninitiated are in the habit of asking : If Freemasonary be such an admirable institution, why is it not thrown open to everyone ; and, furthermore, if it be good for men why are not women also intrusted with its secrets ? To this the Free Masons reply that were the privileges of the Order to be indiscriminately dispensed, its mysteries, becoming familiar, would lose their value and sink into disregard, and, when pressed, they are fain to admit that on one occasion a lady was actually passed through the degrees of the craft and emerged a full Free Mason. It would appear that at some time during the second qnarter of the Eighteenth century the meetings of Lodge 44 used to be held at Doneraile House, the seat of Lord Doneraile, in Ireland, his lordship being then Worshipful Master. Lord Doneraile had a sister, Hon. Elizabeth St. Leger — afterwards Hon. Mrs Aid worth — and the young lady so managed affairs that she possessed herself of all the secrets of the lodge workings. The St. Legers, it will be remembered were an enterprisingfamily. "Handsome Jack Sellinger." one of the founders of " Hell iFire Club " and the Doncaster St. Leger, a boon companion of the " first gentleman in Europe," inherited all the. curiosity and liveliness of the Doneraile blood Some say that the Hon. Elizabeth secreted herself in a clock-case, others that she witnessed the work through a crevice in the wall of the apartment sacred to the mysteries of the craft. What were the members of Lodge 44 to do under the circumstances ? Having discovered her, had they let her go free she she might have revealed secrets, close kap t since the days of the building of the temple, to all the parish, and so to society at large. We may suppose that her brother, the Worshipful Master, and the officers and brethren assembled were hard put down to act for the best. Women might not become Free Masons. Yet here was a woman who, so far as a knowledge of some of the most important secrets, never revealed to tlu outer or popular world, was already one. The con stitutions did not provide for sneh a contingency, nnd it became necessary to create a precedent. Thereupon the Hon. Elizabeth St. Leger, only daughter of Arthur, first Viscount Doneraile, was brought before the authorities of Lodge No. 44 and solemnly inducted into the secrets and mysteries, the signs and tokens of a Free and Accepted Mason. What was imparted to the lady is not likely to be made public. For, as one of the most learned of Masons had laid down, " of all the arts which Masons practice the art of secrecy particularly distinguishes them ; and that it is agreeable to the Deity himself may be easily conceived from the glorious example which He gives in concealing from mankind the socrets of His providence. The wisest of men cannot pry into the Arcana of heaven, nor can they divine to-day what to-morrow may bring forth." Indeed, Hipocrates and Angerona were not more sacred in silence among the Greeks and Romans than is all that goes on in a lodge closetiled to the discreet Free Mason. Whatever was told to Miss St. Leger, under the seal of secrecy, she possessed the conscience and prudence never to let pass her lips. The Irish Masons revere her momory, and her likeness in full Masonic clothing is still preserved.