ABSTRACT
If not for Freemasonry, omas Dunckerley would have been an obscure historical gure indeed. It is unclear how early or how widely his spurious birth story was disseminated beyond Dunckerley’s own mailing lists. e claim appears in the press, casually, by the late 1770s, and the very rst public mention may be the mocking notice about the occasional lodge Dunckerley held at Coxheath. e eighteenth-century press was not known for its discretion, thus its silence about Dunckerley’s alleged recognition is a persuasive argument that Dunckerley was not entirely forthcoming about the reason George III awarded him a pension. At this juncture, revisiting the 1796 version of the accepted narrative, together with an examination of its importance to Masonic scholars, would be helpful. e denouement of the nal instalment of the accepted narrative is George III’s recognition of Dunckerley as an illegitimate son of George II. All good things in Dunckerley’s later life might be seen to proceed from that. Dunckerley acquired a modest title, ‘Esquire’, assumed a coat of arms based upon those of his royal father, was awarded a very welcome pension, eventually was assigned better apartments in Hampton Court Palace and, most important, he nally commanded the respect he deserved. As with so many other Dunckerley ‘facts’, these are a good deal less factual than they might seem at rst blush. Still,
George III’s recognition, sometimes termed ‘acknowledgement’, has a rm date attached: 7 May 1767.
