Famous Freemasons: The Documented List
Lists of famous Freemasons are everywhere, and most are worthless. They mix memberships established by lodge records with claims copied from site to site without a source, and with names added out of malice or for entertainment.
Sorting them is possible, and it rests on one criterion: membership is proved by a document. A lodge register, a signed petition, a letter, a public statement by the person. Everything else is conjecture, however many times it has been repeated.
Why these lists go wrong
Three mechanisms combine, and knowing them is worth more than memorizing names.
The archive is patchy. Lodge records have been destroyed on a large scale — by fires, by lodges themselves during periods of persecution, by wars, and by simple neglect. Absence of a record therefore does not prove non-membership, which leaves comfortable room for unfalsifiable claims.
Accusation was long a weapon. Naming someone a Freemason has served, from the eighteenth century through the twentieth, as a way to discredit them. A significant portion of older “lists” are anti-Masonic documents whose purpose was never to inform.
Flattering annexation cuts the other way. Prestigious figures have been claimed on the strength of stylistic resemblance or supposed friendships. Mozart is documented; several contemporaries have been swept along behind him with no register to show for it.
Memberships that are established
A sample, with what supports each. This is not exhaustive — it is a set you can verify.
| Person | Dates | What supports it |
|---|---|---|
| George Washington | 1732–1799 | Initiated 1752 at Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia; Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22; took the presidential oath on a Masonic Bible |
| Benjamin Franklin | 1706–1790 | Grand Master of Pennsylvania, 1734; later Master of the Nine Sisters lodge in Paris |
| W. A. Mozart | 1756–1791 | Initiated in Vienna, 1784; composed several Masonic works |
| Mark Twain | 1835–1910 | Initiated 1861, Polar Star Lodge No. 79, St. Louis |
| Voltaire | 1694–1778 | Initiated April 1778 at the Nine Sisters, Paris, weeks before his death |
| Simón Bolívar | 1783–1830 | Documented membership, initiated in Europe |
| Rudyard Kipling | 1865–1936 | Initiated in Lahore, 1886; drew on Masonry in his writing |
| Harry S. Truman | 1884–1972 | Grand Master of Missouri, 1940; membership never concealed |
| Gerald Ford | 1913–2006 | Raised 1951; publicly acknowledged |
| Buzz Aldrin | b. 1930 | Publicly acknowledged member |
Two entries deserve a note.
Washington is the most solidly documented figure on any such list, and also the most exaggerated. He was genuinely a Mason and genuinely proud of it. He was not, however, especially active — his surviving correspondence records attending lodge rarely, and he said so himself. The image of Washington running the republic from a lodge room is a nineteenth-century embellishment.
Voltaire is routinely misrepresented. He was initiated in April 1778, at eighty-three, a few weeks before he died. He was not a Mason during the writing life he is remembered for.
The American political question
The category where the most is asserted and the least established.
What is documented: Freemasonry has been genuinely woven into American civic life. Fourteen presidents were Masons, most openly. In the nineteenth century, lodge membership was ordinary among businessmen and officeholders in a way that required no concealment — indeed, Masonic affiliation was often listed in campaign literature as a credential.
What is not: most claims about contemporary figures. There is no public register, no disclosure obligation, and the overwhelming majority of names circulating on social media rest on nothing at all.
The rule we apply on this site: we name only memberships the person has acknowledged or that published archives establish. Asserting the Masonic membership of a living person without evidence is not a hypothesis — it is an accusation, and it can damage them.
Does it explain anything?
A question of method that matters more than the list.
Usually, no. Mozart wrote The Magic Flute, whose Masonic imagery is explicit and documented — that is a genuine case of membership shaping work. But Kipling’s initiation does not explain The Jungle Book, and Truman’s does not explain the Marshall Plan.
What these biographies actually show is which social worlds Freemasonry passed through in each era, and what very different people went there looking for. A Virginia planter, a Viennese composer, a Missouri haberdasher turned president, and an astronaut have essentially nothing in common except having walked through the same door.
That is social history. It is not a key that unlocks anything.
How to check a claim yourself
Three steps, and they take minutes.
Ask what the source is. A lodge register, a signed petition, a letter, a recorded public statement. If the citation is another website, stop there.
Check the Grand Lodge. Most state Grand Lodges maintain historical records and many publish notable members. Their own archives are the primary source.
Beware the confident round number. Lists claiming “34 of the 39 signers of the Constitution” or similar precise-sounding figures are almost always inflated. The genuinely documented count among the signers is far smaller, and historians who have examined the records say so.
For the mechanics of how these legends get manufactured, our guide to Masonic symbols covers the same pattern applied to iconography.
In short
There are real famous Freemasons, and the documented list is rich enough that inventing entries is unnecessary. Washington, Franklin, Mozart, Twain, Truman — eras and lives with nothing in common but a shared threshold.
The useful reflex is a single question: where does this come from? A register, a letter, a statement — or a page citing another page. In the second case, there is nothing to discuss.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the most famous Freemasons?
Among documented memberships: George Washington, initiated in 1752 and later Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22; Benjamin Franklin, Grand Master of Pennsylvania in 1734; Mozart, initiated in Vienna in 1784; Mark Twain, initiated in St. Louis in 1861; Harry Truman, Grand Master of Missouri in 1940; and Buzz Aldrin, who has acknowledged membership publicly.
Was George Washington a Freemason?
Yes, and it is the best-documented case on any such list. He was initiated in 1752 at Fredericksburg Lodge in Virginia, later served as Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22, and took the presidential oath on a Masonic Bible. He was not, however, especially active — his own correspondence records attending lodge rarely, and the image of him governing from a lodge room is a nineteenth-century embellishment.
How many U.S. presidents were Freemasons?
Fourteen, most of them openly. Masonic membership was ordinary among officeholders in the nineteenth century and often appeared in campaign literature as a credential rather than being concealed. Truman and Ford are among the best documented in the modern era.
Why are lists of famous Freemasons unreliable?
Three reasons combine. Lodge archives are patchy — destroyed by fires, wars, persecution and neglect — so absence of a record proves nothing, leaving room for unfalsifiable claims. Naming someone a Mason has long served to discredit them, so many older lists are anti-Masonic documents. And prestigious figures get annexed on the strength of resemblance rather than records.
How can I verify whether someone was a Freemason?
Ask what the source is: a lodge register, a signed petition, a letter, or a recorded public statement. If the citation is simply another website, there is nothing there. Most state Grand Lodges maintain historical records and many publish notable members — their archives are the primary source. Be especially wary of confident round numbers, which are almost always inflated.
Does being a Freemason explain a person's work?
Usually not. Mozart's Magic Flute carries explicit and documented Masonic imagery, which is a genuine case. But Kipling's initiation does not explain The Jungle Book, and Truman's does not explain the Marshall Plan. What these biographies show is which social worlds Freemasonry passed through in each era — social history, not a key that unlocks anything.
Sources
- Lodge records of Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia, and Alexandria Lodge No. 22 — for Washington.
- Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania records, 1734 — for Franklin’s Grand Mastership.
- Grand Lodge of Missouri records, 1940 — for Truman.
- State Grand Lodge historical archives, which remain the primary source for verifying any individual claim.