How do I know this?
One clue is that an early member of the Royal Society recorded that ten years before the formal creation of the Society its Parliamentary members had met:in this Masonic manner.
“Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs) to discourse and consider of Philosophical Enquiries...About the year 1648/9 some of our company being removed to Oxford (first Dr Wilkins on his appointment by the Protector as Warden of Wadham College, then I and soon after Dr Goddard) our company divided.”