Organised Freemasonry began with the establishment in London of the Premier Grand Lodge of England on 24 June 1717. Although the event was totally ignored by the contemporary press, much of our subsequent history is covered by newspaper reports in the early part of the 18th century. The first hints of antagonism towards the Craft appeared in the London Journal on February 15 1722 when it was announced that “a treatise is likely soon to appear... to prove, that the Gypsies are a Society of much longer standing than that of the Free-Masons.”
    This was followed by the more blatant attack and the first exposure of masonic ritual that appeared as an anonymous letter in the Flying Post or Post Master No 4712 (April 11-April 13 1723). Untitled, it is commonly referred to as A Mason’s Examination, 1723. An exposure may be defined as a spurious and unauthorised disclosure of masonic ritual, usually in the form of a catechism. This particular exposure followed just a week or so on the publication of Anderson’s first Constitutions and was the first of a string of similar attacks.
    Until now, the next earliest exposure was thought to be only the figment of imagination of the author of The Free-Masons Accusation and Defence of 1726. This anonymous publication comprised six letters between father and son, in three of which the supposed father attacks the Craft, while in the rest the son feebly responds. In the first letter, the father refers to the ‘examination’ of the masons published in The Post Boy: “I remember when I was last in Town, there was a Specimen of their (the freemasons’) Examination published in the Post Boy; but so industrious were the Masons to suppress it that in a Week’s time not one of the papers was to be found; where-ever they saw ’em they made away with them.”
    The author details such efforts and states: “I cannot charge my Mind with the Date of the Paper”, urging the son to obtain one “by any Means.” He continues, stating that the masons were angered by the publication and that they “presently put out a sham Discovery to invalidate the other.”, and ends by stating that “a friend and Mason let me understand that this was a genuine Discovery”.
    To date, searches by masonic scholars for The Post Boy have been vain. Knoop, Jones & Hamer (Early Masonic Pamphlets, QCCC. 1978) concluded that The Post Boy had been confused with The Flying Post of 11-13 April 1723 in which the first exposure appeared. Not so! Last November, David Godfrey, an old friend and Channel Island dealer in old newspapers, sold me a copy of The Post Boy no 5373, dated Thursday 26 December to Saturday 28 December 1723. Halfway through the second column on the reverse of the paper is a letter addressed “to the Author of the Post Boy”, signed “Yours &c A.B.”. The catechism is clearly intended to look like an exposure of masonic ritual to a non-mason, the author making reference to the earlier and first exposure of The Flying Post in April 1723.
    This was an exciting discovery. The text of the catechism was unknown and the issue itself exceedingly rare. Clearly, here in my hands was the only known example to date of the missing copy of The Post Boy, the second earliest such document known. (Incidentally, The Post Boy first appeared in London on 28 September 1695, appearing three times a week, with Tory inclinations in its politics. Interestingly, the first edition of Anderson’s Constitutions was advertised in the February 26th-28th 1722-3 issue of The Post Boy (the dual date since, until 1752, the civil or legal year began on 25 March). The advertisement is headed “This day is published...” and thus gives us an exact date for the Constitutions).
    Brent Morris, whose speciality is deciphering and interpreting literary texts, analysed the forty-two questions and answers in The Post Boy exposure, and the entire issue will be published in facsimile, and the questions analysed in detail, in volume 7 of Heredom, the Transactions of the Scottish Rite Research Society.
    The Post Boy catechism is a well-written mixture of repetitions of neutral questions from other catechisms, logical extensions of these questions, and subtly different answers that disagree with other published exposures and ms. catechisms. For example, the first two questions are:

Q. Are you one of us?
A. I’ll stand Tryal.
Q. How will you be try’d?
A. By Question and Answer

This is similar to Samuel Prichard’s Masonry Dissected (London, 1730): “Q. Are you a Mason? A. I am; try me, prove me, disprove me if you can.” However, the next answer is unlike any found in the known catechism:

Q. What’s your Name?
A. Base or Capital, according to my Degree.

Then comes a subtle re-wording of the answer to the standard question:

Q. From whence come you?
A. From Solomon’s Temple.

The question is found in many other examinations, and the answer fits in with the many documents alluding to the importance of Solomon’s Temple to the Freemasons. The only problem is that the answer disagrees with every other catechism that has the question. The Post Boy gently misdirects the reader.
    A final example of the 24th and 35th questions will suffice to show the sort of subtle revisions to what were generally accepted as masons’ secrets.

Q. What is the Apprentice’s Word?
A. Babel.
Q. What is the Fellow Craft’s Word?
A. Jerusalem.

All of the early catechisms are in agreement that the masons had two secret words from the Bible: Boaz and Jachin. The Post Boy gives biblical B and J words, just different ones fom the rest of the catechisms. The Post Boy catechism is almost certainly a sham, a misleading publication appearing as a disclosure, intended to lead readers away from the real secrets of the Craft.
    The Post Boy continued intermittently until 30 September 1728. At its peak, in the first two decades of the century, it was one of four major newspapers published in London in quantities of between 3000 and 4000 copies per issue. The publishers took pride in coverage of news from abroad and this is reflected in the changes of title at different periods, including: The Post Boy, Foreign and Domestick; Post Boy and the Historic Account; Post Boy, the Freshest Advices, Foreign and Domestick; and the Daily Post Boy.
    The study of Freemasonry is a fascinating and compelling hobby and exceptionally satisfying when such exciting new discoveries are made.

Yasha Beresiner is Immediate Past Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge No 2076, the premier lodge of masonic research.