Anagram

Anagram. The anagram of a word is another word made by rearranging the letters of that word. About the only anagrams, or supposed anagrams, in Freemasonry are the names of some of the assassins in the Eleventh Degree of the Scottish Rite. The first three: Abiram, Abibad, and Akirop, are supposed to be of Hebrew origin, but others are asserted to be anagrams, Hobhen for Bohun (Earl of Essex); Romvel for Cromwell; Gravelot for Argyle; Guibs for Gibbs (an anti-Stuart preacher). Otterfut and Scherkin, though resembling anagrams, have not been decoded. It is claimed that the French Jacobites, adherents of the House of Stuart, named some of the assassins after those who had been anti-Stuart, using anagrams so as not to make the insult too open and, yet, obvious to the initiated, but that is only one of the numerous tales, often mutually inconsistent, about the relations between Freemasonry and the Stuarts and their supporters.