History Of The Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

having raised near £ 4110 by his own exertions , when 15 promising Boys , nianyof them Orphans , in the most destitute situation , were immediately clothed and their education begun . " But notwithstanding these unqualified statements , we have no hesitation in expressing a most decided preference for Bro . Cole ' s evidence , not because we love " Sir Francis" less than Bro . Burwood , but because that evidence bears the impress of being

genuine , and is borne by one who himself lent a willing hand in promoting the earlier Charity . Moreover , the remark in the footnote— " The author has been informed that Mr . Win . Burwood was Treasurer for many years "—sufficiently establishes the fact that the said autiior made these statements from information he had received , not from any personal knowledge he possessed of the circumstances , and that , after the manner of men

who are thus dependent on others , he had experienced no difficulty in mixing up his details in such a manner as to enable him to glorify his hero without entirely depriving the other actors in the principal event of their share of the glory . But let us describe what is known authoritatively of Bro . Daniel ' s Masonic career , so far as it may be necessary to elucidate this part of our story . According to the Atholl Register , he joined the United Mariners

Lodge , No . 23 , " from No . 3 , " in the quarter to 2 nd September , 1789 . Subsequently , in the first quarter of 1791 , he is entered with the familiar letters " K . A . " against his name , and the year following he is described as a " P . M . " In the records of the same Grand Lodge occurs the following entry in the minutes of the Stewards' Lodge for 21 st January , 1801 : " Received the Charge of Lo . Ige 200 against Bro . Francis Daniels ,

late of the United Mariners Lodge , Wapping , for pretending to make and admit Wm . Clark and divers Persons Brothers of the most Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free Accepted Masons of England according lo the Old Constitutions without the Grand Master ' s Warrant and granting Certificates to the same Parties in imitation of Certificates of this Right Worshipful Grand Lodge , contrary to good faith and without any Warrant

or authority for so doing . " Thereupon " Bro . Wm . Clark now of said Lodge 2 ij > and others" were examined and it was " Ordered that the Secretary summons F . C . Daniels and all proper parties to attend at the next Stewards' Lodge . " In the minutes of the same lodge for the following month we are told that the Secretary having " read a letter from Bro . Francis Daniels with a Copy of the Secretary ' s answer thereto , " " the

Lodge proceeded to the Examination of several Brothers of said Lodge 290 , and the Charges against the said Bro . Daniels being thereby fully substantiated , it was thereupon unanimously adjudged and determined that the said Bro . Francis C . Daniels be and he is hereby excluded the benefit of all his Masonic Rights and Privileges of the Ancient Craft and of the Right Worshipful Grand Lodge according to the Old Constitutions , and

due notice given to all Warranted Lodges to conduct themselves accordingly , according to the like usages in such cases . " This resolution was endorsed at the meeting of the Grand Lodge next ensuing—on the 4 th March , the following being the exact terms of the record : "Read the Minutes of the Stesvards' Lodge of the lSih February and the same were confirmed , and it was thereupon Ordered that Francis Daniel , of Lodge 255 , and late of the

United Mariners Lodge , No . 23 , be and he is hereby excluded all Masonic Rights and Privileges , and of which all Warranted Lodges arc to take notice and govern themselves accordingly . " Lastly , Bro . Robert Leslie , G . Secretary , sent out a printed circular letter dated September 10 th , 1 S 01 , and addressed to the Worshipful Master and Wardens of " every Lodge in

England , Scotland , Ireland , and America , " in which he cautioned them to " Beware of Certificates with the following Words engraved under an Arch at the Top , vi / . : 'Lodge ^ 7 , Royal Naval Lodge of Independence , Wapping , of the Most Ancient and most Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons of England ( according to the Old Constitutions ) . ' "

In the meantime , on turning to the Grand Lodge Register , " Moderns , " we lind that in July , 1791 , Bro . Francis Daniel , then 20 years of age , and described as "Surgeon , Red Lion-street , Wapping , " was admitted a member of the said Royal Naval Lodge , No . 57 , and as it is specified in the inscription on the cup that was presented to him on the ( nil July , 1 S 0 S , by the Earl of Kingston , R . W . M ., tm behalf of the Lodge , that he had " acted as Master of the lodge

upwards of 17 years , " it is clear that he must have been chosen to fill that ollice almost immediately after he had joined it . Thus in 1801 Bro . Daniel was a conspicuous—no doubt the "Ancients" must have said a notorious—person in Masonry , and yet not sufficiently conspicuous for Bro . Cole , who published his " Illustrations of Masonry " earl y in the same year , and who must have compiled that portion of his work which treats of the Masonic

Boys' Charity during the very progress of the events we have described , to have dubbed him as its " Institutor , " as we are reasonably justified in supposing he would have done from his knowledge of the facts , had Bro . Daniel enjoyed any right to such a distinction . On the contrary the title of "Institutor , " or founder , as well as that of Treasurer , is assigned

unreservedly to Bro . William Burwood , who is rightly described as " Junior Grand Warden , " in two places , namely , in the list of " Patrons , " and in that of " Subscribers of Five Guineas and upwards . " Nor is anything said about Bro . Daniel being " Joint-Treasurer " with Bro . Burwood . All Bro . Cole does is lo include him in the same class of subscribers with Bro .

Burwood , and prefix before his name the letters " SS " to indicate that he had served the office of Steward , and a * to show he was also an annual subscriber of one guinea . To us this evidence of Cole ' s appears lo be conclusive of the fact that Bro . Daniel did not play the part assigned to him by the author of his memoir in the foundation of the Boys' Institution established in 179 8 , and that

it was not Bro . Burwood who aided him , but he who aided Bro . Burwood in the good work . Moreover , —and this is by no means the least urgent of our arguments in support of Bro . Burwood—when the I Jnion had been accomplished and the United Grand Lodge held its first communication on the 2 nd March , 1814 , the Board of Schools reported on the occasion—as indeed we stated in the beginning— " that there were two Institutions , under

the auspices of the United Grand Lodge . " One of them was the Girls ' School , while as to the other or Boys' Institution , the Board pointed out that it had " also been supported by private subscription and by grants from the Grand Lodge at various times , " and a few words further on , reference is made lo a " recent regulation of the Fraternity , to which the said Institution was attached . " The regulations of the two Institutions for Girls and Boys

respectively were spoken of very favourably , and both were commended to the generous support of the lodges and brethren . It was also resolved that a certain proportion of the charges " of registering new made Masons " should be " applied towards the maintenance of the Schools . " But not one word is said with reference to the Boys' Charity instituted by Bro . Daniel , though it had the Earl of Kingston lor its Patron , and had received support from the Earl of Moira , the Chevalier Ruspini , and W . Preston , the well

History Of The Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

known Masonic author , whiIeon 6 th June , 1814 , the School Committee recommended and on 4 th July following the Governors and Subscribers in annual General meeting resolved on admitting to the benefits of the Institution " children of brethren initiated under the Fraternity of which H . R . H . the Duke of Sussex was Grand Master . " In fact all that is further known of Bro . Daniel which concerns his relations with the 179 8 Institution is that

sometime in the year 1 S 04 he was deprived of his privileges of Life Governor . So at least we learn from the proceedings of the Quarterly meeting of Governors and Subscribers of the Institution held on 1 st April , 1816 , when " upon a motion made by the Treasurer , " Bro . Isaac Lindo , " and seconded by the Secretary , " Bro . Wm . Hancock , "itwasunanimously resolved that the resolution passed in the year 1 S 04 respecting Bro . F . C .

Daniel be now rescinded and that Bro . Daniel be requested to attend the future meetings of the Charily as a Life Governor thereof . " We also learn —but this will be dealt with full y in its proper place—from the minutes of the Committee of the Institution held on the 3 rd May , 1817 , that "the Treasurer , " Bro . Lindo , as aforesaid , "laidbefore themcetingacommunication which he had recently received from Bro . L . Thompson , Secretary of

the Masonic Charily instituted by Bro . F . C . Daniel in 1808 , under the patronage of the Right Hon . the Earl of Kingston , enclosing copies of resolutions passed by the Governors of that Charity on Thursday , the 17 th of April last , at a General Meeting held at the Surrey Tavern , Blackfriarsroad , relative to a union of that Charity with this Institution . " The proposed union was effected , but we fail to sec how that event , though highly

gratifying to the Pralernily at large , and especially to those members who were anxious to promote its Charities , can have had the slightest effect in depriving Bro . Burwood of the honour he was , and is in our opinion , so justly entitled to , namely that of having originated the Masonic Boys ' Charity as established in 179 S and consequently of his being the founder of our present " Royal Masonic Institution for Bovs . "

We had reached this point in our argument , and had succeeded in demonstrating to our own satisfaction , and we trust to that of our readers , from the scraps of information we had managed to unearth as well as from a careful comparison of the statements made by Cole and the author of the Daniel memoir , that Bro . Burwood founded the Masonic Boys' Institution , when we had the good fortune to Iijiht upon a printed notice issued by Bro .

Robert Leslie , Secretary of the Institution , to the effect that a ' * General Quarterly Meeting of the Governors and Subscribers" of the Boys' Charity would be held " on Friday , the 1 st day of July next , "—the document is endorsed "July , 1803 , " in , apparently , the handwriting of Bro . Leslie— " at the King ' s Arms , Green Bank , Wapping , London , at six o'clock in the evening , at which time the accounts will be audited and four children elected

to fill up the vacancies in the present establishment of the Charity . " The list of candidates , twelve in number , is given , the last three having been presented to the Committee on the 3 rd June , 1803 , so that there can be no doubt as to the correctness of the endorsement . And then follows a note to this effect : " Subscriptions for the support of this Charity are received by Mr . William Bitr-. vood , Green Bank , Wapping , Treasurer and

Institutor ; Ihomas Harper , Esq ., No . 207 , Fleet-street , Temple Bar , London ; by the Secretary ; and by Mr . Benjamin Aldhouse , Well-street , Spitalfields , Collector . " This at once , and officially , establishes the fact we nave been contending for of Bro . Burword ' s foundership , and disposes summarily of the unsupported claims advanced on the part of Bro . Daniel . Indeed , but for the purpose of showing that the position of Bro . Burwood as Institutor

is capable of being established without the assistance of official documents , we might well have cancelled our argument altogether . The most rational solution of the accident by which Bro . Daniel has had conferred upon him the honour due to Bro . Burwood appears to us to be this . When Bro . Daniel became wholly and solely a Modern Mason , he very soon found—if indeed he had not done so already—that there was a vaM .

amount of poverty in the ranks of that section of the Craft which required to be alleviated ; and knowing how much good had been effected by the Institution , of the rights of membership of which he had been so summarily deprived , he at once set about establishing a second charity of a similar character . He succeeded in his purpose in 1808 , and then some years later , when the two sections of English F ' reemasonry had become united and he

himself had had his privileges as a Life Governor of the first Charity fully restored to him , he endeavoured to get his younger and minor establishment united with the senior and more considerable Charity , which had been instituted by his friend Burwood , most generously fostered by the " Ancient " Grand Lodge , and accepted as a recognised Masonic Institution , worthy of every encouragement and support , by the United Grand Lodce . His efforts

were crowned with success , and as he was a more prominent public character than Bro . Burwood , who in the meantime had fallen upon evil days , and as he had rendered the latter material assistance in his benevolent labours , he has had assigned to him the lion's share of the honour . But we say again , as we have said already , in our opinion , to Bro . Wm . Burwood , successively victualler , coal merchant , bankrupt , and bankruptcy messenger , belongs , and to none other , the credit of having originated the Boys' School .

. » CHAPTER II . FROM THE FOUNDATION TO THE UNION OF THE ATHOLL AND REGULAR MASONS , 1798-1813 . Having thus far shown when and how the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys was established , and to whom , in our opinion , belongs the honour chiefly , if not wholly and solely , of having established it , we are necessarily in a better position to follow up its history uninterruptedly and without a

break , so far , at least , as the materials at our disposal will allow . We have said that the earliest minute books are no longer in existence ; but the loss of these , though greatly to be regretted , has happily not proved to be an irremediable calamity . The minutes of the Atholl Grand and Stewards ' Lodges contain several notices relating to the Institution , while the printed Proceedings of different Quarterly Communications of the Grand

Lodgethere is unfortunately no connected series of these extant that we are aware of—furnish even more important information during a part of the time for which the School minute books are wanting , the Statements of Account of Bro . Robert Leslie , who appears to have succeeded Bro . Burwood as Treasurer of the Institution , being included in the said Proceedings from about the middle or close of 1805 .

The earliest entry in the School archives bears date the 27 th January , 1 S 12 , so that for the antecedent period of between 13 and 14 years we are dependent chiefly on Bro . Cole and the Grand Lodge minutes . The former , to whom we have already acknowledged our obligations , has placed on record , 111 his short account of the School , lists of contributing lodges , of the Children admitted into the Charity , and the Sghoolmasters , with their respective