The New Mark Province Of Middlesex.

THE NEW MARK PROVINCE OF MIDDLESEX .

One of the changes proposed to be made in connection with the late Province of Middlesex and Surrey was carried into effect on Saturday last , when Bro . Col . A . B . COOK , J . P ., was installed in office as Provincial Grand Master of Middlesex . Everything appears to have passed off admirably . The place chosen for the ceremony was the Mitre Hotel ,

Hampton Court , the arrangements were perfectly contrived , and above all , the function was presided over by Bro . the Earl of EUSTON , Deputy Grand Master , and graced by the presence of such distinguished Mark Masons as Bro . W . VV . B . BEACH , M . P ., Past Grand Master of the Mark Grand Lodge , and Provincial Grand Mark Master of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ; Bros , the Earl of YARBOROUGII and Col . 'G . N . MONEY , Provincial Grand Mark Masters nominate of Lincolnshire and Surrey respectively ; Bro . Sir REGINALD HANSON , Bart ., M . P . ; Bro . Sir J B . MONCKTON , J . G . W . ; Bro . C . F . MATIER , P . G . W ., Grand Secretary ; and others . When the installation was concluded , the new Provincial Grand Master appointed and invested first of all , Bro . Sir R . HANSON , Bart ., M . P ., as his Deputy Provincial Grand Master , and then the full complement of Provincial Grand Officers , Bro . GEORGE GARDNER being added to the latter by election as Provincial Grand Treasurer . Thus the new Province has started on its career under auspices which justify us

in anticipating for it a long period of prosperity . Bro . Col . COOK , indeed , is a host in himself . As founder and first ruler of the Studholme Lodge and Chapter , No . 1591 ; of the Oxford and Cambridge University Rose Croix Chapter and Templar Preceptory ; of the Euston Mark and Ark Lodges , and the Euston Council of Royal and Select Masters , he has done much

to strengthen and extend these several branches of our Masonic system ; while as a Past Grand Officer of Grand Lodge , Supreme Grand Chapter , and Grand Mark Lodge , and above all as the late President of the General Board of the last-named body , he undoubtedly possesses qualifications and

experience of a very high order for the position to which he has just been appointed . We congratulate Bro . Col . COOK on having attained to his present position , and the Province of Middlesex on having so able a ruler to preside over it . May the union between them which was consummated on Saturday last remain undisturbed for many years !

Cheshire Freemasonry.

CHESHIRE FREEMASONRY .

Bro . J AMES COOKSON , in the brief epitome of the lodge history which he gave at the centenary celebration of the constitution of the Lodge of Unanimity , No . 287 , Stockport , on the 14 th ult ., spoke in terms of justifiable pride of Cheshire having been the first county in England and Wales that

was erected into a Masonic Province . PRESTON , in his " Illustrations of Masonry , " tells us that during the Grand Mastership of the Earl ot I . vcmauiN , who presided over the Fraternity in the year 1726-7 , the brethren ° l Wales first united under the banner of the Grand Lodge in London , and that " soon after this Union the office of Provincial Grand Master was

instituted , and the first deputation granted b y his lordship on the 10 th of ^ )' i 1727 , to HUGH WARBURTON , Esq ., for North Wales , and on the 24 th ° f June following to Sir EDWARD MANSELL , Bart ., for South Wales . " " 9 th these appointments are entered in our Grand Lodge Calendar , but

with the year 1726 instead of 1727 assigned to them . But the earliest Provincial Grand Master to preside over Cheshire is stated in the same official directory to have been Col . F . COLU . MHINE , the year of his fPpointmen t being given as 1725 , Capt . HUGH WARUURTON—who ls no doubt one and the same with the " HUGH

WARURTON , Esq ., " of Preston—being named as successsor in J 7- But much more than this might have been mentioned by Bro . OOICSON in the introduction to his interesting epitome respecting the aims of the County of Chester , if not to absolute pre-eminence , at all . e'its to a foremost place amongst the earliest provincial homes of Masonry

"" 6 country . 1 he earliest known instances ot English gentlemen Masons ' p derived , as our readers are aware , from the celebrated Klias Ashmole ' s [ ' )' i in which he mentions that he and Colonel HENRY MAINWARING of I sh S » ' Cheshire , were made Masons at Warrington , in Lanca-, i | , l | on tne ! ^ October , 1646 . It has also been stated , times innumerref ' , llat ^ R > Pl 0 T > ' his " History of Staffordshire , " pointedly ., 'O there havinp - heen lnrlrrpc nf Krwrnamns in Staffordshire about

n year 1686 . But the still more recent researches of Bro . HARRY that ^ * ^• A- ' 0 I tne ' -ed ge of Antiquity , No . 2 , show unmistakabl y eve e must ^ k een q "' * colony of Freemasons in Cheshire , or at all s om S | . 'n a" probability , a lodge of Freemasons existent at Chester ' ¦ ¦ ij a W . e a bout the middle of the seventeenth century . In the Masonic Settle for January , 1882 , is an article by this brother entitled " Free-

Cheshire Freemasonry.

masonry in the Seventeenth Century : Chester , 1650-1700 , " in which , among sundry quotations from RANDLE HOLME ' S " Academie of Armorie , " is the following : " I cannot but Honour the Felloship of the Masons because of its Antiquity ; and the more , as being a Member of that Society , called Free Masons . In being conversant amongst them I have observed the use

of their several tools following , some whereof I have seen born in coats of armour . " With reference to this , Bro . RYLANDS remarks firstly : " Both he " — RANDLE HOLME — " and his father and grandfather before him were Heralds , and men occupying the high position of Sheriff and Mayor of Chester ; certainly they could neither of them have been operative

Masons . " And , again : "Here , although he ( RANDLE HOLME )' clearly draws a distinction between the ' Fellowship of Masons as builders , ' and the ' Society called Free Masons , ' at the same time he appears to wish a connection between the two to be inferred . . . . That RANDLE HOLME was not an operative Mason is clear . " Bro . RYLANDS then passes on to

quote from Bro . HUGIIAN ' S " Masonic Sketches and Reprints , " in which , with reference to Harleian MS ., No . 2054 , the latter writer remarks : " Mr . RICHARD SIMS informs us that the Masonic MS ., and nearly the whole of the papers in Vol . 2054 , containing 259 leaves , is in the handwriting of RANDLE HOLMES ( HOLME ) , Herald , of Chester , and mostly refer to

charters , orders , and constitutions of Chester generally . " The date of this copy of the Old Constitutions is set down " probably , from the fact of the handwriting of RANDLE HOLME being known , at about 1650 . " In the same MS . and next in order to the Constitutions is a form of oath" also in the writing of RANDLE HOLME " —as follows : "There is seurall

words & signes of a free Mason to be revailed to y" w < as y » will answ : before God at the Great & terrible day of Iudgm' y" keep secret & not to revaile the same in the hearcs of any pson or to any but to the Mr 8 c fellows of the said Society of free Masons so help me God , & c . " There is also a leaf on which is a document , also in RANDLE HOLME ' S writing , in which

are recorded the names of 20 persons who had been made Freemasons with the amount of the initiation fee paid by each , RANDLE HOLME ' own name being 13 th in the list . There is also more interesting matter in the appendix

to the article , which appeared in the same magazine for the ensuing month of February , and the deduction from this article by Bro . RYLANDS which may be justifiably drawn is , as wc have already stated , that Cheshire is one of the earliest Provincial homes of Freemasonry .

Nor is this all that Bro . COOKSON might have referred to in his epitome , had he been able to find space in which to include it . Our earliest lists of lodges contain evidence that in the first half of the eighteenth century Cheshire was well furnished with lodges . This will be seen on referring to the lists in the appendix to Bro . GOULD ' S " Four Old Lodges . " In the first of

them—from 27 th November , 1725 , to 1729—are included three lodges located at " the Sunn , " " Spread Eagle , " and "Castle and Faulkon , " respectively , in the City of Chester . In the second will be found two of these numbered 32 and 33 , together with No . 3 6 , at the " Red Lyon , Congleton , " and No . 80 , at " the Angel , in Macclesfield . " These lodges figure in the third list ,

the first three among lodges of 1724 constitution , and the fourth among the 1731 lodges , No . 180 , at the " Horse and Man , Foregate St ., Chester , " being added on the ist February , 1738 . In the list for 1740 , two of the 1724 lodges—Nos . 32 and 3 6—figure as Nos . 29 and 32 respectively , the 1731 lodge , as No . 69 , and the 1738 as No . 167 . In the 1756 list , the 1724

disappear , but the 1731 lodge is advanced from No . 69 to No . 45 , and the 1738 lodge from No . 167 to No . 101 ; there being added two new lodges constituted in 1755 , namely , that at "The Crow , " in Cow Lane , Chester , and that at the " Plume of Feathers , " in Bridges Street , Chester , which are numbered 203 and 209 respectively .

In the 1770 list the 1738 lodge is advanced from No . 101 to No . 78 and the 1755 lodges from Nos . 203 and 209 , to Nos . 166 and 171 . But these and other of the lodges constituted by the " Modems " have disappeared , the oldest lodge in the Province—No . 89 , Dukinfield—having been constituted originally at Manchester , while the next in order of seniority—No . 104—is

of " Ancient origin , and , though ascribed to the year 1765 , has been unable to prove a continuity of active life , extending over a hundred years . However , the purpose we have had in view is not to trace out all the lodges which have been constituted in Cheshire , but to demonstrate from the remarks of some of our more learned brethren of the present day and from

the lists of lodges which have been preserved to us , that Cheshire has every reason to be proud of the position it occupies among the Provinces of England and Wales . It can certainly boast of having had the first Provincial Grand Master appointed to preside over it , and at the time of his

appointment it undoubtedly had nure than one lodge established within its borders , while from the discoveries of Bro . RYLANDS there is hardly any reason to doubt that it must have had a lodge or lodges in Chester some time during the latter half of the 17 th century ; that is to say , a good many years prior to the constitution of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 .