CHAPTER II.

Neither in ancient nor in modern times, has the schoolmaster made a single step of progress, except by holding on to the skirts of the soldier's coat. Regular armies gave the fii'st check to the barbarism of the Middle Ages, and it was under their protection alone that arts, sciences, com- merce and industry, greiv up and extended in Europe.
— Major-Gbx. J. Mitchell.
Although of legendary Grand Masters — many of whom were great warriors — there is no stint, the prosaic facts of liistory assure ns that the earliest of Grand Lodges was established on the 24th of June, 1717. The foundation of the Grand Lodge of England was a great event, but the Society of Freemasons organised on a new basis made very slow progress in jjublic favour. Anthony Sayer, " gentle- man," was the first Grand Master, while Jacob Lamball, " carpenter," and " Captain " Joseph Elliot, were the Grand Wardens. Sayer was succeeded by George Payne, of the Civil Service, and the latter (in 1719) by Dr. John Theophilus Desaguliers, an ingenious natural philosopher, and after Elliot, the next of the Grand officers that can be associated witli the military profession, as he received, though in later life, a conunission as Chaplain in what is now the 12th Lancers, Init was then (1738) Colonel Phineas Bowles's Regiment of Dragoons. In 1720, George Payne was elected for a second term, after whom came the first of a long and unbroken series of noble Grand Masters — John, Duke of Montagu, who was installed on June 24th, 1721, when the Society rose at a single boiuid into notice and esteem.
The Duke, who was then a colonel in the Army, died of a violent fever, in July, 1749, aged fifty-nine, and at the time of his death v.'as Master-General of the Ordnance, (ieneral of Horse, colonel of the 2nd Dragoon Guards, (irand Master of the Order of the Bath, K.G., F.U.S., and a Privv Councillor.
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Of the first Noble Grand Master of Speculative Free masons, it may indeed be said that he was also the First (jfrand Master of Speculative Artillerists, having consolidated by Royal Charter in 1741 (when he was Master-General), the Royal Military Academy, which had been established in 1719, as a school of theoretical instruction at Woolwich. From 1741, therefore, Artillery (like Freemasonry at an earlier date) merged into a speculative science founded upon an operative art.
The Duke of Montagu was one of the most remarkable men of the period, and of the generous assistance which he rendered in time of need, both to his brethren in the Craft and his brethren in arms, many anecdotes have been related. The following, from the pen of Dr. Stukeley, appeared in one of the London journals, shortly after the death of his benefactor and friend : —
After a war concluded, when many officers were reduced to half-pay. the Duke, walking in the park, he, as he was an excellent physiognomist, saw a cajitain. a brave man. whom he had some knowledge of, sitting on a bench, with deep marks of sorrow and dejection on his countenance.
The Uuke accosted him. and soon became acquainted with his hard case. He had a wife and foiu- children in the country, who could not possibly be maintained on the allowance. He ordered him, on that day fortnight, to come and dine with him.
In the meantime, the Duke sent for his wife and childi-en to town, and had them at his house at dinner on the day appointed. The ciptain was prodigiously surprised at the sight of them. The joy. mixed with the concern of the difficulty he had to maintain them, caused an inexplicalile tumult in his breast, but the Duke dispelled the cloud, by telling him that he had been soliciting a better commission for him. He presented him with it. and with a bank note of £5(1^). and then put on his grave air. and sat down to dinner as composedly as if he had done nothing.
This nobleman was succeeded in 1722, by Philip, Duke of AVharton, an outline of whose meteoric career will be found on a later page, and the younger peer, in the following year by James, Earl of Dalkeith, — a grandson of the unfortu- nate Duke of Monmouth, who, in turn, gave place to the Duke of Richmond, in 1724.
The Grand Lodge of 1717 was founded by four lodges, two of which, the " Lodge of Antiquity," and the "Royal
Somerset House and Inverness" (Nos. 1 and 4 respectively below), still exist. These bodies met in 1724 :
1. At the Goose A\D Gridiron, in St Paul's Churchyard.
2. At the Queen's Head, Turnstile ; formerly the Crown, in Parker's Lane.
3. At the Queen's Head, in Knave's Acre ; formerhj the Apple Tree, in Covent Garden.
4. At the HoRNE, in Westminster ; formerly the Rummek AND Grapes, in Channel Row.
With the exception of Anthonj' Sayer, the Premier Grand Master, who is cited on the roll of No. 3, all the eminent persons ■who took an}- leading part in the early history of P^reemasonr}-, immediately after the formation of a Grand Lodge, were members of No. 4. In 1724, No. 1 had twenty-two memljers ; No. 2, twenty-one; No. 3, fourteen ; and No. 4, seventy-one. The three senior Lodges possessed among them no member of sufficient rank to be described as '• Esquire," while in No. 4, there were ten noblemen, three honourables, four baronets or knights, two general officers, ten colonels, four officers below field rank, and twenty-four esquires. Payne and Desagnliers — former Grand Masteis — together A\ith the Rev. James Anderson — the " Father of Masonic History" — were members of this Lodge. Also Charles, second Duke of Richmond, Lennox, and Aubigny, Master of the Lodge in 1723, and Grand Master of the Society in 1724, who became a captain in the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards in 1722, Major-General in 1742, and Lieutenant-General in 1745. In 1743, he attended George II. to the scene of the war, and was present at the battle of Dettingen in that year. He afterwards accom- panied the Duke of Cumberland on his expedition against the Jacobite rebels in 1745.
Henry Scott, created Earl of Delorainein 1706, a younger son of the Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, was appointed to the command of a Regiment of Foot in 1707, promoted Colonel of the second troop of Horse Grenadier Guards (in succession to a more unfortunate Craftsman, George Keith, 10th and last of the Earls Marischal of Scotland) in 1715, and died a Major-General in 1730.
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Lord Carmiohael, captain in the Foot Guards, who succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Hyndford in 1737, was sent on a special mission to (iermany in 1741, to mediate between Frederick the Great and the Empress Maria Theresa; and also to Russia in 1744, when his skilful negotiations greatly conduced to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.
Sir Adolphus Oughton, who was Captain and Lieutenant in the 1st Foot Guards in 1700, and A.D.C. to the Duke of .Marll)orough during his retirement on the Continent in 1712, afterwai'ds became a Brigadier-! ieneral and Colonel of tlic 8th Dragoons.
Sir Robert Rich, fourth Bcironet, who entered the (irenadier Guards in 1700, and saw service under the Duke of Marlborough. Colonel of the 13th Light Dragoons, 1722 ; Lieutenant-General, 1739. Embarked for Flanders to join the Earl of Stair's Army in 1742, and fought at Dettingen in 1743. Promoted General in 1747 and Field- Marshal, November 20th, 1757.
Count La Lippe, a distinguished officer in the service of the Low Countries, who Avas actively employed as a Lieutenant-General at the battle of Dettingen in 1743 ; and Baron Dieskau, a brave militai'y officer, afterwards (]Iommander-in-Chief of the French troops in America during the period anterior to Montcalm, and famous for the active part lie took in the wars between the English and French during that period. In his last campaign he com- manded the expedition sent to defeat that of the Engli.sh which Avas advancing to invade Canada in 1755. But though he achieved a brilliant victory over the Army of Colonel Williams, a second battle on the same day resulted in his sustaining a total defeat at the hands of Sir AVilliam .Johnson (a brother Freemason), the French commander being himself made a prisoner, and also very seriously wounded.
Count Walzdorf and the Marquis Des Marches, who were also members of the Lodge, may have been, and probably were, like La Lippe and Dieskau, foreign military officers, but further details relating to their biographies have so far eluded my research.
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Many other foreign noblemen were initiated in the Lodge during the Mastership of the Duke of Richmond, and among them the Marquis Du Quesne (1730), Captain in the French Royal Marine Service, who was descended from the greatest Du Quesne, Grand-Admiral of France. He was a brave and judicious Governor of Canada from 1752 to 1755, in which latter year he solicited his recall on the plea that he wished to return to active militaiy duty.
The Duke of Wharton was Master of the Lodge at the King's Arms, St. Paul's Churchyard, and the Duke of St. Alban's of that at the Queen's Head, Bath, in 1725. Charles Beauclerk, first Duke of St. Albans, who was the son of Charles II., by Nell Gwynn, served with the Imperial Army against the Turks, and was present at the taking of Belgrade. He afterwards commanded an English regiment of horse, and in 1693 left for Flanders, where he served under William III., in the campaign of Landen. He was a gallant soldier, and much esteemed by the King.
Viscount Cobham, and the Earl of Lichfield, were also members of the Lodge at the Queen's Head.
Richard Temple — created Baron Cobham in 1714, and a Viscount in 1718 — in the first year of Queen Anne's reign was appointed colonel of a regiment of foot ; served in Flanders and Germany, and having particularly distinguished himself at the siege of Lisle in 1708, was sent express, by the Duke of Marlborough, to the Queen with an account of the surrender of that fortress. Major-General, 1709 ; Colonel of the 4th Dragoons, 1710; of the 1st Dragoons, 1715; and of the King's Dragoon Guards, 1721; Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor Charles VI., 1715; Commander of the Land Forces against Spain, 1719; Constable of Windsor Castle, 1716; and Field Marshal, 1742.
George, second Earl of Lichfield, was the son of SirEdward Lee, who, on his marriage with Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, natural daughter of Charles II. by Barbara Villiers, was created Earl of Lichfield. It has been asserted that the " Merry Monarch,"
'■ Who never said a foolish thing, and never did a wise one," was himself a Freemason, of which, however, there is no
31
proof; bat the number of his descendants, whose names appear in the Lodge lists for 1724-25, is certainly large, comprising as it does the Dukes of Richmond and St. Albans, and the Earls oi Dalkeith, Lichfield, and Deloraine.
The fii'st purely ^lilitary Lodge (of which any distinct record is forthcoming) would seem to have been the one originally numbered 51 on the lists, which was established at (Gibraltar in 1728. This, however, was of a stationary character, as Ambiilatory Lodges were first set on foot in a sister jurisdiction, and the practice becoming a general one under the various Grand Lodges of the British Isles, will necessitate a brief digression, wherein I shall relate the histories of those bodies, so far as may be material to a due comprehension of the general narrative.
The Grand Lodge of York was established in 1725, re- constructed in 1761, and expired about 1792. It issued a solitary ^lilitary Warrant to the 6th or Inniskilling Regiment of Dragoons in 1770.
A Grand Lodge, of which the Earl of Kosse was Grand Master, existed at Dublin in 1 725. This was followed in 1 726 by the Grand Lodge of Munster, Colonel the Hon. Jame.s O'Brien, Grand Master; and in 1729-30 by the Grand Lodge of Ireland — which still exists — under James, Viscount Kingston, G.M., who had previously been Grand Master of England in 1728, and Provincial Grand Master of Munster in 1729.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland was founded in 1736, and John, Earl of Crawfurd, the first Colonel of the Black Watch (now the 1st Battalion of the Royal Highlanders), Avould probably have been elected Grand Master had he not declined the honour. William, Earl of Home, who subse- quently saw much active service, rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and died as Governor of Gibraltar in 1761, appears after this to have stepped into che place of Lord Crawfurd as the candidate whose election would have been most acceptable to the Lodges. Though in the result, and at the conclusion of a pre-arranged drama (the particulars of which are related at length in my History of Freemasonry), William St. Clair, of Roslin, a leading member of the Royal (company of Archers (now the Queen's Body Guard for Scotland), was chosen Gi-and Master.
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This was followed by the election of Captain John Young, of the " Kilwinning Scots Arms," as Depute Grand Master, i and among the other members of the Lodge at the same period were the Earls of Crawfurd, Home, Cromarty, and Kilmarnock, the two last mentioned of whom will be again referred to in connection with the Jacobite rising of 1745.
These names by no means exhaust the list of the Scottish nobility who were members of the fraternity in 1736, but a few only need be mentioned.
The Duke of Perth, initiated in the Lodge at Dundee, who, on joining the Pretender in 1745, was created Lieut.- General, and served with the Highland Army until tiie disaster at Culloden.
The Duke's younger and only brother, Lord John Drummond, was a member of the Lodge at Dunblane.
James, fifth Earl of Balcarres, who, having served in the Navy and obtained the rank of lieutenant, afterwards joined the rebels and was especially complimented by the Earl Marischal, by order of the Earl of Marr, for his gallantry at Sheriffmuir. Ptcceiving a pardon, he re-entered the King's service as Lieutenant in the 2nd, or North British, Dragoons (Scots Greys), and attained high distinction as a military officer, displaying great gallantry at the Ijattles of Dettingen and Foutenoy.
John, fourth Earl of Loudoun, who, in November, 1736, when the Grand Lodge of Scotland was erected, occupied the position of Grand Master of England, in which he had been installed in the beginning of the same year. Lord Jjoudoun, who was Colonel of the 50th Foot, and Governor of Edinburgh Castle, took an active part in the suppression of the rebellion of 1745 ; Major-General, 1755 ; (iovernor of Virginia, 1756 ; Commander-in-Chief of all the British Forces in America in the same 3'ear ; Lieutenant-General, 1758. riie title eventually descended to the only daughter of the fifth Earl, Flora, who became (!!ountess of Loudoun in her own right, and in 1804 married the Acting Grand Master of English Freemasons, Francis, Earl of Moira (afterwards Marquess of Hastings), then commanding the i^'orces in North Britain, and who, in 1806, was elected Acting Giand Master of Scotland.
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From 1736 to 1752, although a new Grand Master of Scotland was chosen annually, the Deputy (or Depute) Grand Master — John Young — continued to hold office un- interruptedly. This worthy, who was a captain in 1736, became a major in 1745, and Lieutenant-Colonel in the 60th Foot, or "Royal Americans," with which corps he served under Colonel Munroe at the capitulation and massacre at Fort William Henry, in 1757.
In the same year he was appointed Provincial Grand Master over all the (Scottish) Lodges in America and the West Indies.
Young was transferred to the 46th Foot, also in America, but which shortly after sailed for the AVest Indies, in 1761. His name is given in the Army List for the following year as Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the regiment, but dis- appears in that for 1763. To what extent he was a sharer in the Masonic histor}' of the gallant 46th Foot must remain luiknown, but his association with that distin- guished corps, -coupled with the terms of his patent as Provincial Grand Master, ma}- at least justify the belief that one of the most prominent Masons of the Old World, must have been much favoured by accidental or fortuitous circumstances in carrying out his mission in the New.
Pieturning to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, George, 3rd Earl of Cromarty, succeeded William St. Clair as Grand Master in 1737. This nobleman was afterwards eno-a^ed in the rebellion of 1745, and, with 400 of his clan, took part in the Battle of Falkirk. He and his son, Lord Macleod, were taken prisoners. Both pleaded guilty, but were pardoned. The son, in 1777, was appointed colonel of the 73rd (afterwards the 71st) Foot.
During the Earl of Cromarty's year of office it was resolved that all the Lodges holding of the Grand Lodge should be enrolled according to their seniority, in consequence of which regulation the first place on the roll was awarded to the Lodge of Edinburgh, and the second to that of Kil- winning. The validity of this decision was not at first openly challenged by the latter body. But many influences were at work, aroused by the brilliant oration of a Scottish soldier of fortune, which afforded the Ayrshire Masons, in
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1743, at least a reasonable excuse in claiming a pre-eminence for the Old Court of Operative Masonry at Kilwinning, that was clearly absent from their thoughts — as being in the Avomb of futurity — in 1737.
Andrew Michael Ramsay, better known as the Chevalier Kamsay, was born at Ayr, and about 1706 he went with ihe English auxiliaries to the Netherlands, where he fought luider Marlborough during the war of the Spanish succession. Converted by Fenelon to the Koman faith, he afterwards became tutor for a short while to the two sons of the (Old) Pretender at Rome. His chief works are the "Travels of (^yrus," " Philosophical Principles of Religion," and the Lives of Fenelon and Turenne. l"he following is an extract from the famous oration which he delivered as Chancellor of the Grand Lodge at Paris in 1737 : —
■■ At the times of the last Crusades many Lodges were already erected in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and from thence in Scotland, Ijecause of the close alliance between the French and the Scotch. James. Lord Steward of Scotland, was Grand Master of a Lodge established at Kilwinning, in the West of Scotland, MCCLXXXVL. shortly after the death of Alexander III., King of Scotland, and one year before John Baliol mounted the throne."
This passage has been seized upon by the inventors of alleged Scottish rites, all pretending to hail from Kilwinning, and asserting the superiority in point of antiquity and pure tenets of the Grand Lodge held there, which body, it is almost unnecessary to say, never existed. AVhile Ramsay himself, with an equal disregard of truth, has been described as a Jacobite partisan, a Jesuit Missionary in disguise, the inventor of the Royal Arch, and of many other rites and degrees. It may, however, be safely laid down with respect to this gallant soldier and distinguished man of letters, that all genuine tradition with regard to the birthplace of Scottish Masonry was swept away by his famous oration, which substituted for it a spurious tradition, awarding the palm of priority over all the other Scottish Lodges to the Lodge of Kilwinning.
The so-called " Scottish Masonry " of the Continent, which was unknown before the date of Ramsay's speech, appeared shortly afterwards and had attained a great .vogue in 1743.
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It was in this jear tliat the Lod have awakened to the conviction that it had been improperly relegated to a secondary rank. The Lodge therefore resumed its independence, which in the matter of granting Charters it had in reality never renonnced, and for well nigh seventy years continued to exist as an independent Grand Body, dividing with that of Edinburgh the honour of formi-ng branches in Scotland as well as in tlie British possessions beyond the seas.
Ultimately, a reconciliation was happily effected, and " Mother Kilwinning," having returned to the bosom of the Grand Lodge, was placed at the head of the roll without a number, in 1808.
I shall now pass to a still greater schism, which, for upwards of half-a-century, disturbed the peace of Masonry throughout the woi'ld.
The " Grand Lodge of England, according to the Old Institutions," was established in 1751, in opposition to the jmrent Grand Lodge of English Masonry (1717), which it was averred by the junior body had adopted 7ieiv plans and departed from the old land-marks.
The schismatics, therefore, in reverting, as they alleged, to the "old forms," arrogated to themselves the title of " Ancient " Masons, bestowing on their rivals the appellation of " Moderns," and by those distinctive epithets they have since been generally described.
Tiie two Grand Lodges of England amalgamated in 1813, but during the continuance of the schism, the junior body was a most important factor in the dissemination of particular ritualistic observances in countries beyond the seas, through the instrumentality of the Army Lodges.
Lodges were established in British Regiments by all of the Grand Lodges mentioned above, as well as by " Mother Kilwinning."
The Irish Lodges, however, always worked accoi'ding to the system in vogue among the so-called Ancient Masons, and the result in America, where the influence of the Army Lodges made itself chiefly felt, w^as very marked. The customs of the Scottish Regimental Lodges were in harmony with those of the Irish, and the older Grand Lodge of
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England was too sparsely represented among the Militar}' Forces of the Crown to exercise any counter-influence, if indeed her Field Lodges in foreign parts did not — as I imagine must have generally been the case — acquire the tone and character of the vast majority of these associations. Hence, the predominance in North America of the "Ancients" over their rivals, the titular "Moderns," must be ascribed to the influx of Regimental Lodges from the Old AVorld, and to their dissemination of the principles and the practice of what was then termed " Ancient Masonry " throughout the continent of America.
The first warrant creating a travelling Lodge of Freemasons — to which the number 11 was subsequently assigned — was issued to the 1st Foot — then the " Royal Regiment," now the " Royal Scots " — by the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1732, and the date will be a convenient one at which to resume the general narrative of events from the point where I left off in order to present a short sketch of the Grand Lodges of the United Kingdom.
Among the prominent military brethren, whose names figure in the English lists, up to and inclusive of the year 1732, were the 1st Earl of Portmore, Colonel of the 2nd Foot 1703, who served under the Duke of Ormonde in the Spanish War of succession as Lieutenant-General 1710, Commanded the Forces in Scotland and became General 1710, and was Governor of Gibraltar, 1713. Lieutenant- General Francis Columbine, Governor of the same fortress in 1738, but who is better known to students of Masonry as holding the rank of "Colonel" in 1725, when occupying the combined offices of premier Provincial Grand Master, and Master of the Lodge held at the Sun, in Chester, in 1725.
Colonel George (afterwards 2nd Lord) Carpentei", 3rd Dragoons, initiated 1724, and Grand Warden, 1730 ; the 2nd. Earl of Dunbarton, Lieutenant-Colonel of Foot, 1715, and Ambassador to Russia, 1716 ; and Francis, Duke of Lorraine, the earliest of Royal Freemasons, who was made an Entered Prentice and Fellow-Craft, at the Hague by Dr. Desaguliers in 1731, and later in the same year a Master Mason, together with the Duke of Newcastle, by Lord Lovel, Grand Master, at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, the residence of Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister.
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The Duke of Lorraine, who married Maria Theresa, eldest daughter of the Emperor Charles VI., in 1736, was shortly after appointed Field Marslial of the Empire, and Generalissimo of the Imperial Army. It was in that double quality that he commanded, in 1738, the Austrian Army against the Turks. Francis, who (like so many of the "speculative" Freemasons of a still earlier period) was fond of alchemy, and a searcher for the Philosophers' Stone, became co-regent with his wife in 1740, and five years later was elected Emperor.
Thomas Pelham, Duke of Newcastle (1693 — 1768), with his brother Henry, raised a troop in 1715 for service against the Pretender, for which he received his dukedom ; Prime Minister, 175-1.
The first Lodge in foreign parts which obtained a place on the roll of the Grand Lodge of England, was constituted at Madrid, by the Duke of Wharton — at that time enacting the role of a military adventurer in the Spanish Service, in 1728.
Another former Grand Master of England, and also a gallant soldier, the Duke of Richmond, assisted by the Baron de Montesquieu, the celebrated author of De V Esprit cles Lois, and Brigadier Churchill (a member of the Lodge at the Rummer, Charing Cross, 1724, Lieutenant-General 1747), admitted into the Society of Freemasons at the house of the Duchess of Portsmouth in Paris, many persons of distinction in 1734.
A similar meeting in the French capital took place in the following year, at the Hotel Bussy, which was presided over by a still earlier Grand Master of England, the veteran Desaguliers. Several noblemen and gentlemen — including the 2nd Duke of Kingston, General in the Army, 1772 — Avere received into the fraternity, and among those who assisted the learned natural philosopher at the admission of the candidates was Lord Dursley, afterwards 4th Earl of Berkeley, at that time an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, and who subsequently became a General in the Army, and held a command against the rebels in 1745.
Many supporters of the Old as well as of the Young Pretender were Freemasons, as I have already had occasion to remark, and among them was Sir Duncan Campbell, of
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Lochnell, who, on August 28th, 1721, received in the Lodge of Edinburgh tiie degrees of Entered Apprentice and Fellow-Craft.
On the death of Queen Anne, the sympathies of Sir Duncan Campbell appear, like those of many other eminent Scotsmen, to have been enlisted in the Jacobite cause. At his father's death, January 10th, 171-4, he kept the corpse imburied until the 2Sth in order that the funeral might be turned to account. "Hence it came to pass that the inhuma- tion of Lochnell was attended by two thousand five hundred men, well armed and appointed, five hundred being of Lochnell's own lands, commanded by the famous Rob Koy, carrying with them a pair of colours belonging to the Earl of Breadalbane, and accompanied by the screams of thirteen bagpipes."
Sir Duncan was capta'.n of one of the ten independent companies of the Black Watch — so called from their dress being composed of black, blue and green tartan — raised in 1729. Of these (aftervvards the 42nd, and now the Royal Highlanders), John, 17th Earl of Crawfurd, was the first Colonel.
It seems that notwithstanding his appai-ent loyalty (as an officer in the Army) to Ueorge IL, Sir Duncan was in concert with Prince Charles Edward in 1745, and first made known his arrival in Scotland to the supporters of the Stuart cause at EdinV)urgh. He assisted in founding the Lodge of Inverary. now St. John, No. 50. His sister was married to John Cameron, of Locheil, a member of the Lodge of Dunblane, and who served with the Earl of Mar in the rising of 1715.
The Earl of Crawfurd was made a Mason in the Lodge of Ij^dinburgh in 1733, and five months afterwards he was introduced to the English fraternity by the Earl of Strath- more — Captain in Barrel's Foot — whom he succeeded in the office of Grand Master in 1734. Lord Crawfurd was for several years Colonel of a company in the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards, and subsequently of the 42nd Foot. He served with the Germans against France, and with the Russians against the Turks. Afterwards he greatly dis- tinguished himself at the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy.
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The command of the 2nd Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards was conferred upon him in 1740, and the Colonelcy of the Koyal Kegiment of North British Dragoons, now the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys), at a later period.
A second Scottish peer of military renown, the Earl of Loudoun (of whom a short notice will be found on an earlier page) was placed at the head of the English Craft in 1736. This nobleman served with great distinction on the winning side during the Rising of 1745.
I shall now turn to the more chequered career of another Scottish Earl of equal rank in the hierarchy of the Craft, whose misfortune it was to have been arrayed on the losing side throughout the disastrous struggle which ended at CuUoden.
William, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock, the first Master of Kilmarnock Kilwinning (1734), and who held the same office in the Lodge of Falkirk and "Mother Kilwinning" when in November, 1742, he was elected Grand Master ^lason of Scotland. It was at the recommendation of this nobleman that, in 1743, the first Military Lodge (under the Grand Lodge) was erected, the petitioners being some sergeants and sentinels belonging to Colonel Lee's (afterwards the 55th) Regiment of Foot. This, however, appears at no time to have had a place accorded to it on the official roll, where, as we shall presently see, a Lodge in another regiment of infantry is shown as the earliest Military or Army Lodge chartered by the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
The Baron von Hund, who was the leading figure at the organisation of the rite or system called the Strict Observance (1764), declared that about the year 1743, he was made a Knight Templar in the presence of Lord Kilmarnock, and that the Grand Master of the Temple at that time, was either his lordship or Prince Charles Edward Stuart. No evidence, however, from any Scottish source has yet been produced of Lord Kilmarnock's connection with Continental Masonry, and none whatever that will justify our believing the young Pretender to have been a member of the fraternity.
The eldest son of the Earl (f Kilmarnock, Lord Boyd —
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Grand Master of Scotland in 1751 — was elected Master of the Lodge of Falkirk, with his brothers, Charles and William Boyd, as Wardens, in 1749.
At the Stuart Rising in 1745, the Earl and his eldest son took different sides. Lord Boyd was an officer in King- George's Army, and as such he was present with his regiment, the 21st Foot, at the Battle of Culloden, fighting against the insurgents, in whose ranks his father held a high command. Charles Boyd joined the rebels along with Lord Kilmiirnock, and on the defeat of the Young Pretender, he with great difficulty managed to effijct his escape. The youngest brother, William, was in the Royal Navy, and on board Commodore Barnett's ship at the period of his father's execution. He was afterwards (1761) a captain in the 114th Foot.
The Earl of Kilmarnock was executed in 1746. Lord Boyd, who, on the death of his aunt, became 13th Earl of Errol, officiated as Constable of Scotland at the Coronation of George III. in 1761 ; and neglecting by accident to pull off his cap when the King entered, he apologised for his negligence in the most respectful manner ; but his Majesty entreated him to be covered, for he looked on his presence at the solemnity as a very particular honour.
A Military Lodge, "The Duke of Norfolk's," in the 12th Foot, was placed on the Scottish roll as No. 58 in 1747. The petition averred, that " The Duke of Norfolk's Mason Lodge " had been " erected into a Mason body, bearing the title aforesaid, as far back as 1685," and, indeed, no higher antiquity could well have been asserted, as the 12th Foot was only raised in that year. The fact, however, remains that at the close of the first half of the eighteenth century a Lodge in an English regiment claimed to have been in existence more than thirty years before the formation of the earliest of Grand Lodges.
About the same time (1747) there was also a Lodge in the 2nd Dragoons (now the R(n'al Scots Grej's), the date of whose constitution is uncertain, which, through the influence of the Earl of Eglinton, had been procured from Kil- winning. It is probable, indeed, that Regimental Lodges, though not of an indigenous character, had penetrated into
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Scotland before the petition was favourably considered by the Grand Lodge in 1743, of certain "sergeants and sentinels " belonging to the 55th Foot.
As we have already seen, a Lodge was established in a British regnnent (the 1st Foot) by the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1732. Four other similar Lodges — in regiments then bearing the names of their colonels, but which after- wards became the 33rd, 27th, 21st, and 28th Foot — making a total of five, were at work under the same jurisdiction at the close of 1734, and the number had risen to eight when the first Military Warrant was issued by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1743. Two of these, dated 1732 and 1734, and bearing the numbers 11 and 33, were attached to the 1st and 21st Foot respectively, both Scottish regiments. Moreover, we hear of other Military Lodges in Scotland besides those previously noticed as existing under the Grand Lodge and "Mother Kilwinning " as early as 1744, in which year the minutes of "St. John's Old Kilwinning" at Inverness record the visit of " David Holland, Master of the Lodge of Freemasons in Brigadier Guise's Regiment " — afterwards the 6th Foot — then " lying at Fort George." This Lodge seems to have been without any charter or warrant, but it is possible that the lost archives of the Grand Lodge of Ireland would supply a key to the mystery, and for a variety of reasons I am led to the conclusion that there must have been many Irish Lodges in the British Army (and elsewhere) of which all traces have been lost.
The number, however, of Military Lodges on the register of Ireland — according to the evidence at my command — had certainly risen to twenty-nine, and of those claiming a Scottish ptirentage to at least five, when the earliest Lodges of the kind were established by the rival Grand Bodies in South Britain.
Lodges in the 8th and 57tli Foot respectively were constituted in February and September, 1755, the first by the titular " Moderns " (or Regular Grand Lodge), and the second by the so-called " Ancients " (or Schismatics).
From this time Lodges multiplied in the British Army,
-and Abraham Savage, who was authorized by the Provincial
Grand Master of North America, under the " Moderns," to
42
"congregate all Free and Accepted Masons in the Expedition against Canada into one or more Lodges," admitted into Masonry at Cx'own Point after the surrender of that fortified place, twelve officei's of the 1st Foot, in the Lodge he had established there, and of which he was the Master, in 1759. Later in the same year, at Quebec, " the Anniversary of St. John, the Evangelist, was duly observed by the several Lodges of Freemasons in the garrison."
In 1768— October 1— the 14th, 29th, and a part of the 59t:h Regiments arrived at Boston (U.S.A.), and a little later the 64th and 65th Foot direct from Ireland. In these regiments were three Lodges, all working under what was commonly known as the " Ancient system " — Nos. 58 (A.), 14th Foot; 322 (L), 29th; and 106 (S.), 64th— holding under the Grand Lodges of England ("Ancients"), Ireland, and Scotland respectively. The presence of these troops created an intense excitement. Nevertheless, the members of St. Andrew's, a Scottish Lodge at Boston, saw the opportunity before them of forming a Grand Lodge under the authority of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and with this end in view did not scruple to enter into fraternal communion with, and to make use of, their brethren in the obnoxious regiments.
None of these Army Lodges were present at the instal- lation of the Provincial Grand Master under England (Regular Grand Lodge) in November, but all of them joined St, Andrew's in December, 1768, in a petitioivto the Grand Lodge of Scotland requesting the appointment of " a Grand Master of Ancient Masons in America."
Dr. Joseph Warren was appointed in 1769 "(>rand Master of Masons in Boston and within one hundred miles of the same " ; but in the interval the 64th Regiment had been removed from the station. The Grand Lodge, how- ever, was formallv inauuurated bv St. Andrew's, and Lodges 58 (A.) and 322 (I.) ^in the 14th and 29th Foot. By a further Scottish patent (1772) Joseph Warren (afterwards killed at the battle of Bunker's Hdl, where, though holding the commission of Major-General, he fought as a volunteer) w^as appointed Grand Master for the Continent of America.
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The last patent was granted by the 5th Earl of Dumfries, Grand Master of Scotland, 1771-7'J, a Colonel in the Foot (Juards ; but it is to his immediate predecessor in that office I shall next turn, Lieutenant-General James xAdolphus Oughton, who, at the period of his election — November, 17G9 — was commanding the forces in Scotland in the absence of Lord Lome, afterwards 5th Duke of Argyll.
The names of other military brethren (in addition to those already given), who at an earlier date than General Oughton, had become Kulers of the Craft, as British or Irish Grand Masters, are very numerous. The Commander- in-Chief of North Britain in 1769, was the twenty-seventh Grand Master Mason of Scotland, and of his predecessors in office, at least thirteen, or one half, held commissions in the army, among them being the Earls of Leven, Eglinton and Kellie, Lord Erskine, only surviving son of the 11th Earl of Marr (attainted in 1715), and James, afterwards the 16th Baron Forbes.
To these examples, I shall fur the present content myself Avith adding the names of the Mar(]uis of Cai'narvon, after- wards 3rd Duke of Chandos (1754-56); the Dukes of Beaufort (1767-71), and Manchester (1777-82), Grand Masters of England ("Moderns"); all of whom were colonels in the arm}'; Lord Geoige (eventually Viscount) Sackville — to be hereafter refeired to in connection with the 20th Foot — Grand Master of Ireland, 1751 ; and Sholto, Lord Aberdour, later ] 6th Earl uf Morton, Grand Master of Scotland, 1755-6, and of England, 1757-61, who (while holding the latter office) raised a corps of Light Dragoons, of which he was made the Commandant in 1759.
It may also be mentioned that General Lord Blayney, Grand Master of England, 1764-66, was sujiported through- out the whole of that ])eriod by another soldier as Deputy — Colonel John Salter, who was })romoted to the rank of Major-General in 1770.
James Adolphus Oughton, a natural son of Sir Adolphus Oughton- — one of the military members of the Lodge at the Horn, in 1724 — served with the 37th Foot at Cidloden, and also (in command of that regiment) at the battle of Minden in 1759. He became a Knight of the Bath in 1773,
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Commander-in-Chief, Scotland, in 1778, and at the time of his death in 1780, was a Lieutenant- General and Colonel of the 31st Foot. Amidst all his campaigns he cnltivated a taste for literatni"e and the fine arts, and in the opinion of Dr. Johnson, there were few men of any profession whose range of general knowledge was more complete.
General (then Lieutenant Colonel) Oughton was Provincial Grand Master of the Island of Minorca under the "Moderns," in 1752, and became a member of Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, at Edinburgh, in 1754.
In 1770, the Lodge " Scots Greys, Kilwinning," in the 2nd or Royal North British Dragoons, having lost their charter, and all their records in the wars, petitioned for a warrant from the Grand Lodge, which was granted, and the Lodge re-constituted by General Oughton — March 12th — as the " St. Andrew's Royal Arch."
The affiliation of a Regimental Lodge by a Grand Master, who was also at the time commanding the King's forces in Scotland, points out to us the estimation in which Military Masonry was then regaixled, and the significance of the event is heightened by the circumstance that the Master of " St. Andrew's Royal Arch," Colonel William (afterwards 6th Lord) Napier, was in command of the 2nd Dragoons.
After General Oughton, no soldier of equal rank was placed at the head of the Scottish Craft until 1806, when the Earl of Moira, at that time commanding the troops in North Britain, was elected Acting Grand Master — a position which, as will be presently shown, he had long filled with signal ability in the southern kingdom.
Between the eras, however, of these two Military and Masonic Chiefs, there were several Commanders of the Forces in Scotland who were zealous Freemasons, and many Grand Masters, who were very distinguished members of the military profession. Of the former class, may be named Lieutenant-General Archibald, Earl of Eglinton, a former Master of "Mother Kilwinning," who held the chief command at Edinburgh, in 1783; Lord Adam Gordon, his successor in 1789, who, while holding the same high military position, served the office of Master in the Lodge
45
of Aberdeen ; and Sir Ralph Abercrombie (1798), who first saw the light of Masonry in Lodge Canongate Kilwinnnig, in 1753.
Of the Grand Masters, I shall begin with the names of the 3rd and 4th Dukes of Atholl, elected in 1773 and 1778, respectively; each of them, at the date of his being chosen to fill the Scottish chair, held the position of Grand Master in the Junior Grand Lodge of England, or "Ancients." Both Dukes served in the Army, and the younger one raised a regiment — the 77th or Atholl High- landers— for the public service in 1778. William, 10th Baron (afterwards 1st Earl) Cathcart — Commander-in- Chief of the Forces of Ireland, 1803; of Scotland, 180C ; and of the Army against Denmark, 1807 — obtaining a company in this corps, vacated the chair of the Alloa Lodge, by which body a bounty was forthwith offered to recruits. This practice — often combined with " the freedom of Masonry," was expressly forbidden by the Grand Lodge, but in the Lodge of Kelso, the spirit of patriotism thus awakened, reached a great height, and in the same year the brethren unanimously resolved to testify their zeal for their sovereign, and their respect for their Noble Grand Master, by marching at the head of the recruiting party, beating up for recruits for the Atholl Highlanders, and by off"ering a bounty of three guineas to every man enlisting in that corps.
John, 4th Duke of Atholl, was Grand Master of Scotland in 1778 and 1779, and of the Junior Grand Lodge of England, or "Ancients," from 1775 to 1781, and again from 1791 to 1813. He was admitted into the first, second, and third degrees, and became the Master of the Grand Master's Lodge (under the " Ancients ") on February 25th, 1775. On March 1st he was elected Grand Master, and on the 25th of the same month, duly installed in the presence of the Duke of Leinster (Colonel, 1st Regiment of Dublin Volunteers, 1777), and Lieutenant-General Sir James Adolphus Oughton, former Grand Masters of Ireland and Scotland, respectively.
As a result of the patronage by the Dukes of Atholl, of
46
the English Schismatics or "Ancients," that body became widely known as " Atholl" Masons, and to the inflnence of these two noblemen must be attributed in a great measure the marvellous success of the Great Schism.
Of the succeeding Grand Master Masons of Scotland, the 6th Earl of Balcarres (1780-81), and the 7th Lord Napier (1788-89), accompanied General Burgoyne in his unfortunate expedition from Canada, and were present with the force under the command of that officer which was compelled to siirrender to General Gates, in 1777.
George, Marquis of Huntley, afterwards Duke of Gordon, while Grand Master of Scotland (1794) raised the 100th, later the 92nd Foot (Gordon Highlanders), of which he was made Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant, and accom- panied it in 1799 to Holland, where he was severely wounded. Lieutenant-General in 1808, and in the following year held a pi-incipal command in the expedition to the Scheldt. The Earlof Ancrum, subsequently 5th Marquis of Lothian (Grand Master 1794-5) served for many years in liis father's regiment, the 11th Dragoons, in which a Lodge was established by the Grand Lodge of England, " in Captain Bell's troop " — while he held a commission as lieutenant, in 1756. He commanded successively the 12th Foot, the 4th Regiment of Horse, the 1st Life Guards, and finally, his original corps, the 11th Dragoons. He attained the rank of General in the Army in 1796.
Lord Doune, afterwards 9th Earl of ^loray, the forty- first Grand Master Mason, and the Earl of Dalkeith, later 7th Duke of Buccleuch, the forty-third, were also soldiers ; but of greater note in the military service of the Crown, was the 9th Earl of Dalhousie (Grand Master 1804-5), who, entering the Army in 1788, served with great distinction in Holland, Egypt, and Walcheren, and was Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies from 1829 to 1832.
Through the influence of Francis, Earl of Moira, Com- mander of the Forces in North Britain, a fraternal union between riie (irand Lodge of Scotland, and that of England (under the older sanction) was established, with the result that in 1806, the Prince of Wales and Lord Moira, the Grand and Acting Grand Masters of tlie latter body were
elected to similar positions in the Masonic Jurisdiction of the North.
The sympathies, therefore, of the Scottish Masons, which, following the example set them by a former Commander-in- Chief, General Oughton, and two other militaiT Grand Masters, the Dukes of Atholl, had adhered to the " Ancients," were now diverted into a new channel, at the instance of the Earl of Moira, who stated " that the hearts and arms of the Grand Lodge to which he was attached, had ever been open for their seceding brethren," and from that time may be dated a lasting friendship between the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and the only Constitutional Grand Lodge of England, or " Moderns."
Returning, however, for a short period to those rivals of the latter body, the " Atholl " Masons, or " Ancients."
In 1781 the "Ancients" and Field Lodges in New York met as a Grand Lodge, and elected Grand Officers, January 23rd ; a warrant for a Provincial Grand Lodge was granted by the Grand Lodge of England ("Ancients "), September 5th ; and the Provincial Grand Lodge was duly inaugurated by three stationary and six ambulatory Lodges in December, 1782. The former were Nos. IGD, 210, and 212 on the roll of the " Ancients," of which the first-named was acknowledged as the leading authority by the varior.s Army Lodges, while the last two were also to a great extent military bodies. Of the six travelling lodges, one-half were likewise English (or "Ancient"), namely, Nos. 52, 213, and 2L5, in the 22nd Foot, the 4th Battalion Ptoyal Artillery, and the Regiment of Anspach-Bayreuth, respectively. Tlie other Regimental Lodges that took part in the proceedings were Nos. 132 (Scottish) and 44-1 (Irish) in the 22nd and 38th Foot, together with Sion's Lodge in the 57th Regiment, holding under a dispensation granted by Lodge Ko. 210, " Ancients," with the consent and approval of two Scottish Lodges, Nos. 132, " Moriah," in the 22nd Foot, and 134 Eskdale Kilwinning, at Langholm, in Dumfries-shire.
In the following year a majority of the Grand officers left New York with the British Army, and at that date Lodges had been formed by the Provincial Grand Lodge in the New Jersey Volunteers, the Regiment of Knyphausen,
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the 57th Foot, aud the Loyal American Regiment ; while within the same period two Irish Lodges, Nos. 478 in the 17th Dragoons, and 90 in the 33rd Foot, had ranged themselves nnder its banner. After the war, the body thus established by British Army Lodges abandoned its provincial character and assumed the title of Grand Lodge of New York.
Passing from " Field " to " Sea " Lodges, there was a "Sea Captain's Lodge" at Wapping, Liverpool, Sunderland, Yarmouth, and Bristol. But the first Lodge afloat which obtained a position on the lists was held " On Board His Majesty's Ship the Vang^iai-d in 1760." Similar Lodges were afterwards established "on board " H.M.S. Prince and Canceaux,'m the former "at Plymouth," in 1762, and in the latter at. Quebec, inl768. No other "Sea Lodges" than these three appear to have been regularly constituted either before or since ; and as they all seem to have owed their existence to the exertions of a single individual, their further history, to the extent that it may be proceeded with, will be incorporated with the biography of Thomas Dunckerley, the gunner of H.M.S. Vanguard, in 1762.
The first member of the Royal Family holding a commis- sion in the senior service, who joined the Craft, was Edward Augustus, Duke of York, brother of George IIL He served as a midshipman at the taking of Cherbourg, and the defeat of St. Cas in 1758. Made captain of the Phoenix of 44 guns, 1759, and Viee-Admiral of the Blue, 1762. Three years later he was initiated- at Berlin in a Lodge which, with his permission, then assumed the title of " Royal York of Friendship," and is now the Grand Lodge of that name.
The first Naval Officer of rank who presided over a Grand Lodge was Washington Shirley, Earl Ferrers (Captain 1746, Rear-Admiral 1775), who was Grand Master of England in 1762-63 ; and after an interval the same position was filled by the Duke of Cumberland, Admiral of the White, brother of George III., who continued to hold it from 1782 until his death in 179U.
The remaining brother of George III., William, Duke of Gloucester, who died a Field Marshal, was also a Freemason,
49
having been initiated in 1766, when Colonel of the 13th Foot.
All the sons of the same King were officers in the Army, Navy, or Volunteers, and all except the Duke of Cambridge, namely, the Prince of Wales, the Dukes of York, Clarence, Kent, Cumberland, and Sussex, were members of the Society.
On the occasion of the election of the Duke of Cumber- land in 1782, a rule was established that whenever a Prince of the Blood accepted the position of Grand Master he should be at liberty to nominate any Peer of tlie Kealm to be the Acting Grand Master.
The Earl of Effingham, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army, who had previously served in the 1st and 2nd regiments of Foot Guards and the 22nd Foot, was appointed to the new office, in which he was succeeded (179U) by Francis, Lord Rawdon, afterwards 2nd Earl of Moira, and 1st Marquess of Hastmgs — the '' Bayard " of the British Craft — who continued to discharge the duties incidental to the appointment until his nomination as Governor-General, Commander-in-Chief, and Acting Grand Master of India, at the close of 1812.
This gallant soldier was greatly assisted throughout nearly the whole of his long tenure of office as Grand Master by an equally gallant sailor. Admiral Sir Peter Parker, who had been appointed by the Duke of Cumberland — a brother flag officei' — his Deputy, in 1786.
The Deputy Grand Master, who was a distinguished naval commander, had previously served as Grand Steward and Grand Warden, and then held the office of Provincial Grand Master of Jamaica. He was a member of what are now the Grand Stewards, the Royal Somerset House and Inverness (No. 4) and the British (No. 8) Lodges. He is best remembered as the early patron of Nelson, at whose funeral Parker was chief mourner, but in the capacity of Admiral of the Fleet, the senior officer in the Navy, rather than as a personal friend. Sir Peter died in December, 1811, having held the office of Deputy Grand Master for more than a quarter of a century. No other naval or military brother has ever served for an equally long period
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as a Grand Officer in either Nurtli or South Th-itain, tliough the most famous of Scottish " Deputies," Cohniel Younij,-, remained at liis post for a yjeriod of fifteen years, and the Earl of Moira, as Acting (Jrand Master of Enghmd, for nearly twenty-three.
The service of neither of these worthies, however, nor even that of Parker himself, will, in point of duration, compare with the record of a very distinuiiishcd (irand Ofhcer of Ireland, John Hely-Hutchinson, who was Senior Grand Warden from 1791 to 18-4. This high military and Masonic dignitar}' entered the Army in 1774, became Lieutenant Colonel 77th ("Atholl Highland") Regiment in 1783, and Colonel of the 9 Ith (Hutchinson's) liegiment of Foot in 1784. He accompanied the expedition to Egypt in 1801, and on the death of Sir Ralph Abercrombie s\icceeded to the command. For his services he was created Bar^n Hutchinson of Alexandria, a title afterwards exchanged for that of '2nd Earl of Donoughmore, which devolved upon him at the death of his elder brother (the 1st Eaid) in 18"2o.
The latter was Grand Master of Ireland from 1789 to 1813, and therefore occupied the chair of the Grand Lodge Avhen his younger and more distinguished brother entei-ed upon his long career as Senior Grand Warden, in 1791. The 1st Earl, then 2nd Baron Donoughmore, who entered the Army somewhat late in life, as cornet in the 9th Dragoons, became on the same da}' —May 31, 1794 — Captain in " Hutchinson's " Regiment of Foot, Avhich he probably raised, as it will tend to explain his rapid advance- ment to Major in another infantry regiment on July 19th, and to Lieutenant-Colonel in a third on July 21st in the same year. He became a Colonel in 1800 and a Lieutcnant- General in 1812.
Tfie Prince of Wales, then a Colonel in the Army, accepted the position of Grand Master of England, on the death of his uncle, the Admiral, in 1790, and a pause will be made in order that some statistics may be laid before the reader.
At the above date, about a hundred Military Lodges are kuowu to liave been constituted by the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and many others were doubtless formed, of which
.J I
no traces are now forthcoming. The Lodges of a similar character, established under the Grand Lodge of Scotland, numbered twenty-one.
About forty-nine had been set on foot dlredli/ by the "Ancients," but a large number of subsidiary Lodges were chartered by the provincial authorities under this sj-stem, particularly in America, Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, Gibraltar, and Jamaica, which, in the comparative absence of lists, cannot be satisfactorily identified, though various regimental Lodges are traceable among them; and of the existence of others there is scarcely room for doubt.
To a more restricted extent the same practice of issuing local warrants prevailed in foreign districts which were under the obedience of the "Moderns." In 1790, fourteen regimental Lodges had found places on the lists. About an equal number of Ay my Lodges were attached to the various Brigades in Bengal, and others of a stationary, though military character, existed in all three of the Indian Presidencies, flourishing, perhaps, with the greatest luxuriance on the Coast of Coromandel. There was a " Royal Navy " Lodge at Deal, Gosport, London, and Halifax (Nova Scotia), and a " Marine Lodge at Plymouth," " in the second division of Marines." 'J"he " Royal Military," at Woolwich, and the " Lodge of Mars," at Yassy, in Russia, were established inider the same sanction (original Grand Lodge of England) iu 1774. The "Carnatic Military Lodge" was constituted at Arcot, in 1784; and "St. John's Lodge of Secrecy and Harmony " (in the Order of Knights of St. John) at Malta, in 1789.
The older Grand Lodge of England continued to be ruled by a Military Chief (the Earl of Moira), aided by a Naval " Deputy "(Sir Peter Parker), until the death of the latter in 1811, and the removal of the former, in 1813, to a greater sj)here of usefulness in the East. During this period English Masonry was well represented both at home and abroad by members of the two services. Among the Pro- vincial Grand Mastersunder theolder Grand Lodge of England were Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, who commanded the British and Hanoverian Forces at the battle of Minden ; Generals Sir Robert Melville, and Sir Adam Williamson, in
52
the West Indies ; and Brigadier-General Matthew Home (who held the chief command of the Coast Army) on the Coast of Coromandel.
Captain Sir John Borlase Warren, while Provincial Grand Master of Derbyshire, gained a signal victory over the French naval force intended for the invasion of Ireland, capturing the whole squadron, consisting of a ship of tiie line, La Hoche, and three frigates (1798), for which on the next promotion he was made Kear-x\dmiral of the Blue. There were also Generals Sir Samuel Hulse (afterwards Field-Marshal), and Sir John Doyle, who ruled the Craft in Sussex and the Channel Islands, respectively. The former saw much service on the Continent, and was Deputy-Master of the Prince of Wales's Lodge from 1787 to 1820. The latter, then Major John Doyle, was initiated in the same Lodge, in 1792, and in the following year raised the 87th Regiment, " the Prince of Wales's Irish " (later, the "Royal Irish Fusiliers"), iu conmiand of which he embarked for the Continent with the expedition luider the Acting Grand Master of England — the Earl of Moira — in 1794. He afterwards accompanied the Senior Grand Warden of Ireland, General Hely-Hutchinson, to Egypt, and took part in the campaign of 1801.
Prince Edward, then a Colonel in the Army — at a later period, Duke of Kent, and a Field-Marshal — held office under both Grand Lodges of England, having been appointed Provincial Grand Master of Gibraltar, by tlie "Moderns," in 1790, and of Lower Canada by the " Ancients," in 1792. At the latter date there were no less than eleven Military Lodges at " The Rock," one Scottish — 32nd Foot; Six Irish— 1st, 11th, 18th, 46th, 51st, and 68th Foot; three English {Aiicierd) — 50th Foot, Royal - Artillery, and Garrison ; and one Provincial — in the Com- pany of Artificers, The records from which I quote, also mention three Lodges of a similar character as having recently left the Garrison, besides a warrant (Irish) "held by the officers of the 32nd Foot, but for neglect erased."
The Earl of Moira embarked for India in 1813, and the Prince of Wales declining a re-election as Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex, Colonel of Volunteers, and at a later period
53
Captain-General of the Hon. Artillery Company of Tendon was chosen as his successor. In the same year the Duke of Kent, Field-^Iai'shal, and Colonel of the 1 st Foot, was installed as Grand Master of the other Grand Lodge of England, and on St. John's day (in winter) 1813, the Union of the two fraternities who had been so long mistermed Ancient and Modern was accomplished.
The Act of Union was ratified and confirmed. One Grand Lodge was constituted. The Duke of Kent then proposed his royal brother for the office of Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England. This being put to the vote, was carried unanimously, and the Duke of Sussex received the homage of the fraternity.
At this epoch (1813), without counting the remote pendicles under provincial Grand Lodges in foreign parts, the approximate number of Military — or it will be more correct to say Regimental — Lodges, which had existed under the Irish, English, and Scottish jurisdictions, was as follows : — Irish, 190; English, 141 {Ancients 116, Moderns 25); and Scottish, 21 ; showing a grand total of 352. Of these, many of which were dormant, though not yet erased from the lists, there remained in 1813 — Irish Lodges, 135; English, 65 {Ancients 46, Moderns 19); and Scottish, 19; amounting in all to 219. A period of decay, however, had set in ; the following year showing that only 52 English Military Lodges (45 Ancient, 1 Modern) were really carried forward at the Union. In 1816, the Scottish Regimental Lodges had shrunk to ten, and in the same year the records of the Grand Lodge of Ireland disclose that there were then twenty-five Military Lodges "of which no account had been received for years." In 1822, the latter jurisdiction, which, as already observed, has always included the greater number of (British) Army Lodges, only possessed a military following of 42. About 30 Irish, 25 English, and 2 Scottish — or in all, 57 Regimental Lodges have been chartered since the " LTnion " of 1813, thus forming a grand total of at least 409 Ambulatory Lodges, which are known to have been constituted by the Grand Lodges of the British Isles.
Nor would the record be complete without my adding
54
that no less than 40 " Regimental," "Military.'' or "Army " Lodges, and several others bearing the titles of " Koyal Navy " or " Marine," are shown by Mr. John Lane, in his valuable work, to have been warranted by the English provincial authorities abroad, which were never registered in the books of any Grand Lodge. The last "Travelling" Lodge on the Scottish roll (in the Tiirkish Contingent) was "cut off" in 1860. Fifteen only, imder both the remaining jurisdictions, were at work in 1886, and the number has still further dwindled, at the present time of writing, to eight, of which six are Ii*ish and the remainder English — the latest to disappear being, I regret to say, a Lodge attached to the 31st Foot (now the 1st Battalion East Surrey Regiment), of which I had the honour to be a founder and the first Master, in 1858.