Page 142 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

142 An Account of the

The Lodge has a still older book – the Signature-Book – which antedates the
first Minute-Book by eight years. This contains thirty vellum leaves, 10½ by 6½
inches, and is bound in calf, blind-tooled, with a red morocco panel on the front,
lettered in gold with a gold-tooled border, and on it the words “MEMBERS /
INROLLED IN THE / RIGHT WORSHIPFUL / LODGE OF / NINE MUSES
/ 1806.’’ There are marbled end-papers, and one blank paper leaf at each end, water-
marked “GOLDING & SNELGROVE. 1806.”
It will be remembered that the Lodge ceased to meet for several years just
before this date; the new Signature-Book marks the resuscitation.
The book has been at some time roughly re-backed.
At the beginning is the following declaration, beautifully engrossed and
occupying a page and a half.
We whose names are hereunto subscribed having been regularly initiated into
the Mysteries of Masonry, agreeably to the Original Constitutions of the Order,
Do agree to uphold support and maintain those Constitutions as Landmarks not
to be removed and to preserve inviolable all the Antient Rights and Privileges of
the ffree Masons of England in Union with the Brethren of Scotland and Ireland,
as well as all the Rights and Privileges of the Right Worshipful Lodge of Nine
Muses being N 502 in the List of Lodges and do hereby promise due obedience
o.
and submifsion to every Bye-Law that is or may be regularly established in the
said Lodge consistent with the aforesaid Constitutions In Teftimony whereof
Witnefs our Hands at London the Year and Date underwritten In the presence
of the Right Worshipful Master, Deputy Master, Wardens, Treasurer, Secretary,
Stewards, and Brethren of The Lodge of Nine Muses in open Lodge assembled.
The first signature is that of B . Ruspini, followed by those of James Savage and
w
Charles Bonnor, all three under the date 1805, 14 December, John Gibson and Henry
Woodthorpe Junr., under 19 December, and under the 23rd Wm. Rawlins.
Of these neither Bro. Bonnor nor Bro. Gibson appears in the Grand Lodge
Register, and a number of names occur later which are likewise not to be found there.
These, with the two following, fill the bottom half of the page, below the
declaration: “1806, Feb 6th, Geo. Robertson; Feb 20, Waller Rodwell Wright.”