Espionage, Diplomacy & the Lodge: Charles Delafaye and The Secret Department of the Post Office - Paperback

by Ric Berman (Author)

Espionage, Diplomacy & the Lodge is one of Ric Berman's most important works. The book unveils Charles Delafaye, one of eighteenth-century Britain's least known but most influential figures, a senior under-secretary of state, investigating magistrate, anti-Jacobite spymaster and leading freemason. Delafaye was a member of the elite Horn Tavern lodge in London and at the centre of the government's inner circle for some two decades. He was also a key conduit for intelligence from the Secret Department of the Post Office and the decrypters and code-breakers within its deciphering branch, and central to the measures taken against the supporters of James Stuart, 'the king over the water'. Berman provides a unique glimpse into Britain's early secret intelligence service and outlines for the first time the interconnections between freemasonry, espionage and diplomacy.

Author Biography

Dr Richard (Ric) Berman is the author of The Foundations of Modern Freemasonry; Schism, a discussion of the origins of Antients Freemasonry; and Espionage, Diplomacy & the Lodge. His work on American freemasonry includes Loyalists & Malcontents, now in its second edition, which looks at the origins of freemasonry in South Carolina and Georgia, and From Roanoke to Raleigh, which takes a fresh look at how freemasonry developed in North Carolina. Ric holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a Doctorate in History from the University of Exeter. He continued his research at the University of Oxford's Modern European History Research Centre and is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University. Ric was appointed Prestonian Lecturer for 2016 and his lecture - published and now in its second edition, sets the context for the 300th anniversary of the Grand Lodge of England. Born in London, Ric lives with his family in Oxfordshire.