I don’t need to say, I’m sure, that levels and squares (and compasses) were ancient builders’ tools, and were used as symbols by others than the freemasons, including bricklayers.
Indeed they were; and not only by craftsmen. From the 15th to the 18th century there was a whole genre of publication known as “symbol books” in which motifs of all kinds were illustrated with explanatory texts showing what they symbolised and how they could be used in art and decor to convey moral messages. Squares, levels and compasses routinely featured in these books, along with other tools. So if you were to find, for example, an 18th-century fan decorated with a pair of compasses and the motto “Keep within Compass”, you should by no means assume it has any Masonic connection, though plenty of people do.
A fraternal society called the Ancient Order of Free Gardeners, founded in Scotland flourished in the 17th-19th centuries; it actually may have been older than Freemasonry. Its prime symbol was the set-square (symbolising fairness, balance, firmness), the compass (symbolising the need to draw appropriate limits - to “keep within compass") - and the pruning-knife (symbolising the cutting away of vices and the engrafting of virtues). In any collection of Masonic jewels, you’re likely to find at least one Free Gardener jewel, simply because practically everybody, both Masons and non-Masons, takes it for granted that anything with the square and compasses has to be Masonic.