Schism: The Battle That Forged Freemasonry by Berman Ric

Author:Berman, Ric [Berman, Ric]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Independent Pub Group
Published: 2014-09-20T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

The King’s Arms Lodge

In the 1720s and early 1730s, the duke of Richmond’s Horn tavern had dominated Grand Lodge and a few key members substantially controlled the direction of English freemasonry. By the late 1730s, the position had changed to the extent that within a decade, the Horn had ceased to be recognised as a ‘regular’ lodge. A catalyst was the appointment in 1735 of the 2nd viscount Weymouth as Grand Master of English freemasons.1 Weymouth had been initiated into the OKA the prior year and in deference to his rank, if not to his age, he was 25, he was elected Master of the lodge in March 1735. Two short months later, Weymouth was installed as Grand Master.

Sir Cecil Wray, the Master of the OKA at whose invitation Weymouth had joined, had been Deputy Grand Master the prior year and was instrumental in arranging Weymouth’s accession within Grand Lodge. The appointment cemented a connection between the OKA and Grand Lodge that would last more than fifteen years. In 1735, Martin Clare, who for many years had deputised for Wray at the OKA, was appointed Junior Grand Warden; in 1736, both Grand Wardens, Sir Robert Lawley and William Graeme, were sourced from the OKA. Other members of the lodge were also given grand rank over the next decade, including Benjamin Gascoyne and Edward Hody, who became Grand Wardens in the early 1740s. But perhaps most impressively, in virtually every year between 1738 and 1752, a member of the OKA occupied the pivotal position of Deputy Grand Master. By the mid-1740s, the lodge had established itself as London’s best connected and most exclusive lodge. Indeed, if further evidence were required, Anthony Sayer, Grand Master in 1717, was employed as the lodge’s tyler in 1735, a post he retained until his death in 1742.

Table 24 demonstrates the level of interconnectivity between the OKA and Grand Lodge. This had been orchestrated. Where in the early 1730s the OKA was positioned as one of the leading Enlightenment lodges, the lodge minute book hints that by the mid- and late 1740s the lodge operated almost as an exclusive outpost of Grand Lodge and a grand dining club. The lodge had a policy of inviting members of Grand Lodge to join and to attend its meeting and dinners. Eccleshall notes the OKA minutes of 15 March 1736, which record that the guests that evening included John Ward, the Deputy Grand Master and acting Grand Master; Sir Edward Mansell, the Senior Grand Warden; and Lord Loudon, the prospective Grand Master. On occasions such as this, the main emphasis was on dining and drinking, and ‘[Masonic] business was adjourned’, albeit that ‘the Society did not break up until after midnight’.4 The practice continued into the 1740s. Edward Hody’s year as Master concluded with the lodge entertaining the then Lord Ward, now Grand Master in his own right, and his principal officers. Eccleshall records that ‘the lodge was clearly anxious to preserve its close contact with Grand Lodge’

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