Hunting For Manuscripts.

in Leeds County in 1787 , were found in 1899 in the drawer of a cupboard in an old farmhouse near Augusta , in Grenville County . It is the best kept minute book I have seen prior to 1800 . It is well worded , neatly penned and fruitful in incident . "

" That Lodge was on the Quebec Register , was it not ? I remember that your history states that it was an American Lodge . How could it be both American and Canadian ? " " Very easily . It was warranted as No . 7 , New York , in 1783 , and named Oswegatchie . It met at Ogdensburg ,

the Indian Oswegatchie , and about 1786 the warrant was removed across the river to Maitland , then known as New Oswegatchie . The Lodge met there for a few months and afterwards at Elizabethtown in Leeds County . I am certain

that I have traced correctly the history of No . 7 . I submitted it to Bro . Ehlers , the Grand Secretary of New York , and he agreed with me that I had traced it step by step from its first opening to its final closing . "

" Did you find much Quebec manuscript in your re search ? "

" Yes , I was most fortunate in my hunt for early manuscripts of Quebec but I had to cross the seas for some of them . " Bro . Kerr , of Ottawa , an old friend of mine now dead an . d gone , gave me six leaves of the minute book of the

Provincial Grand Lodge of Quebec in 1787 . These leaves contain the minutes of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Quebec in May 1781 , and record the granting of a warrant to ^ St . James Lodge , No . 14 , at Cataraqui , now Kingston . These

leaves were found in a barrel full of waste paper in the backyard of a bookbinder ' s shop in Quebec in 1850 . They comprise the only known writings of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Quebec prior to 1800 .

" But the rarest find of all was the certificate of Lieut . Leslie , of Select Lodge at Quebec , issued in April 1761 . Bro . J . B . McLean , the publisher , of Montreal , put me on the track of this document . It was on parchment , fairly legible and with letters well formed , but I had to use a strong mangnifying glass to decipher the names of the Officers .

The name of the Secretary puzzled me ; all that I could make out was ' Thos . Pie , ' after which there was space for half-a-dozen letters , followed by the first and last letters of the word Secretary . I had almost given us the job , when I thought of what the camera might do , and it did all I

wanted , for the photograph reproduced the apparently undecipherable words . The Secretary ' s name was ' Fleathsop . ' " Then I found the minutes of St . Peter ' s Lodge of Montreal , in that city . I forget the name of the Brother

who had them , but it was through the late Bro . Hutton that this find came . I suppose that if 1 ever write the history of the Craft in Quebec I will have to follow up the search in that Province for more manuscripts . "

" You said you had crossed the sea to get information about Quebec ? " " Well , when searching for Upper Canada Craft manuscripts I naturally came across matter of interest to Quebec . For instance , the original warrant of the Duke of Kent as

Provincial Grand Master of Lower Canada has never been found , that of Bro . Jarvis as Provincial Grand Master of Upper Canada is in my collection , but a copy of the Duke of Kent ' s warrant is given in full in the minute book of the Athol Grand Lodge for 1792 , in * Freemasons' Hall , London .

No one seems to have dropped on to this until I had it copied and then photographed . The find cleared away a lot of doubt as to the exact powers given the Provincial Grand Master of Canada by die Grand Lodge of the Ancients . " " Did you find anything more ? "

Yes , all the correspondence that had taken place between Quebec and England from about 1770 until 1820 . Bro . Sadler unearthed the letters from a box full of papers

that had apparently been put away for all time to come in one of the vaults at Freemasons' Hall . Bro . Sadler has been of invaluable assistance to me in my work . " " Where did you find the Jarvis warrant ? "

' Well , the unexpected sometimes happens . One evening in January 1899 , a friend who knew of my hankering for Masonic manuscripts , called at my house to say that he

knew where there was a trunk full . of old papers , which had come from Niagara to Toronto just before the war of 1812 , and which had not been opened nor indeed touched for nearl y seventy years .

Hunting For Manuscripts.

' ' What , said I , ' a trunk full of papers in Toronto and not opened for seventy years ? ' " ' Yes , ' he replied , ' I ' m told there is a trunk full of papers relating to Masonry , with minute books and parchments galore not many miles from Toronto , and what is more you may have them . '

' ' Man , ' I said , ' this is a fairy tale . Where is this treasure box of paper and parchment ? ' "' Not far—just an hour ' s drive from the city , and if

you want them you must come with me to-night . " ' Well , ' I said , ' this is short notice and it ' s a cold night for even a seven mile drive , but if all you say is true I would drive seventy miles to lay my hands upon that trunk . '

" The sleighing was poor and the wheeling not much better , but the latter suited best and , leaving the lights of the city behind us , in a little over an hour we were inside an old-time dwelling resembling an early colonial farmhouse that had served , at least , sixty or seventy years of its day

and generation . The man who occupied the farm was an intelligent old fellow . Fie was not a Mason , in fact , knew nothing about Masonry , but he said his grandfather used to attend Lodge when the Masons met during the war of 1812 , out at Barrett ' s Hotel at Newtonbrook , and at Mrs .

Lawrence ' s on Yonge Street near Hogg ' s PIollow . "' Well , ' I said , ' that occurred away back in 1 S 17 . Did your grandfather tell you any more ?'

" ' No , but I remember him speaking of the time the Masons met in the old schoolhouse in Market Lane in York . That was a long , long time ago . ' " ' Yes , ' I said , ' eighty years ago . '

" ' Oh , ' he said , ' my grandfather was a lad of twenty in those days . ' Well , how did you get this trunk full of papers that my friend has come after ?'

Well , to tell the truth I don ' t exactly know where they came from . I think it was Niagara- —it might have been Kingston . I mind my grandfather saying that he went down to Capt . Richardson ' s house on Front and the old man told him that his instructions were to hand him over the

trunkit must have been late m the twenties or m the beginning of the thirties—anyhow it was the year that the old Frontenac was burnt at Niagara . Richardson was running the ' Canada ' steamer and she ran from York to Kingston and Niagara—so it may have been Kingston . I know that old

man Richardson and his son , young Hugh , used to drive out to see my grandfather , and he told me that Richardson had said , in handing the trunk over , that the Grand Lodge of Masons had broken up after the Morgan affair . That reminds me of old Humberstone driving over here from Yonge

Street and telling my grandfather that Morgan used to work on his farm near the second toll gate . However , we ' ve had the trunk , it hasn ' t been opened since it came here and that ' s nigh severity years ago . ' Has the trunk been here so long ? '

Yes , the old man put it up in the attic room in the north gable , rieht under tire window , and one of my daughters , to make the room more presentable , for it was a

sort of spare room , had the box covered with a bit of chintz and made a cushion filled with cotton batting on the lid , and so it was used for a seat for over twenty years . ' But did no one ever open the trunk ?'

No—no one thought of what was in it . The grandfather some years before his death talked about the box full of old papers in the attic room , but no one thought of climbing the narrow stairway , for the room was only occupied at odd times when friends would come down from the north about fair time . '

" While the farmer was giving me all this information my friend and one of the sons were getting down the longforgotten trunk . I did not expect very much . Many a time I had had my hopes shattered in the search for manuscripts , but as soon as the trunk was uncorded and I opened it I

felt sure that my ship had come home . Papers , books and parchments were there , yes and all genuine documents . A turn over of the papers , all endorsed and tied with red tape , a look into two or three of the manuscript books and a

glance at a small circular tin box , a little larger than a penny , fastened to a sheet of engrossed parchment told me the whole story . The papers were correspondence with the Grand Lodge of England , the books were the minutes of some of the old Niagara Lodges , and the tin box contained