Catalogue Entry: OTHE00024

Chapter 7: 'Much Greater, Than Commonly Imagined.'

Author: David Boyd Haycock

Source: William Stukeley: Science, Religion and Archaeology in Eighteenth-Century England (2002).

[Normalized Text] [Diplomatic Text]

[1] See Caesar, The Gallic War, Book VI, 13, 14 and 16 (Loeb Classical Library, London, 1970). On the Druids see Owen (1962) and Piggott (1977), to which the discussion is very much indebted.

[2] Wood (1747) pp. 6-11.

[3] Tactius, Annals Book XIV, 29-30 (Loeb Classical Library, London, 1969). It was during this campaign that Boadicea of the Icenii led a rising against the Romans.

[4] Didorus Siculus, Library of History, Book V, 31, 2-5 (Loeb Classical Library, London 1971).

[5] See Piggott (1975) pp. 113-5.

[6] Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum Libri, Book XV, 9, 9. (Loeb Classical Library, London, 1971).

[7] Quoted in Owen (1962) p. 90.

[8] Owen (1962) p. 25.

[9] Ibid. p. 21. Stukeley quoted this remark from Diogenes Laertius in his notes on a letter to the Princess of Wales in June 1754; see Stukeley Bod. MS. Eng. misc. e. 403 f. 14r.

[10] See Owen (1962) pp. 27-39.

[11] Quoted in Owen (1962) p. 50.

[12] Ibid. (1962) p. 56.

[13] See Parry (1995) pp. 334-5, and Owen (1962) p.72.

[14] Owen (1962) p. 72. Smith left his valuable collection of books and manuscripts to Thomas Hearne.

[15] Temple (1690) Vol. 1, pp. 24-7.

[16] Brown, 'A Short Dissertation About the Mona of Caesar and Tacitus, The Several Names of MAN, whether it was the principal Seat of the Ancient Druids, &c.' in Sachaverell (1702). Brown (1663-1704) had briefly been a student at Christ Church, Oxford, and made a living as a miscellaneous writer and translator.

[17] Ibid. p. 166, p. 174. See John Spotswood, History of the Church of Scotland (1655), p. 3.

[18] William Lambard An Alphabetical Description of England and Wales (1570), and (1730) p. 205; Matthew Parker De Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae (1605); John Pits Relationum Historicum (1619) p.14. Cited in Owen (1962) p. 60.

[19] Camden Britannia (1610) col. lxx, quoted in Parry (1995) pp. 34-5. Camden actually misinterpreted Origen's remark: see Owen (1962) pp. 62-3.

[20] Quoted in Owen (1962) p. 61.

[21] Thomas Jones (1678) pp. 542-3, quoted in Owen (1962) p. 65.

[22] Wellcome MS 4720; Stukeley (1743) p. 50.

[23] Stukeley Bod. MS Eng. misc. e. 403.

[24] Ibid. f. 15r; f. 13r. 'Brahman' is actually derived from the Sanskrit word for prayer.

[25] Tacitus, The Annals, XI, 14, quoted in Iversen (1993), p. 43.

[26] See Parry (1995) pp. 310-12.

[27] Gale (1669) 'Advertisement to the Reader'.

[28] Ibid. p. 175

[29] Ibid. p. 175.

[30] Ibid. p. 341.

[31] Sammes (1676) Preface.

[32] Parry (1995) pp. 324-5.

[33] Ibid. pp. 323-4.

[34] Newton, New College MS 361/2 f. 104.

[35] See Stukeley (1980) p. 70.

[36] Quoted in Parry (1995) pp. 325-6

[37] See Toland (1726) 188-91, and Didorus Siculus, Library of History, Book II, 47, 1-5 (Loeb Classical Library, London, 1968). Strabo, however, called Pytheas 'the very worst of liars': see Romm (1992), p. 198.

[38] Burl (2000) p. 206,

[39] Stukeley (1740) p. 5.

[40] Ibid. p. 8.

[41] Ibid. p. 8.

[42] Ibid. pp. 50, 54.

[43] Ibid. p. 1.

[44] Ibid. p. 58.

[45] Ibid. from Exodus xxiv.4.

[46] Ibid. p. 6.

[47] Sanchoniatho's Phoenician History, Translated from the First Book of Eusebius (London 1720). This 'history' had been translated into Greek by Philo Byblius and partly preserved by the Greek Church historian Eusebius (c.260-340).

[48] SS 2, p. 262. Richard Cumberland, An Essay Towards the Recovery of the Jewish Measures and Weights (London, 1699).

[49] Rowlands (1723) p. 40.

[50] Ibid. p. 45.

[51] Ibid. pp. 140-1.

[52] See Piggott (1974) p. 442 and p. 450.

[53] Quoted in Steele (1975) pp. 23, 28.

[54] See Vigneras (1977).

[55] Quoted in Vigneras (1977) p. 88. The account, titled Copia der Newen Zeytung ausz Prasillg Landt (1514), was printed in Augsburg.

[56] Stukeley (1743) p. 101.

[57] Grafton (1992) pp. 142-3.

[58] Klaiber (1976) and Grafton (1992) p. 154. Herbert cites El Inca as his source.

[59] Stukeley Bod. MS Eng. misc. e. 554 f. 88, also citing El Inca.

[60] Stukeley Bod. MS Eng. misc. c. 323 f. 75.

[61] 'Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes', published in Oeuvres complète, edited by Bernard Gognebin and Marcel Raymond (Paris, 1755), Vol. 3, p. 212, quoted Schiebinger (1993), p. 76.

[62] See Katz (1990), pp. 895-6.

[63] First published in 1696 as Nouveaux Memoires sur l'état present de la Chine. Quoted in Walker (1972) p. 199.

[64] Iversen (1993), p. 100.

[65] Quoted in Walker (1972) pp. 220-21.

[66] Ibid. p. 224.

[67] Quoted in Schmitt (1966) p. 517.

[68] Stukeley (1743) p.97. In Sales Catalogue, 'Stuckius de Sacrificiis Gentlium Lig. 1598', Piggott (1974) p. 442, cat. 539. Stukeley also owned Leibniz's Essais de Theodicee (Amsterdam 1710), Piggott (1974) p. 439, cat. 429.

[69] Schmitt (1966) p. 530.

[70] Quoted in Walker (1972) p. 199.

[71] See Singer (1989) and Davis (1983).

[72] Webb (1669) p. 206, quoted in Harrison (1990) p.154.

[73] A. Clark (ed.) The Life and Times of Anthony Wood Vol. 3, p. 236 (Oxford, 1891-1990) quoted in Marshall and Williams (1982) p. 115.

[74] Roger Gale to John Clerk, 24 June 1726, in SS 3, p. 88.

[75] Stukeley to Roger Gale, 12 September 1735, SS 2, p. 116.

[76] Katz (1990), p. 904.

[77] Beurrier's Perpetuitas Fidei also included chapters on the foreknowledge of Christian truth among the Chinese, and on the good religion of the Druids.

[78] Stukeley Bod. MS. Eng. misc. e. 124 f. 90.

[79] Stukeley, 31 July 1741, Bod. MS Eng. misc. e. 125 f. 40. He included this observation in Abury (1743) p. 78.

[80] Stukeley Bod. MS Eng. misc. c.323 f. 66.

[81] Pococke to Stukeley, Dublin, 3 January 1754, in Nichols (1817) p. 808.

[82] Stukeley Bod. MS Eng. misc. c. 323 f. 240;

[83] Macpherson (1773) p. 233.

[84] Stukeley Wellcome MS 4720 f. 1.

[85] Dobbs and Jacob (1995) p. 102. Trompf (1991) pp. 234-5, writes, 'The more one ponders Newton's axial principles … and then one relates this covert, Talmudically-inspired unorthodoxy to his fascination for the mysterious proportions of the Solomonic temple, the more one can sense the milieu of early Freemasonry.'

[86] See Stevenson (1988) on the origins of Freemasonry. The earliest reference to a 'lodge' in England, at Warrington, is recorded in the diary of Elias Ashmole, who was initiated in October 1646, whilst Robert Plot included an account of English Freemasonry in his Natural History of Stafford-shire (1686). See Stevenson (1988) pp. 219-23.

[87] Stevenson (1988) p. 5.

[88] Bod. MS Eng. misc. c. 533 ff. 34v, 36.

[89] Gould (1893) p. 131.

[90] See Gould (1893) pp. 131-2.

[91] Ibid. p. 143.

[92] Bod. MS Eng. misc. c. 533 f. 35.

[93] Gould (1893) p. 138.

[94] Anderson (1723) 'Dedication' by Désaguliers.

[95] Anderson (1723) p. 1.

[96] Ibid. pp. 4-5, 8.

[97] Ibid. pp. 10-13, 27-8.

[98] Knoop, Jones and Hamer (1963) p. 230; see pp. 229-39. I am indebted to the assistant librarian at Freemasons' Hall for drawing this pamphlet to my attention.

[99] Knoop, Jones and Hamer (1963) p. 236. Stukeley believed the 'Golden Fleece' of the legend of Jason and the Argonauts was in fact a loadstone or compass.

[100] Ibid. p. 236.

[101] Cited in Spurr (1987) p. 123. Jacob (1991) p. 25, points out that E. F. Bazot, in Manuel du Franc-Maçon (3rd edn, Paris, 1817) wrote that the Druids developed a religion that was 'uniquely universal and immutable, that is to say, freemasonry.'

[102] Bod. MS Eng. misc. e. 667/5 f. 33.

[103] Wellcome MS 4722.

[104] See Iversen (1993) pp. 55-6.

[105] Stukeley Wellcome MS 4722 f. 1

[106] Ibid. f. 2.

[107] Ibid. f. 3-5.

[108] Ibid. f. 7.

[109] Ibid. ff. 8-10.

[110] Ibid. f. 11.

[111] Philalethes (1722), p. iv. Philalethes was the pseudonym of Robert Samber.

[112] See Sullivan (1982) and Daniel (1984).

[113] In A Collection of Several Pieces of Mr John Toland, edited by P. Desmaiseaux (2 vols, London, 1726), quoted in Piggott (1989) p. 141.

[114] Sullivan (1982) p. 185.

[115] Ibid. p. 195.

[116] According to Jacob, at this time he was also becoming involved in the establishment of proto-masonic brotherhoods. Jacob (1991), p. 66. Stevenson (1988) is very critical of Jacob's account, of her 'sloppy use of the word Masonic', and her attempts to associate John Toland with early Freemasonry.

[117] Toland (1718) Appendix I p. 1.

[118] Toland (1718) p. 37.

[119] Paterson (1718) p. 62.

[120] Toland (1718) pp. 4-5.

[121] Quoted in Champion (1992) p. 168.

[122] Stukeley diary 12 May 1729, SS 2, p. 302.

[123] Stukeley Bod. MS Eng. misc. c. 323 f. 268. See also SS 1, p. 223.

[124] Abel Boyer, The Political State of Great Britain, XXIII (1722) p. 342. This quote was brought to my attention by Justin Champion.

[125] Stukeley to Roger Gale, 25 June 1730, in SS 3, p. 267.

[126] Piggott (1985) p. 85, and (1989) p. 143.

[127] Owen (1962) p. 121; Smiles (1994) p. 85.

[128] Stukeley Wellcome MS 4720 ff. 1-2. The 'present purpose' of this work was to give 'a succinct account chiefly of the most memorable names, & monuments' of the Druids that had survived to that date 'in our own islands, or on the continent'. The MS refers to the publication of Abury, which appeared in 1743, and is dedicated to Montagu, who died in 1749, so must have been composed between these two dates.

[129] Stukeley (1743) p. iii.

[130] Ibid. p. 73.

[131] Bertram to Stukeley, 5 March 1759, Bod. MS Eng. letters b.2, f. 66r.

[132] See Stukeley (1763b), pp. 12-13.

[133] Roger Gale to Stukeley, 20 May 1743, in SS 1, p. 359.

[134] Stukeley to Revd Ambrose Pimlow, 9 March 1734, SS 1, p. 274.

[135] Tindal, (1730), p. 3.

[136] Ibid. p. 4.

[137] Stukeley (1743) p. 6.

[138] See Walker (1972) pp. 231-49.

[139] See Ramsay (1748). Leland (1754-56), 2.600-1. Leland also wrote an Answer to a Late Book Entitled 'Christianity as Old as the Creation' (1733)

[140] Leland (1754) Vol. I p. 411.

[141] Ibid. p. 1.

[142] Ibid. pp. 1, 425.

[143] Ibid. p. 426.

[144] Ibid.

[145] Ibid. p. 427.

[146] Ibid. p. 432.

[147] Stukeley to Wake, 3 June 1729, in Stukeley (1980) pp. 141-2.

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