Page 21 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

Lodge of the Nine Muses 21

Of the Brethren attending the meeting on 14 January 1777, Bro. John Hull,
who acted as R. W.M. on that occasion and afterwards became the first Master of
the Lodge, was a distinguished Mason.
According to an address given to the Lodge on 12 March 1895, by the
late learned Bro. Sadler, Grand Tyler, to which reference will be made again,

“he was appointed to the office of Junior Grand Warden in the year 1775. At
that time [Bro. Sadler continues] the only officers in Grand Lodge who were
changed every year were the Grand Wardens, indeed, with the exception of
the Treasurer, Secretary, and Sword Bearer, there were no other Grand Officers
.... Any brother, therefore, who was made a Grand Warden at that period must
have had some very strong recommendations both social and Masonic ... in
July 1780 he received the thanks of the Hall Committee ... as “Commanding
Officer, together with his Company, the 18th Royal Volunteers, for protecting
Freemasons’ Hall against the ‘outrages of the mob during the late riots’.”

These were the so-called “Gordon” riots of 1780, during which, owing to the
absence of an effective police and the supineness of the authorities, London was given
over for several days to a rabble who wrecked, burnt, and looted almost unchecked.
The list of members of the Lodge of Antiquity gives a John Hull, Hatter, 41
Holborn; as he was initiated in 1775 this can hardly be the same man, but such
rapid promotions were not unknown.
Bro. Raphael Franco, named in the Warrant as Senior Warden, presented, as
we have seen, the three magnificent candlesticks still in use. He was a merchant
in Fenchurch Street, and judging from his will must have been a very wealthy
man. He married a daughter of Baron d’Aguilar and had a numerous family;
descendants are to be found in the British peerage to-day. He was painted by
Gainsborough, and the portrait was sold some thirty years ago to America for
6200 guineas. He died in 1781.
The story of the Rev. Dr William Dodd is well known. A vain and
ambitious man, he gained a flattering reputation as a fashionable preacher,
was appointed chaplain to King George III, held in the easy manner of the
day a Canonry and several livings, and was advanced to the office of Grand