The following is Lodge History of the first 100 years 1880 – 1980
Written in 1980
PROLOGUE
Some time in the late summer or early autumn of 1879 seven Freemasons, the perfect number, met somewhere in Tenterden to discuss the formation of a Lodge based on the ancient borough.
It is not fanciful to suppose that the idea was first mooted over the festive board of Rye’s Wellington Lodge, for three of the seven were members of Wellington. Although the Wellington minutes make no mention of this proposal, what was to be the Weald of Kent Lodge has always looked to Wellington as its mother and Wellington has been pleased so to accept us.
There is no need to speculate upon the motives of the seven in seeking to bring Freemasonry to Tenterden and so to the Weald, They are stated unequivocally in the Petition to found the Weald of Kent Lodge, A facsimile of this document, in all its elegance of phrasing and calligraphy, makes first the ritualistic, but doubtless sincere, claim of having the prosperity of Freemasonry at heart but then goes on to assert the “anxiety” of the seven to exert their best endeavours to “promote and diffuse” the genuine principles of the Art, That Tenterden might prove a convenient meeting place is characteristically accorded a mere third place. It would not have been appropriate to refer in the Petition to the Cinque Port connection but it is significant that Rye and Hythe are the homes of two of the Lodges of which the Petitioners were members while, of course, Tenterden is a Limb of the Cinque Ports.
It is that the seven declare themselves “anxious to promote and diffuse “Freemasonry” which can be taken as their prime motive and this has been the motive informing the work of the Weald of Kent Lodge throughout its hundred years of life, From its foundation our Lodge has in evident fact promoted the genuine principles of the Art and diffused them over the geographic Weald of Kent.
From the founding seven and the one other Brother present at the first regular Lodge meeting following the Consecration, membership has steadily risen to its present one hundred and seventeen (1980), with an ever increasing number of candidates for ballot and initiation. But our buoyant membership is neither the full nor the most important measure of how the Weald of Kent has served the prime purposes of the founding seven. The truly significant thing is that Freemasonry has spread through the Weald by her mothering of new Lodges: Crane, now with a daughter of cher own, in 1897 and Tenwarden in 1978. Both are thriving and mature and our younger daughter may well in due time bear her evidence of that diffusion of Freemasonry dear to our founders.
Our forebears and all of us now of the Lodge would like to feel that over the past hundred years we have not only served to the best, of our ability the purpose of our founders but have retained in ourselves and our composite membership the essentials that made them men and masons. Lawyer, pharmacist, surgeon, farmer, plumber, jeweller and merchant, they represent precisely that wide mix of occupation and background enjoyed by the Weald of Kent of today, the mix of interest and experience that, by close association within and without the Lodge, should help us towards our personal enrichment of attitude and spirit and our potential for good as citizens, enjoined on us as Freemasons,
The Weald of Kent has never been an exclusive Lodge, inward looking and looking only for the interests of one another, for that is not Freemasonry.
It is evident, too, that our seven were men of the world in the best sense of the expression. With a nice sense of humour they petitioned to meet on “the Thursday after the full moon”, later to become Wednesday nearest the full moon. Well must they have know that this might evoke the comment, flippant, even caustic, about the mythical influence of the full moon upon the mind of man and that the Weald of Kent might come to be known as the lunatic lodge it has on occasion been affectionately dubbed. But a sense of humour is really just good sense and what better sense could the seven have shown than to arrange that the full moon should see them to their homes in Rye and Rolvenden as well as Tenterden, and their guests to their homes wherever they may be after partaking of the labours of the Lodge and the pleasures of the festive board?
The world has become a very different place over the hundred years of our Lodge’s existence but this is of the nature of things. During the hundred years preceding our foundation Britain won an Empire and became the world’s leading nation, politically and economically. Within the hundred years of our life as a Lodge, Britain has passed back its empire, yielded up its economic supremacy and endured three wars. But the principles of Freemasonry as promoted by our founders remain unchanged and the practice has only seen those changes essential to any living thing if it is not to ossify and die. The ancient borough of Tenterden, apart from the weight of traffic it now bears, remains visually much as it was when William Cobbett rode up our High Street one fine Sunday afternoon in 1826 and noted in his Rural Rides “the dress and beauty of the town and many very, very pretty girls” and by 1879 it was virtually unchanged. The Woolpack where the Lodge’s first regular meeting was held and its subsequent meetlng places, the Temperance Hotel and the White Lion, are much as they were, as is our noble Town Hall where we have met since 1902. Often enough it has been suggested that a Lodge like ours merits lts own Temple but the Town Hall has become our home. To meet and entertain our guests there in all its latter-day elegance points the Lodge’s standing in the town and its eminence in the Weald itself, making the labour of setting up and dismantling one of love for the junior officers and younger brethren.
We have as a Lodge, suffered nothing catastrophic or dramatic and have been spared ali but one tragedy in Lodge, despite the catastrophies, dramas and tragedies the world has known. Of course, our brethren suffered their losses of dear ones and of material things during the two world wars, the second one fought at its most crucial stage literally at our door-stop and over our heads. These individual tragedies and losses were to be borne privately, while the brethren as a Lodge continued to discharge their duties as citizens and Freemasons all the time that Britain, at the cost of its world pre-eminence, fought and sacrificed to preserve freedom in the world, including our freedom to be Freemasons.
FROM THE RECORD
The Petition was handwritten and addressed directly to the Most Worshipful the Grand Master of the United Fraternity of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of England. It was made without benefit of sponsorship, a pointer to the easier discipline of those days, although it may be that this was the last time the recommendation of a duly constituted Lodge was not demanded’ The Petitioners our founding seven were as they subscribed themselves :-
W. Dawes, Rye, Sussex. P.M. and Sec” No. 341, I.P.M.1842, P.P.G.R., Sussex. Solicitor
W.E. Manby, Tenterden, Pharmacist, No. 130.
Robert Webb, Tenterden, Surgeon, No, 94.
William W. Garnham, Tenterden, Farmer, No. 125.
William Elliott, Tenterden, Farmer, No. 125.
John Neve Masters, Rye, Sussex. Jeweller, P.M. No. 341.
Thomas Grace, Rolvenden, Kent, Merchant, No. 341.
The Petition succeeded and the Warrant was issued on the l0th January 1880. The Consecration was performed on Thursday, 3rd June 1880 in the National Schools, Tenterden still standing and due to become a meeting place for the town’s older citizens. The Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master, the Viscount Holmesdale, honoured the occasion by occupying the chair, appointing Worshipful Brother the Reverend Thomas Robinson to be Presiding Officer and deputing him to carry out the Ceremonies of Consecration and to lnstall our first Master, Worshipful Brother Dawes, whose first officers were the other six of our founding seven.
Our first regular Lodge meeting was held at the Woolpack Hotel on Thursday,v24th June 1880. Ten candidates for initiation were balloted for, of whom five were initiated forthwith, whilst a joining member was admitted. The numbers involved are evidence enough of the founders’ determination not to spare themselves in ensuring that the Lodge be firmly based. Regrettably the record is laconically reticent on how five initiations were managed at the same meeting. Our next meeting was one of Emergency, by Dispensation, and was held on Tuesday, 27th July 1880. After ballots for initiation and for joining were taken, the readiness of the Lodge for hard work was again shown. The five initiated at the first meeting were duly passed to the Second Degree, the remaining five were initiated and a further ballot was taken for a Dispensation to be granted that a Mr Bailey, to become our first Tyler, be admitted and initiated without payment of fees as a Serving Brother. At the next regular meeting, held 23rd September 1880, five brethren were passed and three raised. At the following November meeting there were two passings and three raisings. We can but stand in amazement and, indeed, humility, at this volume of work, not only on the floor of the Lodge but in all that must go on behind the scenes, the enquiries, consultations and committees, all accepted in these formative days to ensure to the Lodge that stable base necessary for it to succeed in its declared task of bringing Freemasonry, in the genuine principles of the Art, to Tenterden and diffuse these through the Weald.
By the time our first minute book was filled, concluding with the minutes for 8th April 1903, nearly a quarter of a century of successful activity had seen the Lodge as firmly founded as its founding seven could have wished, with its first daughter, the Crane Lodge, a vigorous six-year old. The Lodge was thus enabled over the next quarter of a century to settle into a period of mature, decorous development, albeit through the miseries and splendours of the First World War, the wretchedness of the Great Depression and the beginnings of Fascism, later to engulf the world once again in war.
The high standing of our Lodge in the estimation of Provincial Grand Lodge has been shown over our hundred years on a number of occasions, being indicated almost at once, when in November 1880 the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, Worshipful Brother J,E. Eastes, became a joining member. At the fiftieth anniversary of our Consecration, commemorated by a Masonic Thanksgiving Service at Wittersham Parish Church on Sunday 26th April 1931, the Provincial Grand Master, the Right Honourable the Lord Cornwallis was present with his officers of Provincial Grand Rank. The Service was conducted by Worshipful Brother, the Reverend W.E. Watson, Provincial Grand Chaplain, who was our own Chaplain and Rector of Wittersham, assisted by Worshipful Brother the Reverend H.T. Clarke, Past Provincial Grand Chaplain of Sussex. A significant change in Attitudes over the succeeding fifty years is pointed by the record showing that the Brethren, having assembled in the neighbouring school, passed in procession to the church “in full Masonic regalia . , . under the direction of the Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies”, doubtless a wondrous sight for the village but one which our present masters would surely shake their heads.
Our regular Lodge meeting in October 1953, at which Worshipful Brother W.H.Grant was installed, was honoured by the presence of Right Worshipful the Provincial Grand Master, The Right Hon. the Lord Cornwallis, K.C.V.O., K.B.E., M.C., D.L., O.S.M.
The Lodge was also honoured in February 1908 and April 1925 by a visit from the Right Worshipful The Provincial Grand Master, The Lord Cornwallis M.C., the father of our present Provincial Grand Master.
At the regular Lodge meeting of October 1966 the Provincial Grand Secretary, Worshipful Brother B.A.Mackenzie Smith was present. On this occasion the Weald of Kent had been selected as host for an exceptional ceremony. This was the presentation by the Provincial Grand Secretary, on behalf of the Grand Lodge of Quebec, of the fifty-year Grand Lodge Jewel to Worshipful Brother E.F. Checksfield of the Zetland Lodge, No.l2, Quebec, who was then living at Bethersden. The occasion was in fact unique in that such a presentation should be made in a Lodge in a country other than that of the Brother’s Mother Lodge, as well as being made in the Lodge into which the recipient’s father had been initiated and was its Master in 1902.
Our Lodge Banner was purchased in 1958. It is, of course, wholly fitting that its motif should be the white horse rampant, the heraldic badge of Kent. But is also part of our heritage, in having been mothered by Wellington in the Province of Sussex, that the handsome oak case in which the Banner is housed, should have been donated to the Lodge by Worshipful Brother J.O. Harris, Past Senior Grand Deacon, who is Assistant Grand Master of the Province of Sussex. During the last fifty years leading to this our centennial year, although we have passed through the devastation of the Second World War and the ensuing changes in the world order and our own national fortunes, the Weald of Kent Lodge, even if, perforce, not always ebls to pursue the even tenor of its ways, has faithfully and agreeably maintained itself in harmony and in pursuit of the purpose of our Founders.
The last twenty-five years have seen an almost dramatic upsurge in membership and in zeal, betokening the continuing well-being of the Lodge.
Some of our Brethren, Past and Present.
All Brothers ln Freemasonry are of equal account but it is of our common humanity that some should be more equal than others, that some become primi inter pares. So a brief count of some of the Brethren of the Weald of Kent over the years is proper at this time and the selection of them cannot be accounted invidious, Our founding seven will remain immortal in our annals so long as the Weald of Kent lives. Their honoured place is the imperative of any record of our doings and for calls for nothing more to be said here.
The services to a Lodge of the Serving Brothers who act as Tylers must rank high in estimation, not just for securing the inviolability of our mysteries but because it is with the Tyler that the candidate for initiation come into first contact with what awaits him. The re-assurance gained from a sympathetic Tyler at the time of trial must be for most of us a grateful memory. In this respect the Weald of Kent has been most handsomely served.
Our first Tyler, Brother Albert Bailey, was invested by the Worshipful Master at the regular meeting on 23rd December 1880. He was in office for ten years, being succeeded by Brother Hatcher who served for fifteen years.
Then came the father-and-son epoch of the Vinalls, lasting for fifty seven years. Brother William R, Vinall was invested in 1905 and served for twenty three years, retiring in 1928 through ill health. In 1933 he was presented with a wheel-chair by the Lodge. He was succeeded by his son, another William, Brother Bill to all of us. Ever grateful for his kindness at the time of our ordeal and the diligence and style, salted with his own bluff, good humour, with which he discharged his office. None who saw the flourish of his sword of office as Brother Bill saluted the Worshipful Master after being invested at the Installation Meetings will forget those moments. Brother Bill retired from ill-health in 1962, having been in office for thirty three years,
Four of our initiates have completed over fifty years of membership.
Worshipful Brother A.J. Smith, P.M., P.P. Gr. Org., was initiated into the Lodge at the November meeting 1886, becoming Master in 1890 and again the following year. He also held office as Secretary and Organist, In l949 he was made Honorary Member of the Lodge and he later received the Lodge’s congratulations on completing sixty five years as organist and choirmaster of Tenterden’s St Mildreds.
Brother Claude V, Grant was initiated into the Lodge on l6th February 1916, returning from war service, he resumed regular Lodge attendance before going to London, from where he still made appearances in Lodge whenever possible. On retirement, Brother Claude took his place as “father” of the Lodge and, now in his vigorous eighties, rarely misses a meeting or committee attendance. Brother Claude heads the number of senior Lodge members, who, entertaining no envy of their zealous and industrious younger brethren as they attain office and proceed to higher dignity, are very content to occupy the back benches, knowing they can, and will, be duly called upon to give service to the Lodge out of their ripe experience.
Worshipful Brother H.E, Ward, P.M., P.P. Gr. Std Bearer, was initiated into the Lodge on the l5th January 1919, becoming Master in 1927 , In his later years W. Bro Ward lived at the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution Home at Chislehurst, where he was regularly visited by his Brothers from the Lodge and to which the Lodge presented £100 in 1974 to mark his hundredth birthday. He died the following year, having been a member of the Lodge for fifty six years. Worshipful Brother J. Rex Pearson, P.M., P.G. Std Bearer, P.J.G.D., was initiated on the 4th November 1925, was Master in 1937 and then served the lodge successively as Secretary, Almoner, Director of Ceremonies, Assistant D.C. and Tyler before being our Treasurer from 1950 to 1978. On the fiftieth anniversary of his initiation, the Lodge meeting on 19th November 1975 was attended by Worshipful Brother C.P. Rudyard, J.P., P.A.G.D.C., accompanied by Worshipful Brother W,A. Wotton, P.A.C.D.C., who paid tribute to W.Brother Rex’s services to Masonry in general and the Weald of Kent in particular. The Asst. P.M.G. presented him with a scroll commemorating his fifty years as a Mason and member of the Lodge and the Worshipful Master gave him a personal gift as token of the Lodge’s appreciation for all he has done in the Lodge.
The one tragedy occurring in Lodge during our hundred years is recorded in the minutes. At the regular Lodge meeting held 5th April 1944, the then Secretary of the Lodge, Worshipful Brother W, Milsted, collapsed while reading the minutes and died a few moments later. This was the meeting at which our present Lodge Secretary, Worshipful Brother George Forder, should have been initiated. Worshipful Brother George was in fact with Worshipful Brother Milsted in the lobby of the Town Hall when he passed away.
Two members of the Lodge have been honoured by Grand Lodge for their services to Masonry,
In 1920 Worshipful Brother H.M. Kingsland received the rank of past Grand Standard Bearer and in 193l Worshipful Brother Rex Pearson was honoured with the same rank. In I973 Worshipful Brother Rex was honoured again by Grand Lodge when he was promoted Past Junior Grand Deacon, a rare distinction indeed
EPILOGUE
Our founding seven petitioned that our Lodge be held at the time of the full moon, by the light of which members and their guests in trap, carriage or on horseback could safely return home. Nearly a hundred years later Brother W.A.H. Shanks undertook restoration work to the Lodge Warrant, telling us in lodge that he had placed a sealed envelope in the back of the frame, with a request that it not be opened until the Wednesday nearest the full moon in October 2019. The envelope contains an account of man’s first landing on the moon. The Weald of Kent Lodge in its hundred years of life has seen the world move from age of sail, steam and the horse to space travel. But in this hundred years of change greater than anything man has ever seen, the Weald of Kent Lodge has promoted and diffused in their pristine purity the genuine principles of the Craft, which are unchangeable and of time immemorial.
