Freemasonry In Staffordshire.

Freemasonry in Staffordshire .

THE original Grand Lodge of England , long known by the absurd name of the " Moderns , " authorized a lodge in Staffordshire so early as 28 th March , 1732 . Lodges at Bath and Bristol were started in the same year , and others at Norwich , Chichester , Chester , Carmarthen

, Gosport , and Congleton , but only one of these lasted so late as the union of the two rival Grand Lodges , and was struck off in 18 3 8 , its last place of meeting being the Mitre Tavern , Portsea . Some were also formed at Salford ( 1727 ) , Warwick

( 1728 ) , Oxford , Scarborough , and Lyme Regis ( 1729 ) , Chichester , Canterbury , Lincoln , and Northampton ( 1730 ) , Bury St . Edmunds and Macclesfield ( 1731 ) ; then follow Leigh , Wolverhampton , Ipswich , and Derby , of 1732 . All these , however , have long been numbered with the past ;

the senior provincial lodges on the present Roll ( omitting No . 20 , Chatham , of 1723 , which was first of all in the Metropolis ) being No . 37 , Bolton , and No . 39 , Exeter , of the year 1732 .

BRO . J . DUNBAR STEEN , PROV . GRAND SECRETARY . The lodge held at WOLYEKHAMPTON from 1732 to 1754 met at the " Bell and Raven " ( variously designated " Bell and Black Bird" " Bell and Magpie , " " Bell and Dove , " and

, "Bell and Raven" ) , until its erasure , 29 th November , 1754 , and paid for its Constitution , 8 th June , 1732 , the numbers being eighty-eight from its start and se \ enty-seven from 1740 . The next that reached this town , in 1768 , singular to state , took the same number as the last held by the former

lodge , viz ., No . 77 , only in a different enumeration , and assembled at the " Swan . " It was founded ut GATESHEAD , A . D . 6 , erased 1760 , reinstated , and finally struck off in 1768 , when the sum of two guineas was paid for the vacant numberas already noted ; but the brethren failed to keep it

, alive , the last payment to the Grand Lodge being in 1801 . It was removed from the list ten years later as No . 42 of the 1792 enumeration . Still another reached the same town in 1766 , as No . 6 9 , from BIRMINGHAM , which began in 173 6 , paying for its Constitution in the following year . In 1772 ,

however , it was removed from the register . This is the lodge mentioned by Bro . T . Wood Chalmers , P . M . 726 , in his " History of Freemasonry in Staffordshire" ( 1882 ) , as transferred from Birmingham in 1780 , but the date he cites is

much too late . The only one of "Ancient" origin was No . 130 , of 1764 , which ceased to work in the following year , but the warrant was not returned to that Grand Lodge until 1800 . Five years later it was opened at BURSLEM . Of other extinct lodges , the following should be recorded :

The " Unity " was warranted in 1787 at the " Three Crown's Inn , " Bread Market Street , Lichfield , as No . 502 . The Inst payment to Grand Lodge bears date 21 st September , 1806 , but in 1811 it was transferred to the Town End of Lognor as No . 411 , under the same name , but was finally struck off

in 1829 . Another , which reached Lichfield in 18 33 , was constituted at Leek in 1814 as 6 57 , and called the " Jedediah Lodge , " but changed in 1820 to St . John ' s . Its erasure occurred in 1850 , when meeting at the Guildhall , and numbered 431 .

The warrant is in Grand Lodge . The " St . Bartholomew , " which was held originally at Fazeley in 1795 ( Number 547 ) , was removed to Sutton Coldfield , Warwickshire , in 1803 , but twenty-five years later it expired , and the " Harmony , " No . 558 , Dudley ' s Coffee House , Tamworth , met with a similar fate in 1809 . The

" Fortitude , " No . 652 , of the year 1814 , appeared to make a successful start at the " White Lion , " Stafford , and for a time did well . The name was altered to the " Royal Chartley Lodge of Fortitude , " in 18 33 , but even that long title failed to ensure its permanence , for in 1850 it was removed from

the roll , and its Charter rests in the muniment room of Grand Lodge . Still another lodge , domiciled at Stafford from 18 3 6 , as No . 626 , with the appropriate name of the " Staffordshire Knot , " succumbed in 1851 , not having met since 18 39 .

Of " ATHOLL " or " ANCIENT " Lodges only one has survived the " ravages of time . " The senior of these , in respect to its number , was 109 , opened at Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1763 ; but it failed to show any signs of life after 1765 , though it was apparently restored in 1799 , and known as the " Friendly Brothers , " the 5 th March , 1828 , however ,

ended its days as No . 133 by vote of Grand Lodge . Two others should also have been noted of " Modern " origin , viz ., one held at the " Crown , " of A . D . 1767 ( Nos . 39 8 and then 333 ) , removed from the List in 1775 ; and the other , with the revived name of the " Friendly Brothers , " No . 523 ,

of 1793 , erased in 1801 , both of Newcastle-under-Lyme . The last attempt at the establishment of a lodge in that town has happily been successful . An " Atholl , " Lodge was also tried at Lichfield in 1784 , as No . 220 , but with little success , though its advent made fuss

enough for an extraordinary function , and led to two warrants being used , numbered 220 and then 224 . It is thus referred to in the Minutes of that Grand Lodge" 1784 . March 29 th . Warrant No . 220 , filled up for the City of Lichfield , the D . G . M . remarked ,

should have been No . 224 , whilst the G . Secretary had insisted that the last mentioned should be 220 and no other , he having laid it bye for the Masons of Lichfield , who had their jewels marked with that number . Resolved that No . 220 should have been dated previous to No . 221 " ( viz ., 1 March , 1784 ) .

There were two lodges of the same Grand Lodge in the county , under military auspices . No . 216 was held in the 1 st Reg . East Devon Militia from i 78 i , and was at LICHFIELD in 1813 for a short time ; its erasure occured in 18 35 , and the Charter is preserved in Grand Lodge . No . 285 also assembled in the same city in 1801 , before going to Manchester , where

the regiment appears to have been stationed until its departure for India ( viz ., the 17 th Regiment of Light Dragoons ) ; but though it was on the United Roll of 1814 as 3 61 it collapsed some fourteen years later . According to a warrant in the Grand Lodge , No . 24 6 was issued for Dudley on the 26 th February , 17 88 , but was removed to TIPTON , Staffordshire ,