 Although a number of these scholars initially suggested that the society represented a survival of a pre-Christian religious order, later historical research established the group's nineteenth-century origins.The Horseman's Word was one of a number of groups that emerged in Britain as part of a popular outgrowth from Freemasonry, which was commonly known as the "Mason's Word" in Scotland after the secret password that it used.Freemasonry had influenced a range of friendly societies and benefit clubs which were established with the purpose of providing working people with care if they fell sick or got old.