John Yarker: A Biographical Timeline. Compiled by Barry Loft.

John Yarker: A Bibliography of Printed Works (Books and Pamphlets) (Illustrated). Compiled by Barry Loft.

John Yarker: A Bibliography (Newspapers and Serials). Compiled by Barry Loft.

John Yarker: A Biographical Study, by Barry Loft. (Illustrated). Part One covers Yarker’s Jacobite ancestry & related aspects of his genealogy; his parents’ background and occupations; his childhood in Swindale, Shap in Westmorland, & in Rawtenstall, Lancashire; & his later family life in Manchester. Part Two details Yarker’s working life from his apprenticeship in a Cotton Mill at Rawtenstall in 1847 through to his retirement in 1902, and related aspects beyond that.

John Yarker: His Career in the Craft, Mark Masonry, and the Royal Arch, by Barry Loft (Illustrated). A comprehensive account of Yarker’s Masonic career in these three Orders, inclusive of unpublished correspondence between him and the Grand Scribe E of Supreme Grand Chapter, William Gray Clarke, regarding his petition for the Chapter of Fidelity No. 623 (430).

Knights Templar and Knights Templar Priests documents. Includes an edited, annotated and enhanced version of the first draft of Yarker’s Notes on the Orders of the Temple and St. John and the Jerusalem Encampment, Manchester; a summary of the Minutes of the Tabernacle of St John of Jerusalem No. 9 (1828-1845); an inventory of the Tabernacle taken on 6 May 1841; a Muster Roll of the Members of the Jerusalem Tabernacle No. 9; and a further inventory of furniture taken on 2 July 1851. Added to recently extended annotations to the former, this has been further enhanced by the inclusion of a K.T.P. ritual (1813) formerly used in the Jerusalem Tabernacle No. 9, and by a transcription of the related By-Laws and Charge of the “Seven Steps of Priesthood” (K.T.P.) as used by K.T. Camps working under authority of the Early Grand Encampment of Scotland.

Knights Templar Documents II: Three Rituals, &c. (Illustrated). Includes new transcriptions of the ‘Wigan Ritual’ of the Early Grand Encampment of Ireland (1801), with Yarker’s added mature notes written in 1912; of the K.T. ritual revision approved by Grand Conclave in 1851; plus a transcription of the ritual of the Religious and Military Order of the Temple in Scotland formerly submitted to Richard Woof, a commissioner of the then proposed Convent General, in 1868. These rituals are prefaced with an illustrated introduction which highlights in brief the medieval revival in England, and examines relevant aspects of the history of K.T. and Yarker’s career therein. Three Appendices containing items of varying significance and historical interest follow with a view to providing further context to the materials.

A Royal Arch Sketchbook by Jesse Lee (1791-1844). Lee was a leading member of the Jerusalem Encampment of the Masonic Knights Templars in Manchester before Yarker joined the Camp (see the K.T. and K.T.P. documents file), and also a Masonic artist. Something of a hero to Yarker as well, a brief biography plus a survey of newspaper reports of Lee’s activities provide an introduction to his profusely illustrated sketchbook, inclusive of transcriptions of two related letters on Royal Arch furnishings, one written by the Rev. George Oliver (1782-1867).

The Antient and Primitive Rite of Memphis in France and America: 1856-1874, by Barry Loft (Illustrated). Utilising a wealth of newspaper reports and other resources, this monograph provides a detailed exposition of the arrival in America of the Rite of Memphis and its ensuing career under the auspices of David McLellan (G.M. 1857-1861) and in particular of Harry J. Seymour (G.M. 1861-1874). Also includes materials relating to the deeply divided Grand Orient of France and the various repercussions thereof, and further accounts for the arrival of the A&PR in Great Britain at the behest of metropolitan Jewish masons in 1871. 

The Egyptian Ritual of the Book of the Dead (A paper read before the Rosicrucian College, Manchester, 20th March 1875), by John Yarker. Written as a by-product of Yarker’s ritual revision of the culminating initiatory ceremony of Perfect Pontiff—Sublime Master of the Great Work 30-90º of the Antient and Primitive Rite of Memphis, the text of the lecture is prefaced by an examination of the background to the paper and developments thereafter. That is followed by transcriptions of Yarker’s related translation of Tables of the Law of the Freemasons by Jacques-Étienne Marconis de Nègre (1876) and a further mature note on the Egyptian Book of the Dead (1894).

Origin, Aim, and Object of the Society of the Rosy Cross (A lecture written by John Yarker, and read before the Sheffield College of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia on 3 May 1879). An introduction traces Yarker’s early engagement with Rosicrucian thought via his career in K.T., culminating in his training in and practice of Mesmerism beginning in the mid-1860s. Brief details follow of his co-founding of the Manchester and Northern Counties College of the S.R.I.A. and beyond, before the immediate local background to the lecture is examined. An annotated transcription of that is followed by the supplementary Notes on the Society of the Rosy Cross (1907).

Jeremiah How’s The Freemason’s Manual; Or, Illustrations of Masonry (London, 1881). Includes an introductory bibliographical note about the volume edited by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, and a contemporary letter by Yarker confirming his authorship of Chapter 23 Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry (Memphis and Misraim). A corrected and annotated transcription follows, to which has been added a related essay on the Chapter degrees of the A&PR written by the Grand Secretary General, James Hill.

Collected Miscellaneous Genealogica by John Yarker. Materials include two articles, three private letters, and the updated & corrected sheets printed for insertion in Yarker’s Genealogy of the Surname Yarker (1882) in 1895, prefaced by an introduction to Yarker’s extensive and impressive empirical endeavours.

Speculative Freemasonry. A Historical Lecture upon the Origin of Craft and High Grade Freemasonry, and Showing the Great Antiquity of the Combined System, by John Yarker. Delivered to the Palatine and Jerusalem Chapter No. 2 of the A&PR on 31 March 1883 (Corrected & Annotated). With an introduction about the revival of the Chapter the previous year, an exposition about two key aspects of the lecture, and an addendum of two letters written by Yarker in December 1883.

Speculative Freemasonry. A Historical Lecture upon High Grade Freemasonry, but more especially the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, as compared with the Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry, by John Yarker. Delivered to the Palatine and Jerusalem Chapter No. 2 of the A&PR in Manchester on 26 November 1883 (Corrected & Annotated). Prefaced by an introduction illustrating the impediments that were used by members of the A&ASR to arrest the progress of the A&PR, into which context Yarker’s allocution is placed.

Recapitulation of All Masonry: or A Description and Explanation of the Universal Hieroglyph of the Master of Masters. Translated from the French by John Yarker (1883) (Illustrated). A newly corrected and enlarged transcription incorporating all of Yarker’s additions to his personal copy.

Journey to the East (1886), by John Yarker. A travelogue commemorating Yarker’s three-month sojourn in Constantinople and his journeys to and from the Ottoman capital. Includes as an appendix a letter published in 1890 expressing his support for the persecuted Armenian minority in Turkey.

The Symbolism of Colours (1888), by John Yarker. A little known essay expounding upon the colour symbolism of the York Rite and the so-called Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in America.

Masonry—Geometry—Symbolism—Platonism—The Mysteries (Annotated & Illustrated). A lecture delivered by John Yarker to the Liverpool Masonic Literary Society on 29 April 1890. A new transcription incorporating all of Yarker’s later corrections and additions is prefaced by a description of the background of the talk, including reproduction of a related missive addressed to Alexander Atkinson of Omaha, Nebraska.

Notes and Comments on the Ancient Masonic Charges of A.D. 1370-1686 (1891) (Illustrated) by John Yarker. Includes transcriptions of ten related letters published in various papers and journals as an appendix.

The Old York Rite and Ancient Masonry Generally (1896/1902 & 1913), by John Yarker (Annotated). A composite of three different versions of the same paper, followed by extracts from a later related article published in The Co-Mason.

Robert Henry Fryar (1844-1909): A Biographical Study, by Barry Loft (Illustrated). The first detailed biographical account of the crystallomancer, “spiritualist,” inventor, maker and supplier of “Vito-Magnetic Appliances” (Magic Mirrors, Planchette, &c.) and publisher of the “Bath Occult Reprint Series.” Includes all of Fryar’s published correspondence, notices and advertisements; related unpublished correspondence between Yarker and Dr William Wynn Westcott; an account of Fryar’s hitherto undocumented prosecution over his “Esoteric Physiology Series” under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857; and the triumphant rise of “Invictus” in the wake of the biblioclasm.

Introductions by John Yarker to Robert Henry Fryar’s publications of “Aureus:” The Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus (1886); The Letters of Hargrave Jennings (1895); Comte de Gabalis: or Discourses upon the Secret Sciences (1897); Continuation of the Comte de Gabalis, or New Discourses upon the Secret Sciences (1897); & The Assistant Génies, and Irreconcilable Gnomes, or Continuation to the Comte de Gabalis (1897). Illustrated with related ephemera.

The Harods, Rulers, or Elders of Ancient Masonry (1901), by John Yarker.

The Laws and Regulations of the Grand Mystic Temple—Council General, 32-94º, Number 1, Under the Constitution of the Sovereign Sanctuary—Supreme Gd. Council of Rites, 33-95º, (Scottish, Mizraim & Memphis), in and for the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland, its Territories and Dependencies, with a Brief History of the Origin and Progress of High-Grade Masonry (Manchester, 1903). (Illustrated & Annotated). Includes an extended “Historical Preface” by John Yarker, and an introductory explanation of the background to the publication.

The Footsteps of Freemasonry, and their Relationship with the Roman Collegia (1903/1911), by John Yarker. Corrected transcriptions of both versions of this paper, the original of which was published (in German) in The Oriflamme, the second of which was re-written and greatly expanded for publication in The Co-Mason.

Two Jewish Freemasons: Morris Rosenbaum (1871-1947) and Henry Morris Harris (c. 1846-1923) (Illustrated). Part I reproduces seven letters exchanged between Yarker and Rosenbaum between 1904 and 1905 concerning the latter’s famous lecture on the Traditional History of Hiram Abiff. Part II documents Yarker’s brief relationship with Harris, the intermediary through which he obtained translations of apocryphal Jewish materials which were subsequently published as “Two Ancient Legends Concerning the 1st Temple, termed Solomon’s Temple” in AQC. An appendix reproducing Yarker’s prefatory remarks is followed by an annotated transcription of his holograph copy of the originals.

Ancient Trade Guilds: The Earliest Known Form of Trade Union (1908) by John Yarker. Yarker’s first article following his association with Clement Edwin Stretton of the Guild of Operative Freemasons, with an illustrated introduction which draws upon unpublished correspondence. Then follows the text of Stretton’s Tectonic Art: Ancient Trade Guilds and Companies. Freemasons’ Guilds (Melton Mowbray, 1909).

On the Origin of Modern Masonry—A Lecture delivered by John Yarker (1909/10) (Illustrated). An unpublished talk on the system of the Operative Guild, prefaced by a brief introduction on the founding of the Manchester Association for Masonic Research, and a short biographical sketch of Yarker’s co-adjutor and friend Dr Thomas Carr.

The Worshipful Society of Freemasons—Otherwise Guild Freemasonry (1909), and The System of the Worshipful Society of Free Masons (1910), by John Yarker (Annotated & Illustrated). An introduction drawing on further unseen correspondence with C. E. Stretton is followed by an unpublished lecture about the ritual syllabus of the Operative Guild, and a closely related follow-up article written for The Co-Mason with an added Addenda.

On Neglected and Difficult Points of Masonic History, and Chiefly of the Ancient or Jacobite Masonry, by John Yarker (1911-1912). A newly transcribed, corrected and annotated series of eight articles written for The American Freemason.

Three Descriptions of the Ceremonies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (1869, 1871, and 1912), by John Yarker. Transcriptions of the two (out of three) finished parts of Yarker’s last ever article written for The Co-Mason about the A&ASR syllabus are supplemented by two earlier accounts of the same.

Aimée Bothwell-Gosse, Universal Co-Masonry and John Yarker (Illustrated), by Barry Loft.