Freemasonry in England and Wales is approaching its 300th birthday in 2017. During the course of those three centuries thousands of documents have been created by Masonic lodges. Local historians may well have come across some of them in local record offices or in specialist repositories. Now the Library and Museum of Freemasonry, based in London, has completed a survey of the whereabouts and types of material relating to freemasonry held by record offices around the country.
This covers, on the one hand, the records of individual lodges and chapters which have been deposited by their creating body and, on the other, the surviving lists of members of Masonic lodges submitted to the county magistrates and held among quarter sessions records under the 1799 Unlawful Societies Act. Whilst this is unlikely to be a complete record as it has relied on catalogued material available on the internet, it should provide a useful starting point for local historians.
Now local record offices and specialist repositories are invited to add relevant information or update details about records included in the surveys of lodge or chapter records held on deposit and about returns made under the Unlawful Societies Act in quarter sessions records. The Library and Museum aims to provide advice on Masonic terminology, ISAD(G) templates for common Lodge and Chapter records, with information about relevant resources such as Lane’s Masonic Records on-line which helps to identify Lodge meeting locations, to help colleagues catalogue such specialist records. The Library and Museum can also help to identify records and regalia relating to friendly and fraternal bodies, as many incorporated terminology associated with freemasonry but may not be Masonic in origin.
The survey is available on line at: http://www.freemasonry.london.museum/resources/information-leaflets/
The Library and Museum has also completed a much larger survey of the records held by all Masonic lodges and chapters in England and Wales. There are nearly 12,000 lodges and chapters, each holding records of their activities and membership. Some go back to the 18th century; most hold records going back to the foundation of the lodge in question. Returns were received from two thirds of the lodges and chapters surveyed and the survey details what records are held, their covering dates, their location and physical condition. This body of data - information was given on nearly 120,000 individual record items - provides an unrivalled source about the survival of a vast body of primary source material that can shed light not just on the Masonic community that created them but on the local communities in which freemasonry existed.
If you would like to know what surviving records there might be for a particular area or town contact the Library and Museum initially at:
The Library and Museum of Freemasonry
Freemasons' Hall
60 Great Queen Street
London WC2B 5AZ
Tel: 020 7395 9250
e-mail [log in to unmask]
www.freemasonry.london.museum
For more information about The Library and Museum of Freemasonry please visit the website. www.freemasonry.london.museum
Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask]
For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra
|