THE BUILDER SEPTEMBER 1926

Freemasonry in Ulster

By BRO. JOHN HERON LEPPER, Ireland

THE Freemason who hails from the County of Down has every right to
boast that he comes from no mean Masonic province, for not only
does it possess the oldest warranted lodge in Ulster, to-wit., St.
Patrick's, No. 77, Newry (whose charter dates from 1737), but also
has produced some of the names that will be forever held in honor
by all students of Masonic history and antiquities, to mention but
two, the late Bro. F. C. Crossle--whose son, Bro. P. C. Crossle, is
an apt illustration of the adage that the "apple does not fall far
from the tree"--and Bro. John Robinson, of Comber, who, happily, is
still With us. The author, therefore, who has the courage to set
out to tell us something new about Freemasonry in Down knows
beforehand that his work will be liable to criticism both on its
own merits and in comparison with what has already been done by
other well-known Masonic writers.

Let me say at once that my friend, Bro. W. G. Simpson, has been
justified in his courage. His former book on the Saintfield lodges
(1) was full of delightful and useful glimpses at the lodge life of
a century ago-- his new book, which is the occasion of this
article, (2) is something more. As the Masonic history of a
district for a particular epoch it could hardly be surpassed. All
that a reviewer can do is to offer a few indications of what may be
found in it and to advise students to read the book for themselves.

The main text of Bro. Simpson's excerpts has been drawn from the
old minute books of three Comber lodges, omitting the most famous
of all, Temple of Fame, No. 46, as he rightly considers that there
is only one living Mason who should meddle with the history of that
fine old Lodge; but while awaiting what Bro. John Robinson may
please to give us on this subject, we shall find something to go on
with in the documents relating to Lodges 133, 136 and 165.

Like most of the minute books of the period, many of the entries
are distressingly meagre, yet, sometimes, even in their meagreness
sufficiently picturesque:

Aug. 9, 1830--"Lodge in due form. Worshipful in the Chair. Expended
4d. each and went home."

Nov. 9, 1835--"Nobody here but my father and Alexander M'Morran and
myself W. R. a very wet night."

Sometimes a single word in the lists of members tells a story--
"Certified, Cleared, Expelled, Died, To America." In this
connection I cannot refrain from quoting as illustration a passage
from the minutes of a famous County Antrim Lodge, No. 615 Larne
(almost 150 years old now), showing what hopes and sentiments some
of these emigrant Masons carried with them:


"Oct. 3, 1832. N. B. Brother William McCalmont has ordered it to be
inserted in the lodge book that if ever he finds himself worth Five
Thousand Dollars he will remit 30 on purpose to treat his brethren
of Lodge 615 to a dinner."

The very word America is a great temptation to digress and give my
readers other instances of early fraternal communication between
the Constitutions on either side of the Atlantic, but that story
must wait while we return to Comber.

To my mind, the most valuable portion of Bro. Simpson's book is
that dealing with one of the Comber Lodges which was originally
chartered as No. 887 by the Schismatic Grand Lodge of Ulster. It
subsequently returned to the true fold and received a legal
warrant. Its great interest to the Masonic historian, however, lies
in the fact that in its minute book we have documentary evidence of
the "Seton" Masons being "healed" on becoming regular. I have not
come across any other instance of such a practice being recorded in
writing, though doubtless it was usual-- just as the Antients and
Moderns reciprocally "healed" one another in the bad times of the
Masonic split. It is a great feather in Bro. simpson's cap to have
put this discovery to his credit.

This old lodge has preserved, as well as its early minute books,
many other interesting possessions from the early days, before the
governing bodies of the higher degrees had come into being in
Ireland. Thus we find that among its effects are, "two well
preserved Royal Arches of the wood"; the lodge chest, over a
century old; the drum formerly used in processions and painted with
symbols; a dinner plate with Masonic design, of a rather late date,
1846; and the fine old decorated Master's chair. Incidentally, the
book would be well worth possessing for the reproductions of the
old Masonic charts and seals.

We shall find here some light on the difficulties that beset our
bygone brethren in keeping the torch of Masonry alight. One of the
old lodge rooms is still in existence, and here will be found plans
and photographs of it.

"The roof is 8 feet high in the centre, and slopes to a height of
only 2 feet from the floor at each side wall.... The lodge room
measures 15 ft. 6 in. by 15 ft. During labour it was illuminated by
a rude, unpainted, wooden chandelier of twelve branches, each
furnished with a tin socket for a candle."

In this wretched apartment was placed a Master's chair similar to
a canopied four-poster bed, 7 feet high. It too had its painted
symbols, including Adarn and Eve (minus aprons). Such discomfort
must have been the rule rather than the exception in the early
eighteenth century among the country lodges; yet they preserved the
flame pure and undimmed and passed it on to us. Honor to their
memory! And may we be worthy of it.

These lodges of poor simple Masons had their ideals. In the year
1814, some years before the Grand Lodge of Ireland had made
illiteracy a bar to initiation. Lodge No. 136 adopted the following
by-law:

"Ordered that no Candidate be admitted in the lodge who has not
received the Benefits of whatever Place of Worship he belongs to
and in no Case shall a Candidate (be) admitted who cannot Read the
Scriptures."

Not unseldom we get a smile at some long-vanished custom, not
essentially Masonic, but proper to the period and place. Thus we
find in the year 1821 the fees of honor payable by the newly
elected officers varying from one pint of "the wine of the country"
from the Master down to "one-quarter naggen" from the Junior
Deacon. Curiously enough, the Ensign who was a more junior officer
than the last named had to provide one-quarter pint; perhaps, as
his duties consisted in carrying the banner on St. John's Day
processions, he was expected to stand more--perhaps he was chosen
for his greater capacity--but such conjectures are merely futile!

OLD LODGE SEALS

The beautiful reproduction of the smoke seals used by these lodges
almost tempts me into another digression. They will be particularly
interesting to any one of my readers who is acquainted with Bro.
Sachse's works on Pennsylvanian Freemasonry or within reach of the
Grand Lodge museum of that state. The migration of Masonic
symbolism is a branch of research hardly touched as yet; that is,
as regards certain concrete, known facts, which if collected and
put in juxtaposition might warrant conclusions being drawn. Thus I
have in my mind while writing these words one elaborate Masonic
design which crops up in use in places so widely removed as London,
Philadelphia and the North of Ireland between the years 1759 and
1800, nor, so far as the evidence I have noted goes, does the
American lodge appear to have copied the other districts. But it is
only by a careful collation of such Masonic designs that we can
arrive at any real knowledge. Bro. E. H. Dring's monumental essay
on the English Tracing Boards is an instance of what has been done.
Masonic seals still await such an inquirer, and there is some
material in this book to go on with.

The most curious of all these seals are those used in connection
with the degree of Pillar'd Priest, which used to be most popular
in Ireland but has now become extinct there. Manuscript rituals of
the degree are fairly common--I possess transcripts of some twenty
collected in various parts of Ireland--and from one of these Bro.
simpson gives us the by-laws of the Union Band held in Comber.

This was only one of the many "side degrees" which used to be
conferred in the Craft lodges in those days. Chapter and verse are
quoted here for the occurrence of the following: Ark, Wrestle,
Black Cross, White Cross, Knights of the Garter, Architect, Knights
of Mount Seni (Sinai?), Knight of the Elysian Shades. I have chosen
these out of many as being now extinct in Ireland. A certificate
enumerating some of these degrees and granted to Samuel Jamison in
1811 by Lodge No. 649, Raffry, County Down, will be found quoted
here. The original is now in the possession of the Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania, one of many interesting Irish certificates owned by
that body.

Every six months--for till the year 1875 Irish Lodges installed
their officers twice yearly, on St. John's Days--these lodges
elected a committee, one of whose most important functions was to
decide disputes arising between the brethren--for it was looked
upon as a crime to go to law with a brother before attempting such
a means of accommodating the difference and to try those who were
accused of committing a breach of their Masonic duty. Some typical
instances of such a committee's proceedings are noted here. The
following may serve as an example:

Oct. 23, 1815, Betwixt John Shields Complainant and John Jamison
Defendant

In Brother Crossens John Jameson had a Herring Preparing to eat on
the fire Br. Robt. Clark Catched the Herring afterwards a Dispute
took place Concerning It and on the Road going home it was Renewed
struck him several times without any offence John Shields threw him
down on the Road told him he Would not Strack him but Would take
Care of him another Way but he still Persisted to Quarrel.

It is our undivided opinion that Br. John Jamison is to be obsolved
from all the Benifits of masonry for the space of one year and six
months after this Date 23 of October 1815 and after he Clears off
all Just Debts that Belongs to this Lodge and at that Date he is to
be Restored.

The brother thus under sentence by his lodge committee had, of
course, the right, which was often exercised, of appeal to Grand
Lodge. The latter body usually referred the matter to three
neighboring lodges for their report, unless when there happened to
be a standing county committee in existence when the matter went
before it. As regards the County Down committee, Bro. Simpson has
been fortunate enough to obtain from that sound Masonic scholar,
Bro. W. Jenkinson, of Armagh, who has made a special study of these
early county committees, a valuable note on the disagreements that
attended the formation of such a body in the county by the Grand
Lodge of Ireland. For this and much else the reader may be referred
to the book itself.

It would be easy to lengthen this article by further extracts
relating to the lodge accounts, processions and attendance at
funerals, but that is not necessary. Enough has been written
already to show that this is a book which will interest all who
make a study of oldtime Masonic customs.

Just as one of the lessons tacitly inculcated by our beloved Order
is that no man should live for himself alone, so the Masonic
student soon finds that his knowledge of the history of his own
Mother Constitution tends to become short-sighted and biased till
enriched by acquaintance with what was happening simultaneously in
other Jurisdictions. A disturbance in any one part of the wide sea
of the Craft will cause ripples eventually on its farthest shores.
The greater the original disturbance the easier, of course, to
trace the effects elsewhere: the clash of Antient and Modern is
felt in America; Dublin senses the shock of the American
anti-Masonic campaign. Great events such as these are demonstrable
of proof; still it may be asked what possible effect can the
proceedings of a handful of Irish lodges meeting a century ago have
had upon trans-Atlantic Masonry? It does not follow that because we
cannot point to a visible ripple that one did not reach that
length, though I think that the tide of emigration westwards lets
us assume the existence of such ripples as an axiom.

Setting this on one side, however, every reader of this book can be
safely promised a great deal of entertainment and information about
a Masonic Jurisdiction on which too little has been written. That
this is not due either to lack of new matter or ability in
authorship Bro. Simpson's book is an ample proof.

NOTES

1. The History and Antiquities of Freemasonry in Saintfield, CO.
Down, Ireland. * vo. Demy, 96 pages, 2 plates. Post free 2/8

2. Masonry of the Olden Time in the Comber District, County Down
Ireland. 8 vo. Demy, 92 pages 8 plates. Price 3/8 post free. The
whole profits to be devoted to the Irish Masonic Charities

[Both these works were privately printed, and it is possible that
the stock is exhausted. Inquiries may be made to Bro. S.H. Kingham.
The Academy, Saintfield, Belfast, or through the Book Department of
the National Masonic Research Society. - Ed.]

