Book: The Natural History of Staffordshire by Robert Plot, LLD
Entry/Object ID
M 17.9423 P68n 30010856
Collection
Library Special Collection
Made/Created
Date made
1686
Research Notes
Research Type
Facebook Post
Person
Chelsea Hansen
Date
Mar 28, 2025
Notes
One of the Earliest Recorded Freemasons
Elias Ashmole was a well-known English politician, writer, antiquarian, and Freemason of the 17th century. His journals contain one of the earliest records of a Masonic initiation (1646). He died in 1692, twenty-five years before the Grand Lodge of England was created (1717).
Some of the oldest items in our Library & Museum's collection are related to Elias Ashmole. These include a copy of 'The Natural History of Staffordshire (1686)' by Robert Plot, (Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum), and a hop token with the initials "E.A." engraved on it.
Hop tokens were used to quantify the amount of hops an individual picked, so that they could be compensated by the landowner. This hop token was issued by Elias Ashmole, as indicated by his initials. It is one of our newest donations to the Library & Museum!
#hops #ashmolean #staffordshire #ArtifactFriday
