Craft Masonry.

These Four Lodges assembled at the Apple Tree Tavern , under the banner of Original No 3 ( now Fortitude and Old Cumberland ) , and constituted themselves , a Grand Lodge . On the 24 th of June , 1717 , they took a further step , and meeting on this occasion at the Goose and Gridiron , the Masonic home of Original No . 1 , elected as first Grand Master of Masons , ' * Mr . Anthony Sayer , Gant ! eman , " -a member of Original No . 3 . It will be seen , therefore , that the first Grand Lodge was constituted at the place of meeting , and presumably at the instance of Original No . 3 , also , that the first Grand Master of Masons was chosen from the same lodge . Anthony Sayer was

succeeded by George Payne of Original No . 4 ( now Royal Somerset House and Inverness ) , and the latter by Dr . J . T . Desatruliers , the learned natural philosopher , also a member of Original No . 4 ; after whom George Payne enjoyed a second term of office , and was followed on Lady-day , 1721 , by John Duke of Montagu , the first of a long and unbroken series of Noble Grand Masters . The next event I have to record , had a very important bearing upon the subsequent fortunes of Original No . 3- In February , 1723 , the lodge moved from the Apple Tree Taverr , to the Queen ' s Head , in Knave's Acre , and on this occasion the members came underanew " constitution , " though ' they needed

it not . In other words , instead of continuing to work , like the remainder of the Four Old or Original Lodges , by virtue alone of its Time Immemorial antiquity , it voluntarily accepted , what corresponds in these days with a warrant , but is best described , having regard to the customs prevailingin 1723 , as an authorisation of its " Regularity " by the Grand Master . Certain consequences resulted from this act , as the sequel will disclose , and , in the meantime , it will be convenient to remark that with the exception of Anthony Sayer , the Premier Grand Master , who is cited on the roll of No . 3 , all the eminent persons who took any leading part in the early history of Freemasonry ,

immediately after the formation of a Grand Lodge , were members of No . 4 . In 1724 , No . 1 , had twenty-two members ; No . 2 , twenty-one ; No . 3 , fourteen ; and No . 4 , seventy-one . The three senior lodges possessed among them no member of sufficient rank to be described as "Esquire ; " while in No . 4 , there were 10 noblemen , three honourables , four baronets or knights , two general officers , 10 colonels , four officers below field rank , and 24 esquires . Payne and . Desaguliersformer Grand ' Masters — together with thc Rev . James Anderson ( afterwards D . D . )—the " Father of Masonic History "—were members of this lodge . The lodges at

this period were described by the signs of the houses where they met , and in the earliest Engraved List , nominally for 1723 , but really for 1724 , the Goose and Gridiron—Original No . 1—takes the first place ; then come the Queen's Head , Knave ' s Acre—Original No . 3 ; the Queen ' s Head , Turn Stile ( formerly the Crown)—Original No . 2 ; the Cheshire Cheese ( of which nothing is known ); and in the fifth place , or niche , the Horn ( formerly the Rummer and Grapes ) —Original No . 4 . The same precedency was given to the Four Old ( or Original ) Leidges in the List for 1725 , and as the Cheshire Cheese had then " dropped out , " there was a vacant space in the Calendar

between the third and the fifth places on the roll . From that date until 172 S the first four positions on the official list were occupied by the founders of the Grand Lodge , the three senior lodges taking the same places as in 1724 and 1725 ; but the Horn filling the fourth instead ot the fifth niche , as it had previously done , prior to the disappearance of the lodge at the Cheshire Cheese . On Decembjr 27 th , 1727 , it was resolved by the Grand Lodge that a Committee , consisting of the succeeding Grand Mister , Deputy Grand Master , and Grand Wardens , should inquire into the precedency of the several lodges ; and accordingly when the lodges were arranged in order of seniority in 1729 ,

Original No . 3 , instead of being placed as one of the Four at the head of the roll , found itself relegated by the Committee of Precedence to the eleventh number on the list . This took the merrbers by surprise , considering that the last time the Four were all represented at Grand Lodge—April 19 th , 1727—before the scale of precedence was adjusted in comformity with the regulations enacted for that purpose , their respective Masters and Wardens answered to their names in the same order of seniority as we find to have prevailed when the first Book of Constitutions was approved by the representatives of the lodges in 1723 , that is to say , the present Lodge of Antiqiity , as No . I .,

the Crown ( now extinct ) , as No . 2 ; present Fortitude and O . C ., as No . 3 ; and present Somerset House and Inverness , as No . 4 . But although , to quote fron the actual minutes of Grand Lodge , July nth , 1729 , "The officers of the lodge at the Queen ' s Head , Knave ' s Acre , represented that their lodge wis misplaced in the printed book , whereby they lost their rank , and humbly prayed that the said mistake might bs regulated . Bro . Chocke [ or "Choke , " Deputy Grand Mister ] , acquainted the Grand Lodge that the several lodges stood in the list according to the date of their Constitution . " The record goes on to say , "The said complaint was dismissed . " We have here

arrived at a very interesting stage in the career of the lodge , a fragm ; nt of whose early history I am laying before its present members . But a great many points on which a variety of arguments might be presented , both on the one side and on the other , will be best left to the speculative antiquary , as being of no practical importance at the present date . From an academical point of view , the gradual supersession of the operative by the speculative ( or symbilic ) Masons and the paramount position in the Craft attained by Original No . 4 , offer very tempting themes , but I shall content myself with observing that if , instead of being

merely a coterie of Grand Officers , consisting of the Grand Master , his Deputy , and the Grand Wardens ( two of whom , the Deputy Grand Master , Alexander Choice , and the Senior Grand Warden , Nathaniel Blackerby , who succeeded Choke as Diputy , and presided in Grand Lodge on July nth , 1729 , were members of No . 4 ) , the three senior lodges had been represented on the Committee of Precedence , it is not credible for an instant that the just claim of the old lodge at the Q jeen ' s Head , Knave's Acre , to retain the rank which the members had clearly brought with them on their removal from the Apple Tree Tavern , would have been so contemptuously disregarded . Moreover , if we

IOOK uoon the matter as being virtually a struggle for priority beteveen what are now Fortitude and Old Cumberland , and Somerset House and Inverness respectively , to be determined by a tribunal which was controlled by members of the junior lodge , the r . suit might well have been anticipated . Of the I ); puty Grand Master and Senior Grand YVarden , who belonged to No . 4 , it mijht have been confidently predicted that— : o quote and adopt the expressive language of Swift , though used by the Dean in quite a different connection— " They will be sure to decide in favour of themselves , and to talk much of their inherent right . " But this evening I am mainly concerned in placing before you ,

in a s , . all compass , a narrative ot events , and will therefore only mike th : passing observation befure going on with my story , that whatever privileges ware inheres : in or to Original No . 3 evhen it met at the Apple Tree in 1717 , , it undoubted !/ retained on the occasion of the numbers altering their place of meeting in 1723 . Tnere are numerous incidents on which 1 should like to dwell ; but I pass to the 2 y : h of January , 1739 , on which date Viscount Kingston was succeeded as Grand M ister oy the Duk 1 of N irtolk . The whole of the former Grand Masters , with the solitary exception of the Duke of Wharton , were present at this festival , and they entered the lodge room in order of

juniority . Lord Colerane walked at thc head of the procession , then followed the Earl of Inchiquin , Lord Paisley , the Duke of Richmond , the Eul of Dalkeith , the Duke of Montagu , Dr . Desaguliers , George Payne , Esq ., and last of all , in the position of honour as the first Grand Master of Masons that ever existed , " Mr . Anthony Sayer , " who was still a member of the old lodge which had been removed from the Apple Tree to the Queen ' s Head , in 1723 . About the year 1736 , Original No . 2 , formerly at the Crown ( 1717 ) , was dropped from the roll , and thc lodges immediately below it each went up a step , Original No . 3 , moving from the 1 ith to the 10 th place on thc list . This lodge—or it will be clearer if 1 say to our

Craft Masonry.

hosts of to-night , your lodge —\ % next referred to by Dr . Armerson , who has been called the " Father of Masonic History , " in his Book of Constitutions , published in 1738 . This work contains the only account we possess of the proceedings of the Four Old Lodges , with respect to the fornution of a Grand Lodge . The manuscript having been reviewed and corrected by many Past Grand Officers , was ordered to be printed " with their approbation" by the Earl of Dirnley , and the other Grand Officers for 1737 ; and was published with the " sanction and recommendation " of the Marquis of Caernarvon , Grand Master , and the other Grand Officers tor 173 S .

Here we have then , not merely an account of historical facts , of which no other description exists , but an absolutely conclusive testimony to the good faith of the compiler , in the approval and recommendation of his book by the Grand Master and Grand Officers feir 1737 and 173 S . In this work a list is given of the lodges in and about London and Westminster , and at the number 10 we meet with the following : "QUEEN ' HEAD in Knave ' s-Acre . This was oneof the four Lodges mention'd Page 109 , viz . the APPLE-TREE , Tavern in Charles-street , Cement-Garden , whose Constitution is immemorial : But after they removed to the QUERN ' S Head , upon some

Difference , the Members that met there came under a nero Constitution , tho' they wanted it not , and it is therefore placed at this Number . " Now I am going to put it to you , that the statements of students of history—Masonic or otherwise—like those of advocates in Courts of Law , are only to be relied upon , so far as they can be sustained by evidence . My own statement that there has been no break of continuity in your career as a lodge , from 1717 down to the present date , has already been laid before you , and I next come to the proof , by which I mean the actual evidence , bearing on the circumstances which took place when original No . 3 was removed

from the Apple Tree to the Queen s Head in 1723 . Dr . Anderson tells us in the plainest terms that the Masonic ancestors of your present lodge were members of one of the Four Old . ' or Original Lodges , which founded the Grand Lodge , and he goes onto say , " Whose Constitution is ( not was ) immemorial , " and he explains the loss of their rank ( while retaining their unbroken descent from the lodge at the Apple Tree ) by the remark— " the members came under a new Constitution , tho' they wanted it not . " What do these words mean ? In my own opinion , they signify beyond the shadow of a doubt , first of all , that the constitution of the lodge in 1736 , was regarded by Dr .

Anderson , as being an Immemorial one ; also , that the members of Original No . 3 , required in 1723 , no further authority than that which they already possessed ; and that in consequence , a new constitution was wholly unneeded . The point , however , for our consideration to-night , has nothing whatever to do with the ancient privileges of the lodge . It is the simple question of its antiquity . If , instead of accepting one new constitution , it had accepted ///?/ , this would have involved no break in the continuity of its existence as a lodge . Now , unless words are to be divested of their real meaning , there would seem to me no other possible interpretation to be placed on the entry in the

constitutions for 173 S—than that in the opinion of the highest ( andonly ) authority on the early status of the Four Old Lodges— , the Lodge No . 10 in 173 S ( present No . 12 ) , was the lineal descendant ( without a break ) of the old lodge which met at the Apple Tree in 1717 . In other words , instead of being merely an early , but yet Modern lodge created by the Grand Lodge , it is as truly at the present | diy a descendant of Original No . 3 , as are Antiquity and Somerset House of Original Nos . 1 and 4 , and is equally with them one of the Time Immemorial lodges to which the Grand Lodge owes its existence . No . 10 afterwards met at the Fish and Bell , Charles-street , Soho-square , for many years , and

during its stay there an event occurred , which is thus related in the minute book of the George Lodge , No . 4 , iun > the Lodge of Friendship , No . 6 : July 22 , 1755— " Letter being Tread ] from the Grand Secy .: Citing us to appear att the Committee of Charity to answer the Fish and Bell Lodge [ No . 10 ] to their demand of being plac'd prior to us , viz ., in No . 3 . Whereon our R Wors Mas attended & the Question being put to Ballot was carr in favour of us . " But , although this renewed protest against its loss of rank was again unsuccessful , the officers of No . 10 appear to have satisfied the Committee that their lodge was entitled to a higher number than would fall to it in the ordinary course , from two of its seniors having " dropped out" since the last

revision of the list in 1740 . Instead , therefore , of becoming No . 8 , we find that it passed over the heads of two then existing lodges immediately above it , and appeared in the sixth place in the list for 175 C . More than 20 years ago I observed in a little work which has long _ since been forgotten : "The supersession of Original No . 3 by eight junior lodges in 1729 , together with its partial restoration of rank in 1756 , has introduced so much confusion into the history of this Lodge , thit for upwards of a century , its identity with the 'Old Lodge , ' which met at the Apple Tree Tavern in 1717 , appears to have been wholly lost sight of . "

Of the meeting of the Four Old Lodges on St . John the Baptist ' s Day , 1717 , a famous writer observes : " This day is celebrated by all German lodges as the day of the Anniversary of the Society of Freemasons . It is the high-noon of the year , the day of light and roses , and it ought to be celebrated everywhere . " It seems to me that not only is the most momentous event in the history of the Craft worthy of annual commemoration , but that it is ( or should be ) the duty of the three surviving lodges who founded the earliest of Grand Lodges , to unite together for the purpose of carrying the idea of such celebration into effect .

All Four of the Time Immemorial lodges have had their mutations of fortune . Antiquity seceded , became a Grand Lodge , and eventually returned to the fold . Original No . 2 is dead . Fortitude and Old Cumberland has lost its rank ; and the Royal Somerset and Inverness was erased from , but after the lapse of a few years , restored to the roll . Nevertheless , the three lodges I have ) last named , even if they were at the bottom of the lists of lodges instead of where they are , would always have connected with them associations which belong to no other lodge , so that if they have not priority of rank they stand in priority

of estimation over all other lodges . It is somewhat remarkable that no histories of these lodges have been written . But the fams of the " Old Antiquity , " the vicissitudes of Fortitude and Old Cumberland , and thc galaxy of worthies who were members of Somerset House and Inverness , may yet , let us hope , serve as founts of inspiration from which future chroniclers may draw freely , and as freely record in lodge histories the eminent services rendered to Freemasonry by previous generations of distinguished Craftsmen , whose names adorn the rolls of either of the three still surviving lodges of Immemorial Antiquity ; or , to vary the expression , the three living

English lodges , of whose existence " the ^ memory of man runneth not to the contrary . " One such chronicler , in the person of Bro . VV . H . Rylands ( who hoped to be with us this evening ) , has , I am glad to say , undertaken to write a history of the Lodge of Antiquity . Somerset House and Inverness will , 1 doubt not , at the proper psychological moment , depute some competent brother to compile a record of its proceedings ; and lastly I come to yourselves , the members of the lodge I am now addressing . Your lodge during its long span of life , since the

dawn of accredited Masonic history ( and for what period it was in existence before the era of the Grand Lodge it helped to found , cannot be determined ) , has , indeed , undergone vicissitudes of fortune , but there are glorious associations connected with its career of which nothing can deprive you . These , I think , it is your bounden duty to place on record for the benefit and information of the present members , as well as those who may come after them . The members of Fortitude and Old Cumberland may take a legitimate pride in the reflection , that their lodge was one of the Four tint called into being the earliest of Grand Lodges ; that the Grand Lodge of England was con-

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