The mountain Democrat., 1864-07-23
[Fron the 8. ?. Sunday NsreuryJ
A QUESTION AND ITS ANSWER,

"BRo. WIGGIN VIII you please in.
form me If it is true thGt the degrees o.
Masonry have been conferred OH a wo
manG have frequently heard the as
sertion made that q woman was once
made Mason, but have never been able
to obtain any reliable information con-
cerning so extraordinary proceeding.
Yours, &C., CURIOSITY"
Yes, it is true, and the fact is well au.
thenticated. Miss Elizabeth St. Leger
was the only female ever initiated into
the mysteries of Freemasonry. The story
is an interesting one, and, as nearly as We
can remember it, is as follows:-The faith
er of Miss ST. Leger, Lord Donevaile, was
a very jealous Mason, and held warrant
from the Grand Lodge of Ireland to open
a Lodge and confer the degrees Of Mason
ry. lie occasionally opened a Lodge at
Donevaile House, his sons and some in
innate friends assisting; and it is said
that never were Masonic duties more rig
idly performed than by them. On one
occasion, during the initiation Of gentle
man, Miss st. Leger, who was then q
young girl, happened TO be in an apart
ment adjoining the room generally used
as Lodge Room. This room at the time
was undergoing some alteration; among
other things, the wall was considerably
reduced in one part. The young lady
having heard the voices Of the Freema-
sons, and prompted by the curiosity nat.
ural to her sex to see this mystery, so
long and so secretly locked up from pub.
lie view, picked brick from the wall
with her scissors and witnessed the cere-
monies through the first and second de-
greeS. Her curiosity having been salts
fled, fear at once took possession of her
mind. There was no mode of escape ex-
cept through the very room where the
concluding part of the ceremonies in the
second degree were being solemnized, ,and
this being large room, dimly lighted,
and the brethren all assembled at the
farther end, she had the courage to at
tempt her escape that way. With light
but trembling steps. she gllded along un-
observed, and, gently opening the door,
to her horror and dlsmay, before her
stood grim and surly Tyler, with his
long sword unsheathed. A shrek that
pierced through the apartment alarmed
the members of the Lodge, who, oil rush
ing to the door, and finding that Miss St.
Leger had been in the room during the
ceremony, determined, in the first parox-
ysm of rage, to put her to death but,
from the earnest supplication of her
youngest brother, her life was spared on
condition Of her going through the whole
of the ceremony which she had unlawful.
ly witnessed. To this she consented, and
they conducted the beautiful and terrified
young lady through those trials which
are sometimes more than enough for mas
culine resolution, little thinking they
were taking into the bosom Of the Fra
ternity member who would afterwards
reflect a lustre on the annals of Masonry.
Miss St. Leger was afterwards married to
Richard Aldworth, Esq, Of Newmarket,
and was greatly respected and beloved for
her many virtues. Whenever benefit
was given at the theatres in Dublin or
Cork, for the masonic Female Orphan
Asylum" she walked at the head Of the
Freemasons, wearing her apron and other
Masonic insignia, and sat in the front row
Of the stage box. The house was always.
crowded on these occasions. Her portrait
is in the Lodge Room Of almost every
Lodge in Ireland.