Celebrating
250 Years
of Freemasonry
As Freemasons will be celebrating 250 years of the existence of the Craft in South Africa during 2022, this is an abridged version of the first 100 years thereof. Not only is space in this magazine limited, but a full account would comprise several hundred pages. An abridged account of the next 100 years will be published in this magazine in 2021, with the remaining period published in 2022. By RW Bro John Smith OSM MSA
T
o appreciate the significance of the continued existence Freemasonry in South Africa since its establishment here in 1772, it is necessary to appreciate the roles which the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland, Scotland, France and the Netherlands had therein. The first Masonic meeting in Holland took place at The Hague in 1729 but it was only in 1735 that the first Lodge in Holland obtained a Warrant from the Grand Lodge of England (GLE). Several further Lodges were established during the next 20 years under Warrants obtained from the GLE and it was only in 1756 that the Grand Lodge of the Netherlands (GLN) was formed with 10 Lodges under its jurisdiction. In 1770 the GLE and the now National Grand Lodge of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (NGLN) concluded an agreement, called “The Convention”, in terms of which these two Grand Lodges agreed not to constitute any new Lodges within their respective areas of jurisdiction. As a result of the activities of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the NGLN had also established Lodges in Bengal, Ceylon and Paramaribo. During 1771 Abraham van der Weijde, a senior Freemason in the NGLN and a captain of one of the VOC’s ships which sailed between Holland and the East, was vested with the authority from the NGLN to form a Lodge at the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived at the Cape on 24 April 1772 and called a meeting of all Freemasons living there. On Saturday, 2 May 1772, ten Freemasons, being Pieter Soermans, Jacobus Alexander La Febre, Jan Coenraad Gie, Christoffel Brand, Petrus Johannes de Wit, Johannes Adrianus van Schoor, Barend Hendrik Reede van Oudtshoorn, Oloff Godlieb de Wet, Johannes Snyders and Abraham Chiron met in Kaapstad (Cape Town) under the chairmanship of Van der
Weijde and they decided to form a lodge, to be called Loge St. Jan de Goede Hoop (which name was later changed to Lodge De Goede Hoop). Abraham Chiron had been a member of a lodge at Frankfurt on Main and had been a resident at the Cape since 1769. He was in the service of the VOC and was elected as the first Presiding Master of Lodge De Goede Hoop. The following Brethren were elected to the following offices: Jacobus La Febre as the Senior Warden, Pieter Soermans as the Junior Warden, Jan Gie as the Secretary and Christoffel Brand as the Treasurer. There is no record of any formal consecration of the Lodge or the installation and investiture of the first Presiding Master and Officers and it appears that they immediately assumed office upon being elected. Van der Weijde duly issued a provisional Charter for Lodge de Goede Hoop, which was then registered as number 12 on the register of the NGLN. On 5 May 1772 these Brethren drafted a petition to the NGLN wherein it was recorded that the distinguishing colour of the Lodge would be dark green and that the seal of the lodge is Hope, which is represented by a maiden leaning on an anchor at the foot of a mountain on the summit of which the sun shines and whereto the figure endeavours to ascend with the legend Spes vincit omnia impedimenta, which means “Hope overcomes all obstacles”. On 9 May 1772 the first meeting of the lodge was held in the Apprentice Degree and three candidates were proposed and balloted and Mr. Jan Stammer was initiated. He was thereafter duly employed by the Lodge at a weekly wage. The lodge was then closed and opened in the Third Degree and Brother Marthinus Bergh, a Fellow Craft, was raised to the degree of Master Mason.
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