Page 40 - Amo Amass A-muse is some of the fruit of a lifetimes love of Freemasonry - the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235

ThE NiNE muSES AND ThE R.m.i.G.

O DOUBT, YOU ARE ALL AWARE that our founder, the Chevalier
Bartholomew RUSPINI, was the Institutor, as he liked to call himself, of
Nthe Cumberland School, now the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls. It
was the first of our great Masonic Charities to be formed and it is a genuine Charity
because it is in no way a form of Insurance Policy which one day might assist any
one of us. He founded it in 1788, eleven years after he had founded our Lodge.
The first records we have of it are dated May 1788 and show that the Scheme was
solemnly inaugurated by Ruspini on March 25th 1788, significantly, exactly eleven
years to the very day of the date of our own warrant. Trustees, a House Committee,
a Treasurer and a Secretary were then appointed, and a Finance Committee was
added the following year. As the School opened its doors on or before lst. January
1789, only a short six months later, all are convinced that much of the work of
planning, canvassing for money and other forms of support must have been begun
before this formal organisation had been formed and it is known that there was a
printed List of Supporters issued previously but, alas, no copy now remains. Ruspini
must have had some organised assistance previously to have enabled his school to
have got off the mark in so short a time.
Historians consider that the heart of this planning had been centred in the Prince
of Wales’s Lodge No. 259, with the co-operation of the Lodge of the Nine Muses
and the Lodge of Rural Friendship, which was subsequently amalgamated with us.
Now, I believe that this is putting the Cart before the horse and I will tell you why.
The Prince of Wales’s Lodge was only founded the year before in April 1787,
its Warrant being dated the 20th August of that year when there were only eleven
members, including H.R.H. the Prince of Wales and his Chef. It is more likely
that they were busy getting their own Lodge going that year and, in any case,
planning is likely to have started before that Lodge was born. However, it was
obviously desirable, in order to obtain the support of the Prince of Wales and such
influential Masons as Thomas Dunckerley who had joined it, to make it appear that
his personal Lodge had been the chief support to Ruspini