David Harrison is a UK-based Masonic historian who has written books on the history of

Freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

, and has contributed articles on the subject to various magazines which deal with the topic of Freemasonry around the world, such as the UK based Freemasonry Today, MQ Magazine, the US based Knight Templar Magazine, Philalethes and the Australian-based New Dawn Magazine. Harrison has also appeared on TV and radio discussing his work. Having gained his PhD from the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

in 2008 which focused on the development of English Freemasonry, the thesis was subsequently published in March 2009 entitled The Genesis of Freemasonry by Lewis Masonic, a UK-based publisher who specialise in Masonic works. The work put forward the origins of Freemasonry and discussed its development throughout the eighteenth century, Harrison championing what has been termed the 'river theory'; Freemasonry originating from the Stonemason's Guilds in England, becoming influenced by an influx of different popular ideas throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries such as

Alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, the search for the true dimensions of

Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (), was a biblical Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries Common Era, BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it ...

and

Natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...

. Harrison put forward that the French Huguenot and natural philosopher

John Theophilus Desaguliers John Theophilus Desaguliers (12 March 1683 – 29 February 1744) was a French-born British natural philosopher, clergyman, engineer and freemason who was elected to the Royal Society in 1714 as experimental assistant to Isaac Newton. He had stu ...

created the Masonic three degree system in the 1720s, being in part, influenced by the research of Sir

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...

on the dimensions of Solomon's Temple. Harrison's work and style, though academic based, has become controversial and his first book has been criticised for not having the traditional layout of a PhD thesis, for his writing technique and for publication choice. On the whole however, the work received positive reviews. His second book The Transformation of Freemasonry continues the historical analysis of English Freemasonry through the nineteenth century, looking at how the society fell out of fashion after the French Revolution and how it adapted to become a popular networking society as the Victorian era progressed. Harrison has admitted to being a Freemason in a TV interview.

Selected Works

*''The Genesis of Freemasonry'' (Lewis Masonic, 2009, 2014) *''The Transformation of Freemasonry'' (Arima Publishing, 2010) *''The Liverpool Masonic Rebellion and the Wigan Grand Lodge'' (Arima Publishing, 2012) *''A Quick Guide to Freemasonry'' (Lewis Masonic, 2013) *''The York Grand Lodge'' (Arima Publishing, 2014) *''Freemasonry & Fraternal Societies'' (with Fred Lomax; Lewis Masonic, 2015) *''The City of York: A Masonic Guide'' (Lewis Masonic, 2016) *''Christopher Rawdon: The Lost Philanthropist'' (Arima Publishing, 2016) *''The Lost Rites and Rituals of Freemasonry'' (Lewis Masonic, 2017) *''A Journey Through Freemasonry'' (Arima Publishing, 2019) *''Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry'' (Lewis Masonic, 2020) *''Masonic Mosaic: Foundations of a World under Construction'' (Masonica, 2021) *''The Rite of Seven Degrees'' (Lewis Masonic, 2021) *''The Life and Death of John Yarker'' (Lewis Masonic, 2024)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, David Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British historians