The Province Of Hertfordshire.

The Province of Hertfordshire .

NOT every Masonic province can lay claim to a history commencing in the mists of antiquarian legend . There are , however , two which stand out preeminently in this respect , that of Hertfordshire and York . The former can claim to have been associated , at least in legend or tradition , with the very commencement of

Freemasonry in Great Britain . The old charges record that " St . Alban loved Masons well , and cherished them right much . " How far the old charges are correct is a matter of discussion , but no doubt the legend enshrines a truth . Hertfordshire Masons , as may be supposed , embrace the view of the

conservative critics , who have a belief in the tradition . We may give the story from the various old charges as collated by an American brother , who applied the method of modern criticism to the matter : " England in all this time stood void of Masons unto St . Alban's time . And in his clays the King of England , that was a pagan , did wall the town about that is called St . Albans . In that town of

St . Albans was a worthy knight , which was chief steward to the King and had governance of the realm and also of the making of the town walls ,

and loved well Masons , and cherished them much , and made their pay right good , and gave them a charter of the King and

his council for to hold a general council , and thereat he was himself , and helped to make Masons and gave them charges . "

It is permissible to believe that the original Masons were brought over early in the eighth century from the continent by King Off a on his return from Rome .

They may have been Nismian Masons , descended from Greek colonists , who brought with them the knowledge of their craft . These were employed either

in fortifying Yerulam or in building the first Cathedral of St . Albans to the memory of the Martyr . They probably had their craft

organization and trade secrets , which were only communicated to Masons

after due trial and examination . And to secure their freedom to hold assemblies , or lodges as we should now call them , and administer the jurisdiction of their trade ' s union , they obtained a charter from the King , incorporating them and giving them the protection and authority needed . Troublous times succeeded , and Masonry fell into

abeyance , and the members of the Craft seem to have dispersed , though still retaining knowledge of their art and copies of the charges , until they were called together at York in the tenth century under Athelstan , and reinstated in their ancient privileges . If this be an approximately

accurate account of the state of Freemasonry in Hertfordshire in the eighth century , ( he light of the Order , after shining with great brilliance at first , only plunged the intervening centuries into greater darkness than ever . No doubt In-eemasons were employed at the building of the present Abbey in the eleventh century , for their wellrecognised marks are found in the building , but how much

liHO . F . SUMXKR KNYVETT , I'AST GRAND DKACON , DKl'UTY PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTKR .

of speculative as well as operative Masonry entered into their ceremonies on the occasion of their meeting in lodge or guild we cannot even conjecture . When in the eighteenth century the light of Masonry was again set burning in the county , no longer under the auspices of operative , but purely speculative Masonry , it burned feebly and fitfully , and finally

again collapsed for nearly half a century , to recommence early in the nineteenth century with a stronger and ever increasing flame . A lodge was founded on the scene of the former exploits at St . Albans . In the year 1739 a warrant was issued from

the Grand Lodge of the Moderns , as they were styled by the rival Society of the Ancients , to consecrate a lodge at the Red Rampant Lyon , No . 181 , for the practice of speculative Masonry . In the following year it was moved to the Woolpack Inn , but whether the removal of this delicate shoot thus early in its career interfered with its proper development , or some other untoward circumstance intervened , we cannot

discover . It was erased from the books of Grand Lodge in 1755 as " not having attended at any Quarterly Communication , or even met for several

years . " Twelve years afterwards an attempt was made to resuscitate the Order in the same town , when the

Lodge of St . Amphibalus , No . 412 , was founded . We will not conjecture from the fact of its being held in a private house

that the cause of the extinction of its predecessor was attributable to the fact of its being held where refreshment was easily

obtainable , even though we bear in mind Hogarth's engraving of "Night , " in which the Senior Warden of a London lodge is

being conducted home by the Tyler , evidently exhausted and overcome by the labours of the evening .

This lodge was moved to London Colney , three miles from its former home , and took its transplanting even less kindly

than the former , for it died two years afterwards . No further attempt was made to establish a lodge of Freemasons under the shadow of the noble pile their ancestors had erected until 18 39 , to which we shall refer later . The year before the Lodge of St . Amphibalus was erased , the Lodge of Harmony , No . 491 , was consecrated at the White Horse , Baldock , but

the condition of things in Hertfordshire at this time was evidently unfavourable to Masonry , for after eleven years of struggle it succumbed , and was erased in 1787 . We have now no means of knowing if the failure of Masonic venture in this suburban county caused any perturbation in

the minds of the Masonic authorities , and whether Francis , Earl of Moira , the then acting Grand Master , or Bro . Rowland Hill , his Deputy , determined on a new plan of campaign to capture this refractory province ; but a singular and unique appointment was made in 1797 , when Bro . W . Forsteen was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Hertfordshire . A more desolate position can scarcely be Masonically imagined .