CHAPTER V.

On Fame^s eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards ivith solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
— Anon.
"Travelling" or "Moveable" Lodges were at one time common to the armies of most civilized nations, but attained their greatest lustre in connection with the forces of the British Crown. In their general tendency they were sup- posed to strengthen the bonds of friendship, and to diffuse among the officers — commissioned and non-commissioned — and the rank and file, a spirit of charity, fraternal kindness, and subordination.
No restrictions with respect to the class of persons who might be initiated in a Regimental Lodge were ever imposed by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. But by a law of 1768 the Irish Army Lodges were prohibited from making any townsman a Mason in a place where there was a registered Lodge ; and the town Lodges, in a similar way, from initiating "any man in the Army where there was a warranted Lodge in the regiment, troop, or company, or in the quarters " to which he belonged. The zone of exclusive jurisdiction, or radius within which no military could encroach upon the domain of a town Lodge, was afterwards enlarged, and from the year 1850 no Army Lodge has been allowed to initiate a civilian in any part of the British dominions, when there is a registered Lodge held within ten miles of the place where he resides, or where such Army Lodge then meets.
The powers of the English Regimental Lodges were not interfered with until after the union of the two Grand Lodges in 1813. Two years later a new code of laws was enacted, from which I extract the following : —
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No military Lodge shall, on any pretence, initiate into Masonry any inhabitant or sojourner in any town or place at which its members may be stationed, or through which they may be marching, nor any pei'son who does not at the time belong to the militarj' profession, nor anj' military person below the rank of a corporal, except as serving brethren, or by dispensation from the Grand Master or some Provincial Grand Master.
There were Lodges in every branch or division of the land service. Roundly speaking, the Infantry of the Line head the list with a total of 2 "JO. Next follow the British and Irish Militia with 68, the Cavalry with 46, and the Royal Artillery with lIS. Smaller numbers now became the rule. 'I here was a solitary Lodge in the Foot Guards, and three only existed in the Royal Engineers. In the Royal Marines there were seven, and a similar number were attached to the Garrison and Veteran Battalions. The Fencible Regiments follow closely with six, and after these came the Auxiliary Corps (foreign) and the Foreign and Colonial Regiments with four and twelve Lodges respec- tively.
The number of distinct Lodges attached at different times to particular regiments is very noteworthy. For example, there were no less than seven in the 52nd and six in the 28th Foot, while among the other regiments of cavalry and infantry there were four with five, six with four, twenty-one with three, and forty-six with two Lodges each.
When there were several Lodges existing in a regiment at the same time, this fact will ordinarily coincide with a plurality of battalions, but not invariably. For instance, the 6th Dragoons held at the same time warrants of consti- tution from both Grand Lodges of England {Moderns and Ancients), together with a third from the Grand Lodge of the sister kingdom. The possibility, moreover, of two Lodges working simultaneously in an infantry battalion of the usual strength is evidenced by the proceedings at the centenary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1836, when the members of Lodges " Hibernia " and " St. Andrew " in the 42nd Foot (or Black Watch) attracted admiration alike for their martial appearance and Masonic behaviour.
The examples of a divided, or in some cases a shifting allegiance, might be greatly multipled, but it will be
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sufficient to state that English, Irish, and Scottish Lodges were all at various periods attached to the 1st, 17th, 23rd, and 51st Foot. On tlie other hand, the Royal Artillery, with its long roll of twenty-eight Lodges, a total which is four times as large as that attained by any other regiment or corps, was unswerving in its fidelity to the " Ancients."
Two Irish warrants were lield at the same time by the 9th Dragoons, and two Scottish by the 31st Foot. The territorial designations of the Militia battalions will in general afford a clue to the |)articular kingdom from which a warrant was supplied. Thus, in the English regiments all the Lodges were, to use the stock phrase — which means just the reverse of what the words themselves would seem to convey — either "Modern" or "Ancient," except two, one of which (Irish) was in the '* South Lincoln " and the other (Scottish) in the Durham battalion.
None of the Lodges in the Irish Militia owed allegiance to any outside (Masonic) power ; and the same (with a solitary exception) may be said of those in the Scottish regiments, the only deviator from tlie general rule being the Berwick- shire battalion, which obtained a warrant from the "Ancients," in 1811.
The practice of distinguishing Lodges by their numl)ers did not become a general one in Scotland, until the beginning of the present century. Hence the military Lodges in that jurisdiction were commonly known by their names. Numbers as well as names were -used in England, and the older Grand Lodge (jWoJerns) periodically closed up the gaps in her roll, and re-numbered the daughter lodges. But the junior body (A7itie7its) was in the habit of selling vacant numbers at the top of the list to Lodges that were lower down ; the other gaps (of lesser importance) being refilled in a routine way, by allotting them to the petitioners for new Lodges. Examples of the former method are afforded by the cases of Nos. 86 and 213, both in the Royal Artillery, which, on payment of five guineas "to the Charity," became (in 1788) Nos. 7 and 9, respectively, and are now stationary Lodges, one being the " Union Waterloo " No. 13, at Plumstead, Kent; and the other the " Albion " No. 2 on the registrv of Quebec. Of
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the way in which the lower numbers on the roll of the " Ancients " were refilled, the earlier history of St. Luke's Lodge, No. '225, Ipswich, will supply an ilhistration. This was originally held in the Westminster Militia, the warrant dating from 1804; but Lodges at the same number (309) had previously existed in the 52nd Foot (1797), and in the 2nd Royal Lancashire Militia (1803).
The Irish Lodges were alwaj-s chiefly, and iu many cases exclusively, known by their numbers, which were occasion- ally varied (as occurred under the junior Grand Lodge of England) by assigning vacant places on the roll to Lodges that were lower down on the list. For example, in 1817, the 21st Foot was given 33 (the number of its original and lapsed warrant) in lieu of 936; and the 64th, 130 in the place of 686. Also in 1823, the 17th Regiment went up from the number 921, to that of 258.
But the custom which particularly distinguished the A.rmy Lodges of this jurisdiction was that of exchanging, whenever practicable, the numbers of their warrants for those of the regiments whereunto such Lodges were attached. Thus, in the 4th and 12th Dragoons, the 7th Dragoon Guards, the 25th, 26th, 30th, 36th, 42nd and 83rd Foot, the regimental numbers and those of the Lodges were identical. The only instances which are known to me of what may have been a somewhat similar usage in other Masonic jurisdictions, occurred under the " xliacients," in Lower Canada, and Jamaica, respectively. The regiments concerned were the 7th and 18th Foot, and in each case a Lodge attached to the corps, appears at a similar local number on the provincial list.
In their choice of names, the Lodges frequently adopted those of patron saints, such as St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick, and in solitary instances, those of St. David and St Cuthbert. The territorial designations of the regiments were also very often selected, or the battles and sieges in which they had been engaged. 'I'here were the " North Hants," " Oxfordshire Light Infantry," " West Norfolk," and " Argyle " Lodges, in the 37th, 52nd, and 54th Inftxntry ; "■ Salamanca," — 4th Dragoon Guards — also " Orthes," ' Albuhera," and "Waterloo," — 6th, 57th, and 79th Foot —
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together with "Mount Calpe," and "Gibraltar" — r2th, and 39tli— and " Minden "— 20th and 51st.
Very appropriate designations were the " Queen's " in the 7th (or Queen's Own) Light Dragoons, "Royal Rose," in the Royal Fusiliers, "Fuzilier" in the 21st Regiment, " Cameronians " (which still happily survives) in the 26th, and " Amphibious," in the Roj^al Marines. " White's," " Barry," and " Rainsford," in the 30th, 34th, and 44th, were the names of the Colonels of the battalions to which these Lodges were attached
The existing Ambulatory Lodges will be shown in two groups, the first denoting those under the Irish, and the second the lesser number under the English obedience.
In Military Corps, Not Stationary.
2G. 2Gth Foot, 1758 295, 4th Dragoon Guards. 1758
174, 46th „ 18% 322, 29th Foot 1759
263, 20th „ 1860 570, 5th Dragoon Guards 1780
.316, 1st Foot. 1798 497, 89th Foot 1844
743, 31st Foot, 1858.
Although the numbers formerly attached to the Infantry regiments of the British Army have disappeared, the use of the territorial designations by which they are now known, would be impracticable in the present volume. The old numerical titles, have, therefore, been retained, and under the existing regimental system the identity of any " linked- battalion " (at a previous period) will, oa reference to an army list, be revealed at a glance.
The majority of the existing Irish Regimental Lodges trace their descent from rather a remote date, but in no cases that I have been able to fully investigate, is there an instance under any jurisdiction of an Army Lodge having been at work continuously for a period of a century. Thus, the warrant of No. 295— 4th Dragoon Guards — was returned to the Grand Lodge in 1830, and not again revived until 1877, at which date the only former member of the Lodge (when it ceased to work), was the full Colonel of the Regiment, Lieut.-General Sir Edward Hodge, who, I may observe, commanded it with great gallantry in the Crimea.
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The warrant of No. 322 — 29th Foot — was similarly retv;rned in 1820, and there was an intermission of labour nntil the revival of the Lodge at Thayetmyo (Burmah) in 1855.
The "Lodge of Charity," No. 570, in the 5th Dragoon Gnards, became dormant about 1823, and in 1858 sent back its charter, which was re-issued in 1863.
The original warrant of the Lodge in the " Cameronians" — No. 309 — was granted in 1758, but the Deputy Grand Secretar}^ of Ireland informs me that there is no record of its having been at work between 1765 and 1805. Since the year 1810, however, there has been no break of continuity in its career, and under its old regimental number (26), for which that of 309 was exchanged in 1823, let us hope the Lodge may celebrate in due course the century of active life which it will so shortly have completed.
The oldest regimental Lodge, until its recent disappearance from the roll in 1886, was No. 128, established in the 39th Foot by the Grand Lodge of Ireland so far back as 1742. This, the " Gibraltar Lodge," is said to have been ei'ected in the battalion wdien forming a part of the garrison during one of the eventful sieges of the " Rock." The 39th regiment — " Primus in Indis " — claimed to have made the first Mason in India under a European warrant, in 1757. It subsequently founded numerous Lodges in various parts of Hindostan. There is a stone let into the wall in Fort William, Calcutta, commemorative of the early history of this Lodge. All its working tools and jewels fell into the hands of the enemy during the Peninsular War, but were subsequently returned to the regiment. The original warrant — 128 — seems to have lapsed before 1758, as a new one, No. 290, was granted in that year. The Lodge then continued in active existence until 1785, and was dropped from the list in 1813, but six yeai's later was granted a renewal of its original charter. No. 128.
The "Minden" (an Irish) Lodge, No. 63, in the 20th Foot, was founded in 1748, and revived in 1812, at which date "there had been no trace of it for 40 years in the Grand Lodge books." From 1819 it was again dormant luitil a second revival took place at Cannanore in 1824. A
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third slumber, lasting for eight years, was terminated at Bermuda in 1844 ; but a fourth and final one occurred in 1850, and ultimately the warrant, records, and jewels were all lost in the Indian Mutiny.
Of the English Lodges which still exist, No. 316, " Unity, Peace, and Concord," in the 1st Foot (now "Eoyal Scots "), has probably attained the longest span of un- interrupted life that has ever been accorded to an Army Lodge, and will complete its centenary (having been allotted a vacant warrant of eai'lier date) in 1808 To the position of No. 743, "Meridian," in the 31st regiment, I have previously referred ; but, for reasons that will be sufficiently intelligible, I am loath to omit from the list of living- Military Lodges one with which I have been so closely and pleasantly associated, until its doom has been officially pronounced by erasure from the roll.
Extinct (or dormant) warrants were sometimes revived l)y the " Ancients," but not, so far as I am aware (in the case of any Military Lodge), by the " Moderns," nor has the usage survived under tiie LTnited Grand Lodge of England, into which these two bodies were happily blended in 1813. The Scottish practice was substantially the same as that observed with regard to the Irish and the " Ancient " Lodges. For example, the warrant, No. 63, granted to the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers in 1751, was "confirmed" in 1767; and that of No. 108, "St. George," issued to the 31st Foot in 1761, was similarly "confirmed " in 1805.
It is, perhaps, not to be greatly wondered at that, with very few exceptions, all the vast array of actual records which would have thrown a much needed light on the proceedings of the Army Lodges have disappeared. There are no minute books of such bodies in the archives of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and what is stranger still — having regard to the number of military warrants issued — their absence is equally to be deplored in those of the Irish jiirisdiction. A few, indeed, are to be found in the muniment room of the Grand Lodge of England, all of which I have diligenth' perused, together with some others that have fallen in my way. But the great bulk of the evidence relatina: to the now almost defunct organizations
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of whose diffusion of Masonic light in countries beyond the seas, it might have been truly said, in the century imme- diately preceding our own,
" Like mighty Missioners they come, .-1'/ parti'x I/ijidelhuu,"
is either entombed in that mausoleum of ungrateful toil, the lost or missing " records " of our fraternity, or lies scattered over the entire surface of the fugitive and ephemeral literature of the Craft.
Travelling, or Regimental Lodges, are referred to as taking ))art in Masonic processions, in the laying of founda- tion stones, and in other ways, not only in the Britisli Islands, but in all our Colonial dependencies, as well as in India and the Far East. We find them working har- moniously with the Stationai-y Lodges which are encountered in their tours of service, and the instances are numerous where the presence of an Army Lodge has been of lasting benefit to a civil community. Of this a notew^orthy example occurred in 1 759, when the members of Lodge No. 74, in the "ind Battalion of the 1st Foot, on leaving Albany, granted an exact copy of their Irish warrant to some in- fluential citizens. It was changed, in 1765, for a Provincial Charter, and the Lodge — -Mount Vernon — now holds the third place on the roll of New York.
A still earlier patent, and indeed the first Military Wai'- rant ever issued, had been previousl}^ granted to the 1st Battalion of the same regiment. The Lodge thus established, in accordance with tlie more general Irish practice, never took a name, and was onl}' distinguished by its number. In 1814 the 1st and 4th Battalions of the " Royals" were stationed at Quebec, and lodges were attached to both, "No. 11 " (Irish), without any other distinctive appellation, and " No. 289 " (Scottish) " Royal Thistle," respectively.
At the same date there was a third Lodge — " Unity, Peace, and Concord " — existing in the " Royals," which had been established in the 2nd Battalion, then serving on the coast of Coromandel, in 1808, and at the time of applying for it, an officer in the regiment wrote to the Provincial authorities as follows : —
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■ Lieut.-Col. Stewart, whom I find to be a Master Mason of the Ancient and Most Hon'ble Order, assures me that there is a warrant in the battalion, but it was unfortunately left in Europe, owing to the sudden order the Regiment got to quit that quarter of the globe, but it may shortly be expected to arrive when our destination is known at home."
The warrant referred to, there can hardly be a doubt, was No. 74, originally granted by the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1737, and which, thoiigh cancelled in 1801, would almost certainly have been renewed, and in such case probably now figure as older by upwards of half a century, than the charter of any living Military Lodge, had the Masons of the battalion preserved the same attachment to the old allegiance which they have since evinced for the new.
The foundation stone of the North Bridge at Edinburgh w^as laid with Masonic honours in 1762, and "The Military Lodge of the Duke of Norfolk," in the 12th Foot, was among those that walked in the procession.
The 25th, now the " King's Own Borderers," obtained an Irish warrant in 1749, and the minutes of an existing " Border " Lodge alone record the fact, that the lodge chest of this regiment having been lost at Munster, in Germany, a new one was " consecrated " at Berwick, in December, 1763.
At the first recorded meeting of the Royal Arch Lodge — St. Andrew's — in Boston, New England, in August, 1769, foreign soldiers were chosen as first officers of the Lodge. William Davis, of No. 58 (Ancients), in the 14th Foot, received "four steps," described as those of "Excellent, Super-excellent, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar."
About the same time Royal Arch Lodge, No. 3, Phila- delphia, was in close commimication with (Irish) No. 351, in the 18th Regiment, and the two bodies were in the habit of lending their Royal Arch furniture to one another.
The 22nd Foot, after first of all receiving an Irish war- rant, which it "lost in the Mississippi " about the year 1759, next applied for a Scottish one, which, with the title of "Moriah," No. 132, was granted in 1769. This, with other Army Lodges, took part in the formation of i what is now the Grand Lodge of New York (1782), but during its earlier ■career a more remarkable incident occurred, if we are
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to credit the following, which appeared in the "New- castle Coui'ant " of January 4th, 1770 : —
•• This is to acquaint the Public, that on Mondaj' the fii-st instant, being the Lodge (or Monthly meeting) Xight of the Free and Accepted Masons of the 2'Jnd Regiment, held at the Crown near Newgate (Newcastle). Mrs. Bell, the Landlady of the House, broke open a Door (with a Poker) that had not been opened for some years past, bj' which Means she got into an adjacent Room, made two Holes through the wall, and by that Sti'atagem discovered the Secrets of Masonry ; and she. knowing herself to be the first Woman in the World who ever found out that Secret, is willing to make it known to all her Sex. So anj' Lady who is desirous of learning the Secrets of Masonry, bj' applying to that well-learned Woman (Mrs. Bell, that lived fifteen years in and about Newgate), may be instructed in the Secrets of Masonry."
It would be interesting to know how many pupils Mrs. Bell obtained, and why she appealed to her own sex in particular.
In the Province of Lower Canada, in 1772,
■■ A committee of the Grand Lodge having examined into the pretensions which a number of Masons in His Majesty's 21st Regiment have, for holding a Lodge in that corps, by the title of ' No. 32 of the Registry of Ireland " ; record their opinion, that until they produce a better authority than that offered, they cannot be received among v;s, notwithstanding their willingness to submit to our laws."
The Lodge referred to was evidently No. 33, originally chartered circa 1734, which, after having lapsed, was renewed in 1817, as previously related ; and the episode of the year 1772, in my opinion, points to the loss of the warrant (which the brethren were clearly unable to produce), having taken place at an earlier date. So far as I am aware, though the plight of the Masons in the 21st Foot, could not, in those stirring times, have been an uncommon one, no other incident of a precisely similar chai'acter has been recorded.
Many years afterwards, " Fuzileer Lodge," No. 33, was again at work in the Royal North British Fuziliers, and accompanying that regiment to Tasmania, was granted a civil warrant, with the old name and number, and became the first Stationary Lodge in that Colony, in 1823.
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The minutes of the Junior Grand Lodge of England, or " Ancients," will supply the next illustration : —
■' December 15th, 1773 : Heard a letter from No. 148 (Royal Artillery) at Gibraltar, setting forth that a set of people who had then- authority fi'om the ' Modern ' Grand Lodge, thought proper to dispute the legality of said warrant No. 148. That in the said garrison there were also held Lodges 11. 244. 290, 359. 420. and 466 (1st, 2nd, 39th. 76th, 56th, and 58th Foot), on the Registry of Ireland, and No. 58 (12th Regiment) on the Registry of Scot- land."
Captain Murray, R.N., for the services rendered by him on this occasion to No. 148, " in proving the authenticity of their warrant," was voted a gold medal by the " Ancient "" Grand Lodge in 1777.
A few years later, as we learn from the same official records, the "Ancients" at Gibraltar, were more than holdmg their own in the rivalry which existed with the " Moderns." In a letter to the Grand Master, dated March 20th, 1786, Grand Secretary M'Cormick informed him that the Provincial (irand Lodge of Andalusia, which had been under the government of the " Moderns" for upAvards of 20 years, had applied for a warrant under the " Ancients," and that its members (none of whom were below the degree of an ensign) had refused to act any longer under the authority of the " Moderns," though the Duke of Cumberland was said to be then (irand Master.
As will presently appear, the contest for supremacy between the brethren of the two English systems was in the same year (1786) settled in quite a different manner on the coast of Coromandel.
Passing over many years, and coming much nearer to our own times, the members of No. 960, in the 2nd Dragoon Guards, " in token of respect for their uniform Masonic conduct during their stay in Norwich," were fraternally entertained by the " Lodge of Eleusinian Mysteries," at that city, in 1825.
A Masonic ball, to which visiting brethren were freely invited, was given by the " Cameronian Lodge," No. 26, at Calcutta, on St. John's Day (in winter), 1838. In the same year, a meeting of No. 7, in the 7th Dragoon Guards, then stationed at Edinburgh, was visited by deputations from
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nearlj^ all the Lodges in that metropolis. A little later, July, 1844, No. 26, on its return from India, was quartered at the same capital, and assisted at the ceremonial of laying a foundation stone, the proceedings of which were thus officially recorded : —
" Amongst the numerous Lodges in attendance, was that of the 26th or Cameronian Regiment, on the Registry of Ireland, which being a visiting Stranger Lodge, under the rule of a Sister Grand Lodge, was placed near the Grand Lodge of Scotland."
But the materials, if not entii'ely wanting, are nevertheless wholly insufficient, to admit of my doing more than present the barest sketch of the proceedings, in time of war, of the Army Lodges. According to a ballad of the last century : — ■
•■ Our God and soldier we alike adore Just at the brink of ruin, not before :
The danger past, both are alike requited, God is forgotten, and the soldier slighted."
Whether, indeed, these ancient lines may admit of modern application, I shall not pretend to determine. Military matters unconnected with Masonry are out of my province, but that the services to our own fi-aternity of Naval and Military Brethren are imperfectly recorded and too little recollected, is a proposition which I shall lay down without any apprehension of its accuracy being regarded as open to dispute.
The earliest period at which any large number of Regimental Lodges can be identified as having been present with Armies in the field, was that of the Seven Years' War, which was carried on from 1756 to 1763, by Frederick the Great, in alliance with England, against France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Saxony, and most (jf the smaller German States.
There were many "stricken fields," but the battles which chiefly concern us were those of Minden and Quebec.
The famous battle of Minden was fought on August 1st, 1759, the English Infantry being formed into two brigades, the 1st of which included the 12th, 23rd, and 37th regiments, and the 2nd comprising the 20th, 25th, and 51st. With the possible exception of the last named, the whole of the six battalions are known to have had Lodges attached to them at the time.
p
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While these British regiments (and others) were serving on the Continent, before, after, and during the continuance of the Seven Years' War, the Kite or System called the Strict Observance, was in existence. This was based upon the fiction that at the time of the destruction of the Templars a certain number of Knights took refuge in Scotland, and there preserved the due succession of the Order. For various reasons also, these Knights Avere said to have joined the Guilds of Masons in that Kingdom, and thus to have given rise to the Society of Freemasons. The great doctrine laid down for the followers of the Kite was " that every true Mason is a Knight Templar."
Lodges in British regiments must have constantly worked side by side with the Lodges under the Strict Observance — which for twenty years, at least, pervaded all Continental Europe. During the military operations, moreover, in which the allied Army was engaged, many prisoners wei'e made on lioth sides, and that the Masons among them fraternised in each case with their captors, mnst be taken as a certainty. It may be stated, also, that wherever there were depots of prisoners-at-war — in the British Isles, equally with all other countries — Lodges composed of such detenns, invariably sprang into existence.
The degree of Knight Templar became a very favourite one in the Lodges of the British Army, and by these military and Masonic bodies — who must have derived then- knowledge of it from associating with the Lodges and brethren under the Strict Observance — the degree was doubtless introduced into England and America.
Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, who commanded the allied forces at Minden, served in several campaigns under Frederick the Great, and was considered one of the best soldiers of his time. His initiation took place — December, 1740 — in the Lodge of the " Three Globes," at Berlin. In 1770 he was appointed English Provincial Grand Master for the Duchy of 13runs\vick, but in 1771 he forsook "pure and ancient Freemasonry," and was admitted into the Strict Observance.
Lord (ieorge (afterwards Viscount) Sackville (1716-85) entered the Army at an early age, and was present at the
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battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy. From 1746 to 1749 he was Colonel of the 20th Foot, and in 1758, as Lieutenant- General, succeeded the Duke of Marlborough as commander of the British forces in the Ai'my of Prince Ferdinand. At the battle of Minden he was at the head of all the British and German Horse. The enemy being thrown into disorder by the allied infantry, the connnander-in-chief sent orders for Lord George Sackville to advance.
But the critical moment passed aw^ay, the British cavalry lost their share in the glory of the action, and the French retreated in some order. Yet it is supposed that had Lord George obeyed the command of Prince Ferdinand, the enemy would have been left without an army in Germany.
For this Lord George was deprived of all his military employments, and upbraided by the public with cowardice ; but on the accession of George III. he was restored to favour, and became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1776, a post which he retained up to the conclusion of the disastrous American War. Of his Masonic career after 1748 we only know that he was Grand Master of Ireland in 1751, and that the same position was offered to him by the Schismatic Grand Lodge of England (or " Ancients ") in the following year.
The 20th Foot, to use the numerical title by which it afterwards became (in more senses than one) distinguished, received in December, 1748, a warrant of constitution — No. 63^from the Grand Lodge of Ireland. It was granted to Lord George Sackville (Colonel and first Master), Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Edward Cornwallis, and Captain Milburne.
The practice of appointing the colonel (or commandino' officer) of a regiment, the first Master was by no means unusual. Colonel Edward Huntingford occupied a similar position in a Lodge established in the 28th Foot, at Louis- iDurg, in 1758. The Hon. William (afterwards 6th Lord) Napier became the Master of " St. Andrew, Roj-al Arch " — Scots Greys — in 1770; the Hon. Sir Bydges Henniker (Lieutenant-General, 1808) of a Lodge in the 9th Dragoons, at Macclesfield, in 1794; and Colonel George Congreve, C.B., who commanded the 29th Foot at the battfes of
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Ferozeshah, Chilliauwallah, and Goojerat, of one whicli ■was revived in that regiment, after a protracted slumber, in 1855.
At the battle of Minden the •20th Foot was on the right of the line in the 2nd brigade, commanded by the colonel of the regiment, Major-General William Kingsley (p. 26). The great mortality siistained by the battalion caused the following general order to be issued V)y Prince Ferdinand : —
"Minden, 2nd August, 1759. — Kingsley's regiment of the British line, from its severe loss, will cease to do duty."
But the zeal and esprit de corps which animated the survivors of the 20th is shown by the subsequent general order : —
"Minden. 4th August, 1759. — Kingsley's regiment, « request, will resume its portion of duty in the line."
After the great victory referred to. No. 63 adopted the title of the "Minden Lodge," vmder which it celebrated the centenary of its warrant in 1848.
On March 20th, 1750, Major James Wolfe (^afterwards Major-General and commander of the expedition against Quebec) had been appointed Lieutenant-Colonel, 20th Foot, in succession to the Hon. Edward Cornwallis ; but as there are no records to guide us, we cannot tell whether Wolfe, like the other colonels who were his contemporaries in the regiment, was a Mason and a member of No. 63.
The scene will now be shifted to North America, for which country Edward Cornwallis had sailed in 1749, taking with him 1,140 settlers, who were safely landed in Nova Scotia, of which province he became the founder and first Governor.
This gallant officer, whose zeal for Masonry was again apparent in his new sphere of action, accepted the Master- ship of a new Lodge shortly after his arrival at Halifax. A Provincial warrant was received in July, 1749, "and on the same evening Captain Lord Colville, and a number of the Navy gentlemen, were entered Apprentices in this Lodge."
In 1760, Cornwallis became a Lieutenant-General, and eight years later he was for the third time a founder of a new Lodge. This appeared at the (English) No. 426, in the
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list for 1768 as — "Twenty-fourth Regiment of Foot (General Cornwallis), Gibraltar, Spain " — the general at the time being both colonel of the regiment, and governor of the garrison of which it formed a part.
In the beginning of the present century, another Free- mason, Sir David Baird, was colonel of the regiment, and also at the same time of the Westminster Militia, in which there was a Lodge. Upon the embarkation of troops for the Baltic, the " Westminster," being stationed at Harwich, offered to a man to volunteer with " their OAvn general," as they called him, but as this could not be permitted, they testified their smcerity, when the Militia Transfer Bill was passed, for directly afterwards, out of 288 men, the number allowed to volunteer, 223 enrolled themselves in the 24th Foot, Sir David Baird's regiment.
Pteturning to the New World, Alexander, 4th Lord Colville, who was initiated by Colonel Cornwallis in 1749, became in the following year Master of the " 2nd Lodge at Boston," which he represented at every meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge, until his appointment as Deputy Grand Master of North America in 1752. He was present at the capture of Louisburg in 1758, and served in the expedition against Quebec in 1759, and in command of the fleet at the re-capture of Newfoundland — one of the best conducted, most splendid, and most important successes of the war — in 1762, after which he was promoted rear-admiral of the White.
The siege of Louisburg has a two-fold interest for the military reader ; in relation to the story of the gallant Wolfe, who acted as one of the brigadiers ; and in the fact that this was the last place held by the French against England, on the East Coast of America. For the Masonic or the general reader, the series of joint naval and military operations, beginning with the siege of Louisburg in 1758, and ending with the recapture of Newfoundland in 1762, may likewise possess an interest, in coiuiection with the travelling Lodges of Freemasons which accompanied the British forces.
The regiments engaged at Louisburg were the 1st, 15th, 17th, 22nd, 28th, 35th, 40th, 45th, 47th, 48th, and 58th
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Foot, two battalions of the 60th (Royal Americans), and Eraser's Highlanders (78th). Six of these are known to have had Lodges attached to them, the 1st, 15th, 17th, Siith, 47th and 48tli. The 28tli received an Irish warrant in 1734, but it had presumably lapsed in 1758, as a ncAv Lodge under a Provincial Charter was formed in tlie regiment, by Richard Gridley, Colonel of infantry and Chief Engineer, in that A' ear. The 40th received a "constitution" in 1759, the 78th in 1760, the 60th in 1764, the 45th in 1766, and both the 22nd and 58th, in 1769. Hence it will appear, that all of the thirteen regiments had Lodges attached to them some years in advance of the commencement of the Revolutionary war. But we must not too hastily conclude from the absence of entries relating to them in the official lists, that the six I have last named, were without Lodges in 1758. The historian of the 43rd Foot, writing in the same year, complains that " the time passes very wearily " at Nova Scotia, and adds, " When the calendar does not fur- nish us with a loyal excuse for assembling in the evening, we have recourse to a Freemasons' Lodge, where we work so hard that it is inconceivable to think what a quantity of business of great importance is transacted in a very short time." This Lodge I have not succeeded in tracing, and tliere are others in the same category of earlier and later date. A Lodge without any known " constitution " was at work in tlie 6th Foot in 1744, and another in the 12th, in 1747 ; while so late as December, 1786, a sermon (after- Avards published), on " The Pleasures and Advantages of Brotherly Unity," was preached before the Master, Wardens, and Brethren of the similarly unregistered " 54th Regimen- tal Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, in the parish church, St. John, New Brunswick."
At least six registered Lodges accompanied the British land forces in the expedition against Quebec, and there were probably others, as besides those which may have existed without written " constitutions," the practice of " congregating all Free and Accepted ^lasons " on such occasions, and "forming them into one or more Lodges," Avas of frequent occurrence in the Masonic jurisdiction of North America. Military Lodges Avere formed in this Avay at
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Loiiisburg, Lake George, and Crown Point, all of which may have been, and the first and last almost certainly were, present with the army before Quebec.
But there is documentary evidence to show that in the winter of 1759, after the capitulation of what has been termed the " Gibraltar of America," the " warranted " Lodges in the regiments there, to the number of eight or nine, assembled and elected an acting Grand Master. This temporary measure was succeeded in the following year by one of a more permanent character, in which Thomas Dunckerley, gunner of the Vanguard, took a leading part, and of this worthy, whose long and meritorious services to the Craft have never been excelled, a brief sketch will be inter- woven with the general narrative.
Dunckerley, Avho was of humble parentage, having entered the Navy at an early age, attained the position of gunner in 1746, and we find him serving in the same capacity in the Vanguard (which seems to have been his favourite ship) for a period of six years. He was present as one of the crew of this vessel at the reduction of Louisburg and the capitiilation of Quebec. The ship then returned to Eng- land, and in January, 1760, Dunckerley, having obtained leave of absence, went to London and attended his mother's funeral. The next day a declaration by his mother on her death-bed that his actual father was the then King, George II., was related to him. The records of the Grand Lodge show that in the same month a Lodge was estab- lished in the Vanguard. This vessel, with other ships of war, shortly after sailed for Quebec, arriving just in time to prevent that capital from Ijeing retaken by the enemy.
On the 24th of June, 1760 (St. John's day). Colonel Sir Simon Fraser, 78th Foot, was elected to preside over the Canadian Lodges, and (to use the words of a land " gunner " in a letter to the Grand Secretary) " Bro. Dunckerley, of His Majesty's ship the Vaiiguard, who was possessed with a power from the Grand Lodge of England to inspect into the state of the Craft wheresoever he might go, honoured them with his approbation of their conduct, and installed Brother Fraser in his high othce."
It is reasonable to suppose that Dunckerley was desired by
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the Deputy Grand Master of England to visit and report upon the Lodges at Quebec ; nor were roving commissions, empowering a seafaring brother to exercise the functions of a Provincial Grand Master, " where no other Provincial is to be found," wholly unknown either before or after Dunckerley fulfilled the mission with which his biographer, Mr. Henry Sadler, rightly (as it seems to me) suggests that he Avas entrusted.
During the same year Dunckerley returned to England, but the King's death had just occurred, and his efforts were ineffectual to establish the truth of the strange story which had been revealed to him.
The Vanguard sailed for the West Indies in October, 1761, but in the meantime Dunckerley had been appointed to the Prince, a larger ship, in which the second Sea Lodge was established. May 22nd, 1762. The new Lodge appears to have closely followed the fortunes of its founder, for in the second edition of the Engraved List for 1764, No. 279, which in the previous issue was described as " on board the Prince," is now represented as being held " on board the Gaude loupe.''
Both "Sea Lodges" were ultimately revived by Dunckerley on terra Jirma, the one in the Vanguard being now the " London," No. 108, and the other in the Prince and Gaudaloupe, Avhich adopted the title of the " Somerset House," and after amalgamating successively with the " Old Horn Lodge" (p. 28) and the " Koyal Inverness," in a Volunteer corps of which the Duke of Sussex (Earl of Inver- ness) was the conunander, has become the " Iloyal Somerset House and Inverness," present No. 4.
In 1767, to a great extent through the exertions of General James Adolphus Oughton, who had known him for many years, Dunckerley was granted a pension by the King, which enabled him to devote the whole of his time to the Avelfare of the Masonic Institution.
The rank of Past Senior Grand Warden was conferred upon him in 1786, and as a Provincial Grand Master his services were so appreciated that in 1795, when there were thirty-four provinces in all, he had for his share no less than eight of the number. In the Poyal Arch degree he also
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took a profound interest, and was the Grand Superintendent over sixteen counties, together with Bristol and the Isle of Wight.
A third "Sea Lodge" was established in 1768 "On board His Majesty's ship Canceaux at Quebec," but notwith- standing the popular tradition which has found expression in an earlier page, there is no evidence to show that Dunckerley was either a party to its formation or interested in its success.
This Lodge, which was "to be held in the most con- venient place adjacent to the said ship," never paid for its "constitution," or returned any list of its members, and was struck off the roll in 1792. A great desire to found Regimental Lodges appears to have existed in the Army at Quebec, and to a lesser extent a corresponding impulse to establish Naval Lodges, might be naturally looked for among the officers of the Fleet. It is important also to recollect that Lord Colville, a former Deputy Grand Master of North America, and most zealous Freemason, who, as a Commodore, had commanded at the re-capture of St. John's, Newfoundland, in 1762, shortly afterwards, as an Admiral, was appointed Commander-in-Chief on the Station, a position which he retained until the close of 1768.
No other sea Lodge was ever constituted, though a petition for one, "Naval Kilwinning," to be held "on board H.M. ship Ardent" was received from Lieutenant Crawford, and other naval officers, in 1810. But the Grand Lodge of Scotland, after consulting with the sister jurisdictions, " notwithstanding the respectable station of the applicants, felt herself constrained to refuse."
The first Military Lodge which sprang into existence at Quebec, was St. Andrew's, established OctoV^er 20th, 1760— in the 78th Highlanders, by Sir Simon Fraser, Colonel of the Regiment, and Provincial Grand Master. Others soon followed, and the number of "itinerants" (as they were frequently styled) was still further augmented by the presence of many "sojourning " Military Lodges from the British Isles. The latter, it may be observed, were required to have their warrants registered in the books of the Provincial Grand Lodge, to pay five
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shillings at tlie making of every new brother, and to conform to the regulations of the local authority. A similar usage prevailed in other Provincial jurisdictions.
As l)eforc remarked, the strife between the two Grand Lodges of England, Avas carried across the Atlantic, and ultimately the " Ancients " Avere victorious all along the line, but the " AFoderns " held their ground in that portion of North America which has now become the United States, initil the War of the Revolution : and in Canada, down to the final decade of the last century.
For their success in the struggle for supremacy, the victors were mainly indebted to the Army Lodges, of whose hdelity to the cause of the "Ancients" at Boston and New York, in 1768 and 1781-2, examples have been given in a previous chapter.
Between these dates— in 1775 — hostilities commenced between Great Britain and America. At the battle of Bunker's Hill, Lord Rawdon (afterwards 2nd Earl of Moira) fought stoutly on one side, and Major-General .Joseph Warren (who was killed) on the other. Colonel Richard Gridley, who, for his distinguished services at the sieges of Louisburg and Quebec, had received a pension and grant of land from the British Government, planned the works that Warren laid down his life to defend, and was also wounded in the action. The war was carried into Canada, and Major-General Montgomery (also a leading Freemason) fell at the assault of Quebec.
The following jear witnessed the British occupation of New York, and the introduction of so-called "Ancient Masonry " into that State.
Here it may be convenient to explain that while the members of Lodges nnder all the jurisdictions of the British Islands, Avith the exception of the original (xrand Lodge of England, Avere commonly known as "Ancient Masons ; " the terms " Ancient York Masons," and "Ancient York Masonry" were at first only employed by the English Schismatics, and did not come into common use — in America — until the close of the century.
Pennsylvania was next occupied in force (1777). The American army took post at Valley Forge, twenty-six miles
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from Philadelphia, and tradition affirms that Lodges Avere held in this camp, which Washingon often attended. 'Jhere can hardly be a doubt that such was the case, but unfortu- nately no records of the Continental Field Lodges for the period are in existence.
It was for a long time believed that the founder and first president of the American Republic was made a Mason in the " Lodge of Social and Military Virtues," in the 46th Foot, holding a warrant^ — No. 227 — from the Grand Lodge of Ireland, granted in 1752.
Li the officers' mess of this gallant corps, a Bible is preserved. It reposes in a walnut case, W'ith glass lid, to which the following inscription is attached : —
■' On this f-acred volume Washington received a degree of Masonry. It was twice takfn by the enemy, and both times returned to the regiment with all the honours of war."
The 46th Foot formed a part of General Grey's expedition against New Bedford (Mass.) in 1778, and it was by soldiers in its ranks that the family bible of the "Wests" residing in that town, was carried away. At the above date, the march of events seems to entirely jjreclude the possibility of Washington having been a siihsequent visitor to the Lodge in the 46th Foot, while his presence at any earlier period, before the bible had passed out of the possession of the West family, is an hy]>othesis which, unless we throw over the inscription, it would be useless to discuss. Washington, who received the three degrees of Masonry at Fredericksbiirg, Virginia, some years before the arrival of the 46th Regiment in America, Avas indeed initiated in an English Colony, and in a Lodge working, in a secondary sense, under English aiithority. That the tenets of the Craft obtained a fiim hold on his mind, his after conduct proved, for when war broke out, and he became divided from his brothers of the ]\lother Country,- — in feeling, in comnuuiion of soul, he was their brother still. The Masonic chest of the 46th, by the chances of war, fell into the hands of the Ameiicans. The circumstance was reported to General Washington, who directed that a guard of honour should take charge of the chest, with other articles of value belonging to the 46th, and return them to the retjiment.
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A similar incident occurred at Dominica in 1805, when the 46th was attacked by a Freiich force, which it gallantly repelled, but in the action had again the misfortune to lose its Masonic chest, which the enemy succeeded in securing on board their fleet without knowing its contents. Three years afterwards, the French Government, at the earnest request of the ofhcers who had commanded the expedition, returned the chest with several complimentary presents, offering by that act the acknowledgment and homage of an enlightened nation to the purity, value, and usefulness of Masonry.
The " Lodge of Social and Military Virtues," after under- going many other vicissitudes, was at work in the same regiment at Sydney (N.S.W.) in 1816.
The next year Ave meet with it on the coast of Coromandel, where, retaining its old name, it sought for and oljtained a local charter — No. VII. — which afterwards merged into an English Warrant (1836) with the number 634. At some time after the year 1822, when the regiment marched from Caunanore to Hj'derabad, a number of the members died, others were invalided, and the Lodge chest was forgotten until accidently re-discovered by a member of the mess committee in 1829. The finder, Captain Lacy, who was a Mason, brought home the chest when the regiment returned to England in 1833.
The Irish warrant was renewed in 1834, there being at the time only one member originally connected with the Lodge, but the torch which had been re-lighted, after burn- ing brightly for a few years, began to flicker, and finally went out, in the sense that the Regimental or Travelling- warrant, which had again accompanied the 46th to the New World, was returned to the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1847, and two days afterwards a new one of a military, though stationary character, at the same mmiber, was issued for the purpose of forming a permanent Garrison Lodge at Montreal.
In 1855, No. 227 joined the Grand Lodge of Canada, receiving a civil warrant, and two years later it was resolved : — " That the ' Lodge of Social and Military Virtues ' shall henceforth be called the ' Lodge of Anticiuity,'
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shall wear gold instead of silver jewels, and take precedence of all numbered Lodges."
In 1869 a Grand Lodge was established for the Province of Quebec, and the first Lodge on its roll is " Antiquity," originally in the 46th Foot, while the two next — " xYlbion " and " St. John's " — were formerly in the Royal Artillery. It is gratifying to relate that the venerable " Lodge of Antiquity," now No. 1 Quebec, observes with great eclat its Annual "Military Night," at which large numbers of the officers of the Volunteer Force appear in uniform.
It is w^orthy of remark that the 46th was not the only British regiment which, during the revolutionary struggle in America, was afforded an opportunity of witnessing a practical illustration of the beautiful and himianizing principles of Freemasonry.
In a skii'mish with the enemy, the " constitution " and regalia of a Lodge attached to the 1 7th Foot fell into the hands of an American general. Actuated, however, by the genuine principles of Masonry, he immediately returned them with the following letter : —
•'AVest Ji:ksey Highlands,
23rd July. 1779. "Bkethrex, — When the ambition of monarchs. or the jarring interests of contending States, call forth their subjects to war, as Masons we are disarmed of that resentment which stimulates to undistinguished desolation, and, however our political sentiments majr impel us in the public dispute, we are still Brethren, and (our professional duty apart) ought to promote the happiness and advance the Aveal of each other.
Accept, therefore, at the hands of a Brother, the Constitution of the Lodge 'Unity, No. 18,' held in the 17th British regiment, which your late misfortunes have put it in my power to restore to you.
I am, your Brother and obedient Servant,
Samuel H. Parsons. To the Master and Wardens of Lodge 'Unity, No. 18,' upon the Registry of England."
The history of this Lodge illustrates very forcibly what may be called the "confusion of jurisdiction," which is apparent in the proceedings of so many of the travelling Lodges of that period.
Lodge "Unity" in the 17th Foot, was originally chartered by the Grand Lodge of Scotland, as No. 168, in
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1771. The regiment landed at Boston in 1776, and was at Piiiladelphia in 1777 and 1778. During this latter period the Lodge (which remained on the Scottish roll until 1816) accepted a warrant from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, under the "Ancients," with the local "No. 18."
A little earlier, Colonel (afterwards General) Samuel H. Parsons, was a founder and the first treasurer of "American Union " (a Military) Lodge, warranted b}' Colonel (afterwards General) Ftichard Gridley, Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Massachussetts, under the " Moderns," on February 15th, 1776. In the following April, the membei'S of the Lodge were on dutj with their regiment in the State of New York, and an application having been made for a confirmation of their warrant, it was denied. A new one, however, was granted, with the title of " Military Union," No. I. But the altered name gave umbrage to the members, who, while they apparently acquiesced in the change, never used the later appellation except lender necessity. At the time referred to, it should 1)6 recollected that the mother country and her American provinces were at war, and that Sir John Johnson, Provincial Grand Master of New York (a military commander of some repute, only son of the more famous Sir William Johnson, also a Freemason), Avas in sympathy with the government of the country from which his Masonic power emanated. Pending the provincial conflict, Johnson had appointed Dr. Peter Middleton his deputy, and by the latter, the confirmation of a Lodge warrant, distinguished by the title of " American Union," must, from the nature of things, have been deemed un advisable.
The further proceedings of this Lodge will again come before us, but a notice of it in this place, will convey (let me hope) some idea of the complications which occurred among the Army Lodges — on both sides — during the War of Independence. It could be supported by much additional evidence, that the asperities which characterised the rivalry of the two Masonic systems, found no place in the Army Lodges. To quote the words of a somewhat impassioned orator, " the ' Ancient and Modern ' contest turned to ashes in the red-hot furnace of liberty "; and as we have already
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seen, the warrant and paraphernalia of an Ancient Lodge in the British Infantry was fraternally restored by a memher (and at that time a past master) of a Modern Lodge in the American arm}'.
After the war, the ITtli Foot proceeded to Nova Scotia, and in 1786, a letter was received by the Provincial (which, later in the same year, became the) Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, from Lodge No. 18, held at Shelburne (N.S.), claiming to have remained under its obedience, " and soliciting the Grand Lodge to address a letter on their behalf to General Persons on the subject of a Lodge warrant, and civilities which they had experienced from him."
This Lodge was apparently left behind on the return from foreign service of the 17th Foot; and it is probable that a majority of the members remained in Nova Scotia either as military settlers or as volunteers to other corps. The instances, however, of " Kegimental " becoming " Stationary " Lodges, both in ( 'anada and the United States, are very numerous.
The first Lodge on the existing roll of Quebec (as already related) was formerh' held in the 46th Foot, and the two next in the Royal Artillery. But perhaps the most curious case of all has been that of a still surviving Lodge, which was originally constituted in the 60th Foot, then at Detroit, Michigan, in 1764, by the Provincial Grand Master of New York.
Michigan was French until 1763, British mitil 1796, under a territorial government until 1810, under Indiana for five years, and then " Michigan Territory " until 18-37.
Zion Lodge, No. 1, attached to the 60th, or Royal American Regiment, was thus established by the "Moderns," in 1764, but thirty years later (1794) at the instance of another Army Lodge— then in the Artillery, now "Albion " No. 2, Quebec — it went over to the " Ancients," becoming Zion Lodge, No. 10, on the (Provincial) roll of Lower Canada. This warrant was granted two years before the surrender of the territory of Michigan to the L^nited States, but the Lodge, which was evidently " left behind " b}' the 60th, at a much earlier date, experienced a similar fate when the British was succeeded by an American garrison at Detroit in
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1796. In 1806, the Quebec warrant was surrendered, and a new one, at the No. 62, obtained from the Grand Lodge of New York. In 1819, it became No. 3, and in 1826 united in the formation of the Grand Lodge of Michigan, on the roll of which body, this old "Travelling Lodge," formerly attached to the Royal American Kegiment, noAv holds the first place, under its original title of " Zion," No. 1.
In this connection, although slightly anticipating the sequence of the narrative, the later fortunes of " Amei'ican LTnion " may be briefly adverted to. It met for the last time as an Army Lodge, April 23, 1783, and was ordered "to stand closed until the W.M. should call them together." This occurred in 1790, when a colony from New England having become established north-west of the Ohio, the Lodge was re-opened at Marietta by Jonathan Heart, the Master, with Benjamin Tupper and Rufus Putman officiating as wardens. Heart continued in the chair luitil the following year, when he joined the Army of St. Clair, and was killed at the battle of Fort Recovery. The Lodge united with others at the formation of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, of which General Rufus Putman was the first Grand Master, in 1808, and under its old title of "American Union" retains the place of No. 1 in the Masonic jurisdiction of that State.
Many and great were the vicissitudes of good and bad fortune experienced by the Lodges in British regiments in the course of the war with France, which, commencing in 1793, continued almost without intermission until 1815. A duplicate of its Irish warrant (No. 441) was granted to the 38th Foot in August, 1795, "the original having been taken by the French ; " and a precisely similar order in the case of the 5th Dragoon Guards, whose Masonic chest, with warrant (No. 570) and jewels, had also fallen into the hands of the enemy, was made by the Grand Lodge of Ireland in September of the same year.
A Lodge was established in the 11th Foot, then stationed at Norwich, by the "Ancients" in February, 1798, and in the May following, while serving in Flanders under Sir Eyre Coote, the entire regiment became prisoners of war. From ■Ostend the officers and soldiers were marched to Douay and
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Fort L'Escarpe, and they remained in Francs until 1799, Avhen they were exchanged. Wiiether, indeed, the work of the Lodge was suspended during the period of their captivity cannot be absohitely determined, but the proba- bilit}' is quite the other way, as the Lodge was certainly in existence as late as the xeav 1807, and the custom of meeting as Masons has always prevailed to a very large extent wherever there have been prisoners of war.
Happily, indeed, the records of a few Regimental Lodges have escaped the general doom, and among them are those of No. 183, established in the 9th Foot by the Junior Grand Lodge of England, or "Ancients," in February, 1803.
In November, 1805, the 1st Battalion of the 9th Regiment embarked at the cove of Cork, in three transports, with the expectation of taking part in the war on the Continent. Two of the transports were, however, driven by contrary winds to the Downs, while the third, the Ariadne, having the head-quarters on board, was wrecked on the coast of France, near Calais, when the staff-officers and 262 soldiers were made prisoners of war.
Though the archives of the Lodge appear to have gone down with the Ariadne, a sutficieot number of its members weathered the storm, and seem to have lost no time, after their involuntary descent upon French soil, in resuming their Masonic labours.
The regiment remained at Valenciennes until after the first abdication of Napoleon, and the proceedings of this "Captive Lodge" extend over a period of eight years, namely, from January 30th, 1806, until January 20th, IS 14, under which latter date there appears : —
" The Lodge having heard the reports of the Different Brethren, closed, n\ perfect harmony and Brotherly Love, with 21 members present, and adjourned until the fate of War shall have decided the contents of Europe. On the 25th January, 1814, the hrethren were all disjyersed. IViese affairs were decided on 3lst March, 1814, hy the triumphal Entry of the Allies in Paris and the overthroiv of Bonaparte. The Ark was at Riom, in the province of Auvergne, with only Brs. Butler and Ware present, who sepjarated, and Br. Butler brought the Lodge to England."
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The above is a literal transcript of what purports to be the last entry in the minute-book of the Lodge during the captivity of the battalion to which it was attached, but the words italicized must evidently have been interpolated by the Master, Sergeant Edward Butler, at some later period.
Few minute-books of Regimental Lodges, as I have already more than once remarked, are available for examination. I think, however, if records of the kind were more numerous, we should find, in the generality of instances, the honour, reputation, and well-being of each Lodge to have been mainly dependent upon the enthiisiasm and assiduity of one or two prominent non-commissioned otficers. Edward Butler was the life and soul of the Lodge in the 9th Foot, and it fell to pieces directly this worthy sergeant obtained bis discharge from the service.
The 96th Foot received a warrant (No. 170) from the "Ancients" in 1804, the fortiuies of which are very curtly, though exj^ressively, recorded in the following memorandum by the Grand Secretary : —
"6th Jan. 1809: Warrt. 170. Box and furniture lost at St. Croix. Members all lost or dead or disposed of, but Bro. Geo. Baxter. Quarter-Master."
The annals of the Peninsular war furnish many Masonic illustrations, and those of the Sixth Dragoon Guards, in which there w^as an Irish Lodge (No. 557), an especial one. The regiment, after a severe engagement, lost its baggage, among which was the chest containing the Lodge furniture, warrant and jewels. The commander -of the capturing party, when he saw the Masonic emblems on the chest, immediately sent for one of the prisoners, and demanded the meaning of the marks, which the soldier, as far as was prudent, explained. The French officer, on finding the chest belonged to a Freemasons' Lodge, directed it to be returned to the English regiment, with a flag of triice, and a guard of honour, forwarding at the same time a letter, stating that, although not a Freemason himself, he respected the Society, and that his brother officers would never forgive him if he did not treat the misfortunes of their Masonic Brethren with consideration.
A further anecdote, of the same eventful period, is con-
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nected with the 42nd Foot, but whether the writer who relates it was member of the Irish Lodge " Hibernia " (No. 42), or the Scottish Lodge " St. Andrew" (No. 310), both of which existed in the regiment at the time, is not revealed in the narrative from which I am about to quote. James Auton, " late Quarter-Master Sergeant, 42nd or Royal High- landers," in his Retrospect of a Military Life (1841) tells us : —
'• I was General Park's orderly this night, and had a good roof over my head, and the dry floor of a cart-shed, with plenty of dry straw for a bed : but my poor wife was absent, for the first time since we left home. She was detained, along with several other women, on the right bank of the Adour. until the bridge was repaii'ed. While this was doing, one of the women belong- ing to the regiment begged her to take care of a little ass colt, with a couple of bundles, until she should get back to St. Severe to make some purchases ; she complied, and before the other returned the bridge was repaired. Our regiment had passed, and she followed, driving the colt before her ; but before she got to the further end. the stubborn animal stood still and would not move a foot. Another regiment was advancing, the passage was impeded, and what to do she knew not. She was in the act of removing the woman's bundles from the beast's back, and struggling to get out of the way, determined to leave the animal, when a grenadier of the advancing regiment, casting his eye on a finely polished horn with the Masonic arms cut on it, and slung over her shoulder, stepped aside, saying ' Poor creature, I shall not see you left struggling here for the sake of what is slung by your side : ' at the same time handing his musket to one of his com- rades, he lifted the colt in his arms and carried it to the end of the bridge. My poor wife thanked him with the tear in her eye, the only acknowledgment she could make for his kindness ; but she has often thought of it since, and congratulated herself on having the good fortune to have that horn, empty as it was, with its talismanic hieroglyphic, slung by her side on that occasion ; and thus to raise up a friend when she was so much in need of one."
In another popular work, AdventMres of a Soldier, which appeared in the same year (1841), the author, Edward Costello, who also describes his experiences as one of the " rank and file " during the Peninsular war, observes : —
" At Castle Sarazin (between Toulouse and Bordeaux), we used to be on our usual excellent terms with the French quartered in the neighbourhood. I got acquainted here with a very smart fellow — a French sergeant belonging to the 83rd Regiment. A friendship was cemented betw^een us, naturally enough, by our both being Freemasons."
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Tu the testimonies of these private soldiers, as they both were when the incidents occurred which they afterwards described at a niucli hvter date in their books, I shall add the corroborative evidence of a commissioned ofticer who served in the same series of canijjaigns, and was the recipient of much fraternal attention when taken prisoner by the French.
Lieutenant-Ceneral Sir Chai'les James Nnpier, one of the most gallant soldiers of his time, entered the army at an early age, and in 1806, obtained a majority in the 50th Foot, which he commanded at Corunna, where he was made prisoner, after receiving five wounds. He also served in the Peninsula during later campaigns, in a floating expedition oft' the coast of America, and accompanied the English Army to Paris in 1815. In 1842, while commanding the forces in Bombay, he \vas sent to Scincle, where, in 1843, he fought and won the decisive battles of Meeanee and Hydera- bad. In the spring of 1849, when the disasters of the Sikh campaign had awakened the anxieties of the people of England, all eyes were directed to the hero of Scinde, and he was appointed to the command of the Indian Army. But on his arrival in India the object of the war had been attained. He exerted himself, however, in reforming abuses which had grown up in the army, especially among the officers. A large nimiber of courts-martial were held, on account of the laxity of discipline which had crept into the Indian Army, and one unfortunate officer, the sole support of his aged mother, was cashiered. That p.arent, having no other means of saving herself and son from ruin, applied to Sir Charles to allow her son to retire from the service by the sale of his commission. But the commander-in-chief was true to his duty as an officer and a Mason. With his right hand he confirmed the sentence of the court-martial, and with his left he sent to the distressed parent the value of her son's forfeited commission
In Doyle's Lodge of Fellowship, Guernsey, there is a portrait of the general, and the minute-book records under June 16th, 1807: — "Emergency. Major Charles James Napier was entered, passed, and raised, he being about to leave the Island." In April, 1841, a letter was received
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from him, then in command at Chester, asking the date of his initiation, as he had lost all his papers when ship- wrecked; and a second, later in the same year, thanking the brethren of his mother Lodge for having elected him an honorary member.
Tn September, 1845, when Governor of Scinde, at the invitation of the Lodge of Hope, Kurrachee, he laid the foundation stone of a Masonic Hall, and afterAvards delivered a most interesting address, premising that his position was a diflficult one, owing to the suddenness of the call ; that his attention having been diverted to other objects for many years, he was probably one of the worst Masons present, but as there miglit be some less acquainted with the subject even than himself, he would endeavour to give a sketch of the history of Masonry from the earliest times.
On his return from Lidia, Sir Charles was entertained at dinner by the Meridian Lodge, Dublin, and elected an honorary member of the Union Lodge, Limerick, in Novem- ber, 18-t8.
The next year he was again in Lidia, and a grand Masonic banquet was given in his honour at Simla on the 1st of October. The commander-in-chief, as he then was, ap- peai-ed in full uniform, wearing the apron and insignia of the Koyal Arch degree, and in response to the toast of his health expressed himself as follows : —
■■ Few Masons can say that they owe so much to Masonry as I do. I am an old and, I fear, a good-for-nothing Mason. I have been forty years a Royal Arch Mason, and yet I fear I could not work myself into a chaptei' of that high degree ; but with the aid of my friend, Colonel Curtis, I hope to rub off the rust, and be able lo do so. for, as 1 said Ijefore. probablj' no man present can say that he is under the same oldigation to Masonry that I am, and I am always glad of an opportunity of acknowdedging the same to the Craft. I was once a prisoner, without hope of ever being exchanged, and ex])ected to be sent to Verdun, to which place in France all prisoners were consigned, for, at this time, the two governments of France and England were so exasperated against each other that their anger fell on individuals, and there was no exchange of prisoners. A man who was taken lost all chance of promotion, or of ever seeing his friends again. In this state of despair and misery, knowing that my family must have believed me to have been kdled, I was casting about in my
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own thoughts for some way in which I could communicate with my family ; it came into my head that I was a Mason, and I con- trived to poke out a brother. He was a French officer of the name of Bontemps, I think, and a very good name it was, for, like a good and honourable brother, he managed to send a letter for me to England, by no means an easy matter in those days, for there were no railroads, or steam vessels, or steam engines then to carry letters like lightning everywhere. Besides, it was at this time an extremely dangerous and hazardous undertaking for a French officer. But my honest and good brother did it for me, and within three months my family knew I was alive.''
Masonic banquets in honour of Sir Charles Napier were given on his final return from India by the brethren of the Rugby district, in 1851, and later in the same year (Trafalgar Day) by the Portsmouth Lodges, from whose address I extract the following : — " We hail you with a hearty welcome to the land of your birth ; as a Citizen you have our esteem, as a Soldier our admiration, as a Brother our honour and love."
Two years afterwards, with Military and Masonic honours, the departed warrior Avas laid in his tomb. "I meant to say," are the words of his younger brother, the historian of the Peninsular War, but to which he vainly attempted to give iitterance at the time, " that a great and good soldier was in his grave ; that in his old age he commanded armies and led them always to victory. Neither in youth, nor in manhood, nor in his aged year's, did he ever cease to love, and cherish, and confide in soldiers. And now they thronged round his grave, to do honour to the dead man whom, when living, they had by their courage, devotion, and discipline, raised to renown."
It was stated by Dr. Edward J. Scott, of Southsea, a past master of the Phoenix Lodge, one of the medical - attendants of the deceased, that an hour or so before his death the hand of the great general was laid in his own, and that shortly before that event Sir Charles gave him the grip of a Master Mason, and thus died, evincing in his last moments an unfaltering sympathy with his brethren of the mystic tie.
The battle of Corunna, at which Major Napier was made a prisoner, was fought on the 16th of January, 1809 ; and later, in the same year, a similar fate was experienced by
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another British otficer, the story of whose capture was related by Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Wantage, V.C. (who served throughout the war in the Crimea), on the occasion of his installation as Provincial Grand Master of Berkshire, in 189S:—
'• He stated that it was his lot in early life to be first interested in Masonry by an event that happened to his father, the late Lieutenant-General James Lindsay, when serving in the Walcheren campaign, in IWJ. He was shot through the leg, and being quite disabled, fell into the hands of the enemy ; but no sooner was he carried from the field of battle, than he dis- covered that his captor was a brother Freemason, who. true to the traditions of the Craft, like the Good Samaritan, dressed his wounds, brought him into his OAvn house, and took charge of him until the time of release, defraying all costs, without any security for payment."
At the close of the Peninsular War, peace was signed with France, but hostilities were soon resumed. Napoleon escaped from Elba, then followed the Hundred Days, and finally the battle of Waterloo, during which momentous conflict the influence of Masonry was brought into play on both sides, with very happy results, as the reader will have already gleaned from an earlier chapter.
With the downfall of Napoleon came the reduction of the British Army from a war to a peace footing. This led not only to the disembodiment of the entire force of Militia, which had taken the place of the regular troops in the United Kingdom, but also to the " mustering out " (or disbandment) of all the veteran and garrison battalions, of many of the regiments of cavalry and infantry, and the reduction of such as were retained on the fixed establish- ment to a much lower strength than had previously prevailed.
Many Military Lodges passed out of existence, but others, in lieu of an itinerant, assumed (and retained) a stationary character. Nor should it be forgotten that other causes were in operation, notably the frequent changes of regiments from one station to another, which conduced to the same end, namely, a reduction in niunber of the moveable and their conversion in other instances into irremovable Lodges.
To the examples already given of Lodges in foreign juris- dictions which were formerly held in regiments of the
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British Army, I shall add one more. "Virgin Lodge," at Halifax, N.S., wliich, in 1786, became "Artillery Lodge," and, in 1800, "Virgin" again, is now No. 3 on the roll of Nova Scotia. Other existing Lodges formerly in the Royal, Bengal, and P)ombay Artillery, are "Union Waterloo," Kent ; " St. John's," Gibraltar ; " Hnmility with Fortitude " and " Courage with Humanity," Calcutta ; and " Orion in the West," Poona.
The "Amphibious Lodge," originally in the Royal Marines, is now peacefully moored in the inland town of Heckmoud- wike, Yorkshire.
The " Royal York Lodge of Perseverance," London, established in 1776, only began its military career in 1793, when its fortunes were associated with those of the Coldstream Guards, in which regiment it continued at work until 1821, when it resumed its civil character.
" Mount Olive," in the 67th Foot, was transferred to the Royal Regiment of Cornish Miners in 1807, but the military was afterwards exchanged for a civil warrant, and it is now the " Lodge of Fortitude," Truro.
"Euphrates," London; "Unanimity," Preston; and "One and All," Bodmin ; were held in the West London, 3rd Lancashire, and 1st Cornwall Militia, respectively.
" St. Cuthbert's," in the Durham Militia, was a Scottish Lodge, and in 1813, when the regiment was disembodied, continued to meet at Barnard Castle under the Scottish warrant imtil 1825, Avhen an English one was applied for and received. This served the piirpose of the members for eleven j-ears, but in 1836 they made an effort to resume their old allegiance, in which, it is needless to say, they were unsuccessful.
These illustrations might be largely extended, but I shall content myself with adducing the case of the " Shakespeare Lodge," Warwick, which is the most singular of the series. Examples of Lodges having been " left behind them " by the military on a change of station are not uncommon, but those of Stationary being converted into Ambulatory Lodges by the simple process of regiments marching away with them, if not entirely unknown, are, nevertheless, of comparatively rare occurrence. Such an event happened in 1796, when
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the members of a Lodge at Norwich sold their furniture to some brethren in the Warwieksliire Militia, making them, at the same time, a present of the "Constitution." On the removal of the regiment in the following year, the "Shakes- peare Lodge," to iise the title adopted in 1797, accompanied it, and was brought to Warwick in 1802. The next year the battalion was again ordered on service, but the Lodge remained at Warwick. The regiment returned in 1805, and three A'ears later was quartered at Snnderland, when a resohition was carried in the Lodge at Warwick that it should be made stationary at that town. A protest was lodged by the members at Sunderland, and a counter-pro- test by those at Warwick. The latter had thirty-one signatures, the former only ten, so when the matter came before a committee of the Grand Lodge they decided in favour of the majority, and the removal of the " Shakespeare Lodge" from the Warwickshire Militia to the guardianship of non-military brethren at Warwick was recognised and approved.
It has already been suggested that the degree of Knight Templar penetrated into our British Military Lodges during (or before) the Seven Years' War. Whether derived from the Clermont or the Strict Observance systems is immaterial, though the traditions of both may be referred to as possess- ing attractions which, at least to Scotsmen, may have been irresistible. Thus, passing over the alleged reception of Von Hund by a former Grand Master of Scotland — Lord Kilmarnock — the sixth of the Clermont degrees and the whole fabric of the Strict Observance were based on the legend that Pierre d'Aumont was elected Graiid Master of the Templars in Scotland, a.d. 1313, and that to avoid per- secution the Knights became Freemasons.
It was, however, to their intercourse with brethren belonging to regiments which served in Ireland towards the end of the last century, that the Scottish Lodges owed their acquaintance with Knight Templarism.
This Order, tlien known as Black Masonry, was propa- gated, to a lai'ge extent, through charters issued by a Lodge of Freemasons at Dublin, which had been constituted by "Mother Kilwinning," for the practice of the Craft
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degrees. The action of her daughter Lodge, encouraged, not unnaturally, the belief in Kilwinning being a centre of the so-called " High degrees," and in 1813 application was made to the Mother Lodge to authorise the transfer of a " Black Warrant " from Knights of the Temple, and of Malta, in the Westmeath, to brethren of the same degree serving in the Shropshire Militia. But the Lodge of Kil- winning, in reply to the " Sir Knights " of the latter regi- ment, strongly repudiated the existence of a maternal tie between herself and any Society of Masonic Knighthood, and expressed her inability to regard as Masonry anything beyond the three regular steps. The Westmeath Militia held at the time an Irish Warrant, No. 791 — cancelled in 1826 — and the Shropshii-e Regiment an Engli-sh one, which was made " Civil " and "Stationary" in 1820, and is now the authority to assemble as Masons of the "Salopian Lodge of Charity," at Shrewsbury. It is probable that all the degrees, additional to the "three regular steps," obtained a footing in the British Islands through the medium of the Army Lodges.
In Scotland these additional degrees were, in the first instance, wrought by the Lodges, and afterwards more often in Encampments. A Lodge — "Aboyne" — was formed in the Aberdeen Militia, in 1799, and an Encampment in 1812. Both moved with the regiment, being at Dover, 1812 ; Liverpool, 1813 ; London, 1814 ; and retui-ning to Aber- deen in 1815. At the last named date, the degrees prac- tised in the "St. George Aboyne Encampment," were arranged in seven groups : —
I.— Master past the Cha-r. Excellent and Super-Excellent, Royal Arch : II.— Ark, Black Mark. Link and Chain : III.— Km ranean Pass. Knight of Malta ; IV.— Jordan Pass. Babylon Pass : v.— Knight of the Red Cross ; VI.— High Priest : VII.— Prussian Blue.
Both Master Masons and Royal Arch Masons were received indiscriminately as candidates ; if the former, they received first the Group I. of Royal Arch degrees ; if the latter, they began with (^roup II. When the Royal Arch degrees were conferred, the meeting was called a Chapter ; for all the others an Encampment.
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In the English Lodges belonging to the regular establish- ment, the only degrees worked (with othcial sanction) were the first three, down to 1813; and the price they paid for the Union of that 3'ear, consisted in part of the acceptance of the Ro^'al Arch and Installed Masters' degrees, as additions to the pure and ancient Masonry which had been bequeathed to them in 1717.
With tlie other section of the English Craft it was different. Under the "Ancient" (or Schismatic) Grand l^odge, both degrees were essential features of their system. There can hardly be a doubt, unless indeed it is a wholly gratuitous one, that the communication of the secrets of the Royal Arch, was the earliest form in which any mystical teaching was associated with the incident of a Master being placed in the chair of his Lodge. Out of this was ultimately evolved the degree of Installed Master, a ceremony unknown (except as a bye or side degree) in the " Modern " system until the first decade of the present century, and of which I can trace no sign among the " Ancients " until the grow- ing practice of conferring the " Arch " upon brethren not properly entitled to receive it, brought about a constructive passing through the chair, which, by qualifying candidates not otherwise eligible, naturally entailed the introduction of a ceremony, additional to the simple forms inherited by the earliest of Grand Lodges.
The records of No. 441, in the 38th Foot, aflford an illustration of the Irish practice. The working of the Royal Ai'ch degree was resumed in the Lodge, in 1822, when a letter was read from the Deputy Grand Secretary, of which the following passage appears in the minutes : —
" There is not any warrant issued by the Grand Lodge of Ireland other than that you hold : it has therefore always been the practice of Irish Lodges to confer the Higher Degrees under that authority."
The Minden Lodge, No. 63, in the 20th Regiment, also continued the work of the Royal Arch under its original (Craft) warrant until 1838, when a separate charter was issued by the Grand Chapter of Ireland.
The Scottish custom nnist next be referred to, of the issuing by private Lodges of commissions — or, as they were
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afterwards termed, " dispensations " — an evil of great magnitude, which led to frequent con:iplaints with regard to the pi'actice of bi-ethren traversing the country and picking up what members they could for their own Lodges, to the detriment of those "locally situated."
The erectionof branch Lodges by "dispensation" became very popular in Ayrshire, and one of the kind remained in active operation for eight years in the County Militia, with results so beneficial to the Mother Lodge — Renfrew St. Paul —as to justify the holders of the " dispensation " being at that Lodge's expense "treated to two bowls of toddy " on the occasion of their surrendering it.
In December, 1808, a letter was read from the confidential agent of the Mother Lodge in the Ayrshire Militia, requesting that the members in that regiment might be granted a dispensation, which was agreed to, with the proviso :
" That no Mason can be initiated, or become a member of the dispensation, nor no man can be made a Mason under it, who has been found guilty of any of the following crimes by a General or Segimental Court-martial, rh. : cowardice, theft, mutiny, or desertion.'
It seems to have been usual on the part of Lodges granting dispensations, to exact a tribute of one-half of the amount received as entrance fees, but the Mother Lodge, " from a wish to indulge her brethren in the A^-rshire Militia," asked "no more than 3s. for each entrant, 2s. 9d. of which was to be retained to defray any necessaiy expenses."
The records of the Irish daughter of the Lodge of Kilwin- ning show, that not only members of the Militia or Volun- teers, but also (in certainly one instance) brethren of the regular forces were empowered to form branch Lodges and make Masons during their absence from the seat of their Mother Lodge.
" 1783. July 22nd. Took into consideration several communi- cations from our Bror.Lieut.-Col. Heath relative to a Warrant du Dispensation fi'om us to hold a Lodge in the 1st or Royal Regt. Resolved that a Dispensation be granted by us to Bror. Lieut - Col. Heath. Capts. Trail and O'Brien, to convene a Lodge and act as Masons while absent from Dublin."'
That dispensations were granted as well as held by the Army Lodges, has been shown in the present chapter, and
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the subject will again claim our attention, but the sugges- tion may be at once thrown out, that the origin of the custom can be traced to a Scottish source. Returning for a moment to tlie Militia: in 1854, the 4th Middlesex and the 1st Lancashire Regiments were stationed at Portsmouth, and the records of the " Phoenix Lodge " inform us, that the whole of the officers of the two battalions were either initiated or admitted as joining members.
To account for the decay of "Military" Masonry," or to vary the expression, the falling oft' in the number of Regimental Lodges, is by no means an easy task.
The reduction of the Army from a war to a peace footing, though one of the factors in the case, could not have exer- cised nearly as much influence as people have commonly supposed. Nor will the fusion of the two Grand Lodges of England, in 1813, altogether suffice to clear up what is otherwise left unexplained with regard to the disappearance of the Army Lodges. .Statistics, indeed, reveal that fifty Regimental Lodges were carried over at the L^nion, all of which, with only six exceptions, were working under " Ancient " warrants. It might, therefore, at first sight appear, that the prevalence of Lodges in the British Army was very seriously aftected by the junior Grand Lodge of England ceasing to exist as an independent institution. The proportion of Military to Civil Lodges (on the English list), which, in 1814, was one in twelve, had fallen to one in three hundred in 1878; and has sunk to one in eleven hundred (or rather less) in 1899.
The laws, too, that were enacted in 1815, forbidding the initiation of civilians, or of military persons below the rank of corporal, were great innovations on the established usage. But in the Irish and Scottish jurisdictions, in neither of which was there any similar amalgamation of Grand Lodges, nor any restrictive legislation with respect to the initiation of private soldiers and the customs of both continued to conform to what had been the practice of the " Ancients," there was also, in each case, a decided falling off (after Waterloo) in the number of Military Lodges.
Of these associations no very early records have been preserved ; but, so far as there is evidence to guide us, the
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Regimental Lodges of the last century would appear in nearly every case to have originated in the zeal of the rank and file, and in the few instances where a Masonic spirit has pervaded an entire regiment, the love for the Craft seems not to have spread downwards, but upwards, namely, from the soldiers' barrack -room to the officers' mess.
Towards the close of the century, however, signs are not wanting that a custom was springing up of Lodges being held in regiments, the membership of whicn was confined to the couunissioned ranks.
The first " Officers' Lodge " (of which there is any known record) was established, by the Grand Lodge of h-eland, in the 32nd Foot. The warrant. No. 617, was issued in 1783, and subsequently " erased for neglect " at some time after 1785 and before 1792 (p. 52). Before, after, and during the whole of this period there was a Scottish Lodge, No. 73 — presumably the resort of the non-commissioned officers and privates — in the same battalion.
The annals of the Grand Lodge of Scotland supply the next illustration. A charter (No. 274) for the " Orange Lodge" was granted to the officers of the 51st Kegiment in 1801; there being at the time two otiier Lodges in the corps of the same name, under Irish and "Ancient" warrants, each of which, it is somewhat singular to relate, bearing the number 94.
Whether, indeed, the symptorns point to a gradual loosening of the Masonic bond uniting the British soldier with his officer, is more than I am compe,tent to determine. The soldier who has seen service is certainly, in one sense, highly educated, and always good company. As for the re- quirements of discipline, and the necessity which is supposed to exist for officers to keep at a distance from privates in order to preserve their dignity, they recall a familiar saying of the sagacious Goethe, that the true reason why so many people are afraid to go among those whom they regard as their social inferiors is the vague dread that, if they should thus abandon the advantages of privilege, they might not be able to hold their own by their personal merit. An officer has reason to fear the familiar society of a private, when the latter is truly his superior in character and
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intelligence, but not otherwise. It is, moreover, a curious fact that the private soldiers of England, though taken from the humblest classes of society, and few in number when compared to the hundreds of thousands foi'ced into the ranks oi Continental Armies, have 3'et surpassed all foreigners (of their own station in life) as much in letters as in arms. We have several highly interesting books of military adventure written by private soldiers, and conveying vivid pictures of their habits, feelings, and opinions, as well as the hardships to which they were exposed in the field. Three works of this kind were written Ijy military brethren who have been referred to — Privates John Shipp, John Autun, and Edward Costello
But, as we have already seen, from the year 1815 the practice of admitting private soldiers, except as serving brethren, was absolutely forbidden by the (irand Lodge of England ; and, while under the Irish obedience there is no actual law on the subject, there is every reason to suppose that fi'om much about the same date the regulations of all the Military Lodges — regimental or garrison — have con- tained a clause to a similar effect.
It may, indeed, have been merely a singular coinci- dence, that subsequently to the Masonic Union of 1813, when private soldiers were disqualified for membership, the practice by commissioned officers of meeting as brethren without the companionship of the lower ranks attained a great vogue. There were " Officers' Lodges " in Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, and the proceedings of these bodies, together with some collateral evidence bearing on the same topic, derived from the minutes of a Cavalry Lodge, will claim our attention in the next chapter.
The English law of 1815, forbidding the admission of civilians, was probably obeyed by the regiments on home service ; but by those abroad, more especially in the East, it was for many years totally disregarded.
The " Lodge of Hope," Poona, was formed by civilian members of " Orion in the West," Bombay Artillery, in 1825, and in the same year " Humanit}" with Courage," an offshoot of " Courage with Humanity," Bengal Artillery, was flourish- ing so greatly at Penang, in the Malay Peninsula, that everv
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civilian of respectability was ranged beneath its banner. The " Union Lodge," in the 14th Foot, then stationed at Meerut, returned as a member, A. J. Colviii — judge and magistrate — in 1826.
The Irish practice of only curtailing the freedom of their Military, when calculated to be prejudicial to the interests of their Stationary Lodges, appears to have always prevented any friction between the two bodies, and has enabled the former, on several occasions, to be the means of establishing local (or civil) Lodges in continents or islands where the regiments to which they were attached hapi)ened to be sent on duty. The 1st Royals (as mentioned in the present chapter) constitiited a new and stationary Lodge at Albany (\e\v York) in 1759; and, possibly at a still earlier date, many were formed by the 39th Foot in Hindostan. Within moi'e recent times (1857) the 4th, or " King's Own," was serving at the Mauritius, and twenty-eight gentlemen of Port Louis were initiated in, or affiliated to the regimental Lodge. The "King's Own" left the island in 185S, but before its departure the brethren of the Military installed the officers of a Civil Lodge, consisting of nineteen members of the parent body, who remained behind in the Mauritius.
In the same way, the " Lodge of Yokohama," the earliest in Japan, was an oflTshoot of the "Sphinx Lodge " in the 2nd l>attalion of the 20th Fool, which initiated a sufficient number of civilian members to enable the work of Masonry to be carried on at the departure of the regiment from that country in 1866.
iMany of the vicissitudes experienced by the Army Lodges have already been laid before the reader. Some of these bodies ceased to work owing to the loss of their warrants, others through the regiments to which they were attached being ordered on foreign service, and perhaps the greatest number from sheer inability to continue their labours with an insufficiency of members. But there was a further reason why certain of the Lodges came to an untimely end.
The consent of the commanding officer to their original formation appears to have been always essential, and at any moment afterwards, as it woiild seem from the evidence at my command, at tlie flat of the colonel for the time
K.l
being, the permission could be revoked. Between the years 180b and 1846 Lodges were closed in this summary way in the 3rd and 11th Dragoons, the 13th, 18th, and 85th Foot, and the 1st Lancashire Militia.
Of a "closure" by even higher authority there are a few examples. The warrant, No. 295, in the 4th Dragoons, now revived, was returned to the Grand Lodge, " owing to the disapproval of the military authorities," in 1830. The case of the 38th Foot was a very singular one. An Irish Lodge, No. 441, in this regiment, after many periods of dormancy, -was revived at Limerick in 1840, iDut the Commander in- Cliief in Ireland, Sir Edward Blakeney, set in motion by the Lord-Lieutenant, peremptorily ordered the meetings to cease, and " all documents connected with the institution to be forthwith returned to the parent society." The -war- rant was, therefore, sent to the Grand [^odge, from which body, however, a hint was received in 1842, the 38th being then at Corfu, that it was as much at the disposal of the members as wdien in their own possession ; and the same year the box containing it, which had not been opened, was returned to the regiment, in whose custody (though the Lodge has apparently drawn its last breath) it still remains.
A Lodge was established in the 37th Company of the Royal Engineers in 1863, but the warrant was withdrawn, and the fee returned, by order of the Grand Master of England in 1864.
Of the Lodges formed in Volunteer regiments, two of the most famous are the " Edinburgh Defensive Band," erected in 1782, and the "First Volunteer Lodge of Ireland," which came into existence in the following year. The " Edinburgh Defensive Band " was raised towards the close of the American War of Independence, and about fifty of the members, in anticipation of its being disbanded, formed a Lodge of the same name under the Mastership of the colonel of the regiment, Andrew Crosbie, who figures in the pages of Sir Walter Scott as Plydell, the advocate of Bertram in Guy Mannering.
The "First Volunteer Lodge of Ireland" was established in 1783, and Henry Grattan, the famed Orator and Statesman, Avas balloted for, and elected in 1784. The members wore
H
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the rej^imeulal uniform fur nearly sixty-one years, when it was resolved that " the dress be black trousers and coat, satin faced, and velvet collar, with white vest." The " satui facings " were of the same colour as the uniform.
The Lodges existing at the present time in the Volunteer forces, both at home and abroad, are very numerous, but to the examples already given, I shall onh' add a third, namely, the " Fitzroy," in the Hon. Artillery Company of London. The exact rank, indeed, of this ancient and distinguished corps, has never been definitely settled. According to its historian, "the members are usually classed with the Volunteers, which, properly speaking, they are not ; and it is still an open question whether the officers would rank before or after those of the Militia, or with them according to tiie dates of their commissions."
A list of the Lodges in garrison towns or fortified places, which are (or were) of a Militar}', though Stationary character, would carry me too far. It will be sufficient to say that wiierever members of the Sea or Land Services were ])er- manently stationed, there Masonry flourished. The names of the " Friendship " and " Inhabitants " Lodges, Gibraltar ; "St. John and St. Paul," Malta; and "Pythagoras," Corfu, will be associated with very pleasant memories by those brethren who have served in the Mediterranean. Xor will the recollections of Lodges in other portions of the empire be less fondly cherished by the commissioned, non-commis- sioned, and warrant officers, who, during their tours of duty, liave enjoyed the benefit of Masonic fellowship in the East and West Indies, Australasia, North and South Africa, the Far East, and in the several provinces which are now collectively known as the Dominion of Canada.
A remarkable feature of the Masonry of our own times, has been the extraordinary increase in the number of what are commonly described as " Class Lodges." Graduates of Universities, Lawyers, Medical practitioners, and the members of nearly every other calling or profession, aie accustomed, at stated periods,
" To meet upon the Level, and part upon the Square."'
Nor will it be supposed that such a prevailing custom is one which has been more honoured bv brethren of the two
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(regular) services "in the breach than the observance." Among the " Class Lodges " in the London district, are the " Nav}- " and " Household Brigade," of both of which the Prince of AVales (Admiral of the Fleet and Field Marshal) was the first Master ; Nil Sine Lahore (Army Service Corps) ; " Army and Navy " (chiefly non-commissioned officers and pensioners) ; " Comrades " (Warrant and non-commissioned officers in the Household Cavalry and Brigade of Guards) ; and C/'ft^y^e (Royal Artillery). The " Aldershot Army and Xavy " and " Camp " Lodges, are examples of similar associations in the province (and county) of Hampshii'e.
Some usages of earlier date, however, still remain to be described, and among them the habit of congregating in Lodges, which was practised by prisoners of war in all countries of Europe. The detenus militaires in Great Britain and Ireland often visited the regular Lodges. A great many French officers who were interned at Bandon in 1746 and 1747 were admitted members of the "Ancient Boyne Lodge " in that Irish town. Captives of the same nationality experienced fraternal kindness at the hands of their British brethren at Leeds in 1761, at Kelso in 1810, and at Selkirk — where 23 of their number were enrolled as honorary members of the Lodge of St. John — in 1812.
The prisoners of war at Basingstoke, in 1756, "finding themselves a competent number," formed a Lodge, making, at the same time, their due submission to the (older) Grand Lodge of England, and a warrant was placed at their disposal, which, for pecuniary reasons, they were obliged to decline. After this a portion of the captives were removed to Petersfield, where, in 1758, they formed a second Lodge, and again made "due submission" to the Grand Lodge. On this occasion, however, no notice was taken of their proceedings by the latter, but the French brethren, takmg silence for approval, "continued working and making Masons imtil the middle of 1759," when there was a further change of quarters, and some of the prisoners who had been removed from Basingstoke and Petersfield iniited in forming a third Lodge at Leeds, which still existed in 1761.
In the following year (1762) "a constitution or warrant" was granted by the Grand Lodge of York to similar captives
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" on their parole " to hold a Lodge at the " Punch Bowl," in that city, " prohibiting them, nevertheless, from making anyone a Brother who shall be a siibject of Great Britain or Ireland."
In Scotland also the French prisoners of war held Lodges of their own, one of which, "St. John of Benevolence," was con- stituted, it would appear, by leave and warrant of the Lodge of ^lelrose ; while the other must have met, if not by the direct, at least by the tacit, permission of " St. John's," Selkirk, the minutes of which body record that the prisoners there held a Lodge from time to time, the proceedings of which were conducted by themselves in their own language.
A similar Lodge, under the Grand Orient of Marseilles, was established at Malta after its occupation by the British. This subsequently shifted its allegiance and became Les Amis en Captivite on the English roll, but its life was a short one, and it disappeared without ever having made any return to the Grand Lodge.
In parting with the subject it may be observed that considerable sums were voted on various occasions by the Grand Lodges of England and Scotland for the relief of French prisoners of war confined in Great Britain who, on inquiry, were ascertained to be deserving Masons, and consequently considered worthy of assistance. It is very greatly to their credit that the recipients of this benevolence, in all cases, faithfully promised, if opportunities should occur, to perform equally kind offices towards their British brethren, prisoners in France.
In bringing the chapter to a close two comparatively recent examples of Masonry in warfare may be recorded. The first, that Colonel William Fordyce and Lieutenant Hirzel Carey, of the 74th Highlanders, killed in action during the Kaffir War, were buried with Masonic honom-s by the " Alliany Lodge," Grahamstown, on the 9th of May, 1852 ; and the last, that the " Lodge of Integrity," which accompanied the 14th Foot to the Crimea, continued to work during the war and in the depth of winter. Many distinguished officers first saw the light of Masonry in this Lodge, amid the booming of guns, and among the number, Lord Eustace Brownlow Cecil, who was initiated in the camp before Sebastopol, on the £4th of May, 1855.