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T.H. Pattinson[1] for William Wynn Westcott
11 June 1900.
I, Thomas Henry Pattinson of 6 Piccadilly, Bradford Yorkshire, Watchmaker, do hereby solemnly and sincerely declare this 11th day of June 1900, that in the month of March 1888 I was admitted in London to membership of the private literary society called the Isis [Urania] Temple of the G.D. [Golden Dawn] by its three chiefs William Wynn Westcott, William R. Woodman, and Samuel Liddell Mathers.
I entered this society to receive help in the study of the literature of Hebrew philosophy, Egyptian religion, the doctrines of Alchemy and the principles of astrology; and this help I have received to my satisfaction.
I took a solemn oath not to disclose the private and personal teaching of these chiefs, nor any of the concerns of the Society to anyone outside its pale. Mr. Mathers told me that he had a large share in writing the official lectures of the Society and that they based upon the contents of certain MSS. in Cypher which W.W. Westcott possessed, and had invited Mathers to amplify. Mathers said also that W.R. Woodman was the authority in all matters of Hebrew language. W.R. Woodman died in December 1891 , and in March 1897 W.W. Westcott resigned all active leadership in the Society. Up to that time Mathers never made any claim, to my knowledge, of any further supremacy in the Society than as aforesaid, as one of three teachers. I further declare that since the retirement of W.W. Westcott from office, it is a fact known to me personally that Mathers has made malicious and unfraternal statements about Westcott and has alleged that Westcott was conspiring against his position as surviving chief. I declare that I was one of the earliest pupils of this Society and I have been an officer of it until today, and I am confident from my own knowledge, and intimacy with Westcott, and from my intercourse with my fellow members of the Society, that Mathers is under a complete delusion, and that his hostility to Westcott is quite unjustified by Westcott's letters, words or actions.
And in addition I look with grave suspicion upon Mathers recently made assertions that all credit for the success of the Society is due to him alone. In order somewhat to excuse the unfraternal conduct of Mathers to Westcott I may point out that for some years Mathers has lived in Paris and his only knowledge of the affairs of the members in England has been made to him by a few correspondents who may have sent him imperfect information or misleading reports. Mr. Mathers was for a week or two my guest in 1898, and then attacked Westcott, and I declared to him I would not tolerate such unfair, unjust and unfraternal attacks on Westcott his old friend. I did all I could to reconcile Mathers to Westcott, and Mathers left me saying he would make no further attack and would meet Westcott in the lodge called Horus, which I control, as a friendly fellow student.
I consider Mr. Mathers's mental state to be a peculiar one, because he now claims the name of MacGregor to which he was not born, and also considers himself to be the Count of Glenstrre, which title is one of Jacobite nobility to which he never hinted any claim during the years when I saw most of him, and knew him intimately as a visitor in my own home.
On the other hand Dr. Westcott always was, and still is, a clear headed man of business and an earnest literary student, of whose character no suspicion has even been raised in the presence of myself or of my associates, except by this Mr. Mathers aforesaid.
T.H. Pattinson
Declared at Bradford in the County of Yorkshire this eleventh day of June 1900 Before me J.A. Jackson A Commissioner of Oaths
1—Thomas Henry Pattinson was a member of the Golden Dawn.
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