MARTIN FOLKES, DEPUTY GRAND MASTER, 1724

BY BRO. DUDLEY WRIGHT, ENGLAND

THE BUILDER APRIL 1922

THE CRAFT has always attracted to its ranks men of erudition and leaning, and one of the most honoured of such is that of Martin Folkes, Deputy Grand Master, 1724.  It was perhaps fitting, in view of the interest he is said to have taken in Freemasonry and the influence he is reported to have had, that Martin Folkes should have been born in Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, the only home the Grand Lodge of England has known since it had a home of its own, the date of his birth being 29th October, 1690.  He was the eldest son of Martin Folkes, an eminent lawyer and a bencher of Gray's Inn, described in the Gray's Inn Admission Register as of Rushbrooke, County Suffolk, and admitted 18th May, 1661.  In 1695, Martin Folkes, senior, became Solicitor-General and, in 1697, Attorney-General to Catherine, Queen Dowager of Charles II.  The mother was Dorothy, the second daughter of Sir William Hovell, Kt., of Hillington Hall, near Lynn, Norfolk.  The family of Folkes is known to be of Staffordshire extraction and the first member of whom there is any record is William Fowke, as the name was anciently written, who was of eminence in Staffordshire in A. D. 1438.

When a boy of nine years, Martin Folkes, the subject of this sketch, was sent to the University of Saumur, and his tutor, Cappel, the son of Lewis Cappel, a celebrated Hebraist, described him as "a choice youth of a penetrating genius and master of the beauties of the best Roman and Greek writers." Soon after, in February, 1706, at the age of seventeen, he was sent to Clare Hall, Cambridge, under the care of Dr. Laughton, where he made great progress in mathematics and other studies, and after gaining his baccalaureate, he proceeded to the degree of Master of Arts on 6th October, 1717.

Some estimate of his progress at the University may be made from the fact that he was only twenty-three years of age when he was, on the 29th July, 1714, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, his name having been accepted for nomination on the previous 13th of December.  A little more than two years after his election - on 30th November, 1716 - he was chosen as a member of the Council of the Society, an honour renewed annually until 1727, and, in 1722, an addition was made to the distinction by his appointment by the President, Sir Isaac Newton, as one of the Vice-Presidents.  Folkes often presided at the meetings in the absence of his chief and on one occasion he was told by Dr. Jurin, the secretary, who dedicated to Folkes the 34th volume of the Transactions, that "the greatest man that ever lived (meaning Sir Isaac Newton) singled him out to fill the chair and to preside in the Society when he himself was so frequently prevented by indisposition, and that it was sufficient to say of him that he was 'Sir Isaac's friend.'" On the death of Sir Isaac Newton, in 1727, Sir Hans Sloane and Martin Folkes competed for the presidency, the latter being unsuccessful.  In 1729 Folkes again became a member of the Council and, in 1732 and 1733, was asked by Sir Hans Sloane again to accept a Vice-Presidency, which he did, and, on 30th November, 1741, he succeeded Sir Hans Sloane as President.  He presented the Society with a fine portrait of himself, painted by Hogarth.

Folkes was married on 18th October, 1714, at St. Helen's, Bishopgate, to Lucretia Bradshawe, when he was described as "of Nafferton, Yorkshire" and his bride as "of St. Andrew's Holborn." Dr. Doran, in Their Majesties' Servants, writes:

"At this period (about 1714) the stage lost a lady who was as dear to it as Queen Anne, namely Mrs. Bradshaws.  Her departure, however, was caused by marriage, not by death; and the gentleman who carried her off, instead of being a rollicking gallant or a worthless peer, was a staid, solemn antiquary, Martin Folkes, who rather surprised the town by wedding young Mistress Bradshawe.  The lady had been on the stage about eighteen years; she had trodden it from early childhood, and always with unblemished reputation.  She had her reward in an excellent, sensible, and wealthy husband, to whom her exemplary and prudent conduct endeared her; and the happiness of this couple was well established. She won applause as the originator of the characters of Corinna in 'The Conspirator,' Sylvia in 'The Double Gallant,' and Arabella Zeal in 'The Fair Quaker."'

The author of the History of the English Stage also describes her as "one of the greatest and most promising genii of her time" and says that she was taken off the stage by Mr. Folkes "for her exemplary and prudent conduct." Unhappily many years before Martin Folkes' demise the wife became mentally unbalanced and had to become the inmate of an asylum.

In 1719 Folkes was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, afterwards becoming a Vice-President.  When Algemon, Duke of Somerset, for many years President of the Society, died on 9th February, 1750, Martin Folkes was immediately chosen to succeed him, in which office he was continued by the Charter of Incorporation, which was granted on 2nd November, 1751.  It was Folkes himself who, in conjunction with Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, obtained a Charter of Incorporation for the Society.  Prior to his election as President of this body, Oxford had conferred upon him the Doctorate of Civil Law, and Cambridge, his alma mater, the Doctorate of Laws, when on the occasion of a visit from the Chancellor, the Duke of Newcastle.  It is said that when he was "capped" at Oxford, he returned them "a compliment in a Latin speech, admired for its propriety and elegance."

Folkes was also an associate of the Egyptian Club and a member of a literary club, known as the Spalding Society.  He was the patron of George Edwards, the naturalist, and gave some help to Theobald for his Notes on Shakespeare.  At one time he had an ambition for Parliamentary honours, for he contested Lynn as a Whig in 1747.

Dr. Robert Smith, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1736, and preceptor to William, Duke of Cumberland, was indebted to Folkes for some curious information which he embodied in his great work on Optics and acknowledged in his Preface to the quarto edition published in 1738. Folkes also edited C. Maclaurin's Treatise on Algebra.  He was renowned as a numismatist and had a famous collection of coins and medals.  On his travels through Italy he compiled a Dissertation on the Weights and Values of Ancient Coins.  The only copies of his works in the British Museum are: 1, a Table of English Gold Coins from the 18th year of King Edward III, with weights and values, London, 1736, 4to. 2, A Table of English Silver Coins from the Norman Conquest to the present time, with weights, values, and remarks, 1745, 4to- 3, Tables of English Silver and Gold Coins, in three parts, 1763, published after his death.

There are some interesting references to Martin Folkes, or to what may not inappropriately be described as "Martin Folkes and his Circle" in the Journal and Letters of John Byrom, the inventor of a system of shorthand and who dedicated to Folkes some verses entitled "A Humorous Account of the Epping Forest Robbery." Some of the more important are here reproduced:

"1725, Tuesday, 9th February. Bob Ord came in while I was writing and I went to him to the Club in Paul's Church Yard, where were Mr. Brown, Derham, White, Glover, Heathcote, Graham, Foulkes, and another: we talked about the 'Religion of Nature delineated,' the character of which book I asked Mr. Brown."

"1725. Tuesday, 9th March.  Thence to the Club in Paul's Church Yard, where we had two barrels of oysters, one before and another after supper, Mr. Leycester, Glover, White, Bob Ord, Graham, Foulkes, Sloan, Derham, Heathcote, a talking gent.  I had never seen there before; paid 2s. 6d. a piece.  Mr. Brown they said had got the gout.  We talked much of something and nothing, about Dr. Vincent's copying of letters, and I told them I was going to establish a Cabala Club that were guessers."

"1725. Thursday, 11th March.  When we were at dinner the Duke of Richmond and Mr. Foulkes [came in]. . . . The Duke of Richmond was very merry and good company; Mr. Foulkes just mentioned my having found out shorthand, but nothing more was said on it then.  I came to the Society in the coach with the Duke of Richmond, Mr. Foulkes, and Mr. Sloan and we talked about Masonry and Shorthand."

"1725. Tuesday, 6th April . . . to Paul's Church Yard, where Mr. Leycester and I went, Mr. Graham, Foulkes, Sloan, Glover, Montagu. . . . I had a scallop shell and Welsh rabbit.  Mr. Leycester and I walked home together.  There was a Lodge of Freemasons in the room over us, where Mr. Foulkes, who is Deputy Grand Master, was till he came to us. Mr. Sloan was for taking me upstairs if I would go: I said I would, and come back if there was anything I did not like and then he bid me sit down."

"1725. Tuesday, 29th June. Mildmay and I went to the Sun in Paul's Church Yard, it was past ten when we came there; there were twelve of us only, Foulkes, Graham, Brown, Derham, Bob Ord, Sloan, Heathcote, Hauksbee, Dr. Anteney, and a stranger that Mr. Foulkes brought. . . . Mr. Foulkes said that Dr. Stukeley had said that he could read the Egyptian hieroglyphics as well as English,"

In June, 1725, the Duke of Richmond, then Grand Master, was created a Knight of the Bath, but was unable to attend the investiture in consequence of attack of smallpox.  His proxy at the ceremony was Sir George Sanders, who was accompanied by Martin Folkes, then Deputy Grand Master and an intimate friend of the Duke, who furnished the Duke with a full account of the investiture.  The Duke, acknowledging Folkes' letter eight days after its receipt, said:

"I am very much asham'd when I think how long I have defer'd answering your two obliging letters, especially when I consider that I ought to have writ first to thanks you, as I do now, for the goodness you have had in letting us have your company here at Goodwood, but staying so little a while is but tantalizing us, for as soon as one had the pleasure of your acquaintance, your affairs oblig'd you to go.  But next summer, if I return to Sussex, you will, I hope, remember your promise of staying some time with me, in being my Squire.  I fear the fatigue you underwent, might hinder the pleasure of the entertainment.  I wish it lay in my power to show you in a more essential way, how great a value and friendship I have for you.  I have been guilty of such an omission that nobody less than the Deputy Grand Master can make up for me. . . . I desire you would present my humble service to Mrs. Folkes.  I hope she was entertained at the Instalment."

In 1733, Martin Folkes went abroad with his family to Italy and remained abroad for about two years and a half.  He was armed with letters of introduction from the Duke of Richmond and was warmly greet by the many friends of the Duke whom he met while upon his travels.  Apparently Mrs. Folkes was not received with open arms by all and sundry, but possibly an explanation of this and of the following letter which Tom Hill, the Duke's steward wrote to the Duke on 20th July, 1733, is that the mental malady from which she afterwards suffered so acutely was then in manifestation.  The steward's communication was as follows:

"With much ado I obtain'd leave to transcribe the following account relating to Mrs. Folkes out of a letter that came from abroad, having first sworn no to tel the person that sent it.

"'There is come hither a Lady with her husband, three children, and a monky, who are no more exempt from obedience to her, one than another, and all seemingly fellow-sufferers alike.  I happen'd to be at a visit when she came in. In all my life did I never hear such an insupportable creature, nor so much nonsense in so small a space of time.  You will be surpris'd when I tell you the husband is reckon'd as clever a man as any in England.  His name is Folkes (Martin Folkes as she cals him) who used to be very much with the Duke of Richmond.  The lady he married is very wel known in England.  He designs making the tour of Italy and France, by which time I don't doubt but she wil turn out the most accomplisht of fine Ladys.  She did think indeed of bringing a little dog and a cat to keep poor pug company, but that they could not possibly find more room in the coach.  Such characters are no where to be met abroad, whatever they may be in England, and even there I never saw one come up to this.'

"This is al that was read to me out of the letter.  I could not help saying, what I fancy you'l join with me in, Poor Martin! In an evil hour didst thou take to thy bosom this Lady Mar-all."

The Duke of Richmond gave Martin Folkes a letter of introduction to Princess Pamphili, in which he spoke of him as "a gentleman of very good family, and one of the leading savants of this kingdom."

Similarly, in a letter to the Countess Celia Borromea, he wrote:

"I may venture to say that this letter will be attended with one agreeable circumstance to your Excellency which is that of introducing one of the most learned and at the same time most agreeable men in Europe to you, besides this he is one of the most intimate and dearest friends I have in the world, which I am vain enough to hope will not lessen him in your Excellency's esteem.  His name is Mr. Folkes: he is a member of our Royal Society and has been a great while our Vice-President, he was an intimate acquaintance of the great Sir Isaac Newton, for whose memory, as every man of learning must, he has the utmost veneration."

There seems to be some confusion with regard to a medal either designed, or struck, by Martin Folkes, or struck in his honour.  Hawkins, in his Medallic Illustrations, says of a medal, dated 1740:

"In February 1740, James Anthony Dossier, a nephew of Jean Dossier, engraver to the Mint at Geneva, published proposals for executing several medals of famous men living in England.  The set was to consist of thirteen medals and the subscription to be four guineas, but if sold singly, the price was 7s. 6d. each.  The medal of Martin Folkes was first made.  The dies were engraved in London, but the medaig were struck abroad, because no engines were allowed for that purpose in this country."

According to Hawkins, however, there was a second medal, bearing the date of 1742, which he says:

"Was executed at Rome, and, tradition says, by especial command of the Pope, unknown to Folkes whom it was intended to surprise during his visit to Italy. Freemasonry was originally named 'Lux' and is said to have existed from the Creation.  Folkes' visit to Rome took place in 1733.  It is much more probable that the medal was struck at Rome to show the high esteem in which Folkes was held in that city of antiquities and about the time he was elected a member of the French Academy. There is in the British Museum an early proof of this medal struck before the legends were added or the type of the obverse finished."

The Papal tradition obviously is without foundation.  Clement XII occupied the papal chair in 1733, and Benedict XIV in 1742, and both condemned the Masonic Order in unmistakable language, so that it is scarcely likely that either would sanction the issue of a medal in honour of so distinguished a Freemason.

This medal by some means left the possession of the Folkes family, but, about 1890, it was recovered by Bro.  Sir William Ffolkes, Bart., a lineal descendant, whose brother-in-law found it in a curiosity shop in Norwich. In the History of the Philanthropic Lodge, No. 107, King's Lynn, published in 1911, it is stated that "Sir William Ffolkes has in his possession a bronze medal, which was struck in honour of Martin Folkes by the Masons resident in Rome in the year 1742, and also an original letter from the Duke of Richmond to his Deputy, Martin Folkes, asking him to make his excuses for not attending to a report from a Charity Committee, and thanking him for an old record he had sent him, which he stated was really very curious, and a certain proof of Masons' antiquity by the Unbelievers.  Martin Folkes constituted the Maid's Head Lodge, the earliest Lodge on the roll of Norfolk Freemasonry [No. 30 in the 1725 List, erased in 1809.-D. W.] and his name appears in the first list of members in 1725."

S. Russell Forbes says (Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, xiv) that Martin Folkes founded a lodge in Rome in 1742 and named it after Fabius Maximus.  "He had a medal struck at the Papal Mint, engraved by Hamerain.  On the obverse is his bust, and on the reverse a sphinx in the foreground, on the side of which is the crescent moon.  Behind is the pyramid tomb of Caius Cestius, thus a rectangle is introduced twice, as two sides of the tomb are shown.  At the northeast and northwest corners of the pyramid are two columns, so the tomb and columns might suggest the temple.  In the south the sun shines in full splendor, above all is the motto, Sua sidera norunt.  At the base is Romae, A.L. 5742."

On the 5th September, 1742, Martin Folkes had been elected a member of the French Academy, to fill the vacancy caused by the demise of the celebrated Halley, and, in the words of the Minute "the Academy thought it could not better repair the loss than by the election of M. Folkes in his place." The Minute also mentions in terms of high praise his communications to the Royal Society on the subject of Weights and Measures.

Weld in his History of the Royal Society also says that "Martin Folkes was a man of extensive knowledge, who has, however, rendered more service to archaeology than to science; the latter being chiefly enriched by his work on the intricate subject of coins, weights, and measures."

At the anniversary meeting of the Society in 1753, Martin Folkes resigned the Presidency, to the great regret of the Fellows, who immediately passed the following resolution:

"Resolved: That the thanks of the Society be returned to Martin Folkes, Esq., their worthy President, for the many great services which they have received from him, both as Member and as President, of which they shall retain the highest sense.  And that he be assured of the great concern which they feel that his ill state of health will not permit him any longer to discharge the office of President, which he has so many years filled with so much credit to himself and advantage to the Society."

Dr. Stukeley's testimony, which appears in his Common Place Book, is of particular interest in view of a more lengthy, statement which appeared later from his pen.  He thus alludes to the meetings held under Folkes' presidency:

"They are a most elegant and agreeable entertainment for a contemplative person:  here we meet, either personally or in their works, all the geniuses of England, or, rather of the whole world, whatever the heavens present.  My custom is, when I return home and take a contemplative pipe, to set down the memoirs of what entertainments we have there."

Martin Folkes was succeeded in the Presidency by the Earl of Macclesfield, who, from the time of his election to the Council evinced a warm interest in the Society.

Weld, in summarizing the years of the Presidency of Martin Folkes, says:

"It is but just to Mr. Folkes to state that he left the Society in a much more flourishing condition than when he was elected President; for, at the time of his resignation, their funded capital amounted to 3,000 pounds.  A careful examination of the voluminous Minutes of the ordinary meetings, extending over the eleven years that he was in office, enables me to state that he was scarcely ever absent from the chair, and that the meetings were honoured by a greater number of visitors than usual, numbering frequently as many as thirty or forty.  Indeed, so much inconvenience was occasionally experienced by the crowds desiring to be admitted, that the President was obliged to request the Fellows to exercise a little discretion in bringing visitors and to enforce the standing order precluding their admission until leave had been obtained from the Society in the usual manner."

On the 26th September, 1753, Martin Folkes was seized with paralysis, as a result of which he was deprived of the use of his left side.  In this unhappy situation he lingered on until 28th June, 1754, when a second stroke put an end to his mortal career.  He was buried in Hillington Church near Lynn, in Norfolk, under a black marble slab in the chancel, with no other inscription than his name and the date of his death, in accordance with the provisions of his last will, dated September, 1751. He bequeathed 200 pounds to the Royal Society, in addition to a cornelian ring, on which was engraved the arms of the Royal Society, for the use of the President.  He also bequeathed 400 pounds a year for life to his wife and he left, 12,000 pounds to each of his daughters.  In 1792 a monument was erected to him in the south side of the choir of Westminster Abbey.

Stukeley's Diary contains an entry dated 28th June, 1754, which reads as follows:

"This morn, about four, dyed Martyn Folkes, of a repeated paralytic stroke.  He had just finished his new house adjoining to his own in a most elegant manner, though always incapable of having the least enjoyment from it.  He has remained for this three or four year a most miserable object of dereliction from that Deity which he supposed took no account of our actions and had not provided for an immortal part."

It is singular that Dr. Stukeley should have waited until after Folkes' death before he ventured to attack him, but his entry in his Common Place Book is more lengthy and more spiteful.  He there writes:

"Martin Folkes has an estate of near 3,000 pounds got by his father-in-law.  He is a man of no economy.  Before at age he married Mrs. Bracegirdle off the stage.  His mother grieved at it so much that she threw herself out of a window and broke her arm.  His only son broke his neck off a horse back at Paris.  His eldest daughter ran away with a bookkeeper and who used her very ill.  Quarrelling with Sir Hans Sloane about the Presidentship of the Royal Society and being baffled he went to Rome with his wife and daughters, dog, cat parra, and monkey.  There his wife grew religiously mad.  He went to Venice and got a dangerous hurt upon his leg.  Returning he was successor to Sir Hans Sloane, President of the Royal Society.  Losing his teeth he speaks so as not to be understood.  He constantly refuses all papers that speak of longitude.  He chases the Council and officers out his junto of Sycophants that meet him every night at Rawthmilis coffee house, or that dine with him on Thursdays at the Miter, Fleet Street.  He has a great deal of learning, philosophy, astronomy; but knows nothing of natural history.  In matters of religion an errant infidel and loud scoffer.  Professes himself a godfather to all monkeys, believes nothing of a future state, of the Scriptures, of revelation.  He perverted Duke of Montagu, Richmond, Lord Pembroke, and very many more of the nobility, who had an opinion of his understanding; and this has done an infinite prejudice to Religion in general, made the nobility throw off the mask and openly deride and discountenance even the appearance of religion, which has brought us into that deplorable situation we are now in, with thieves and murderers, perjury, forgery, etc.  He thinks there is no difference between us and animals; but what is owing to the different structure of our brain, as between man and man.  When I lived in Ormond Street in 1720, he set up an Infidel Club at his house on Sunday evenings, where Will Jones, the mathematician, and others of the heathen stamp, assembled.  He invited me earnestly to come thither, but I always refused.  From that time he has been propagating the infidel system with great assiduity and made it even fashionable in the Royal Society, so that when any mention is made of Moses or the deluge, of religion, Scriptures, etc., it generally is received with a loud laugh.  In September, 1751, being of a very gross habit, great eater and drinker, he was seized with the cholic, which soon terminated in a hemiplegia.  He has now been confined a twelvemonth in this miserable state, but so far from correcting his irreligious notions that he's grown worse if possible.  In two years time he dyed in a deplorable manner.  Two years after his daughters both married to indigent persons."
 
There is some slight corroboration of his irreligious opinions in an entry in Byrom's Diary under date of 26th March, 1736, when he wrote:

"Mr. Johnson talked about the Duke of Montague and I walked with him through the Strand and he said Martin Folkes talked strangely about religion."

The editor of the book however adds:

"Probably against religion as he had seen it exhibited in Rome and Florence, where he had resided two years and had lately returned (September, 1735) to England."

Martin Folkes destroyed many manuscripts shortly before his death, some of which, it is thought, would have thrown light upon the early history of the organized Craft in England.  His library was sold by Samuel Baker, of York Street, Covent Garden, W. C. The sale began on Monday, 2nd February, 1756, and continued for forty days.  There were in all 5,126 items, the sum realized being 3,091 pounds 6s., which was a large sum in those days, although a great many items were withdrawn from the sale.

The present family of Ffolkes descends from Martin Folkes' brother, William Folkes, barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, agent to the Duke of Montague in Lancashire, who married, as his second wife, the only daughter and heiress of Sir William Browne, President of the Royal College of Physicians.  There was only one child of this marriage, Martin Folkes, who changed the spelling of his name and styled himself Martin Browne Ffolkes after the death of his grandfather.  He was created a Baronet on 26th May, 1774.  The present bearer of the title, Sir William Edward Browne Ffolkes, is the fourth Baronet and brother of the third Baronet, who had only one child, a daughter, now the wife of Lieut.-Col. the Hon.  John Dawnay.  The present Rector of Hillington - the Rev. F.A.S. Ffolkes, M.V.O., J.P., Chaplain in Ordinary to the King and Chaplain of the King's Own Norfolk Yeomanry-is a brother of the present Baronet.

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