Charters of MK0

There is not much known regarding the first 50 years of Gihon Lodge due to lack of records but the name itself was that of one of the streams which flowed out of the Garden of Eden and was afterwards applied to one of the springs which runs just outside Jerusalem where King Solomon was anointed King of Israel.

Gihon Lodge is one of considerable antiquity and we have the authority of our Charter that it was founded under the Atholl Constitution in the year 1756. Because of legal restrictions due to the Napoleonic Wars in 1799 a law was enacted forbidding the formation of secret societies including Freemasons Lodges but lodges formed before that date were allowed to continue provided they made a return of all their members to the local Clerk of the Peace.

Our warrant has no name specified and the authority therefore devolves on the individuals who from time to time hold offices, a tradition which is jealously guarded. The name “Gihon” was adopted in 1819 which is the date of the earliest surviving Lodge record and by which time the two Grand Lodges had become one.

There are two seals on the warrant one in white of the Grand Lodge and one in red with a ducal coronet the personal arms of the Duke of Atholl.

The twenty original members were in the main concerned with the seafaring trades. There are among them six mariners including the captain of the “Amazon” and a Chinaman, a brewer, two victuallers, a cooper, a wharfinger, a landing waiter customs, a pilot, an architect, an organ builder and a gentleman. The first meeting was at the house by name or sign the George at George Stairs, Southwark.

The first Master was George Eyre a carpenter, the Senior Warden John Templeman and the Junior Warden Robert Robinson a taylor. On the 31st March 1818 there was a joining member, Thomas Satterly, who was Grand Standard Bearer in the Royal Arch. He was a member of the Lodge until his death in 1863. His portrait in oils (shown) is the property of

the Lodge and used to hang in the ante-room of the Guild Hall Tavern. It is loaned by us to the Grand Lodge Museum. Bro. Satterly was one of the members of the Lodge of Reconciliation formed after the union in 1813 to teach and demonstrate a unified ritual to the Antients and the Moderns. A brother discovered that the principal collars in regular use were in fact made by the famous Thomas Harper, the greatest of all Masonic silversmiths and hall marked 1810. They were presumably donated by the holders of the respective offices but their survival is a minor miracle. When their value was assessed and their significance realised they were placed on long term loan in the Museum at Freemasons’ Hall where they are on display.

In 2009, the lodge amalgamated with Sancta Maria Lodge No. 2682 and today meets four times a year in Mark Masons’ hall in London.