Page 79 - Amo Amass A-muse is some of the fruit of a lifetimes love of Freemasonry - the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235

Amo Amass A-Muse - Lodge of the Nine Muses 79

Thomas Harper, then our Secretary, was expelled by the Premier Grand Lodge. It starts
with an engrossed Declaration in which the original number of the Lodge, No. 502, is
given instead of No. 330 which was its number in 1805. At the Union its number was
421. That Declaration ends with — “in the presence of the Right Worshipful Master,
Wardens, Treasurer, Secretary, Stewards and Brethren of the same Lodge of Nine Muses
in open Lodge assembled.” Then come the signatures starting with Bro. Ruspini. After
the signatures of the year 1826, the Bye-Laws have been engrossed, which are the same
as those in the minutes of 1824. At the back of the book, starting the other way up, is a
declaration to be signed by Masters of the Lodge. Again, the Lodge number is given as
502. It also mentions that what has been promised by each Master continues — “until the
feast of St. John the Baptist or St. John the Evangelist, as either of these shall first happen,
and until a successor has been regularly elected in my room by the said Lodge.” At the end
in another hand it states — “Signed and sealed in open Lodge. This.... day of....1806.
The arrangement of these two declarations for Members and the Master is precisely
the same as that in a similar Book belonging to the Lodge of Antiquity, then No. 1, except
that the Lodge of the Nine Muses is No. 502. “ In the List of Lodges” — whereas the
Lodge of Antiquity is — “from time immemorial” — and instead of — “Stewards” —
Antiquity has — “Deacons”. Which Lodge copies which, or when, is hard to say.
Conclusions — Other than our Miniature Jewels, there are none which are descended
from before the Union. Afterwards, we adopted the Dove bearing the Olive Branch as the
Jewel and on the Wand for the badge of the Deacons, if for no other reason than because
this was the Crest of our reversed pre-Union leader, the Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini
who was the Institutor of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls.
I think that Stewards were a casual appointment to assist occasionally and only became
an official appointment in 1805. They were replaced by Deacons about 1820. There was
no Inner Guard until 1815. There was always a paid Tyler.
As regards the Symbolic Past Master. The work necessitated a Past Master or someone
skilled in the ritual to assist the Right Worshipful Master and ensure that the ceremonies
were properly conducted.
As today the I.P.M., so the P.M. in those days was something more than an Officer of
the Lodge.

P.J. D. July 1980