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  • Oct. 10, 1885
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Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 479 Consecration of the Aire and Calder Chapter , No . 458 , at Goole 4 S 0 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of Northumberland and Durham 481 Soiree and Presentation at the Masonic Hall , Liverpool 481 Royal Masonic Institution for Girls 483

Bro . the Hon . Dr . Ueaney .-Complimentary Dinner at The Criterion , * . 4 X 3 Complimentary Dinner to Bro . Henry Burn , P . M . 73 ' 483 Presentation to a Cheshire Freemason 4 S 3 CORRESPONDENCEMasonic Exchange Column 4 S 3 Subscriptions of Lodges 485 The A . and A . S . Rite in Germanv 4 S 5

Notes and Queries 4 8 G REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry 4 86 Instruction , 4 8 S Royal Arch 4 88 Cryptic Masonry 4 88 Scotland 4 S 8 Laying the Foundation-Stone of Langside

Parish Church 489 Masonic Hall in Geetong 489 West Lancashire Masonic Educational Institution 489 Royal Masonic Institution for Hoys 489 Obituary . ' 4 S 9 Masonic and General Tidings 490 Lodge Meetings for Next Week 49 T The Theatres 492 The Craft Abroad 493

Ar00101

WHEN we come to consider the evidence afforded by the mediaeval Guilds , we soon find ourselves environed with difficulties of no ordinary character . Guilds undoubtedly existed from Roman times , and probably do hail , as we say , in some form and shape from Roman Collegia . But our word Guild is of Saxon origin , and seems to have no analogy with the

Roman Collegium . The features of the Guilds social , religious , and Craft Guilds undoubtedly , as far as we know them , seem to- correspond with those discovered and educed by Mr . COOTE from Roman evidences and specialist authorities ; and , perhaps , it may be fairly contended , without fear of doubt , that sodalities , whether in the shape of a

" Summoria , " or " phratria , " or " To Koinon , " or a Collegium , or a Sodalicium , were Oriental in idea and outcome , and ot general usage and wide extent in earlier forms of society and nationality . The Anglo-Saxons , and the Danes , had undoubtedly Guilds , and with the Norman Invasion probably came in these " Loges " of " Macons , " " Cementarii , "

& c , which henceforth , until the siHteenth century , under whatever forms or attributes , or name , and with whatever powers , were , undoubtedly , the builders of our great buildings in England . The earliest trace of an Operative Guild , after the Norman Invasion , is that of the Tylers of Lincoln , 1346 , published by TOULMIN SMITH . But as he tells us 600 Guild returns ,

made in 1389 , are still extant , though decaying in one of our law offices , we can hardly say what earlier evidence of a Craft Guild may be in storefor us . Mr . TOULMIN SMITH also gives us the proportion of Craft Guilds to social and religious Guilds ; and what he publishes is so small and unimportant , as to lead to the conviction that a large number of Craft

returns still remain undiscovered , unannotated , :, guncollated and unexamined . The Tylers of Lincoln , commonly called "Poyntours , " had a Dean , a Graceman , and two Wardens , as their official representatives . Every " incomer , " ( a Tyler , we presume , from another town , ) was to

" make himself known to the Graceman , but could only be " admitted by the common consent of the Guild , and be sworn to keep the ordinances . As an entrance fee , each was to give a quarter of barley , pay 2 d . to the dole , and rd . to the Dean . An annual feast was to be held nn the Festival of

Corpus Christi , which then often lasted more than one day , and on " each day " the members were to have " three flagons , " and "five or six tankards . 'Ale' was to be given to the poor , " and prayers were to be said , and pilgrims helped . Women could be members of the Guild , " fratres et sorores . " Members were to ' 'be buried , and their burials provided for , by

the Graceman , the two Wardens , and the Dean . "If any brother ' did anything " underhanded , " and with "ill will , by which another will be wronged in working his Craft , he shall pay to the Gild a pound of wax , without any room for grace . " No Tyler , or Poyntour , " shall stay in the City , unless he enters the Guild . " Such

are the simple laws of one of the earliest Craft Guilds whose ordinances have been collated , though , as we said before , many others , and perhaps earlier ones , are still extant . It is remarkable to note to-day how this Guild life permeated England , in town and country , and how Guilds either met in one Common Hall for all the Guilds of the town ,

— with a Common and Supreme Council lor all the Guilds , or in a Guild Hall of their own . When in 1 EDWD , VI . a large number of Craft and other Guilds were suppressed , and the houses , and lands , and goods seized , no doubt much of the property and many of the old places ° f meeting fell into private hands , and after this lapse of years have

¦ alien utterly into decay , and are very difficult to trace . The [ religious , social , and Craft Guilds played a very striking part in the common life of England until the sixteenth century , and which fact , strange to say , has hardly yet been realized , and never fully developed or dealt with

b y any of our historians . The lodges of Masons in the seventeenth century at Warrington , Chester , York , and London , in Staffordshire , and up and down the land , seem to be the continuation and reorganization ot the old Craft Guilds , which , preserved in large towns , under municipal protection , grace , and absorption , gradually dwindled away in the country

Ar00102

parts , until they became , in the language of the seventeenth century , "lodges of that Iimitt . " It is curious , to say the least of it , that we preserve in Masonic language the term " make himself known , " used with some definite meaning in the ordinances of the Guild of the Tylers of Lincoln in 1346 , though the return is only dated 1380 . So far ,

no Guild return of the Operative Masons has been found . If it ever turns up , or is verified in those mildewed returns already alluded to , by some student like Bro . W . H . RYLANDS , we shall see how far we still preserve the technical terms and ceremonial usages in 18 S 5 of v operative Masons in 1389 . We must not expect too much , as such records are from the nature of

the case and the customs of the time both scant and curt . This fact also explains the remarkable brevity and condensation of the earliest lodge entries . It will be seen by our readers that , though the Guilds existed , we still know very little about them , and that therefore it becomes a most difficult thing to assert as a matter of historical certainty and accuracy that the

Freemasonry of to-day is to be traced up through mediaeval and earlier Guilds to the Roman Colleges , and thence to eastern Sodalities . The ] probablity is that such is the case , and that we have in the Masonic lodges of the seventeenth century , from whence the lodges of the eighteenth century were undoubtedly derived , the remains of the old Craft Guilds , eventually

despoiled and dissolved by EDWARD VI . There seem to be traces , as we said last week , of a sort of admission form or ceremonial in the York Fabric Rolls , and all the statutes of the Guilds at present before us contain a formula for an oath of admission , and allude to a reception . That remarkable feature in one of the York Guild

Constitutions , alluding to the membership of females , is proved by the customs of many other Guilds to be not at all dubious or questionable . In fact that form of the York Constitution points to probably an active Craft Guild of Masons at York , whose other documents have passed away . Can nothing

be done to collate and publish the still existing Craft Guild returns ? They might throw great light both on Guild life and Masonic customs , and while they foi us , as Masons have a larger interest , for all archseological students they have that importance and concern which arise from a careful collation and manipulation of authentic documents and bona fide evidences .

WE understand that our benevolent Bro . CAMA will certainly be put forward again by his friends as a candidate for the office of Grand Treasurer at the

proper time . The admirers of Bro . CAMA ' S equally benevolent father , Bro . PESTONJEE HORMUSJEE CAMA , are placing his marble bust in the hospital which he is so munificently erecting and endowing on the Esplanade , Bombay , and to be called the Cama Hospital .

» » THE meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of North Wales and Shropshire , which was held at Denbigh on the 21 st ult ., and of which we gave a full report last week , deserves at our hands a brief passing notice . It was the final meetingof a province , which under the genial government of its

late respected P . G . M ., R . W . Bro . Sir W . WILLIAMS-WYNN , Bart ., M . P ., had played its part successfully during the thirty and three years of its existence . When the late baronet was installed in office early in 1852 , only four of the 28 lodges now existing were established , namely the two Shrewsbury Lodges , Nos . 117 and 262 , the senior Bangor Lodge , No . 384 , and the

Lodge at Holyhead , No . 597 . North Wales , too , though the oldest of four provincial organisations , had been without a ruler for many years , the patent of Sir WATKIN ' S predecessor as P . G . M . of this section of his province bearing date the year 1753 . But in the interval between 1852 and the present year , Masonry in this part of the country advanced by leaps and

bounds , and when the late chief died there were 28 lodges on the roll , 18 of them being located in North Wales and the remaining ten in Shropshire . This , as times go , and having regard to several of our provinces , is by no means an excessive complement of lodges , but the extent of country over which they ate spread is immense , and even the most enthusiastic and

active chief would find it hard work to traverse so considerable a district as often as he would like in order to keep his lodges up to the mark , and the brethren , unless provincial lodge meetings were always held at some centrally accessible place , would find it both irksome and perhaps expensive to attend . It was , therefore , a politic act on the part of the Grand Master

to break up the province and create out of it afresh the separate Provinces of North Wales and Shropshire , with Lord HVRLECH , a former Deputy of Bro . Sir VVATKIN , as P . G . M . of the former , and his latest Deputy , Bro .

Sir OFFLEY WAKEMAN , as P . G . M . of the latter . In the face of this new arrangement , a final meeting of the old province would be necessary , in order to make just provision in respect of the votes held by it to our several Institutions and other matters . This provision was made at Denbigh on

“The Freemason: 1885-10-10, Page 1” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 17 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/fvl/issues/fvl_10101885/page/1/.
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CONTENTS. Article 1
Untitled Article 1
CONSECRATION OF THE AIRE AND CALDER CHAPTER, No. 458, AT GOOLE. Article 2
PROVINCIAL GRAND MARK LODGE OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. Article 3
SOIREE AND PRESENTATION AT THE LIVERPOOL MASONIC HALL. Article 3
ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR GIRLS. Article 5
COMPLIMENTARY DINNER TO BRO. HENRY BURN, P.M. 731. Article 5
BRO. THE HON. DR. BEANEY.— COMPLIMENTARY DINNER AT THE CRITERION. Article 5
PRESENTATION TO A CHESHIRE FREEMASON. Article 5
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To Correspondents. Article 7
Untitled Article 7
Original Correspondence. Article 7
Masonic Notes and Queries. Article 8
REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGS. Article 8
INSTRUCTION. Article 10
Royal Arch. Article 10
Cryptic Masonry. Article 10
Scotland. Article 10
LAYING THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF LANGSIDE PARISH CHURCH. Article 11
MASONIC BALL IN GEELONG. Article 11
WEST LANCASHIRE MASONIC EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION. Article 11
ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR BOYS. Article 11
Obituary. Article 11
MASONIC AND GENERAL TIDINGS Article 12
METROPOLITAN MASONIC MEETINGS. Article 13
DEATH EXPECTED WHEN THE TREES PUT ON THEIR GREEN. Article 13
PHOSPHORUS. Article 13
THE THEATRES. Article 14
Craft Abroad. Article 14
Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Article 14
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Contents.

CONTENTS .

LEADERS 479 Consecration of the Aire and Calder Chapter , No . 458 , at Goole 4 S 0 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of Northumberland and Durham 481 Soiree and Presentation at the Masonic Hall , Liverpool 481 Royal Masonic Institution for Girls 483

Bro . the Hon . Dr . Ueaney .-Complimentary Dinner at The Criterion , * . 4 X 3 Complimentary Dinner to Bro . Henry Burn , P . M . 73 ' 483 Presentation to a Cheshire Freemason 4 S 3 CORRESPONDENCEMasonic Exchange Column 4 S 3 Subscriptions of Lodges 485 The A . and A . S . Rite in Germanv 4 S 5

Notes and Queries 4 8 G REPORTS OF MASONIC MEETINGSCraft Masonry 4 86 Instruction , 4 8 S Royal Arch 4 88 Cryptic Masonry 4 88 Scotland 4 S 8 Laying the Foundation-Stone of Langside

Parish Church 489 Masonic Hall in Geetong 489 West Lancashire Masonic Educational Institution 489 Royal Masonic Institution for Hoys 489 Obituary . ' 4 S 9 Masonic and General Tidings 490 Lodge Meetings for Next Week 49 T The Theatres 492 The Craft Abroad 493

Ar00101

WHEN we come to consider the evidence afforded by the mediaeval Guilds , we soon find ourselves environed with difficulties of no ordinary character . Guilds undoubtedly existed from Roman times , and probably do hail , as we say , in some form and shape from Roman Collegia . But our word Guild is of Saxon origin , and seems to have no analogy with the

Roman Collegium . The features of the Guilds social , religious , and Craft Guilds undoubtedly , as far as we know them , seem to- correspond with those discovered and educed by Mr . COOTE from Roman evidences and specialist authorities ; and , perhaps , it may be fairly contended , without fear of doubt , that sodalities , whether in the shape of a

" Summoria , " or " phratria , " or " To Koinon , " or a Collegium , or a Sodalicium , were Oriental in idea and outcome , and ot general usage and wide extent in earlier forms of society and nationality . The Anglo-Saxons , and the Danes , had undoubtedly Guilds , and with the Norman Invasion probably came in these " Loges " of " Macons , " " Cementarii , "

& c , which henceforth , until the siHteenth century , under whatever forms or attributes , or name , and with whatever powers , were , undoubtedly , the builders of our great buildings in England . The earliest trace of an Operative Guild , after the Norman Invasion , is that of the Tylers of Lincoln , 1346 , published by TOULMIN SMITH . But as he tells us 600 Guild returns ,

made in 1389 , are still extant , though decaying in one of our law offices , we can hardly say what earlier evidence of a Craft Guild may be in storefor us . Mr . TOULMIN SMITH also gives us the proportion of Craft Guilds to social and religious Guilds ; and what he publishes is so small and unimportant , as to lead to the conviction that a large number of Craft

returns still remain undiscovered , unannotated , :, guncollated and unexamined . The Tylers of Lincoln , commonly called "Poyntours , " had a Dean , a Graceman , and two Wardens , as their official representatives . Every " incomer , " ( a Tyler , we presume , from another town , ) was to

" make himself known to the Graceman , but could only be " admitted by the common consent of the Guild , and be sworn to keep the ordinances . As an entrance fee , each was to give a quarter of barley , pay 2 d . to the dole , and rd . to the Dean . An annual feast was to be held nn the Festival of

Corpus Christi , which then often lasted more than one day , and on " each day " the members were to have " three flagons , " and "five or six tankards . 'Ale' was to be given to the poor , " and prayers were to be said , and pilgrims helped . Women could be members of the Guild , " fratres et sorores . " Members were to ' 'be buried , and their burials provided for , by

the Graceman , the two Wardens , and the Dean . "If any brother ' did anything " underhanded , " and with "ill will , by which another will be wronged in working his Craft , he shall pay to the Gild a pound of wax , without any room for grace . " No Tyler , or Poyntour , " shall stay in the City , unless he enters the Guild . " Such

are the simple laws of one of the earliest Craft Guilds whose ordinances have been collated , though , as we said before , many others , and perhaps earlier ones , are still extant . It is remarkable to note to-day how this Guild life permeated England , in town and country , and how Guilds either met in one Common Hall for all the Guilds of the town ,

— with a Common and Supreme Council lor all the Guilds , or in a Guild Hall of their own . When in 1 EDWD , VI . a large number of Craft and other Guilds were suppressed , and the houses , and lands , and goods seized , no doubt much of the property and many of the old places ° f meeting fell into private hands , and after this lapse of years have

¦ alien utterly into decay , and are very difficult to trace . The [ religious , social , and Craft Guilds played a very striking part in the common life of England until the sixteenth century , and which fact , strange to say , has hardly yet been realized , and never fully developed or dealt with

b y any of our historians . The lodges of Masons in the seventeenth century at Warrington , Chester , York , and London , in Staffordshire , and up and down the land , seem to be the continuation and reorganization ot the old Craft Guilds , which , preserved in large towns , under municipal protection , grace , and absorption , gradually dwindled away in the country

Ar00102

parts , until they became , in the language of the seventeenth century , "lodges of that Iimitt . " It is curious , to say the least of it , that we preserve in Masonic language the term " make himself known , " used with some definite meaning in the ordinances of the Guild of the Tylers of Lincoln in 1346 , though the return is only dated 1380 . So far ,

no Guild return of the Operative Masons has been found . If it ever turns up , or is verified in those mildewed returns already alluded to , by some student like Bro . W . H . RYLANDS , we shall see how far we still preserve the technical terms and ceremonial usages in 18 S 5 of v operative Masons in 1389 . We must not expect too much , as such records are from the nature of

the case and the customs of the time both scant and curt . This fact also explains the remarkable brevity and condensation of the earliest lodge entries . It will be seen by our readers that , though the Guilds existed , we still know very little about them , and that therefore it becomes a most difficult thing to assert as a matter of historical certainty and accuracy that the

Freemasonry of to-day is to be traced up through mediaeval and earlier Guilds to the Roman Colleges , and thence to eastern Sodalities . The ] probablity is that such is the case , and that we have in the Masonic lodges of the seventeenth century , from whence the lodges of the eighteenth century were undoubtedly derived , the remains of the old Craft Guilds , eventually

despoiled and dissolved by EDWARD VI . There seem to be traces , as we said last week , of a sort of admission form or ceremonial in the York Fabric Rolls , and all the statutes of the Guilds at present before us contain a formula for an oath of admission , and allude to a reception . That remarkable feature in one of the York Guild

Constitutions , alluding to the membership of females , is proved by the customs of many other Guilds to be not at all dubious or questionable . In fact that form of the York Constitution points to probably an active Craft Guild of Masons at York , whose other documents have passed away . Can nothing

be done to collate and publish the still existing Craft Guild returns ? They might throw great light both on Guild life and Masonic customs , and while they foi us , as Masons have a larger interest , for all archseological students they have that importance and concern which arise from a careful collation and manipulation of authentic documents and bona fide evidences .

WE understand that our benevolent Bro . CAMA will certainly be put forward again by his friends as a candidate for the office of Grand Treasurer at the

proper time . The admirers of Bro . CAMA ' S equally benevolent father , Bro . PESTONJEE HORMUSJEE CAMA , are placing his marble bust in the hospital which he is so munificently erecting and endowing on the Esplanade , Bombay , and to be called the Cama Hospital .

» » THE meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of North Wales and Shropshire , which was held at Denbigh on the 21 st ult ., and of which we gave a full report last week , deserves at our hands a brief passing notice . It was the final meetingof a province , which under the genial government of its

late respected P . G . M ., R . W . Bro . Sir W . WILLIAMS-WYNN , Bart ., M . P ., had played its part successfully during the thirty and three years of its existence . When the late baronet was installed in office early in 1852 , only four of the 28 lodges now existing were established , namely the two Shrewsbury Lodges , Nos . 117 and 262 , the senior Bangor Lodge , No . 384 , and the

Lodge at Holyhead , No . 597 . North Wales , too , though the oldest of four provincial organisations , had been without a ruler for many years , the patent of Sir WATKIN ' S predecessor as P . G . M . of this section of his province bearing date the year 1753 . But in the interval between 1852 and the present year , Masonry in this part of the country advanced by leaps and

bounds , and when the late chief died there were 28 lodges on the roll , 18 of them being located in North Wales and the remaining ten in Shropshire . This , as times go , and having regard to several of our provinces , is by no means an excessive complement of lodges , but the extent of country over which they ate spread is immense , and even the most enthusiastic and

active chief would find it hard work to traverse so considerable a district as often as he would like in order to keep his lodges up to the mark , and the brethren , unless provincial lodge meetings were always held at some centrally accessible place , would find it both irksome and perhaps expensive to attend . It was , therefore , a politic act on the part of the Grand Master

to break up the province and create out of it afresh the separate Provinces of North Wales and Shropshire , with Lord HVRLECH , a former Deputy of Bro . Sir VVATKIN , as P . G . M . of the former , and his latest Deputy , Bro .

Sir OFFLEY WAKEMAN , as P . G . M . of the latter . In the face of this new arrangement , a final meeting of the old province would be necessary , in order to make just provision in respect of the votes held by it to our several Institutions and other matters . This provision was made at Denbigh on

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