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Told By The Lodge Register.
the year 1841 . The only other name of note to be found during the period covered by this Part II . is that of Bro . Henry Stuart , ALP- wl 10 joined in 1843 , and was a brother b y blood of Bro . AVilliam -stuart , Provincial Grand Alaster Herts , already mentioned . This TKva H . Stuart joined from the Watford Lodge , and was appointed
J . G . AV . in 1853 . In April , 1843 , however , Antiquity had the misfortune to lose by death the most illustrious of all its members , H . R . H . the Duke of Sussex , M . AV . G . M ., who had joined it as far back as 1808 , and had presided as its W . AI . for a long series of years . That any lodge under so great a Alaster would have prospered , as voo-m-rls the number and social rank of its members , is not
improbable . But Antiquity attracted those brethren by the hig h character it had enjoyed , and the known skill of its members , so that those who enrolled themselves under its banner , however brilliant may have been their position and services outside Alasonry , werc honoured by thc lodge ' s acceptance of them as members in exactl y the same proportion as the 3 honoured ifc hy seeking its membership .
PART III . —1844—1839 . During the third and concluding portion of my narrative ,-it will be found that Antiquity , though it is very far from being as strong in point of numbers as it was at the Union in 1813 , has well maintained its prestige , and there are still on its roll of members , as indeed has
been the case at all times , a veiy strong array of brethren who have attained to very exalted rank in the general body of the Craft . For the first few years I discover no recruits of exceptionally high rank or great promise , Bros . Earl Howe and Rich . Davis , who werc admitted in 1844 , being the most noteworthy . The latter was
apjiointcd J . G . AV . of England in 1851 , while the former , who had served as S . G . AV . in 1829 , was selected by the Earl of Zetland afc his induction into omeo as AI . AV . G . AI . to actus his Deputy- Grand AIaster . In 1856 his lordshi p was ajipoiiited Provincial Grand Alaster of Leicestershire , and in 1869 of Leicestershire and Rutland combined ,
and this position he continued to hold until his death in 1870 . In 1848 Bro . AVilliam Stuart , jun ., son of Bro . AVilliam Stuart , P . G . AI . Hertfordshire , joined from the AVatford Lod ge , in which , like his father , hc had been initiated . In 1855 , having in the interim passed the chair of the lodge , hc was invested as S . G . AV ., while in 1885 on
, the constitution of Bedfordshire as a jirovincc , he had the honour to he selected by the Prince of AVales to be its Provincial Grand Alaster . In 1852 Bro . Samuel Tomkins , who till rather more than 10 years ago occupied so prominent a place in Grand Lodge , joined from a lodgo under the Scottish Constitution . He was elected Grand Treasurer in
18 o 2 , and retained thc ofiice by annual re-election almost to the close of his life . Bro . AVilliam Pulteney Scott , the S . G . D . of 1858 , was also admitted about the same time as Bro . Tomkins . In 1856 Bro . Lord Eustiice Cecil , son of the late Alarquis of Salisbury and brother of thc present peer , who had been initiated the year previous iu a
military lodge in the trenches before Sebastopol , was elected a joining member , while about the same time Bro . the Duke of Alanchester was initiated in the lodge . In 1863 his Grace was apjiointcd P . G . AI . of Norths aud Hunts , and though iu 1887 he found it necessary to resign owing to the many demands upon his time , he must still be
included among those who have rendered valuable services to the Craft and its Institutions , his especial claims upon the respect of Alasonry consisting in the fact of his liaving twice given his services as Chairman , on the first occasion in 1865 , at the Anniversary Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys , and again in 1878 . when
he jn-esided at the Festival in aid of the lioyal Alasonic Benevolent Institution . I may also mention , as constituting jicrhajis a further claim on the consideration of the brethren , that one of his Grace ' s predecessors in the Dukedom—George , 4 th Duke of Alanchester—was
Grand AIaster of England on the " Alodern " side from 1777 till 1782 , when he retired , and was succeeded b y H . R . H . the Duke of Cumberland , uncle to George , Prince of AA ' ales and the Duke of Sussex , and great-great-uiicle to our present illustrious Graud AIaster .
In 1857 Antiquity was strengthened by the addition to its roll of members of Bro . Charles E . Horsley and Capt ., afterwards Colonel , John Joseph Creaton , the former of whom was apjiointcd Grand Organist the very same year , and annuall y re-apjiointed till 1862 , while the latter won such distinction during his long and valuable
career as a Alason as will entitle him to be for ever remembered with gratitude as one of the ablest and most generous members of our Order . There are few brethren to whose lot ifc has fallen fco serve the Craft in so many different cajiacities , and I venture to think there are not many who have turned their opportunities to such excellent
account . To enumerate all the various offices he held at divers times and iu divers lodges would occupy too much time , and after all would give but a veiy inadequate idea of his services to Freemasonry . Let it suffice , therefore , if I state that he was W . AL of Antiquity in the years I 860 and 1861 , and svas appointed J . G . D . in 180 * 2 : that from 1879 till
1683 he held the office of G . Treasurer ; was Treasurer by election of tlie Girls' School , and Treasurer ex-oflicio of the Benevolent Institution ; and that for many ycars he was President of the Committee ot General Purposes of Smii-omo Grand OlmnW IT ,. « .., „« P ,, f ,.,-. „
or Vice-Patron of all our Institutions , and in 1879 presided sit the Jtst Anniversary Festival of the Royal AIasonic Institution for Girls , when the subscri ptions and donations returned by the various • stewards exceeded £ 12 , 000 . It was , indeed , in the Girls' School
Told By The Lodge Register.
that Bro . Creaton ajijLieared to take the deepest interest , though both the other Charities were generously- supported by him ; and though the policy he recommended—as in the case of the purchase of Lyncombe Houso and ground attached—was at the time the subject of much controversy , there can be no question that it was intended , and
has since proved to be for the advantage of the School . His death occurred towards the close of November , 1884 , and was very- generall y and deeply lamented , not only- on its account as involving the loss of one who had borne himself so bravely , but also because ifc followed closely- on the deaths of such other prominent Craftsmen as John Havers , Col . Lloyd Phillips , & c , & c , & c .
In 1858 Bro . S . Leith Tomkins , S . G . D . in 1869 , and in the following year Bro . Henry Grissell , who had held the same office in 1868 , were admitted members , and in 1861 Bro . AVharton P . Hood , who for many years has been Honorary Surgeon to the Girls' School . In 1863 there were added to the register Bro . J . Sampson Peirce , who
joined from the Britannic Lodge , No . 33 , and , having occupied thc chair of the lodge in 1867 , and rendered other important services to Craft and Arch Alasonry , was rewarded with the collar of a J . G . D . in 1881 . The other notable recruit of this year was the late Bro . the Rev . A . F . A . Woodford , who had been initiated some 20 years or
more previously in the Inhabitants Lodge , No . 153 , Gibraltar , and who subseqeently held hig h office in the Provincial Grand Lodge of AVest Yorkshire . In the vcry year of his affiliation to the Lodge of Antiquity , Bro . AVoodford was invested as one of the Grand Chaplains of England , and as it was the custom in these days for
the office to be held for two years , the Junior Chaplain of one year becoming the Senior of the next , . and so on , it was his great good fortune to take jiart in the consecration , by the Earl of Zetland , AI . AV . G . AI ., of the new buildings afc Freemasons' Hall , and the eloquent oration he delivered on tbe occasion brought him into
still greater prominence as one of the most learned and most hig hly cultured Alasons of our day . During the last 20 years of his life he devoted himself almost entirely to the jironiotion of Alasonic literature , of which , indeed , in conjunction with Bros . J . Hughan and It . V . Gonld , he was the guiding spirit .
His knowledge of our history and antiquities was marvellous . He was conversant with the works of all the great AIasonic authors , both English and foreign , and though there wero often great divergences of opinion between him and his chief literary confreres , his views were always well sujiported by arguments which those who
differed with him often experienced great difficult y in meeting . Ho was at his best as a speaker . Having a fluent delivery , and a comjilete knowledge of the facts invariably at his command , he caught afc once and ever afterwards retained the ear of his audience ; but in his written essays and articles , though his language will be found
quite as eloquent as m his speeches , the veiy vastness and variety of the knowledge he had acquired at times jirevented him from setting forth his meaning and intention in clear and jirecise language . The works b y which he will be best remembered are his "Defence of Freemasonry " and " Kenning ' s Cyclopiedia of Freemasonry , " of
which he was the editor , and which will always remain the chief monument to his learning and research . But I question very much whether , after all , he will not be best remembered as the Editor of thc Freemason and the late Masonio Magazine , whicii was published concurrently with the Freemason , but in monthl y jiarts , for so many
years . The articles , of which ifc was an ojien secret that he was the author , that appeared weekl y in the former , and the more elaborate essays he contributed to the latter , were always read with jileasure by the AIasonic fraternity , and even in those of whicii the reader was indisposed to accejit the opinions he expressed , he never failed to
respect as well as admire them . But I must not detain you further , even though ifc be to listen to the just praise of one who will always stand forth , not only as one of the kindest and most genial of men , but likewise as one of the ablest and most learned of the small circle of literary Craftsmen of our time .
In 1865 Bro . James Percy Leith , who wns AVorshi p ful AIaster in 1870 , and Senior Grand Deacon in 1874 , was admitted a member , while in 1869 , Bro . George Scharf , Director of the National Portrait Gallery , was initiated , while Bro . Lord Lindsay , now the -Earl of Crawford and Balcarres , joined from the Isaac Newton University
Lodge , No . 859 , Cambridge . Two years later his lordshi p was invested as S . G . AV . of England , and besides having attained the distinguished position of a Provincial Grand Alaster under the Scottish Constitution , is Deput y Prov . G . Alaster and Prov . G . H . of AVest Lancashire . The year following I find entered the names of Bro .
It . It . Holmes , the Royal Librarian at Windsor , and Bro . AV . J . Erasmus AVilson , who is best known to the world at large as Sir Erasmus Wilson . In Alasonry , Bro . Wilson , after serving the office of Grand Steward , was , in 1871 , appointed Senior Grand Deacon , while in his jirofessional career he attained celebrity ns one of the greatest of
modern authorities on discuses ot the skin . But his fame in both these respects is overshadowed b y that whicii ho acquired by having conveyed into England the large obelisk known as Cleopatra ' s Needle , whicii had been jircsentcd to the Government some timo in the forties b y Alahomet Ali , who so nearly succeeded in making Egypt independent , of Turkey . This he did entirely at his own cost ,
and after many- jienls by hind and sea , tbe historic monolith was safely landed in England , and now stands on the Victoria Embankment . For this act Bro . Wilson was honoured with knighthood b y her Alajesty the Queen . At his death , in 1884 , Bro . Sir Erasmus AVilson bequeathed the bulk of his jiroperty to the Royal College of Surgeons , thereby adding one more claim upon our respect for his public and patriotic services .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Told By The Lodge Register.
the year 1841 . The only other name of note to be found during the period covered by this Part II . is that of Bro . Henry Stuart , ALP- wl 10 joined in 1843 , and was a brother b y blood of Bro . AVilliam -stuart , Provincial Grand Alaster Herts , already mentioned . This TKva H . Stuart joined from the Watford Lodge , and was appointed
J . G . AV . in 1853 . In April , 1843 , however , Antiquity had the misfortune to lose by death the most illustrious of all its members , H . R . H . the Duke of Sussex , M . AV . G . M ., who had joined it as far back as 1808 , and had presided as its W . AI . for a long series of years . That any lodge under so great a Alaster would have prospered , as voo-m-rls the number and social rank of its members , is not
improbable . But Antiquity attracted those brethren by the hig h character it had enjoyed , and the known skill of its members , so that those who enrolled themselves under its banner , however brilliant may have been their position and services outside Alasonry , werc honoured by thc lodge ' s acceptance of them as members in exactl y the same proportion as the 3 honoured ifc hy seeking its membership .
PART III . —1844—1839 . During the third and concluding portion of my narrative ,-it will be found that Antiquity , though it is very far from being as strong in point of numbers as it was at the Union in 1813 , has well maintained its prestige , and there are still on its roll of members , as indeed has
been the case at all times , a veiy strong array of brethren who have attained to very exalted rank in the general body of the Craft . For the first few years I discover no recruits of exceptionally high rank or great promise , Bros . Earl Howe and Rich . Davis , who werc admitted in 1844 , being the most noteworthy . The latter was
apjiointcd J . G . AV . of England in 1851 , while the former , who had served as S . G . AV . in 1829 , was selected by the Earl of Zetland afc his induction into omeo as AI . AV . G . AI . to actus his Deputy- Grand AIaster . In 1856 his lordshi p was ajipoiiited Provincial Grand Alaster of Leicestershire , and in 1869 of Leicestershire and Rutland combined ,
and this position he continued to hold until his death in 1870 . In 1848 Bro . AVilliam Stuart , jun ., son of Bro . AVilliam Stuart , P . G . AI . Hertfordshire , joined from the AVatford Lod ge , in which , like his father , hc had been initiated . In 1855 , having in the interim passed the chair of the lodge , hc was invested as S . G . AV ., while in 1885 on
, the constitution of Bedfordshire as a jirovincc , he had the honour to he selected by the Prince of AVales to be its Provincial Grand Alaster . In 1852 Bro . Samuel Tomkins , who till rather more than 10 years ago occupied so prominent a place in Grand Lodge , joined from a lodgo under the Scottish Constitution . He was elected Grand Treasurer in
18 o 2 , and retained thc ofiice by annual re-election almost to the close of his life . Bro . AVilliam Pulteney Scott , the S . G . D . of 1858 , was also admitted about the same time as Bro . Tomkins . In 1856 Bro . Lord Eustiice Cecil , son of the late Alarquis of Salisbury and brother of thc present peer , who had been initiated the year previous iu a
military lodge in the trenches before Sebastopol , was elected a joining member , while about the same time Bro . the Duke of Alanchester was initiated in the lodge . In 1863 his Grace was apjiointcd P . G . AI . of Norths aud Hunts , and though iu 1887 he found it necessary to resign owing to the many demands upon his time , he must still be
included among those who have rendered valuable services to the Craft and its Institutions , his especial claims upon the respect of Alasonry consisting in the fact of his liaving twice given his services as Chairman , on the first occasion in 1865 , at the Anniversary Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys , and again in 1878 . when
he jn-esided at the Festival in aid of the lioyal Alasonic Benevolent Institution . I may also mention , as constituting jicrhajis a further claim on the consideration of the brethren , that one of his Grace ' s predecessors in the Dukedom—George , 4 th Duke of Alanchester—was
Grand AIaster of England on the " Alodern " side from 1777 till 1782 , when he retired , and was succeeded b y H . R . H . the Duke of Cumberland , uncle to George , Prince of AA ' ales and the Duke of Sussex , and great-great-uiicle to our present illustrious Graud AIaster .
In 1857 Antiquity was strengthened by the addition to its roll of members of Bro . Charles E . Horsley and Capt ., afterwards Colonel , John Joseph Creaton , the former of whom was apjiointcd Grand Organist the very same year , and annuall y re-apjiointed till 1862 , while the latter won such distinction during his long and valuable
career as a Alason as will entitle him to be for ever remembered with gratitude as one of the ablest and most generous members of our Order . There are few brethren to whose lot ifc has fallen fco serve the Craft in so many different cajiacities , and I venture to think there are not many who have turned their opportunities to such excellent
account . To enumerate all the various offices he held at divers times and iu divers lodges would occupy too much time , and after all would give but a veiy inadequate idea of his services to Freemasonry . Let it suffice , therefore , if I state that he was W . AL of Antiquity in the years I 860 and 1861 , and svas appointed J . G . D . in 180 * 2 : that from 1879 till
1683 he held the office of G . Treasurer ; was Treasurer by election of tlie Girls' School , and Treasurer ex-oflicio of the Benevolent Institution ; and that for many ycars he was President of the Committee ot General Purposes of Smii-omo Grand OlmnW IT ,. « .., „« P ,, f ,.,-. „
or Vice-Patron of all our Institutions , and in 1879 presided sit the Jtst Anniversary Festival of the Royal AIasonic Institution for Girls , when the subscri ptions and donations returned by the various • stewards exceeded £ 12 , 000 . It was , indeed , in the Girls' School
Told By The Lodge Register.
that Bro . Creaton ajijLieared to take the deepest interest , though both the other Charities were generously- supported by him ; and though the policy he recommended—as in the case of the purchase of Lyncombe Houso and ground attached—was at the time the subject of much controversy , there can be no question that it was intended , and
has since proved to be for the advantage of the School . His death occurred towards the close of November , 1884 , and was very- generall y and deeply lamented , not only- on its account as involving the loss of one who had borne himself so bravely , but also because ifc followed closely- on the deaths of such other prominent Craftsmen as John Havers , Col . Lloyd Phillips , & c , & c , & c .
In 1858 Bro . S . Leith Tomkins , S . G . D . in 1869 , and in the following year Bro . Henry Grissell , who had held the same office in 1868 , were admitted members , and in 1861 Bro . AVharton P . Hood , who for many years has been Honorary Surgeon to the Girls' School . In 1863 there were added to the register Bro . J . Sampson Peirce , who
joined from the Britannic Lodge , No . 33 , and , having occupied thc chair of the lodge in 1867 , and rendered other important services to Craft and Arch Alasonry , was rewarded with the collar of a J . G . D . in 1881 . The other notable recruit of this year was the late Bro . the Rev . A . F . A . Woodford , who had been initiated some 20 years or
more previously in the Inhabitants Lodge , No . 153 , Gibraltar , and who subseqeently held hig h office in the Provincial Grand Lodge of AVest Yorkshire . In the vcry year of his affiliation to the Lodge of Antiquity , Bro . AVoodford was invested as one of the Grand Chaplains of England , and as it was the custom in these days for
the office to be held for two years , the Junior Chaplain of one year becoming the Senior of the next , . and so on , it was his great good fortune to take jiart in the consecration , by the Earl of Zetland , AI . AV . G . AI ., of the new buildings afc Freemasons' Hall , and the eloquent oration he delivered on tbe occasion brought him into
still greater prominence as one of the most learned and most hig hly cultured Alasons of our day . During the last 20 years of his life he devoted himself almost entirely to the jironiotion of Alasonic literature , of which , indeed , in conjunction with Bros . J . Hughan and It . V . Gonld , he was the guiding spirit .
His knowledge of our history and antiquities was marvellous . He was conversant with the works of all the great AIasonic authors , both English and foreign , and though there wero often great divergences of opinion between him and his chief literary confreres , his views were always well sujiported by arguments which those who
differed with him often experienced great difficult y in meeting . Ho was at his best as a speaker . Having a fluent delivery , and a comjilete knowledge of the facts invariably at his command , he caught afc once and ever afterwards retained the ear of his audience ; but in his written essays and articles , though his language will be found
quite as eloquent as m his speeches , the veiy vastness and variety of the knowledge he had acquired at times jirevented him from setting forth his meaning and intention in clear and jirecise language . The works b y which he will be best remembered are his "Defence of Freemasonry " and " Kenning ' s Cyclopiedia of Freemasonry , " of
which he was the editor , and which will always remain the chief monument to his learning and research . But I question very much whether , after all , he will not be best remembered as the Editor of thc Freemason and the late Masonio Magazine , whicii was published concurrently with the Freemason , but in monthl y jiarts , for so many
years . The articles , of which ifc was an ojien secret that he was the author , that appeared weekl y in the former , and the more elaborate essays he contributed to the latter , were always read with jileasure by the AIasonic fraternity , and even in those of whicii the reader was indisposed to accejit the opinions he expressed , he never failed to
respect as well as admire them . But I must not detain you further , even though ifc be to listen to the just praise of one who will always stand forth , not only as one of the kindest and most genial of men , but likewise as one of the ablest and most learned of the small circle of literary Craftsmen of our time .
In 1865 Bro . James Percy Leith , who wns AVorshi p ful AIaster in 1870 , and Senior Grand Deacon in 1874 , was admitted a member , while in 1869 , Bro . George Scharf , Director of the National Portrait Gallery , was initiated , while Bro . Lord Lindsay , now the -Earl of Crawford and Balcarres , joined from the Isaac Newton University
Lodge , No . 859 , Cambridge . Two years later his lordshi p was invested as S . G . AV . of England , and besides having attained the distinguished position of a Provincial Grand Alaster under the Scottish Constitution , is Deput y Prov . G . Alaster and Prov . G . H . of AVest Lancashire . The year following I find entered the names of Bro .
It . It . Holmes , the Royal Librarian at Windsor , and Bro . AV . J . Erasmus AVilson , who is best known to the world at large as Sir Erasmus Wilson . In Alasonry , Bro . Wilson , after serving the office of Grand Steward , was , in 1871 , appointed Senior Grand Deacon , while in his jirofessional career he attained celebrity ns one of the greatest of
modern authorities on discuses ot the skin . But his fame in both these respects is overshadowed b y that whicii ho acquired by having conveyed into England the large obelisk known as Cleopatra ' s Needle , whicii had been jircsentcd to the Government some timo in the forties b y Alahomet Ali , who so nearly succeeded in making Egypt independent , of Turkey . This he did entirely at his own cost ,
and after many- jienls by hind and sea , tbe historic monolith was safely landed in England , and now stands on the Victoria Embankment . For this act Bro . Wilson was honoured with knighthood b y her Alajesty the Queen . At his death , in 1884 , Bro . Sir Erasmus AVilson bequeathed the bulk of his jiroperty to the Royal College of Surgeons , thereby adding one more claim upon our respect for his public and patriotic services .