History and Antiquity
By MW Bro Derek Robson AM
The wonderful history of Lodge Antiquity
Left: The colours of the 46th Regiment of Foot, posted to Australia from 1813–17. Right: A panorama of Port Jackson by Major James Taylor. The foreground shows a pair of soldiers from the 48th Regiment of Foot.
so, the principles for the lodge were established by the first regiment, the 46th, who effectively planted the seed and then handed over the embryonic lodge to the succeeding 48th Regiment which had arrived in Sydney in 1817. There was a group of 12 enthusiastic brethren desiring their own lodge, and with a recommendation from the 48th Regiment’s Lodge 218, a petition went to the Grand Lodge of Ireland for a Charter, which was duly granted, signed by the Grand Master, the Duke of Leinster, on 6 January 1820. Interestingly, the Charter was sent to Sydney on a ship called the Hadlow, which sailed from the Cove of Cork on 2 April 1820 with 148 male prisoners, two of whom died on the passage, and with a military guard from the 48th Regiment. The Grand Lodge of Ireland had entrusted the Charter to the ship’s Medical Officer, Surgeon Price, and the ship arrived in Sydney on 5 August 1820.
Freemasonry was practised in Australia by Lodges 227 and 218, Irish Constitution, military lodges attached respectively to the 46th and 48th British Regiments.
T
he 46th left Sydney in August 1817 and was succeeded by the 48th which remained here on duty for a few years after that date. The United Grand Lodge of England had promulgated an edict in 1815 that military lodges under UGLE jurisdiction may no longer initiate civilians. However, lodges under the Irish Constitution still continued to introduce
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candidates not employed on military service and hence several Sydney townspeople were admitted to Freemasonry. The effect of this was that English Constitution lodges were not active in the colony. There are records suggesting that a lodge was formed in 1816, but it seems that these records related to the approval of the Constitution of the new Australian Social Lodge No 260 IC. And
With its Constitution having already been approved and the Charter from the Grand Lodge of Ireland in hand, no time was now wasted. As soon as the ship had docked on 5 August, the dedication of the lodge was set down for a week later, 12 August 1820, the birthday of King George IV. The new lodge was duly constituted at Circular Quay with twelve subscribing members. And so it was that the Australian Social Lodge No 260, Irish Constitution, was the first lodge to be consecrated in the colony. It is interesting to read some earlier accounts in the records of the 46th Regiment. Here the records quote, on page 10 – ‘In 1816 the Regiment was stationed in Sydney, when the Lodge, with its famous Bible, assisted with the Constitution of Lodge 260 IC’, and then further on page 17 where it states that ‘this Bible must have been preserved as a precious relic among the masons, as it was used in implanting Freemasonry into New South Wales’.
Integrity – Loyalty – Respect Freemason
