History Of The Lodge Of Em Ulation, No . 21.

History of the Lodge of Emulation , No . 21 .

( By HKXKY S , M ) I-I-: K , Sub-Librarian to the Grand Lodge of England )

PRIOR to the year 1768 , there was no compulsory registration of the members of lodges at the regular , or what is known as the " Modern Grand Lodge , " and there was but one source of income , ( he Fund of Charity , and so long as a lodge sent an occasional contribution to this Fund the authorities troubled themselves very little about it ; but

should it cease to contribute or to correspond with the Grand Secretary for several years , and could give no satisfactory reason for its neglect , it was erased from the list forthwith . At a meeting of the Grand Lodge on ( he 2 SU 1 of October , 1768 , "The Honble : and Right Worshipful Charles Dillon ,

D . G . Master , ( as Grand Master ) having acquainted the Brethren at the last Committee of Charity with His Grace the Duke of Beaufort ' s intentions to have the Society

. sr IIOAIII OF i'iii-: i . nncv , OK K . MI ' I . ATIOX . incorporated ( and also represented to them the advantages that would result from the accomplishment of so great a Design ) , proposed , previously thereto , that the Committee should take into serious Consideration the most effectual

Means for raising a Fund to build a Hall and purchase Jewels Furniture , etc ., for the Grand Lodge , independent of the General Fund of Charity , and at the same time recommended a Plan to their perusal , to which several Amendments were made and the following Resolutions agreed to , were referred

to this Communication and unanimously Confirmed . " The New Regulations , comprising Ten Articles , included the annual payment of a fee b y the Grand Officers , a fee for I'cgistering newly made and joining members ; also that very convenient source of income , the granting of Dispensations

( an payment of specified fees ) by flic Grand Master , and sundry other methods of " raising the wind , " duly set forth J | i the Constitutions of the period .

On tlie 28 th of April , 1769 , "The D . G . Master informed the Brethren [ in Grand Lodge ] that in consequence of the Orders he had received from the Grand Master , he had sent a Plan of the intended Charter of Incorporation to the several Lodges for their approbation , and that the following return had been made : —

" For the Incorporation 168 Lodges "Against it 43 „ u A Motion was then made and the Question put , whether the Society should be Incorporated or not , when it was carried in the Affirmative by a great majority . "

Notwithstanding this decisive vote in favour of the Grand Master's design , it was stoutly opposed by several influential members of the Craft , with the result that when , in 1771 , a Bill was brought into Parliament by the Hon . Charles Dillon , with the desired object , it was thrown out on " the second

reading , having been opposed by Mr . Onslow , at the request of certain brethren who had petitioned the House against it . The minutes of the Mourning Bush Lodge of December 12 th , 1768 , contain flic following : — " A Letter to the Master of this Lodge being received

from the D . G . M . requiring the Lodge to receive Bro . Henry John Maskell as Provincial Grand Master , the said Letter was read , and the consideration thereof was postponed till after the . next Quarterly Communication . "

1769 , Feb . 13 th . —The minutes on this occasion contain the following with reference to a letter received from the Grand Secretary , notifying the lodge of a Quarterly Communication and a meeting of the Committee of Charity . " The said Letter also contained a Request of the Grand Secretary , that the Date of the Constitution of this Lodge

might be transmitted to him , but the orig inal Books and other Papers belonging to this Lodge being unhappily destroyed by a lire , which happened at the Mourning Bush Tairrii , Aldersgate Street , where this Lodge was then held , on 7 th April , 1 742 , it was found absolutely impossible that

the said Request could be complied with . It was therefore agreed , ' That an account of this fatal accident should be communicated to the Grand Secretary , and that he be requested to examine the Grand Lodge Books for the Date of the said Constitution . ' "

The total loss of the earl y records of the lodge was a deplorable calamity , if not a "fatal accident , " for had they been still in existence they would have been simpl y invaluable from an historical point of view . This , however , does not explain the absence of the minutes from 1742 to

175 6 , which were evidently available during the year last named , or they could not have been read and confirmed on the 24 th December in that year . The later records may possibly throw some light on their disappearance ; but , failing that , I shall assume that ( heir loss may probably be '

ascribed to some brother having borrowed the book , and omitted to return it , a similar calamity having befallen many other old lodges from this cause .

March 13 th . — "A Pamphlet addressed to the Master of this Lodge was , at the request of the Members , read ; and a motion was thereupon made by Bro'' Adams , Past Master : That as the said Pamphlet made public the Proceedings of a Grand Lodge , contrary to the Laws of Masonry , and as it was an anonimous performance , it should be burnt by the

Tyler of the Lodge , which motion was carried in the Negative , with this proviso , That the Pamphlet might first be reconsidered the next Lodge night . " March 27 th . — "The Reconsideration of the Anonimous Pamphlet , mentioned in the Minutes of the last Lodge Night

was this Night deferred sine die , by the unanimous consent of the Brethren present . " We are left in the dark as to the subject matter of this pamphlet , but I imagine it had some relation to the proposed Incorporation of the Society , some of the London lodges being strongly opposed to this proceeding .