Page 166 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

166 An Account of the

At a Meeting of the General Committee ... on the 24th April, 1845 ... Bro. Mills
remarked on the unremitting care and assiduity of Mrs Frances Crook, the Matron of
the Charity for more than 40 years, during which long period she had never for one
day been absent from the great and arduous duties appertaining to her appointment.
It was decided to have her portrait painted by subscription, Lord Zetland, the
M.W. Grand Master, heading the list.
The painting was the work of “Mr Faulkner”, probably Bro. Benjamin R.
Faulkner, a contemporary portrait painter of repute. It shows the kindly, shrewd
and humorous old dame seated facing to the front, attired in frilled bonnet, tippet
and crinoline in the attractive mode of the period; beside her stands one of the girls
evidently chosen for her comeliness; a lively and delightful little performance. The
picture now hangs in the Dining Hall of the Girls’ School at Rickmansworth, near
the portrait of Bro. Crew, to whom Mrs Crook must have been well known.
Mrs Crook was Matron from 1807, when she succeeded a lady with the
appropriate name of Lovekin, till her death in 1854.
12 February 1856. “Read a Petition to the Grand Lodge and Board of General
Purposes for opening the Temple for purposes of the Craft.” No explanation can
be given by the writer, but there seems to have been some dissatisfaction about
this time with the accommodation at headquarters.
[14 April 1863) The W.M. informed the Lodge that on an emergency viz the
request of the Wardens and Deacons that no Lodge should be held on Tuesday
March l0th (the day of the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales) & the
consent of the other members of the Lodge, he had directed that the Lodge should
not meet on that day, according to the adjournment, having been first advised
at the Grand Secretary’s office that the Lodge would in no way be prejudiced.
The Prince of Wales was, of course, H.R.H. Prince Albert Edward, afterwards
King Edward VII, M. W. Grand Master, 1874-190I.
[8 December 1868] ... resolved that £5. 5- be subscribed by the Lodge towards
the Zetland Commemoration fund.
Thomas, second Earl of Zetland, was Grand Master from 1844 till his
retirement in December 1869. At the annual Grand Festival in the following May
a sum of £2730, the result of subscriptions, was presented to Lord Zetland. It was