Roberts' Constitutions Published a year before Anderson's Constitutions, there are only two extant copies of J. Roberts' Constitutions: one in the library of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, and — Robert J. Blackham* tells us in 1933 — one owned by Sir Lacon Threlford and on loan to the United Grand Lodge of England library. In 1923, W. J. Hughan wrote: "The only copy known was purchased by me at Brother Spencer's sale of masonic works, etc. (London, 1875), for 8 pounds 10s., on behalf of the late Brother R. F. Bower, and is now in the magnificent library of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, U.S.A." This tiny volume is easily the most priceless masonic literary possession in America, and was published in facsimile by the National Masonic Research Society, with an introduction by Dr. Joseph Fort Newton in 1916. The Reverend Edmund Coxe edited a famous reprint in 1871. A PDF version is available but its source is unknown and its accuracy is not attested. The/Old Constitutions/Belonging to the/Ancient and Honourable/SOCIETY/of Free and Accepted/MASONS./Taken from a Manuscript wrote about Five/Hundred Years since./LONDON:/Printed and Sold by J. Roberts, in/Warwick Lane, MDCCXXII/(Price Six-Pence.) * Apron Men: The Romance of Freemasonry, Colonel Robert J. Blackham. London : Rider & Co., 1933.

ANTI-MASONRY | ESSAYS & PAPERS | GRAND LODGE OF BC AND YUKON | HOME | LINKS | SITEMAP

© 1871-2021 Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A.M. Updated: 2004/08/22 freemasonry.bcy.ca/history/old_charges/roberts_constitutions.html