Inigo Jones - Proto-Freemason?

[phi23]

Did anyone else see "What did the Stuarts did for us?" on BBC the other night?
One brief scene included the banqueting hall at Whitehall, Inigo Jones' first great work - the thing that caught my attention was that the room was a cube (Temple of Solomon?) and the floor was tiled in a black and white check like a chessboard - just like the floor a hall in a Masonic Lodge.
Could Inigo Jones have been a very early Freemanson?
Has anyone here visited the banqueting hall?

 

[Anonymous]

Could Inigo Jones have been a very early Freemason?

I'd be more surprised if he wasn't TBH given the demographics of early Freeemasonry- Having said that though, 'chessboard' floors turn up in a lot of places and don't necessarily have Masonic connotations

 

[Jerry_B]

It's probably a case of him being inspired by Italian architecture, which has alot of similar features.

 

[phi23]

It was the cubic room that I noticed most though - I'm right in thinking that the Temple of Solomon was a cube aren't I?
After a Google search I've found a few speculative pages that seem to suggest he was a Freemason but apparently there are no records before 1717(?)

http://www.freemasonrytoday.co.uk/nicstonemta.shtml
http://www.freemasonrytoday.com/issue20-article1.shtml
http://www.freemasonrytoday.com/issue15-article1.shtml
http://www.freemasonrytoday.com/issue21-fmcom.shtml
http://www.freemasonrytoday.com/issue13-article1.shtml

 

[AlistairP3]

"...You killed my father, prepare to die."

Oh, that was 'Montoya' wasn't it?

 

[Anonymous]

"I am the dread pirate roberts"

Reiner

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm...I could easily be convinced. In the programme they traced a linneage down from Innigo Jones to Christopher Wren and from there its only one psychogeographic step from him to Nicholas Hawksmoor and a hop skip and a jump onto "fearful symetry", "From Hell" and the Whitechapel Murders.

Coo...its like playing six (Masonic) degrees of separation here sometimes!

Thoroughly recommend Peter Ackroyds' "Hawksmoor" if anyone is looking for a masonic historical conspiracy thriller.

 

[Jerry_B]

I think if one puts one's mind to it, one could find 'links' throughout various things in this subject. But it's probably all in the imagination