Page 20 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

20 An Account of the

and records were not systematically preserved as they are now.
In all probability there was no consecration; such a ceremony was unusual at
the time. The invaluable Freemasons’ Magazine for July 1796 gives the following
account of the ordinary procedure:
The Grand Master with his Officers, or the Master of any private Lodge
appointed by him, meet in a convenient room, and, being properly clothed, walk
in procession to the Lodge room.
The Lodge is opened in all the degrees of Masonry. A prayer being repeated in
due form, and an ode, in honour of the Society sung, the Grand Master (or the
Master in the chair) is informed “That a certain number of Brethren then present,
duly instructed in the mysteries of Masonry, desire to be formed into a new
Lodge, under his Worship’s (or the Grand Master’s) patronage; that a dispensation
had been granted them, by virtue of which authority they had assembled as
regular Masons; and that the transactions of their several meetings had been
properly recorded.” The petition is then read, as also the dispensation, and the
Warrant, or Charter, of Constitution granted in consequence of it. The minutes
of all the transactions of the new Lodge, while under Dispensation, are likewise
read, and being approved, they are declared regular and valid. Then the Grand
Master (or the Master in the Chair) takes the Warrant in his hand, and requests
the Brethren of the new Lodge to signify their approbation or disapprobation
of the Officers nominated in the said Warrant to preside over them. This being
signified accordingly, an anthem is sung, and an oration on the nature and design
of Masonry is delivered.

The Freemasons’ Magazine follows this with an outline of a consecration
ceremony, similar to that now in use though far shorter and less elaborate; but it
is noted that “This is never to be used but when specially ordered”.
It seems reasonable then to assume that some ceremony such as is first
described marked the inauguration of the Lodge of the Nine Muses.
The Warrant, it will be remembered, calls on Bro. John Hull, the Master named
therein, “to send an account in writing of what may be done by virtue of these
presents”. If Bro. John Hull did so what he wrote has not survived.