Freemasonry in Van Diemen’s Land

Freemasonry was introduced ·into the colony of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) by members of masonic lodges attached to regiments that formed the British garrisons, 1803 to 1870, and in particular those from 1814 to 1839, for it was within this period that the first civil lodges were constituted.

The early Regiments which held moveable, or "ambulatory", warrants were:

 1814-1818: The 46th Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry

 1817-1824: The 48th Regiment (Northampton) with attached warrant No. 218 from the Grand Lodge of Ireland.

 1823-1825: The 3rd Regiment (East Kent) with attached English warrant No.170

 1825-1830: The 40th Regiment (Somersetshire) with attached "Thornton’s Lodge" No. 284 Ireland, and appendant Royal Arch Chapter 284 I.C.

 1830-1834: The 63rd Regiment (West Suffolk) with dormant warrant No. 512 I.C.

 1833-1839: The 21st Regiment Royal Scots Fusiliers with attached warrant 33 I.C., appendant Royal Arch Chapter, and dormant Warrant 936 I.C. The warrant of the lodge attached to the 46th Regiment was left in Sydney, N.S.W., where it worked in 1816 as The Lodge of Social and Military Virtues No. 227 Irish Constitution. Local records report that there were several masons present at the laying of the foundation stone of the Officers' Mess at the Anglesea Barracks, Hobart Town, on 17th July, 1814. This first reported presence of Freemasons is considered to refer to members of 227 I.C. Later records show that the regimental lodges were not permitted to assemble in Barracks, but met in private homes or in a room set aside for their use in a hotel, and leased for that purpose.

However, the first authenticated meeting of a regular lodge in Hobart was in 1825. Thornton’s Lodge was attached to the 40th Foot. The first civilian lodge, Tasmanian Lodge, was formed in 1828 and worked under a dispensation from Thornton’s Lodge until the arrival of its own warrant in 1831. In turn, Tasmanian Lodge sponsored a second civilian lodge, Brotherly Union, in 1832, and in 1834 a third ‘Irish’ lodge was formed, Tasmanian Operative Lodge.

Records of the early workings of Royal Arch Masonry in Tasmania are very scanty. However, a Royal Arch Certificate is extant issued to Bro Joseph Lester in 1828 by Thornton's Lodge.

The minute book of Lodge 33 was presented to the Grand Lodge in 1933.