Masons' Marks

 

by

Wallace McLeod 

(1931 - 2020)

      One of the main symbols of the degree of Mark Master is the mason’s mark.  It is a type of identifying device that goes back long before the invention of writing.  In many societies a craftsman would set his mark on his handiwork to identify it as his production; this was done not just by stonecutters, but also by other artisans, such as pottery makers.  Thirty-five years ago I had the opportunity to do some archeological work in Greece, and I can testify that potters 5000 years ago, in the Late Stone Age, used to put marks on the vessels they had cast.  This is more than a thousand years before real writing reached that part of the world.

     It doesn’t seem likely that such marks were actually on building stones until considerably later, and probably not at the time of King Solomon’s Temple.  But if you look at the great stone-built cathedrals of Europe, you will find that many of the individual stones do have marks inscribed on them.  They are usually simple, being composed of straight lines, and sometimes including squares, angles, and triangles.  These are masons’ marks.   

    It is clear on most instances that they were never to be seen when the building was completed, because they were carved on a part of the stone that was to be concealed by another stone, or covered by a coating of lime or plaster.  Evidently they must have played a role of some sort in the building process.  We can’t be absolutely certain, but we guess that every fellow of the craft had his own sign; and when he finished squaring a stone for use in the intended structure, he would put his sign on the stone.

    We don’t know exactly why this was done, but the Masonic degree of Mark Master suggests that it was connected with the mechanics of paying the workmen their proper wages; and that is probably a good an explanation as any.  The clerks would keep a tally of the stones carrying a particular mark, and if remuneration were paid by the piece, they would know how much pay a particular workman deserved.  If on the other hand the workmen were paid by the day, then the clerks would be able to ascertain whether this or that stonecutter was doing his proper share.

    Modern historians have recorded and compared the masons’ marks in hundreds of old stone buildings, and this may in some instances have enabled them to trace how individual craftsmen migrated from job to job in England 600 years ago.  And the marks are even mentioned in the builders’ regulations.  The Schaw Statutes for stonemasons in 1598 specify that every new Master or Fellow of Craft is to be admitted in the presence of six Masters and two Entered Apprentices, and that his name and his mark must be recorded in a book, together with the date of his admission.  The oldest set of minutes we have from a Masonic lodge belong to the Lodge at Edinburgh, and are dated 1599.  They are signed by the Warden and attested by his mark.

    In fact, the mark was such an essential part of Masonry that even accepted or non-operative masons were required to adopt one.  Take, for example, possibly the very first “gentleman freemason” to join the Craft, Sir Robert Moray, a notable soldier and diplomat, secretary of the Royal Society, and General Quartermaster to the Army of Scotland.  On 20 May 1641, at Newcastle, England, as the army was marching south, he was admitted a member of the Lodge at Edinburgh, and he adopted as his mark the five-pointed star.  Sixteen years later he wrote his friend the Earl of Kincardine, explaining how he interpreted the star to be an allegorical representation of the word “love.” 

     Again, in 1670 the by-laws of the Lodge at Aberdeen are signed by all 49 members of the Lodge, and 45 of them also affix their mark, even though most of them were non-operative.  Altogether, it is clear that the mason’s mark was regarded as indispensable in the Scottish Lodges.  In fact, the weight of the evidence makes it look as if the Mark Degree did originate in Scotland, even though we do not have any Scottish reference to the degree until 1770.  At that date it mentioned as one of the qualifications for the Royal Arch.

 

(Reprinted from The Royal Arch Mason, Volume 17, Number 10, Summer 1993, pages 293 - 294)