Page 95 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

Lodge of the Nine Muses 95

The first mention of the Institution for Girls in the minutes is in March 1838,
when notice of the Jubilee Festival was given, but no action is minuted. Bro. Dr
Whitsed, W.M 1836, is known however to have given a guinea in 1835.
The Masonic Institution for Boys appears rather earlier when, in December
1833, the Festival for March 1834 was referred to in Lodge, but again no action is
minuted. Bro. Thomas Harper had a hand in the Institution’s early stages.
In December 1842, there were “Laid before the Lodge the rules and regulations
ordered by Grand Lodge for the establishment of an Annuity Fund for the relief
of ‘Poor Aged and Infirm Free Masons allowing the Annuitants to reside where
they please’ ”, the germ of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution, which
reckons its foundation from that year. Nothing seems to have been done at the
time, but in April 1843 two Brethren became Life Governors of the “Annuity
Afsylum”.
In April 1840, Bro. R. E. Arden went up from the Lodge as a Steward for
the Institution for Girls, and in 1841 Bro. Pott for the Boys, and from that day
to this Stewards have been sent up to one or more of the three Charities nearly
every year; Bro. Warner, in 1858, is the first recorded Steward for the Benevolent
Institution. In years when a Steward from the Lodge was not sent up sums of 5
or 10 guineas were none the less voted.
From 1877 to 1929 it was the custom to send Stewards every year to all three
Charities, 5 guineas being voted to each. From 1930 onwards one Steward only
has been appointed annually and 15 guineas voted, the three Charities being
taken in turn. 30
On 11 May 1897, it was resolved “That in commemoration of the 60th
Anniversary of Her Majesty’s Accession to the Throne the amount collected
in the Charity box at the dinner on May 11th with an addition of £10. 10/-
to be contributed by the Lodge be subscribed to the Prince of Wales’ Hospital
Fund and that it be a recommendation to the Lodge to subscribe annually Five
guineas”, and another guinea was subscribed “towards the fund now being raised
for endowing a Masonic bed in Guy’s Hospital”.
The amount collected in the Charity box at the dinner was £8. 15s. 6d.; and the
subscription of 5 guineas to the Hospital Fund was repeated annually until 1922.

30 This was later designated a contribution to the ‘Master’s List’ and an additional 5 Guineas.
contributed from the Lodge funds. By degrees this was increased to £20 in 1973; £30 in
1987; £50 in 1990. From 1997, these became independent contributions of £50 to each
of two charities without reference to the ‘Master’s List’. By 2010 the disbursements include
several non Masonic recipients and have increased in total to over £4000 annually.