Furthermore, contrary to the claims of these conspiracy theories, the Great Seal was not created by Freemasons. While Benjamin Franklin was a Mason, he was the only member of any of the various Great Seal committees definitively known to be so, and his ideas were not adopted. Of the four men whose ideas were adopted, neither Charles Thomson, Pierre du Simitière nor William Barton was a Mason and, while Francis Hopkinson has been alleged to have had Masonic connections, there is no firm evidence to support the claim.