Item Details

Robert Thomas Crucefix, Redux

Issue: Vol 3 No. 1 (2012)

Journal: Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism

Subject Areas: Religious Studies

DOI: 10.1558/jrff.v3i1.72

Abstract:

Robert Thomas Crucefix (1788-1850) was a charismatic and polarizing figure in English freemasonry through the 1830s until his death. He is best remembered for founding the Freemasons’ Quarterly Review and as the primary force behind the establishment of the Asylum for Worthy, Aged and Decayed Freemasons. He was not only an active Craft mason and Junior Grand Deacon in the Grand Lodge, but he also joined, and often dominated, other degrees and orders in England, Scotland, Ireland, France and the United States. Though there has been no proper biography of Crucefix, much has been written about his masonic activities, and especially about his ongoing confrontations with the Duke of Sussex, who served as Grand Master for much of the time Crucefix was a freemason.
His private life has been virtually ignored, and this is especially true for his medical career, around which a cordon sanitaire seems to have been thrown, fending off inquiry. This study is a preliminary foray beyond that boundary, exploring both Crucefix’s medical career and its broader implications.

Author: Susan Mitchell Sommers

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References :

Archives
London Metropolitan Archives
The National Archives, Kew
The Royal College of Surgeons, Museums and Archives
Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital, Archives & Museum
United Grand Lodge of England, Library and Museum
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Atlas
Berrow’s Worcester Journal (Worcester)
Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh)
The Era
Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin)
The Freemason
Freemasons’ Quarterly Review
The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, Suffolk)
London Gazette
The London Review
Masonic Observer
The Morning Chronicle
The Morning Post
Reynolds’s Newspaper
The Times
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