The Contribution of Irish Freemasons to English Freemasonry
by V.W.Bro. the Rev. Neville Berker Cryer M.A., P.M. Quatuor Cororati Lodge No 2076 E.C. [Reproduced from the Lodge of Research Transactions for the years 1987-1988, Volume XX, pages 39-52] [The pictures and any footnotes have been inserted by Irish Masonic History]
The name of Bro. Frank West may not be known to you. To those of us who have for long watched Television in the U.K. his face was at one time a household one since he was the first of the now familiar 'Weathermen' who appeared on our screens in the 60's to forecast our unpredictable weather. He is also a keen Freemason. Certainly I shall never forget him for it was with him in the Master's chair of an Irish-working Regimental lodge in Freemasons' Hall, London, that I for the very first time encountered something of the variety and distinctiveness of another form of ceremonial and ritual.
It was this experience some 20 years ago that required me for the very first time to begin to recognise that the forms of Freemasonry which I had hitherto been familiar with were not the only ones to be encountered and that just 'next door,' here in Ireland, there were traditions and forms of Masonic practice that would need attention in the years ahead. I hope that I have benefited by that introduction and certainly, every time I still meet Frank (normally in the Order of Knights Templar), I thank him for bringing Irish masonry into my narrower English view.
It is not of course my intention here to enter into the large subject of how or whether Irish 'working' made a contribution to English Freemasonry but rather to consider the effect of those men who, being Irish Freemasons initially, saw their way to enter the arena of the Craft and Holy Royal Arch across the sea and to make a distinctive contribution to the institution that they entered there. We shall tonight look at six of these men, those of some especial repute, but I would underline the fact already stated that their number could be easily multiplied and we are only looking at what some might regard as the 'Cream topping'.
It was this experience some 20 years ago that required me for the very first time to begin to recognise that the forms of Freemasonry which I had hitherto been familiar with were not the only ones to be encountered and that just 'next door,' here in Ireland, there were traditions and forms of Masonic practice that would need attention in the years ahead. I hope that I have benefited by that introduction and certainly, every time I still meet Frank (normally in the Order of Knights Templar), I thank him for bringing Irish masonry into my narrower English view.
It is not of course my intention here to enter into the large subject of how or whether Irish 'working' made a contribution to English Freemasonry but rather to consider the effect of those men who, being Irish Freemasons initially, saw their way to enter the arena of the Craft and Holy Royal Arch across the sea and to make a distinctive contribution to the institution that they entered there. We shall tonight look at six of these men, those of some especial repute, but I would underline the fact already stated that their number could be easily multiplied and we are only looking at what some might regard as the 'Cream topping'.
Of all such men there can only be one with whom we ought to begin. I refer of course to Laurence Dermott, mainly remembered as the Grand Secretary of an entirely new Grand Lodge in England formed in 1751, and the author of that unique 18th century Masonic handbook, 'Ahiman Rezon,' which gives us one of the very few legitimate insights into English Freemasonry as practised at that time. Who was he, where did he come from and what was his major contribution to the land that certainly became "the place of his residence"? |
Laurence Dermott was born in Ireland in 1720 and must, as his later activities and writings prove, have had a more than average education. He was duly apprenticed as a journeyman painter, a profession to which he always proudly referred in later days - as can be seen from his personal bookplate which carries a coat of arms said to refer to the MacDermots, Chiefs of Moylurg, Co. Roscommon but also remarkably similiar to that of the worshipful Company of Painters in the City of London, and on which bookplate he calls himself Grand Secretary, Painter, London."
In his 21st year he was initiated as a Freemason in a Lodge possessing Warrant No. 26, first issued to brethren meeting at Lestrand, Co. Sligo, though Dermott himself was admitted in Dublin. He is known to have passed through all the offices, and bearing in mind that the Master changed every half-year at the St. Johns' days in June and December he was installed by Bro. Charles Byrne, Sen. on June the 24th, 1746. This latter brother, like another who was also present that day, Thomas Allen, came to England along with Dermott and are found in 1757 as fellow members of Lodge No. 2 in London in the Grand Lodge of the Antients. |
Dermot was obviously an assiduous mason for he was a pupil of Edward Spratt who in 1742 became the Grand Secretary of Ireland and who, as Laurence's preceptor, must have encouraged him to take the earliest opportunity as a Past Master to join the Holy Royal Arch which he did in 1746. It is worth noting that this date is only 2 years after the earliest recorded mention of that degree in Ireland, though it was not to emerge in the premier Lodge in England for another 25 years! Concerning his installation in Dublin the late Bro. Harry Carr was firmly of the opinion that the ceremony then carried out would have been virtually the same one as that first recorded in the 1723 Book of Constitutions published by Dr. Anderson and practised by his Grace the Duke of Wharton, the Grand Master in England in 1722/3 for installing a Master of a newly warranted lodge. The main difference here was that in Ireland the installation ceremony was a regular, twice yearly event in all lodges.
Between 1746 and 1750 Laurence Dermott joined the steady stream of brethren who found their way to London and almost certainly joined one of the five lodges, wholly or mainly made up of his fellow-countrymen, which had begun to appear in the metropolis. Already in 1735 one of these lodges had sought admission to the Grand Lodge of England but was refused because they were not warranted by the Grand Lodge of Ireland, though they were offered a warrant from England which they took leave to decline. Unattached, and disturbed by some of the English masonic practices of that time, they, with another just formed, at last sought to come together in a new body which assumed the name of "The Most Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons according to the Old Institutions." They were to call themselves 'The Antients' and their English counterparts, the Moderns. The date was July 17th, 1751. It must be clearly understood, as Bro. Sadleir once pointed out, that these brethren were not disaffected 'proto-English masons' but newcomers seeking a more responsible existence.
After seven months their first Grand Secretary, John Morgan, received an appointment in the Navy and departed. He was immediately followed by Dermott who, both in that office and as Deputy Grand Master, was to dominate the Antients Grand Lodge until 1791 (i.e. for two-thirds of its existence).
Of his influence upon his fellow masons Bro. Cyril Batham has written extensively in his recent Prestonian lecture on that Grand Lodge but for our purposes it must suffice to list five ways in which, as his career has already hinted, Dermott for ever left a mark on the Freemasonry that is practised in England today.
First was the insistence that he ever gave to the place and importance of the Holy Royal Arch describing it as fthe very root and marrow of Masonry.1 It was almost certainly his emphasis on this 'article of faith' that led to the Holy Royal Arch being included (albeit not as a separate degree) in the essential basis of English Freemasonry at the Union in 1813.
Second: it was his contention that despite their good intentions in changing round the words of the 1st and 2nd degrees to combat the effects of exposures between 1730-50 the premier Grand Lodge had forfeited their claim to retain the original nature of the Craft. At the Union this pressure again paid off and the order of words now used is as you know them.
Third: it was the practice of the Antients to appoint Deacons (as we see from their Grand Lodge Minutes of 1753) and this too was a practice that was to creep slowly into Moderns lodges during the next fifty years until it was unthinkable that they should be omitted.
Fourth: the practice of holding a regular ceremony of annual or bi-annual installation was urged in Dermott's 'Ahiman Rezon' and was again fully accepted, especially after William Preston had underlined the practice in the 1780's.
And lastly: it was almost certainly due to the initiative of this one man that the Coat of Arms adopted by this new Grand Lodge, and first appearing in the 1764 edition of Ahiman Rezon, came to be recognised as so meaningful and appropriate for these new 'English1 masons that today you will see them partnering those of the Premier Grand Lodge in the United Grand Lodge coat of arms.
Following in the steps of this remarkable and influential, if sometimes controversial, figure we may properly turn our attention to someone who was by no means, according to Morgan's Register of the first 80 Antient masons, "Men of some education and an Honest Character but in low Circumstances!" We turn instead to someone of noble rank whose contribution to English Freemasonry was a perfect foil to that exercised by Dermott. I refer, of course, to Cadwallader, 9th Lord Blayney of Monaghan.
Cadwallader Blayney, 9th Baron Blayney (1720-1775)
Grand Master of the"Moderns", 1764 -1767. |
He came of a line that had first entered Ireland during one of the eruptions of trouble there in the time of Elizabeth I, had received a grant of confiscated lands and a title. One of my other characters of this evening once described this fellow Irish family as 'brave, quick-tempered, reckless and feckless' but they were certainly generous and warmhearted in their service to neighbours and Country and it is good to know that the 7th, 9th and 11th Barons Blayney were all Freemasons of note. |
The 9th Lord was born, like Dermott, in 1720, the younger son of 'Blunderbuss* 7th Baron Blayney, and adopted the army as his profession. He served in America and was made Captain for bravery at Cape Breton, which was a very hard campaign. In 1753 he was given a company of the Coldstream Guards, in 1762 was a Brigadier and in 1772 was a Lt. General, serving as the C-in-C of Munster. Indeed he was so professional a soldier that even for the three years that he was a Grand Master of the premier Grand Lodge of England he was only able to visit there from time to time. It seems likely that though in 1767 he married an heiress from Co. Louth he still needed his army pay to keep up his unexpected inheritance (his elder brother having become a clergyman).
One writer has suggested that it was his shortage of funds that led him to enter the Craft for 'Freemasonry was in those times a cheap and popular way of beguiling tedium with impecunious subalterns.' Where and when exactly he was initiated no-one has so far been able to discover but what is clear is that it was in either Ireland (at his regimental garrison) or in America (on service) and that either location led him, as we do know, to favour the Antients way of doing things rather than the Moderns whom he joined in London.
What is very clear is that he was installed as the first Master of New Lodge at the Horn Tavern in Westminster, No. 313 on the 4th April, 1764 and a month later he was elected Grand Master on the recommendation of the Earl Ferrers who is noteworthy as being the first noble Grand Master to set an example of personal service to the Craft. Blayney had an excellent predecessor to copy. He set himself two objectives. To extend the repute and power of the Body he ruled, and to restore "Antient" forms of ritual wherever they had been discarded. The first of these aims, including a desire to see reconciliation between the two Grand Lodges operating in England, was far too much before his time to be realizable but it shows us that even forty years before the eventual Union there were the sincere rumblings in high places that such a step was desirable. It must be recorded, however, that he did preside over the entry of three Royal Princes.
As regards the second aim he was able to record some definite success. He appointed as his 'active* Deputy another military mason, Maj. Gen. Sadler, who was very much a partizan of 'Antient' ritual and it was he who re-constituted an 'Antients* lodge, to become the Caledonian lodge No. 325, as a Moderns unit. (This of course was the lodge that had a certain William Preston amongst its number and of his later influence we have already spoken). Further, a Great Lodge at Swaffham in Norfolk was established and since one of its first joining members was Anthony Rellhan, M.D. who was Spratt's predecessor as Gd. Secretary of Ireland we may take it that he was happy with the 'Antients' style of ritual that the new lodge practised.
Yet it was in the realm of the Royal Arch that Blayney made his greatest contribution to English Freemasonry.
It needs to be recalled that the year of Lord Blayney's installation as Grand Master was the year when Ahiman Rezon was issued in a new edition, pointing out in somewhat caustic fashion that the rejection of the Royal Arch by the 'Moderns' denied them full knowledge of real Freemasonry. It was taken as a serious indictment.
Interestingly Lord Blayney was not exalted into the Royal Arch until June 11th, 1766, when a special Caledonian Chapter met, formed of Past Masters from various lodges, to work only the Arch degree. Here Blayney 'passed the Arch' as the phrase was in those days, and by December 26th he was elected the Presiding Officer of the Chapter and was recommended to be continued Grand Master of the G.E.C. of Fourth Degree for the year 5771" (1767). On the 22nd of July following, Blayney lent the authority of his name to constitute the Caledonian Chapter into the 'Grand and Royal Chapter of Royal Arch of Jerusalem by Charter of Compact. It was thus that the ancestor of the present Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter came into being. He even saw to it that the Grand Chapter met on or very near St. John's Day in December! to edit.
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As if to emphasize the Irishness of this great contributor to English Freemasonry we may just note that for the brief period of May 6th to June 24th, 1768 Lord Blayney was also elected to be Grand Master of Ireland. He never took office nor is it really known why but at least the honour was extended and his merits thus recognised.
For our third figure this evening such a double honour as Grand Master of both England and Ireland was by no means a brief tenure. William, 1st Earl of Blessington, had been Grand Master in his native country from 1738 to 1740, and he was to hold the post of Grand Master of the Antients Grand Lodge in England from 1756 to 1760. In the picture of him at present in Freemasons Hall, London, we see him in military uniform, with a black tricorne hat and a greatcoat of the same colour as is now worn by the Brigade of Guards. Of his early years as a man or a freemason we are generally ignorant but like others before and after him he was in London when Laurence Dermott first made contact with him in 1755 though he was a member of a Moderns Lodge, meeting at the 'Bear and Harrow' in Butcher's Row. Playing no doubt upon the good nobleman's upbringing in the Irish Constitution, and having been its Grand Master, Dermott used all his efforts to persuade the peer to accept what he had already turned down in 1751, viz. the position of Grand Master as the Antients Grand Lodge began its separate existence.
For our third figure this evening such a double honour as Grand Master of both England and Ireland was by no means a brief tenure. William, 1st Earl of Blessington, had been Grand Master in his native country from 1738 to 1740, and he was to hold the post of Grand Master of the Antients Grand Lodge in England from 1756 to 1760. In the picture of him at present in Freemasons Hall, London, we see him in military uniform, with a black tricorne hat and a greatcoat of the same colour as is now worn by the Brigade of Guards. Of his early years as a man or a freemason we are generally ignorant but like others before and after him he was in London when Laurence Dermott first made contact with him in 1755 though he was a member of a Moderns Lodge, meeting at the 'Bear and Harrow' in Butcher's Row. Playing no doubt upon the good nobleman's upbringing in the Irish Constitution, and having been its Grand Master, Dermott used all his efforts to persuade the peer to accept what he had already turned down in 1751, viz. the position of Grand Master as the Antients Grand Lodge began its separate existence.
Sir William Stewart, 3rd Viscount Mountjoy.
Whatever the circumstances it must have been with great relief that Dermott was able to announce to the Grand Lodge on the 27th December, 1756 that "The Rt. Worshipful and Right Honourable William Stuart, Earl of Blessington, Viscount Mountjoy, Baron of Rawalton and Baronet" was to be their next Grand Master, and thus parallel the now normal practice in the Moderns Grand Lodge of having blue blood at their head. It must have been especially pleasing for the Grand Secretary to be able to dedicate his 'Ahiman Rezon' to his noble lord. In taking this position, little as we know he actually practised in it, the way was opened for a day in the future when it would not be unthinkable for a Prince of the Blood Royal to become his successor and for the two Grand Lodges to be able to negotiate their union without any sense of 'lese majeste.'
Yet the appointment of this Lord was not accomplished in the most seemly of manners. He was proclaimed Grand Master even though he was not present and there were to be those who would later complain that his installation at a private meeting was contrary to the regulations of their Grand Lodge and a dangerous precedent for the admission of yet another Irishman in the same way in 1767, the 'Honourable' Thomas Matthew.
The Irish family to which the latter belonged could trace their ancestry back to Sir David Matthew of Radyr, near Llandaff in Glamorgan - the Standard Bearer to Edward IV. The Irish connection began when a George Matthew of Radyr came to Ireland in 1620 and settled at Thurles Castle in Tipperary and there founded a staunchly Roman Catholic dynasty. The children went to the Jesuit College at St. Omer for several generations and the younger of George's sons duly built a large and imposing mansion called Thomastown which, to provide for his family and a constant stream of guests, had 40 rooms. It was the failure of descendants twice in direct line that led, by 1760, to the house being inherited by our Thomas Matthew who thus became the 'gentleman of fortune' mentioned as the new Grand Master of the Antients by Dermott on December 27th, 1766.
At an emergency meeting on June 12th 1767 there was an outcry against the Grand Master, being present, as he had not been installed properly but on the Grand Master calling an emergency meeting on November 25th to clear up the matter - and offering to be publicly re-installed - the matter was in fact considered closed and he continued until 1770.
His claim to be legitimate was on shaky foundations in another respect and this is that there seems to be no basis for stating that he was a member of any known English lodge. It was stated by Dermott that he was 'so fond of the Craft that where ever he resided, whether in Ireland, Great Britain, or France, he also held a regular lodge amongst his own Domesticks &c &c &c.,' but his being Provincial Grand Master of Munster did not necessarily entitle him to special regard in this country. In fact that he was also originally a born Catholic, albeit one who took the oath of abjuration in 1762, must have caused some to question his ligitimacy still further and it is noted by Bro. Will Read in this year's Transactions that when the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 was passed nearly all the Matthews at once resumed their Catholic allegiance.
Yet here was an Irishman who, though perhaps a 'certified' Protestant yet a Catholic at heart, was interested and regular in his masonic duties. It was a presage for later days when in England the stringency of Catholic restrictions on their members would be relaxed to recognise that here was a Grand Master who would have appreciated that more liberal attitude for himself. His very presence in the Grand Lodge in London was yet another step towards the broader Freemasonry of post-union days and we should acknowledge the contribution that he perhaps unconsciously made.
Yet the appointment of this Lord was not accomplished in the most seemly of manners. He was proclaimed Grand Master even though he was not present and there were to be those who would later complain that his installation at a private meeting was contrary to the regulations of their Grand Lodge and a dangerous precedent for the admission of yet another Irishman in the same way in 1767, the 'Honourable' Thomas Matthew.
The Irish family to which the latter belonged could trace their ancestry back to Sir David Matthew of Radyr, near Llandaff in Glamorgan - the Standard Bearer to Edward IV. The Irish connection began when a George Matthew of Radyr came to Ireland in 1620 and settled at Thurles Castle in Tipperary and there founded a staunchly Roman Catholic dynasty. The children went to the Jesuit College at St. Omer for several generations and the younger of George's sons duly built a large and imposing mansion called Thomastown which, to provide for his family and a constant stream of guests, had 40 rooms. It was the failure of descendants twice in direct line that led, by 1760, to the house being inherited by our Thomas Matthew who thus became the 'gentleman of fortune' mentioned as the new Grand Master of the Antients by Dermott on December 27th, 1766.
At an emergency meeting on June 12th 1767 there was an outcry against the Grand Master, being present, as he had not been installed properly but on the Grand Master calling an emergency meeting on November 25th to clear up the matter - and offering to be publicly re-installed - the matter was in fact considered closed and he continued until 1770.
His claim to be legitimate was on shaky foundations in another respect and this is that there seems to be no basis for stating that he was a member of any known English lodge. It was stated by Dermott that he was 'so fond of the Craft that where ever he resided, whether in Ireland, Great Britain, or France, he also held a regular lodge amongst his own Domesticks &c &c &c.,' but his being Provincial Grand Master of Munster did not necessarily entitle him to special regard in this country. In fact that he was also originally a born Catholic, albeit one who took the oath of abjuration in 1762, must have caused some to question his ligitimacy still further and it is noted by Bro. Will Read in this year's Transactions that when the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 was passed nearly all the Matthews at once resumed their Catholic allegiance.
Yet here was an Irishman who, though perhaps a 'certified' Protestant yet a Catholic at heart, was interested and regular in his masonic duties. It was a presage for later days when in England the stringency of Catholic restrictions on their members would be relaxed to recognise that here was a Grand Master who would have appreciated that more liberal attitude for himself. His very presence in the Grand Lodge in London was yet another step towards the broader Freemasonry of post-union days and we should acknowledge the contribution that he perhaps unconsciously made.
W.J. Chetwode Crawley.
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Our last two figures in this story bring us out of the 18th and into the 19th and 20th century. We now leave the heady heights of Grand Master and Grand Secretary and stoop a little at least in terms of office, to an Irishman who was to be a tremendous contributor to the work of the lodge that I have preeminently the honour of representing amongst you tonight. I refer to Bro. William John Chetwode Crawley who died on the 13th March, 1916, at the age of 74 years. |
In the obituary notice to him in our Transactions Bro. William Wonnacott said this:
"To the sister Grand Lodge of Ireland our sympathies will go out in the removal of one of its most distinguished members..." But it is as a member of our own Inner Circle that this loss will be felt most heavily, since for a long series of years he has enriched the printed transactions of this body by numerous scholarly contributions from his facile pen, each of sterling value to the Masonic student.
He was born, in fact, at Hampstead but was educated in Ireland and graduated as a Bachelor of Arts with a first class degree at the Irish University. As part of his 'personal avocation' he was the author of various textbooks and manuals of Historical Geography, Competitive Examinations and aspects of the Law, for he added to his titles those of Doctor of Laws and Doctor of Civil Law. He was a member of the Royal Historical Society, a foundation member of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland and Chairman of the Dublin Council of Teachers' Guilds.
This erudite brother was first brought to light in the Scientific Lodge No. 250 of the Irish Constitiution but within a year this had merged into a new lodge, the Trinity College Lodge of which he was a founder and within two years the Master, thence becoming the Secretarty. From 1880 to 1893 he was the elected Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Instruction, a post of especial significance which only those who are aware of Irish practice will fully appreciate. By steady progression from the post of Grand Inner Guard in 1881 he became at last Grand Treasurer in 1904 and remained such until his death. He was the M.E.King in Israel Chapter No. 126, and received the Mark degree in University Chapter No. 33. He was a High Knight Templar and a Prince Mason.
It is against the background of this busy life that we are to place the immense contribution of scholarship in Masonry that we in Quatuor Coronati can now fully savour. What is so remarkable is that as a full survey of all his writings would reveal he not only introduced the thoughtful English masonic student to the byways of Irish Freemasonry (eg. the story of Miss St. Leger; three lost Irish lodges at Norwich, the Middle Temple and at Beziers in France; the Wesleys and Irish Freemasonry; and the lengthy preface, to the 1898 reprint of Sadler's 'Masonic Reprints and Historical Revelations', which dealt with early Irish Freemasonry) but was able to shed essential light on the English Mason's own institutions and practices. In 1897 he wrote about 'The Craft and its Orphans in the 18th century' , and two years later on the 'Masonic MSS in the Bodleian Library' at Oxford. His paper on the *Rev. Dr. Anderson's non-masonic writings' was for many a revelation and an essential counterpart to what was previously thought about the Dr.'s Deist opinions, whilst his 'Mock Masonry' and 'Contemporary Comments on the Freemasonry of the 18th century' both covered topics that illuminated afresh a period that needed careful research. I have myself had immense reason for thankfulness to him for his paper on 'The two SS. John Legend and as a prospective author of the history of the masonic Knights Templar in England I can only pay homage to one who so fully uncovered 'The Templar legends in Freemasonry.' It was he, too, whom we have ever had cause to thank as the first full student of •The Legend of the SS. Quatuor Coronati.'
In sum we see here one to whom English Freemasonry owes an immense debt of gratitiude for unfolding our past with care and scholarship. He may not have attended our meetings as often as we would have wished, says a contemporary, but of his concern and involvement in our affairs there was never the least question.
"To the sister Grand Lodge of Ireland our sympathies will go out in the removal of one of its most distinguished members..." But it is as a member of our own Inner Circle that this loss will be felt most heavily, since for a long series of years he has enriched the printed transactions of this body by numerous scholarly contributions from his facile pen, each of sterling value to the Masonic student.
He was born, in fact, at Hampstead but was educated in Ireland and graduated as a Bachelor of Arts with a first class degree at the Irish University. As part of his 'personal avocation' he was the author of various textbooks and manuals of Historical Geography, Competitive Examinations and aspects of the Law, for he added to his titles those of Doctor of Laws and Doctor of Civil Law. He was a member of the Royal Historical Society, a foundation member of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland and Chairman of the Dublin Council of Teachers' Guilds.
This erudite brother was first brought to light in the Scientific Lodge No. 250 of the Irish Constitiution but within a year this had merged into a new lodge, the Trinity College Lodge of which he was a founder and within two years the Master, thence becoming the Secretarty. From 1880 to 1893 he was the elected Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Instruction, a post of especial significance which only those who are aware of Irish practice will fully appreciate. By steady progression from the post of Grand Inner Guard in 1881 he became at last Grand Treasurer in 1904 and remained such until his death. He was the M.E.King in Israel Chapter No. 126, and received the Mark degree in University Chapter No. 33. He was a High Knight Templar and a Prince Mason.
It is against the background of this busy life that we are to place the immense contribution of scholarship in Masonry that we in Quatuor Coronati can now fully savour. What is so remarkable is that as a full survey of all his writings would reveal he not only introduced the thoughtful English masonic student to the byways of Irish Freemasonry (eg. the story of Miss St. Leger; three lost Irish lodges at Norwich, the Middle Temple and at Beziers in France; the Wesleys and Irish Freemasonry; and the lengthy preface, to the 1898 reprint of Sadler's 'Masonic Reprints and Historical Revelations', which dealt with early Irish Freemasonry) but was able to shed essential light on the English Mason's own institutions and practices. In 1897 he wrote about 'The Craft and its Orphans in the 18th century' , and two years later on the 'Masonic MSS in the Bodleian Library' at Oxford. His paper on the *Rev. Dr. Anderson's non-masonic writings' was for many a revelation and an essential counterpart to what was previously thought about the Dr.'s Deist opinions, whilst his 'Mock Masonry' and 'Contemporary Comments on the Freemasonry of the 18th century' both covered topics that illuminated afresh a period that needed careful research. I have myself had immense reason for thankfulness to him for his paper on 'The two SS. John Legend and as a prospective author of the history of the masonic Knights Templar in England I can only pay homage to one who so fully uncovered 'The Templar legends in Freemasonry.' It was he, too, whom we have ever had cause to thank as the first full student of •The Legend of the SS. Quatuor Coronati.'
In sum we see here one to whom English Freemasonry owes an immense debt of gratitiude for unfolding our past with care and scholarship. He may not have attended our meetings as often as we would have wished, says a contemporary, but of his concern and involvement in our affairs there was never the least question.
W.Bro. John Heron Lepper.
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Bro. Chetwode-Crawley never in fact reached the position of being a Worshipful Master of Q.C. Lodge but my last figure this evening was one such. Born in Belfast, in 1879, he was educated in Scotland and then studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where (says his obituary) 'his academic path was strewn with prizes foreshadowing his eminence in scholarship and linguistic culture.' His name was Heron Lepper. |
In private life he was a barrister a leading Intelligence officer during the First great World War, and for many years a literary editor to an important firm of London publishers. Yet it is almost certainly in Freemasonry in England that his life will be remembered most for from 1943 he became Librarian to the Grand Lodge of England.
Prior to this appointment he had been initiated in Acacia Lodge No. 7 and was a joining member or founder of many others in this his native country. He had, in fact, the rare distinction of being a founder of a Lodge bearing his own name - the John Heron Lepper lodge, No. 346, in Carrickfergus. In 1913 he became a member of the Q.C. Correspondence Circle, was made a full member in 1922 and in 1924 was in the Chair. In 1932 he was Prestonian Lecturer and was soon afterwards made a Grand Officer finishing as Past Grand Deacon.
It is of course as a helper to the next generation of Masonic students that Heron Lepper was, and still is, remembered most in his adopted country and it was a signal honour to such a man that it was during his tenure of the Librarianship that Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, honoured the Craft with a visit to the Library and Museum. It was here that he was in his element and from here that he contributed two major works that will merit continuing study in the future.
First was his work on the relationships between Antients and Moderns lodges in the 18th century, the paper called rThe Traditionersr (and from which I have amply quoted this evening in regard to Lord Blayney), and the other was his penetrating contribution on the possible origins and development of the Holy Royal Arch. Of that work I believe we have not even yet heard the last. On the other hand his 'History of the Grand Lodge of Ireland' shows where his origins lay and should make all Irish Masons aware of the debt they owe to this blood-brother.
Long before I ever imagined that I would be writing this paper of having the delight of speaking on these shores I had acquired from various booksellers three volumes that came from Heron Lepper's hand - they are "Famous Secret Societies," "A Tory in Arms" and the "North East Corner." In reading these I can only say that I am immensely grateful to him for the contribution he made to the progress of this one English Masonic student - if no other. I therefore close by quoting from one of these works the following short passage:
"He asked me if I felt disposed to serve the king should a post of trust and responsibility be offered me'. I need a man of certain parts for the post I have in my mind's eye: a man who has received a particular kind of training; and you would fill the post to a nicety.'"
Of all these men I have mentioned that opinion would be the same. They all served the kingdom and the Craft to a nicety!
Prior to this appointment he had been initiated in Acacia Lodge No. 7 and was a joining member or founder of many others in this his native country. He had, in fact, the rare distinction of being a founder of a Lodge bearing his own name - the John Heron Lepper lodge, No. 346, in Carrickfergus. In 1913 he became a member of the Q.C. Correspondence Circle, was made a full member in 1922 and in 1924 was in the Chair. In 1932 he was Prestonian Lecturer and was soon afterwards made a Grand Officer finishing as Past Grand Deacon.
It is of course as a helper to the next generation of Masonic students that Heron Lepper was, and still is, remembered most in his adopted country and it was a signal honour to such a man that it was during his tenure of the Librarianship that Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, honoured the Craft with a visit to the Library and Museum. It was here that he was in his element and from here that he contributed two major works that will merit continuing study in the future.
First was his work on the relationships between Antients and Moderns lodges in the 18th century, the paper called rThe Traditionersr (and from which I have amply quoted this evening in regard to Lord Blayney), and the other was his penetrating contribution on the possible origins and development of the Holy Royal Arch. Of that work I believe we have not even yet heard the last. On the other hand his 'History of the Grand Lodge of Ireland' shows where his origins lay and should make all Irish Masons aware of the debt they owe to this blood-brother.
Long before I ever imagined that I would be writing this paper of having the delight of speaking on these shores I had acquired from various booksellers three volumes that came from Heron Lepper's hand - they are "Famous Secret Societies," "A Tory in Arms" and the "North East Corner." In reading these I can only say that I am immensely grateful to him for the contribution he made to the progress of this one English Masonic student - if no other. I therefore close by quoting from one of these works the following short passage:
"He asked me if I felt disposed to serve the king should a post of trust and responsibility be offered me'. I need a man of certain parts for the post I have in my mind's eye: a man who has received a particular kind of training; and you would fill the post to a nicety.'"
Of all these men I have mentioned that opinion would be the same. They all served the kingdom and the Craft to a nicety!