An Ancient Warrant.

An Ancient Warrant .

TT 7 HEN the candidate for initiation in Lodge Anchor and \/ y Hope , No . 27 , has his attention directed to the warrant or authority under which that lodge works , his gaze does not rest ujion the handsome !) ' framed steel engraving that adorns the usual lodge room . The lodge in

question has no warrant , and what the candidate moralizes ujion is a somewhat ding ) - picture about eighteen inches by twenty-four , which is simply a framed sheet of letter jiajier . Warrants were not issued until a period at which Lodge Anchor and Hope had attained some degree of

antiquity . The earliest known was issued in 1754 , and it is , or was recently , in the jiossession of another Lancashire lodge . Lodges jirevious to this date were simjily opened wit it such sanction as the jiresence of a Grand Officer might convey . The entry in the archives of Grand Lodge sujijilied the rest .

DEPUTATION TO CONSTITUTK LODGE ANCHOR AND UOl'K , No . .. 7 , 110 I . TON . In the provinces the procedure was somewhat similar . Instead , however , of the presence of a Grand Officer , which might not always be practicable , some local brother of repute

was requested to do the needful , and a letter was forwarded to him to serve as his credential . This letter was called a " Deputation , " and the document which we rejiroduce is one of six known to exist , under which lodges are working . These are No . 37 , Bolton ; No . 39 , Exeter ; No . 41 , Bath ;

No . 42 , Bury ; No . 85 , Harleston ; and No . 86 , Prescot . In addition to these six lodges there are some four others which work under an original document of some kind or another , and four which work under none at all . The ordinary warrant , as is well known , contains a code of

directions and a series of jiermissions , none of which appear in the document we are describing ; and , therefore , the loyalty of the lodge and its adhesion to Alasonic custom is rather in the nature of a debt of honour , for in the inconceivable event of any of the lodges concerned breaking from

the recognized path , it is difficult to conjecture under what penalty comjiliance could be enforced . From the " deputation " it is seen that Lodge Anchor and Hope was formed in 1732 , and therefore it is the oldest

jirovincial lodge . As is well known , the numbering of the first hundred lodges on the register is not chronologically correct , this being accounted for by the interpolation of the Athol lodges with their original numbering . Lodge No . 20 , at Chatham , has not been a jirovincial lodge during its whole history , for when loaned m 1723 it was a London

lodge , and continued to he until about 1733 . There are two other jirovincial lodges of apjiarently sujierior antiquity though only by a few months . But No . 33 , in the Isle of Wight , was for jiart of its career a London lodge , and No . 39 Exeter , was in abeyance from 1 745 to 1770 . Thus ,

, Anchor and Hojie is the oldest lodge in England with a continuous jirovincial history which covers a jieriod of 172 years . The centenary festival was celebrated on October 23 rd , 1832 , and an official record of the jiroceedings was kejif .

This is printed as an ajijiendix to the very readable history of the lodge that has been published by Bros . Newton and Brockbank . The jiroceedings were very simple . The brethren , members , and visitors , met and ojiened lodge at 3 p . m . to the number of 42 . Immediately after opening , the lodge was called off to refreshment , and was not called on again till ro , when lodge was closed .

A still more interesting occasion was the celebration ot the sesqui-centennial festival in 1882 . Among those jiresent was one brother who had been jiresent at the centenarv , surely a unique record . Bro . Colonel Le Gendre Starkie was jiresent , and the then Provincial Grand Alaster of East Lancashire was a brother whose ajijiroval went for

something beyond a mere conventional exjiression , no keener Alasonic critic having ever adorned a jiosition of such responsibility . When he said , therefore , that in his opinion the lodge was worthily maintaining the best traditions of the Order , the brethren concerned were justifiably jiroud .

Needless to say , with such a history behind them , and with such traditions to keeji unsullied , the lodge exercises commendable caution as to the admission of new members , the by-laws jiroviding for a unanimous vote . All the loclges , chajiters , and other Alasonic bodies

meeting in Bolton are now accommodated at the Masonic Hall in Silverwell Street , these jiremises having been acquired in 1887 . L ' p to this date the lodge had had nine different habitations , most of them in hotels , but it is noteworthy that all of these meeting places were within a stone ' s throw of

each other , surely another ] -ecorc ! ? The jiresent hall is not an imposing looking building viewed from outside , but this is not to be deplored , as it is not consistent with the nature of the Order that its habitation shall convey a jierjietual advertisement oi its existence .

The lodge has borne nine different numbers , beginning with 105 in 1732 , and descending by easy stages to 33 in 1792 . At the Union in 1813 , for reasons above referred to , the number was put back to 51 , altered in 1832 to 44 , and in 186 3 to 37 , its jiresent number .

The lodge jiossesses an unusual number of old records , not only of its own history , but of those of other Alasonic bodies with which from time to time if has had association , and needless to say these are well and carefully preserved . What this means will Vie best ajijireciated by brethren who

have had occasion to ask for the issue of a centenary warrant and have had to prove the uninterrupted existence of their lodge for the prescribed jieriod . Of those lodges on the register holding higher positions than Anchor and Hope , no less than fifteen are working under " warrants of

confirmation , " which fact tells its own story . Amongst other members of the lodge are Bro . Lord Stanley , the Provincial Grand Alaster for East Lancashire , and Bro . Newton , the very esteemed Provincial Grand Secretary , both of them Past Masters of Anchor and Hope Lodge .