I have been a Freemason in the Province of North Wales for a couple of decades and have been a member of the North Wales Association for Masonic Study (NWAMS) for quite a while. It has taken me well over a decade to discover that the Association had previously released a few small booklets over the years. It has taken even longer to try and start to track down copies of those books, and I am not even 100% sure I have managed to track them all down.

Due to the lack of knowledge about these interesting and historical books among the Brethren of North Wales, along with the North Wales Association for Masonic Study celebrating its 60th anniversary, not to mention the Province of North Wales being just a few years away from celebrating its 300th anniversary. I decided it would be a good idea to ask for permission to update, modernise, and republish those old books to prevent them from being lost to time, and to enable them to be available for the use of future Masonic researchers.

Thankfully I was granted permission.

The first book in the series contains the booklet “The Background to the Rise of Freemasonry in North Wales in the 18th and 19th Centuries” by Harold Senogles, which was first published in 1972. This booklet itself builds off the Bicentenary Souvenir of The Province of North Wales 1727 – 1927 which was produced by R. H. Gough Smallwoood for the 200th anniversary of the Province of North Wales.

I hope this book will be a valuable resource for anyone wishing to research the Freemasonry in North Wales.

Enjoy your daily advancement in Masonic Knowledge with this look back into the history of the Province of North Wales.