Charity & Freemasonry

Left: ‘Blossom and Decay’ by E Warden & Co. Below: news piece from The Freemasons’ Monthly Magazine, 1862

AN ACT OF GOODWILL

Charity has been an enduring principle for many generations of Freemasons. Dr Ric Berman tells the story of support behind a Victorian Masonic print

A common thread that binds all Freemasonry is charity. It is not just a feature of modern Freemasonry, but dates back to the medieval and religious guilds that predated them. Perhaps one of the most moving and enduring examples goes back to the mid-Victorian period.

‘Blossom and Decay’ was published as a print by E Warden & Co. of Holborn, London. Copies were sold to raise funds to support the widow and four children of the engraver, JK Defeher. The print was dedicated to Thomas Dundas, the 2nd Earl of Zetland, Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge from 1843-69, and features the Masonic square and compasses.

JK Defeher was not an artist but a merchant, originally from Hungary but since naturalised British, who died prematurely in 1862 having been imprisoned for debt in the Fleet Prison from June to August 1861. Following his release, Bro Defeher was granted £20 assistance from the Board of Benevolence in November 1861. His claim states that he was a Scottish Freemason, that he provided a Lodge certifi cate dated 2 March 1856 from Rose & Thistle Lodge, No. 73, Glasgow, and that he was a merchant and Austrian agent. Following a series of misfortunes, he had been reduced to absolute poverty with no means to support his wife and four children aged eight, seven, four and 11 months.

His death a few months later in June 1862 left his widow and children destitute and, for some years, dependent on charity. It was in this context that details of the print were published in The Freemasons’ Monthly Magazine, 26 July 1862, under the heading ‘A Distressing Case’.

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