Brother Elias Ashmole - English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer, freemason and student of alchemy

Elias Ashmole by John Riley

Brother Elias Ashmole - English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer, freemason and student of alchemy

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. In one of his entries he writes that on ‘October 16, 4.30pm – I was made a Freemason at Warrington in Lancashire with Colonel Henry Mainwaring (a Roundhead friend related to his father-in-law) of Karincham in Cheshire. The names of those that were then at the lodge, Richard Penket Worden, James Collier, Richard Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam, Richard Ellam and Hugh Brewer.’

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. 

For those of us who have studied at Oxford University - The Ashmolean Museum came into existence in 1682, when the wealthy antiquary Bro Ashmole gifted his collection to the University.  It opened as Britain’s first public museum, and the world’s first university museum, in 1683.

“The knowledge of Nature is very necessary to human life and health.” 

The Ashmolean Museum (in full the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology) on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum.  Its first building was built in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677.  The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment.  In November 2011 new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were also unveiled.

Resources:

Published in Masonica, Freemasons NZ 2 May, 2026

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Ashmole

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashmolean_Museum

https://westlancsfreemasons.org.uk/about-freemasonry/history-of-freemasonry/

Images:

Header: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6364288

The Ashmolean Museum:  By Lewis Clarke, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77717785