Scenes from a Biography of James Anderson: Religion and Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century English Freemasonry

Susan Mitchell Sommers
Professor of History, Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania

Dr. Sommers earned a B.A. and M.A. in history at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Washington University in St. Louis. Her fields of specialization include the Enlightenment, Early Modern and Modern Britain, the Age of Empire, Historical Method, and the History of Fraternalism. She is the author of Parliamentary Politics of a County and its Town: General Elections in Suffolk and Ipswich in the Eighteenth Century (Greenwood Press, 2002) and Thomas Dunckerley and English Freemasonry (Pickering & Chatto, 2012).  Her current book projects include: Dr. Ebenezer Sibly and his Circle: A Family’s Life in Books in Georgian London, and The Radical Brotherhood: The Society of the Gentlemen Supporters of the Bill of Rights. Both of these projects involve placing Freemasonry and Freemasons into a larger contemporary context.

Dr. Sommers’ most recent articles include, “Robert Thomas Crucefix, Redux,” Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, (September, 2013), “Hidden in Plain Sight:  The Order of the Eastern Star in the Historiography of American Women’s Associations,” Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, “Marranos, Masons, and the Case of the Mislaid Text,” Heredom, Vol. 20, (2013). Thomas Dunckerley: A True Son of Adam,” Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. 124, (2012).  Dr. Sommers recently contributed an article on Thomas Dunckerley to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, a fundamental resource for British historians since 1885.

In January 2015 Sommers will assume a General Editorship of the Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism. She is a significant contributor to the recently published Le Monde Maçonnique au XVIIIe siècle, edited by Cecile Révauger and Charles Porcet.  This publication, nearly 3,000 pages, contains the biographies of nearly 1,100 eighteenth century Freemasons from Europe, Britain and the Colonies.  Rather than focusing on masonic lodges, the 120 expert contributors place individual Freemasons in their social, cultural, philosophical and political contexts, highlighting the important connections between individuals and nations during the Enlightenment. Dr. Sommers is contributing to British Freemasonry, 1717–1813, 5 vols. (London: Pickering and Chatto), under Róbert Péter, general editor.

Lecture Summary

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