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Library and Museum
Antients and Moderns go on-line
For the last 11 months, Katrina Jowett,
Senior Assistant Librarian and Archivist, and
Amanda David, Project Archivist, have been
busy cataloguing the returns submitted by
Lodges before 1813 as part of the Library
and Museum’s lottery funded Access to
Archives project.
The work has now been finished, and
the catalogue entries are available on the
catalogue pages of the Library and Museum
website at ww.freemasonry.london.museum
and on the Access to Archives web site at
www.a2a.org.uk.
Before they could be catalogued, the 76
boxes of documents had to be conserved as
they had been sent to Grand Lodge folded,
and as they had been kept like that over the
course of 200 years or so, many had become
torn and were extremely dirty.
Conservation involved the documents
being carefully washed, flattened and
repaired with Japanese paper and special
glue. This took a number of months, and
was undertaken by a special conservation
company called Preservation Solutions.
Katrina describes the project as being
“a fascinating glimpse into how both the
Premier Grand Lodge and the Antients Grand
Lodge worked, and what the concerns of
early Freemasonry were.”
She adds: “Although the Premier Grand
Lodge was established first, they only
introduced the system of Annual Returns
in 1768 when Grand Lodge needed to raise
money for the building of the first
Freemasons’ Hall.
“There were fewer documents for Lodges
governed by the Premier Grand Lodge and
much less associated correspondence. By
way of contrast, the Antients documents
included a significant number of petitions
for charity which the Grand Lodge retained
with the returns, and the correspondence
provided an insight into some of the local
conditions at the time.”
There is evidence in the documents of
the rivalry between the two Grand Lodges.
A letter of William Fleming, secretary of an
Antient Lodge held in the 76th Regiment,
No. 313 [erased] to Robert Leslie, Grand
Secretary, stating:
“…We are extremely happy to hear of the
flourishing state of the Antient Craft in England
and hope that it will still continue to flourish as it
has done hitherto notwithstanding the puny
Effects of the Moderns who though they may
Continue for time yet in the end they will not be
able to withstand the Truth but fall from all their
imaginary Grandeur like a Building constructed
on a Sandy foundation…”
A letter of Leonard Drory of Angel Lodge
No. 51 [Moderns], Colchester to William
White, of Freemasons' Tavern stated:
“However painful the task, I & the Lodge…
have lately found it our Duty to erase the following
names from our list of Members…
Henry Foxwell
Samuel Levi
Robert Braggs
John Rickards
James Montague
For attending meetings of persons calling
themselves Antient Masons, & countenancing
their proceedings contrary to the constitution…”
Within the Annual Returns series there is
also a number of petitions for relief, these
include a petition from William Fletcher of
the Lodge of Fidelity, No.3, London to the
Stewards’ Lodge, stating:
“your Petitioner most Humbly sheweth that his
being in his .. year of his age and by A Long and
sevear affliction for .years past by the Visitation of
God witch has so mutch Injured him in his Facultys
as to Inable him to do any thing for his support…
your Petitioner…Earnestly hopes that you will
take hisCase into your tender Consideration…”
Petition dated 20 October 1806
Although it is unsure what the petitioner
meant by ‘a visitation by God’ it is thought
that he had suffered a stroke.
There were also petitions from members
who suffered as a result of disasters, including
the petition of John Fisher, of the United
Mariners Lodge No. 30, London sent to the
Deputy Grand Master, Grand Wardens and
Brothers of the Stewards’ Lodge, stating:
“ in the year 1806 I engaged as guner on board the
Lady Burgess on the 20th April last she struck on
a rock and went pieces, 50 Persons was drownded,
I lost every thing I had, except one Shirt and
Trousers and from the many Hours
I was in the water. I got a very bad cold, I have
not been well since Therefore kind Gentlemen,
I have a Wife and Two Children, I hope you
will be pleased to take my situation into your
Consideration and grant me such Relief…”
Petition dated c 1806
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