Brother Peter W. Gilkes.

Brother Peter W . Gilkes .

^ E ^^^ iHF . memory of Bro . William Gilkes—whose ^ y / ym |_§ w ! portrait from an engraving in our possession we ! v . ^ ily \ e ^ P ^ casure ol reproducing in our present j ^^^^ gjl Christmas Number— and the fame hc acquire d in diffusing a knowledge of our Ritual among thc

brethren of his day will ever bc remembered with reverence ancl respect . Hc was not a man of high birth , nor could hc boast of any great educational attainments . " Though , " as wc read in Bro . Gould's "Atholl Lodges , " "' many times offered thc

collar of a Grand Officer , he invariably declined on-lhe plea that his circumstances in life were not equal lo the appointment . " Yet his fame rests on a surer foundation than that of

nineteentwenticths of the brethren who have worn , and in their several spheres of Masonic duly deserved , thc purple of Grand Lodge , as may be gathered from the following observations made by the late Bro . John Havers , which arc quoted by Bro . Gould in the

same work ancl also by Bro . Henry Sadler in his " Notes on the Ceremony of Installation "—• " I claim for the memory of Peter ¦ I homson and thc active teachers of his time a large share ui merit in our present position . When all was disarranged , when

> dl was unsettled , when every difficulty beset the young aspirant after Masonic knowledge , then Godwin and Gilkes , and Broadfoot and Thomson , then White , and Goldsworthy , . Lawrence

thompson and Sattcrlcv , were the Masons who manfully and * zealousl y attempted ancl succeeded in the attempt to procure uniformity in Masonry , and to disseminate the genuine principles

Brother Peter W. Gilkes.

of our Order . " Moreover , as Bro . Sadler further i nforms us , until a comparatively recent period , " ' Thc pious memory of the late Peter Gilkes , ' was the Iirst toast given at the Annual Festival of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement , " to the

formation of which he is said to have been in the first instance opposed , but which he joined in 1825 and of which from that time until the close of his death he was thc principal member .

Those , indeed , who desire lo learn pretty well all that is known of thc career of this distinguished Preceptor should read the work of Bro . Sadler to which we have referred . The following , however , will serve for an outline of his career : —Bro . Gilkes was born of

humble parents who liyed in thc precincts of Clare Market in 176 5 , ancl in 1786 , when 21 years of age , was initiated in the British Lodge , now No . 8 . He was first elected to the chair

of Mastcr by the brethren of the Lodge of Unity , now No . 6 9 , but afterwards he became W . M . of the lodges now ranking- respectively as Nos . 7 , 23 , 162 , 172 , 180 , 211 , 214 and 256 , and

several times 111 each Lodge . Indeed , for many years he was elected annually to the chair of one of these lodges in order that he might be qualified for election on the Board of Benevolence and when he died on thc 1 ith December , 1833 , he was Master of

St . Michael ' s Lodge , now No . 211 . He was buried in St . James ' s Churchyard , Piccadilly , his remains being followed to the grave by a larger concourse oi brethren than had ever been previouslyknown . The following year a fund was raised for the purpose of

erecting a monument to his memory , ancl on one of the pillars in the south aisle of St . James ' s Church may be seen a handsome tablet from a gratuitous design by his friend ancl pupil the late

Bro , Stephen Barton Wilson , P . G . I ) ., who has been usually looked upon as his successor in the Preceptorshi p of what is now our quasi-official school of Masonic instruction .