Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Notes On The Old Minute Books Of The British Union Lodge, No. 114, Ipswich. A.D. 1762.
There were eight A'isitors present , ancl seven of them appear to have paid 10 s . 6 d . altogether for the honour of sitting at the same table with the brethren of the British Union . Under date January 6 , 1784 , we note that this evening "E . L . ( of course , we do not publish the name ) was
expelled this lodge for unworthy transactions perfectly clear to ye R . W . M . and brethren then present , and was in due form divested of the badge of a Mason by the J . W . " On March 2 , 1784 , we note that whilst
Bro . Bennett was raised to ye degree of a Master Mason , Bros . T . Askew , Thomas Smith , ancl G . Walham " passed ye chair . " This , of course , alludes to the titular Past Master degree , of Avhich mention has already been made .
Two brethren—one a grocer , and the other a cabinet maker—were initiated on the llth June , 1784 . On the 24 th of that month , St . John Baptist ' s Day , the brethren went in procession to St . Mary Tower Church , and an excellent sermon was preached from the 20 and 21 verses of St . Jude by the Rev . V . L . Barnard , who afterwards visited the
Lodge in October . Several brethren from Hadleigb were proposed to take the second ancl third degrees the following lodge night . Under the head of disbursements for this nig ht we find : To one dozen aprons , this day , 12 s . What would our good friend Bro . Kenning say to such a price for
aprons now-a-days . We are afraid they must have been poor lambskins , or else the price of leather has strangely gone up since 1784 . At the Lodge meeting , November 2 , 1784 , it was proposed that Bros . J . Gooding ,
W . Harris , ancl Thomas Smith should be passed and raised to third degree next lodge night ; so that , as we have before remarked , it is evident that at this time brethren did not take their degrees as a matter of course as they do HOAV ; but each
step was taken by favour of the Lodge . Bro . William Lane , operative Mason , became S . W . this year , being elected 27 th December , St . John ' s Day , Avhen the festival was duly observed , and the brethren had an ordinary at Is . 6 d ., dinner being rdered for twenty , and at the Lodge , here appear to have been present a depuatiou from the Lodge No . 426 in ye
King ' s 1 st Regiment of Dragoon Guards , Avhich Avas probably quartered in the town at that time , the brethren representing this military Lodge consisting of the D . R . W . M ., a P . M ., and the S . and J . VV . ' s . We note that there was paid to Bro . Foxwell 3 s . for painting ancl gilding ye
flag-staff belonging to ye Royal Edmund Lodge ; but what this Lodge was , whether it is still in existence , and why the British Union had to pay , we cannot now tell . The Lodge meeting on January 27 , 1785 , Avas convened at Bro . Higgin ' s , at ye
Bull , Cornhill , Ipswich . Why it met here , and Avhether there Avas authority to do so , does not appear . " This evening it was unanimously agreed that no Mason who is not a member of any Lodge , and being a resident of this toAvn , shall not be
allowed to visit this Lodge any more than three times , except they choose to join ancl make proofs of their being a subscriber of some constituted Lodge . " The English is a little defective , but the meaning is obvious , Avhich reminds us of a reply Coleridge made to some lady ' s argument , " Madam , your reasons are Avrong , but your conclusions are right . "
Some people think that Avhen people are 25 roposed as Freemasons , as a matter of course they are accepted—free and accepted—the brethren being only too eager to take anybody in . Whatever may be the fact now in some lodges , it was not so in 1785 in the British Unionfor Ave
, find that on the 1 st March of that year Mr . L . P . ( we think it better not to give the name ) was balloted for and rejected , and his admission money was returned to the brother who proposed him , Avhich brother and another in consequenceAve
, suppose , of his rejection , thereupon withdrew themselves from the lodge . On May 30 , 1785 , a Lodge Avas convened , "in order to inform Bro . John Conder , Bro . M . Willoughby , and Bro . W . Fenton of a dispensation being sent for them to hold
a Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in due form at the Green Man , Ipswich , for the space of six months and no longer . Signed and sealed by Rowland Holt , Esq ., Prov . Gr . Master for Suffolk . At the August meeting , in 1785 , three brethren from the Perfect Friendship Lodge Avere present as visitors . It Avas ordered and agreed to , this evening by the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Notes On The Old Minute Books Of The British Union Lodge, No. 114, Ipswich. A.D. 1762.
There were eight A'isitors present , ancl seven of them appear to have paid 10 s . 6 d . altogether for the honour of sitting at the same table with the brethren of the British Union . Under date January 6 , 1784 , we note that this evening "E . L . ( of course , we do not publish the name ) was
expelled this lodge for unworthy transactions perfectly clear to ye R . W . M . and brethren then present , and was in due form divested of the badge of a Mason by the J . W . " On March 2 , 1784 , we note that whilst
Bro . Bennett was raised to ye degree of a Master Mason , Bros . T . Askew , Thomas Smith , ancl G . Walham " passed ye chair . " This , of course , alludes to the titular Past Master degree , of Avhich mention has already been made .
Two brethren—one a grocer , and the other a cabinet maker—were initiated on the llth June , 1784 . On the 24 th of that month , St . John Baptist ' s Day , the brethren went in procession to St . Mary Tower Church , and an excellent sermon was preached from the 20 and 21 verses of St . Jude by the Rev . V . L . Barnard , who afterwards visited the
Lodge in October . Several brethren from Hadleigb were proposed to take the second ancl third degrees the following lodge night . Under the head of disbursements for this nig ht we find : To one dozen aprons , this day , 12 s . What would our good friend Bro . Kenning say to such a price for
aprons now-a-days . We are afraid they must have been poor lambskins , or else the price of leather has strangely gone up since 1784 . At the Lodge meeting , November 2 , 1784 , it was proposed that Bros . J . Gooding ,
W . Harris , ancl Thomas Smith should be passed and raised to third degree next lodge night ; so that , as we have before remarked , it is evident that at this time brethren did not take their degrees as a matter of course as they do HOAV ; but each
step was taken by favour of the Lodge . Bro . William Lane , operative Mason , became S . W . this year , being elected 27 th December , St . John ' s Day , Avhen the festival was duly observed , and the brethren had an ordinary at Is . 6 d ., dinner being rdered for twenty , and at the Lodge , here appear to have been present a depuatiou from the Lodge No . 426 in ye
King ' s 1 st Regiment of Dragoon Guards , Avhich Avas probably quartered in the town at that time , the brethren representing this military Lodge consisting of the D . R . W . M ., a P . M ., and the S . and J . VV . ' s . We note that there was paid to Bro . Foxwell 3 s . for painting ancl gilding ye
flag-staff belonging to ye Royal Edmund Lodge ; but what this Lodge was , whether it is still in existence , and why the British Union had to pay , we cannot now tell . The Lodge meeting on January 27 , 1785 , Avas convened at Bro . Higgin ' s , at ye
Bull , Cornhill , Ipswich . Why it met here , and Avhether there Avas authority to do so , does not appear . " This evening it was unanimously agreed that no Mason who is not a member of any Lodge , and being a resident of this toAvn , shall not be
allowed to visit this Lodge any more than three times , except they choose to join ancl make proofs of their being a subscriber of some constituted Lodge . " The English is a little defective , but the meaning is obvious , Avhich reminds us of a reply Coleridge made to some lady ' s argument , " Madam , your reasons are Avrong , but your conclusions are right . "
Some people think that Avhen people are 25 roposed as Freemasons , as a matter of course they are accepted—free and accepted—the brethren being only too eager to take anybody in . Whatever may be the fact now in some lodges , it was not so in 1785 in the British Unionfor Ave
, find that on the 1 st March of that year Mr . L . P . ( we think it better not to give the name ) was balloted for and rejected , and his admission money was returned to the brother who proposed him , Avhich brother and another in consequenceAve
, suppose , of his rejection , thereupon withdrew themselves from the lodge . On May 30 , 1785 , a Lodge Avas convened , "in order to inform Bro . John Conder , Bro . M . Willoughby , and Bro . W . Fenton of a dispensation being sent for them to hold
a Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in due form at the Green Man , Ipswich , for the space of six months and no longer . Signed and sealed by Rowland Holt , Esq ., Prov . Gr . Master for Suffolk . At the August meeting , in 1785 , three brethren from the Perfect Friendship Lodge Avere present as visitors . It Avas ordered and agreed to , this evening by the