SECTION IT.

THE GRAXD TREASURER.
The office of Grand Treasurer was provided for in the Regulations approved in 1722, and it was then prescribed that he should be " a brother of good worldly substance, who should be a member of the Grand Lodge, by virtue of his office, and should be always present, and have power to move to the Grand Lodge anything, especially what con- cerns his office. "* Again, in 1724, on the organiza- tion of the Committee of Charity of the Grand Lodge, it was enacted that a Treasurer should be appointed, in whose hands the amounts collected might be deposited. But it was not until the year 1727 that the office was really filled by the selection of Nathaniel Blakerby.t Even then, however, the office does not appear to have been considered by the Grand Lodge as a distinct appointment, but rather as one which any responsible brother might
* Andfrson, first edit. p. 62. -Beg. of 1721, art. xiii. t Ibid, second edit. p. 179.
476 GRAND TREASURER.
fill, in addition to his other duties ; for the Treasu- rer, Blakerby, was in the next year appointed Deputy Grand Master, and discharged the functions of both offices at the same time ;* and when he resigned the office, the appointment was given to the Grand- Secretary, who, during Blakerby7s administration; had sometimes performed his duties ; but at length, in 1738, Bro. Revis, the Grand Secretary, declined the office, very properly assigning as a reason " that both those offices should not be reposed in one man, the one being a check to the other."t So that it was not until the year 1739 that, by the appoint- ment of Bro. John Jesse,J as Grand Treasurer, the office assumed a distinct and separate position among the offices of the Grand Lodge, which it has ever since retained.
The Thirteenth Regulation of 1721 had certainly, by a just construction of its language, made the office of Grand Treasurer an elective one by the Grand Lodge •§ but notwithstanding this, both Blakerby and Jesse were appointed by the Grand Master, the latter, however, at the unanimous re- quest of the Grand Lodge. But ever since, the office of Grand Treasurer has been made an elec- tive one. ||
* Thus : " At the Grand Lodge, in due form, on 27th Dec, 1729, D. G. M. Blakerby, therTreasurer, in the chair, had the honor to thank many officers of Lodges for bringing their liberal charity." — Ander., second edit. p. 179-.
f Ibid, p. 184. t Book of Const, third edit. p. 226.
§ " They [the Grand Lodge] shall also appoint a Treasurer." — Reg. 1721 art. xiii.
|j Revis was appointed by both the Grand Mast.r and the Grand Lodge
GRAND SECRETARY. 477
The functions of the Grand Treasurer do not differ from those of the corresponding officer in a subordinate Lodge. It is his duty to act as the de- positary of all the funds and property of the Grand Lodge, to keep a fair account of the same, and render a statement of the condition of all the pro- perty in his possession, whenever called upon by either the Grand Master or the Grand Lodge. He also pays all bills and orders which have been ap- proved by the Grand Lodge. He is, in one word, under such regulations as that body shall prescribe, the banker of that body.*
The old Regulations permitted him to appoint an assistant, whose only qualification was, that he must be a Master Mason. But such assistant did not, by his appointment, become a member of the Grand Lodge, although permitted toije present at its com- munications. The usage has been continued in many of the Grand Lodges of this country.