The Province Of Gloucestershire.

The Province of Gloucestershire .

By Bro . M . LLKAVKLI . YX EVAXS , Prov . Assistant Grand Secretan

r T ^ HAT our ancient brethren the Operative Masons activel y J [ practised their Craft in Avhat is IIOAV the Province of Gloucestershire is a fact of Avhich there is abundant proof in the monuments of their skill Avhich they have left behind them at Gloucester , TeAvkesburv , and elsewhere in

AV . 11 R 0 . K . V . A ' ASSAB-SMITH , P . G . I ) . KXGI . AXD , DEPUTY PROA . ( JliAXD MASTER . that county . Gradually the Craft declined , with less and less practice , and consequently the Operative Masons became

more and more scarce . Whether there greAV up , as they declined , a SocietA' of Speculative Alasons Avhich Avas grafted on to the older Guild and adopted its laAvs and customs , or Avhether the Operatives from one cause or another graduall y ceased to be operative , and while retaining their ancient

landmarks and regulations became by degrees more and more merely speculative , is a question now someAvhat difficult of decision ; but certain it is that about the end of the seventeenth century , Speculative Masons had attained a considerable degree of importance , and Avere spreading their organisation

over the length and breadth of the land . As may naturall y be supposed , lodges in those early days lacked a great deal of the strength and cohesion that belong to Freemasons' lodges at the present day , and consequently their life Avas often comparativeh' short . Hence it may be surmised that in a

district Avhere the traditions of Freemasonry must have been long established , the neAV Speculative Masonry AVOUICI be likel y to find favour , and it may well be that lodges existed for a time before the date at Avhich Ave lincl the earliest record of a lodge of Speculative Masons being founded : n Gloucestershire .

However this may be the first record we have of a lodge existing in Gloucestershire is , that on the 28 th of March , 173 8 , one Avas founded at Gloucester Avhich met at the Wheatsheaf Tavern . Its distinctive number on the Grand Lodge roll Avas j 71 . Two years afterwards it appears to have

migrated to the "SAvan , " and its number had then been changed to 157 . It subsequently became No . 95 . This constant change of number seems to point to the fact that lodges arose and disappeared again rather speedily , and a revision of numbers Avas consequently often necessary . This lodge

Avas finally erased by Grand Lodge in 1768 and had probably been inactive for some time previous to that date . That Freemasonry Avas probably gi'OAving and increasing in the County of Gloucester during the thirty years that this lodge existed may , Ave think , be assumed from the fact that

in 1753 it Avas with Essex , Dorset , and Somerset , constituted into one large province , presided over by Sir Robert de ConiAvall as Provincial Grand Master . On his death some

years later that famous Mason of the last century , Bro . Thomas Dunckerley , Avas appointed to succeed him . Under his rule Masonry made great advances in Gloucestershire . In 1773 the Lodge of Jehosaphat , Xo . 291 , was founded at Wotton-under-Eclge , and on the 17 th of February , 1785 , the

Royal Gloucester Lodge was founded and met at lirst at the Bell Hotel , Gloucester . This lodge Avas much patronised b y the Provincial Grand Master , AVIIO shoAved his high appreciation of its excellence by requesting a loan of it of £ 25 in less than eight months of its birth , tOAvards a fund then being

raised for the purpose of rebuilding Freemasons' Hall in London . This evidence of goochvill and affection by their Provincial Grand Master appears to have been a trifle embarrassing to the brethren of the neAvly-formed lodge , which

W . IIHO . JAMKS liltUTOX , PAST PltOV . S . U . W ., PROV . GRAND THKASUHKH . at that early stage of existence Avas , as may be imagined , notvery Hush of cash . However , the brethren , as Gloucester

Masons have ahvays clone on similar occasions , put their shoulders to the Avheel , and the money was eventually forthcoming . In return the lodge Avas presented with a silver