CALCOTT, WELLINS

A distinguished Masonic writer of the eighteenth century, and the author of a work published in 1769, under the title of A Candid Disquisition of the Principles and Practices of the Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons; together with some Strictures on the 0rigin, Nature, and Design of that Institution, in which he has traced Freemasonry from its origin, explained its symbols and hieroglyphics, its social virtues and advantages, suggested the propriety of building halls for the peculiar and exclusive practice of Freemasonry and reprehended its slanderers with great but judicious severity.

This was the first extended effort to illustrate philosophically the science of Freemasonry, and was followed, a few years after, by Hutchinson's admirable work ; so that Oliver justly says that ''Calcott opened the mine of Freemasonry, and Hutchinson worked it.