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The Rodney Lodge The Rodney Lodge [No 436] was founded in 1781 following a period of 13 years when Hull had had no lodge. There had been an abortive attempt to try and organise a lodge in 1779 by a comedian [actor] called Powell but nothing came of it. 1781 was a sombre time for Britain as it had just lost the American Colonies. One of the few to emerge with reputation enhanced was Admiral Lord George Rodney. He was given the highest professional honour the Royal Navy could bestow as Vice Admiral of Great Britain on the death of Hawke in that year. As a result and as was the custom he had many public houses named after him and probably Hull’s new Masonic lodge. The Rodney Lodge first met at The Bull and Sun [see previous section]. The full membership in 1799 was 47 brethren which is the earliest available figure, the lodge records being lost. [Only a cash book remains.] The first Worshipful Master was Benjamin Twigg, a gentleman and tallow chandler, who had been a member of the older lodge No78 which met at the George, Church Lane. He had maintained his active interest in Masonry by attending the Apollo lodge at York at no inconsiderable cost in time and money. Samuel Bean, a gentleman, was the Senior Warden and Thomas Fletcher the first Junior Warden. Thomas Fletcher was a painter who was employed by the Corporation on one occasion to paint the staves for the town’s constables, presumably decoratively, for which he got the princely sum of £7. It was Thomas who probably painted the Theatre Royal in Finkle Street for Tate Wilkinson in 1794. Of course he did much more than that for he became a well known marine artist. [It appears that Bean and Fletcher left and joined the new Minerva Lodge two years later] Early accounts show that it cost an initiate £3 and 5 shillings to be obligated into the mysteries of Freemasonry. Lodge expenses were low and most of the bills appear to have been paid to John Morris, the owner of the Bull and Sun. In 1800 he submitted a bill for £147 to them, perhaps for their farewell dinner there, but more likely the rent and drinks bill. Early returns for 1785-87show that an average of 14-15 candidates a year were entering the lodge, and that they were of an average age of 28 years [range 21-48yrs] which seems incredible in today’s world, where older and fewer candidates would be the rule. Most were from Hull, but some were mariners from other ports, and one came from Colchester. There was a scattering of professional men, mariners and tradesmen but only one gentleman, and a few merchants, and they not the wealthiest in the town. By 1799 moves were afoot to move from the public house to their own premises. The lodge now had a membership of 49 and the associated Royal Arch Chapter called “The Industrious” had 20 members at this time. Accordingly, a piece of land in Mytongate was leased from the Trustees of the Old Chapel in Dagger Lane [Rev. Robert Green] by the Trustees of the Rodney Lodge. The site was on the south side of Mytongate, a fashionable and busy street at the time. The land was an asset of the previous owners of the Chapel in Dagger Lane, who placed the land in Chancery rather than have the Swedenborgians, the current owners, sell it. The dispute was settled in due course in favour of the latter. A builder, a member of the lodge, Bro. Richard Richardson was engaged to erect the building. The Swedenborgians worshipped at the Chapel until 1841. One of their trustees was Dr. Benjamin Burnett [a Hull doctor since 1782] who lived in Albion Street in 1797 and paid £815 for his house in that fashionable area. Some of their trustees joined Masonry one being. George Willoughby, a shoe maker, who is listed as the Secretary of the Minerva Lodge in 1802. It was interesting that the Minerva Lodge, formed two years later than the Rodney, leased ground from the same source for its new lodge. The Lodge Trustees were Quarton Levitt, John Hendry, John Ward [a brewer and son of Thomas previously mentioned], William Shackles, Stephen Dickinson, George Chapman, and George Deeves. They bought a plot of land containing some buildings, of 21.5 ft frontage on Mytongate and 160ft in length stretching south, 580 sq. yards in all. By June 1800 the Lodge Trustees seem to have leased off the land over and above their requirements, to the builder Bro. Richardson for development. The ground rent initially payable to the Trustees of the Chapel was £52 and 10 shillings a year. By the 20th December 1802 the Chapel sold its land holdings on to a John Normand and his trustee, a woollen draper named Thomas Coltish, who collected this money and the £16 which The Minerva paid each year. The Swedenborgian Church is named after its founder Emanuel Swedenborg [1688-1772.] It is a small mystical sect and currently has about 1500 members in Gt. Britain. As many of its members believed in the abolition of slavery it would strike a chord in Hull at the time. One member, a Robert Hindmarsh wrote in 1789 about the concept of a free colony in Africa, which is what William Wilberforce advocated, as did the Quakers. Wilberforce’s dream became Sierra Leone, its capital Freetown, now twinned with Hull. Swedenborgism has some unconventional beliefs of an ecclesiastical nature. It was founded in England in 1787 and over the years has attracted some well known people including William Blake, Andrew Carnegie, Carl Jung, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and many more. The conservative Establishment looked upon the Swedenborgians as possible dissidents, as they did the Masons. Even the word free as in Freemason made them suspicious. The political radicalism of this religious group was said to have focussed upon an international movement of Freemasons, based in London. It is not perhaps surprising that such a group as the Hull Swedenborgians would be happy to sell or lease their spare land to the two local lodges. The lodge was set back from the road and was entered by means of a passageway called Lodge Entry [82 ft in length from the road]. Lodge Entry. By courtesy of Hull Museums. There was a small flagged courtyard in front and to one side of the building. The hall was 75ft in length and 28ft wide. It was made of brick and the conventional tiled roof, similar to the surrounding buildings. It was 2-3 stories high and there were 6 steps to the main door. The site was approximately 2000 square feet in area but the plans do not show how or even if, it was divided into different rooms. There are no known pictures of it, as it was set back and surrounded by other buildings, including a brew house. The whole area was not far from the Shambles, [the butchers’ meat market,] and the dump for the town’s refuse at South End. The surroundings would be somewhat odoriferous for it was said at the time[1800] that the town was never free from annoyance for the hot weather and whale blubber being over, they then had dirty streets and the smell of the sugarhouse to succeed them which was if anything worse . The opening ceremony at the Holy Trinity church was well attended and followed by a visit to the Guildhall. The event was reported in the Hull Advertiser for August 30 th 1800. Yesterday being the day appointed for the ceremony of dedicating the Freemasons hall in this town, built by the members of the Rodney Lodge, who with many others from different counties, assembled at the Guildhall. After forming the procession, [which exceeded anything of the kind ever witnessed in this part of the kingdom for splendour and propriety] they proceeded to the Holy Trinity church attended by many characters of eminence; prayers being read, several solemn pieces of music composed for the occasion were sung with happy effect; an excellent and suitable sermon was preached by the Rev. John Endwell AM with a clearness of articulation and dignity of elocution that we seldom witness.. After divine service the procession being reformed proceeded to the hall where the ceremony observed at the dedication of Freemason’s halls took place and the whole was concluded with that solemnity suitable for the occasion. After the dedication the procession again formed and proceeded to the Guildhall from whence it fell out; at 5 o’clock the procession returned to the Freemasons Hall where an elegant dinner was provided by the members of the Rodney Lodge for the occasion. The later part of the day was spent with their accustomed harmony and benevolence and ended with perfect order and decorum. The number of those who dined was near 200.The day was remarkably fine and a greater concourse of people we do not remember to have seen assembled together in the Market Place and the streets through which the procession passed since the famous Revolution Jubilee in the year 1788 . Opportunistically a new tavern, the Masons Arms opened adjacent to the Lodge Entry [Landlady Mary Clark, previously in the High St.] on 27 th Oct.1800. In this case the land was bought from the lodge by the builder Bro. Richardson, who presumably built the Mason’s Arms on it and then leased it out to Mary Clark as a good business venture. The early lodges had a number of inn holders in their ranks and some of these probably called their premises by Masonic names and displayed Masonic symbols, possibly to attract passing trade from mariners and such, in this busy port. Examples are the Sun, at Garrison side where a William Jubb advertised his beer with a trade card as shown. The Sun card. By courtesy Hull Museums Clearly there was some Masonic connection. The pub was convenient for the soldiers as well as for a military lodge, if one was still in the barracks at this time. In 1803 and 1808, the Knights of Malta lodge was in the local barracks. It was drawn from the 2 nd. Regiment of the Royal Lancashire Militia. Another example of a Masonic pub name was the Square and Compass in the High Street. The landlords of these two pubs were not known Masons. At first all seemed well and membership grew to an exciting 100 members. The Worshipful Master was Quarton Levitt, a wealthy woollen Merchant, and a keen Mason, whose eldest son was killed on his way to China, when, in a storm, a mast or spar fell on him and swept him overboard. Another son, Henry was a keen Mason also. By January 1803 WM Levitt was writing to Grand Lodge in London asking if unpaid dues to London were a legal obligation or a debt of honour only. This seems an uneasy portent for the lodge. It thus is not surprising that in eight years time the lodge was in serious difficulties, not paying its dues, barely viable and not even meeting. What went wrong? Competition from other lodges seems unlikely as there was only Minerva and itself in Hull. The Napoleonic war and blockade certainly affected trade and impoverished some of the members. As ever a war brings winners and losers and because Hull had an extensive Baltic and Continental trade and little elsewhere, it was particularly badly hit . Bankruptcies in the licensed trade were common as there were 194 pubs competing for trade; mariners would be affected too as were small merchants. These were a large part of the membership. Masons may have died or left but it seems likely that financial mismanagement and inflated overheads were partly to blame. The Lodge tried to help the suffering brethren and may have impoverished itself in so doing. This brought the Rodney Lodge to the edge of disaster. One economy the Worshipful Master of the Rodney made in the bad times was to double the fee for visitors from 1 shilling to 2 shillings. This would solve nothing as visitors must have been fairly sparse, even allowing for casual visits from Masons passing through the town on business and visits from the East Yorks Militia Lodge. Times were so hard for some in Hull that one man George Gowthorpe of Patrington sold his wife in the Market Place, Hull for 20 guineas in 1806. He delivered her in a halter to the new owner Mr. Houseman. [Sheahan] Whether hardship was the motive we will never know. William Shackles later became the landlord of the Rodney Lodge and as he was only a trustee at first, perhaps he lent the lodge money against the security of the premises. William Shackles was a linen draper in Hull. He resided at 5 Castle St, near the old Cock and Crown site, and had a shop in Market Place. He had an interest in other businesses, such as the whaling trade and property, owning and selling houses including some in Summergangs in 1818. He lived to a healthy 82 years until 1838. Quarton Levitt died aged 54 years. He had become the Grand Seal Keeper at York Province in 1805 as recognition of his services to Masonry. Later from 1810 finances appear to have been even more difficult. Perhaps the Minerva or Humber Lodges competed for members but all three lodges seemed to suffer from a declining membership, poor attendances and money troubles. By 1816 the Rodney Lodge appears to have not met or paid any dues to Grand Lodge for four years. The fees due to Grand Lodge were 2 shillings a year per member towards the Masonic Benevolent Fund, and 10 shillings and 6 pence for registering a new Mason. In 1817 the Rodney appears to have had a meeting to sort out it problems. Bro. Shackles was threatening them with the bailiffs if the long overdue rent was not paid. From this meeting a split ensued, from which some of its members formed the Phoenix Lodge. They did not wish the affairs of the lodge to be decided over their heads by certain of the solvent members, or those who had shares in the building or trustees of it. In July 1819 an attempt was made to re float the Rodney Lodge by ten of the brethren who presumably had been trustees or solvent, under the direction of WM Bro. Howard . By 27 th December on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, there was a dinner for 23 members and 5 visitors. Their landlord William Shackles became a joining member of the reformed lodge shortly thereafter. A few months later the lodge was again in financial difficulties and it was suggested to the WM that as he was liable for the rent, that as a guarantor he should pay it and that everyone would help in the future. [WM Howard lived in a nice new house no 47 in Mytongate with his housekeeper of many years, Mary Mallender. There were six bedrooms which seemed excessive for a bachelor.] The WM was under whelmed by the proposal that he pay the overdue rent himself and then have to rely on the others to subscribe enough for the lodge to overcome its cash-flow problems. He barely attended thereafter. He then joined the Phoenix Lodge but left Masonry soon after. Bro.Shackles may or may, not have got his money but the lodge was finished. On 20 th May 1820 a letter was received by Grand Lodge signed by Howard, three Attorneys, William Shackles and others, seven in all, asking that they be excused past fees because of their financial difficulties, and that they had redecorated the hall at their own expense whilst trying to refloat the lodge. They wanted past dues that had been unpaid to Grand Lodge to be cancelled. Grand Lodge were not sympathetic. The last recorded meeting took place on 8 th December, 1820. Bro. Howard hung on to the Warrant [a certificate from Grand Lodge to an individual lodge enabling it to hold meetings and make Masons where it is displayed.] and would only return it on a payment of £8. History does not record as to whether Grand Lodge ever paid up. The lodge was finally erased on 5 th Sept.1838. Of interest is the fact that Brother William Shackles filed for bankruptcy in 1826. This was not uncommon in the drapers’ trade. No doubt the wealth that he had once had deserted him as the recession gripped Hull, or perhaps his whaling investment failed. This was probably the reason why the Masonic Hall appeared to be now owned by Robert Ward Gleadow. The lodge room which was described as elegant and commodious was turned over to concerts and public meetings and initially was rented out for various Masonic and non Masonic functions. The Phoenix lodge used it for a time as did the unofficial Rodney past members, and those from the Minerva Lodge who were meeting there secretly. It may be that Shackles had bought the premises from the other Rodney trustees as an investment. It may also be that Gleadow had seized it from him at some stage perhaps following Shackles’ bankruptcy. Mountebanks [clowns] had used the premises in 1816 and rope dancing exhibitions were recorded. It was the misuse of the place by these people that had caused the need for redecoration, which had been the final nail in the coffin of the Rodney Lodge revival. It was then used for some years by a debating club, the Atheneum, and there was a sporadic use for such items as a panorama of the last six years of Napoleon’s life, which was displayed there in 1822. In August 1827 there were lectures on the steam engine by Thomas Johnson at the hall, including one on Hero’s steam engine. Hero [20-62AD] was a Greek mathematician and scientist who invented the Aeolipile, a rotating steam engine that had no practical use. Watt would have approved. James Watt, father of steam, with no previous knowledge of organ building and no instruction, built an organ for a Glasgow Masonic lodge which worked perfectly. He also introduced some original ideas to this craft. [Uglow] In 1831- 32 the Hull Choral Society met to rehearse there once a month and was accompanied on occasion by the old Rodney Lodge organ. There would be few Masonic organs around when the Rodney acquired one probably between 1800 -1805. George Lambert the organist to the Holy Trinity church was certainly a member by 1802. [See later] In 1831 the first meeting was held in Hull to start a Temperance movement. The movement was formally opened in Hull in 1846 in a hall, the Temperance Hall, in Paragon St. In 1838 four ladies from Leeds came to lecture on Temperance at the Freemasons Hall in Mytongate. Women were not allowed to speak in the churches but were free to do so in Freemasons lodges. In 1838, a Mr. Vincent, a locally born Chartist spoke here to a women’s meeting and in 1843 an Irish speaker, Mr. West, addressed 300 people on radical affairs. In 1841 an anti socialist lecture was delivered on the 19 th March and in 1848 a Chartist meeting on 21 st. April. On Christmas Day in 1848 Freemason Henry Levitt chaired a meeting of the Sculcoates Temperance Society at the Mechanics Institute during which tea only was served. Happy Christmas! Another Mason, Henry Blundell led a temperance meeting in 1854 when a famous American temperance speaker JB Gough appeared. It is not surprising therefore that with these connections the Masonic Hall was bought by the temperance followers and the Masons got rid of an encumbrance. Clearly premises on a grander and more commodious scale befitting an expanding Hull were desirable than could be supplied by the Freemasons Hall. The Secretary for the appeal for new Assembly Rooms [now the New Theatre, in Jarrett Street] in 1827 was T W Gleadow. A Mason from Minerva, ST Hassell was very involved in the new building proposals and Messer’s Eglin, Edward Foster Coulson [son of the original WM of Minerva], George Coulson, H. Blundell and R.W. Gleadow were among the subscribers. [Hull Advertiser] Eventually when the hall was sold to the new Temperance movement it was renamed Temperance Hall. It appears on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1853 as the Temperance Hall. In 1854 a presentation of a gold timepiece and silver ink stand was made to Frederick Hopwood, the President of the Temperance movement in the Mytongate Hall. He died soon after. The Salvation Army bought Temperance Hall in 1881. This must have been one of the earliest Salvation Army meeting places in Hull. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, had become an ordained Methodist Minister in Hull in 1858, some time before he split away and formed his own movement. The now, Salvation Army barracks, was sold to T. Linsleys, a bottling plant, in 1896, as the success of the Salvationist movement had resulted in larger premises being necessary. It seemed a surprising sale for the teetotal Salvationists to have made. The premises were extensively altered and used as a store for ale and porter, wine and spirits for many years. The temperance workers and Salvationists must have turned in their graves at such a change of use of their premises, but perhaps not the Masons. The buildings were later demolished in a slum clearance programme, well after the Second World War, to make way for a new wider Castle Street leading out of Hull. The site of the old Masonic hall is to be found nowadays partly under the pavement of Castle St, partly under new offices and other buildings, between Sewer Lane and the Dockside, and nearly opposite Dagger Lane. The Rodney Lodge from the air in 2008. Google Earth. Did the Rodney Lodge have any celebrated men in its ranks? Yes. One of the Masons in the 1800 membership list was Angus ‘But’ Sadler. He was a celebrated whaler and In 1804 Sadler had made the all time record catch of 44 whales on the Aurora. He was also the Captain of the Molly. In 1806 this was captured by the French and burnt. He retired in 1817 after 20 successive annual voyages, catching an average of 18 whales a trip. The ship Molly belonged to the Eggintons and a painting of this ship, the Molly was executed by Thomas Fletcher of the Minerva Lodge. The painting remains in Hull. Brewers and innkeepers seemed to be drawn to Freemasonry and the Rodney Lodge. James Dossor was a well known brewer at this time, having premises in Chapel Lane, William Popple was in High Street and, John Clarkson, who died in 1817 aged 74, was licensee at the OldWhite Hart in Silver Street. He was badly burnt and his daughter killed in a fire there in 1809. He was High Constable for Hull for 30 years and Sheriff’s Officer for the county of York. All were listed as innkeepers and all had interests in breweries as well. Robert Peck, a printer, is noteworthy. He was the owner and publisher of ‘The Packet’ a very early Hull newspaper with conservative leanings, founded in 1787. The office was in Scale Lane. Such people as Peck were bound by the Unlawful Societies 1799 Act which partially affected the Freemasons. At one time Peck employed William Etty [1787-1849] as an apprentice. Etty recalled Hull later, as a town of mud and train [whale] oil. He was from York and became a celebrated painter of the naked female figure, or as was said in those days the poetic painter of the human form. He served a seven year apprenticeship with Peck, starting at the age of 11 1/2years old. He worked more than a six day week, awoke at 5am and often worked until midnight before’ The Packet’ was published on a Monday. Of his master Peck, he said that he was devoted to business so as to make a fortune, which he did, only to retire in middle life [45years] on medical grounds, living just five months longer. He was laid to rest for ever in 1819, near the Altar in Holy Trinity Church. Hull. Benjamin Gale was a limner [illustrator] and colour artist whose work was well known to the local public. He was a friend of Julius Caesar Ibbotson an artist of national repute discussed elsewhere. Gale was born in Whitby in 1741 and lived an active life; dying in Bridlington in 1832 He too achieved provincial honours at York as Grand Artist 1804 and Grand Architect in 1805. One of his best known engravings is that of “King Billy” in the Market Place. The early ranks of the Rodney Masons contain four medical names. Alexander Bertram MD was an Edinburgh graduate of 1777. He was one of the first physicians of the new General Infirmary and resigned in 1793. He died in 1808. He left a valuable collection of books which may have helped to form the nucleus of the Hull Medical Society’s library. Another was George Fielding, a surgeon at the same institution from 1803. He had been in partnership with Benjamin Burnett, the Swedenborgian doctor in 1798. Perhaps this connection helped secure the land for the new Masonic hall. His marble bust [by Keyworth] stood proudly in the hall of the Hull Infirmary until 1967 when it was, along with the busts of other luminaries, stored in the basement of the Princess Royal Hospital. The old brass plaques, listing previous donors to the funds of the hospital, were also deposited there. This was a blow for tradition, but the new hospital in 1967 did not sit easily with the old trappings and no one knew quite what to do with these relics from the past. Only the statue of Alderson is displayed today. George Fielding’s’ son, a doctor ,is still in the Guinness Book of Records [ 1981]for recording the highest ever shade temperature in the UK, in the Summer of 1868 ,a magnificent 38.1degees Centigrade [100.5F.] This may now have been surpassed. Dr. Richard Swann became a freeman in 1796 and married in 1801 in Hull, the daughter of Francis Hall who was a wealthy merchant, influential in the affairs of Trinity House. Swann died in 1802, sadly a very short life and career. Hall lived until 1833, dying at the ripe old age of 85. Lastly there was a Thomas Dennison who was a surgeon in Bishop Lane in 1782-1799. [Bickford] The Rodney resurrected the flame of Freemasonry in the town and brought elements of respectability to it after the poor start some years earlier. The worthy attempts to have its own hall, as opposed to hostelries, was probably beyond its financial means and it was gradually dragged down, oddly enough the coup de grace being administered by a Mason, and probably an original trustee Brother Shackles. It died de facto in the same year that the King George the Third died, in 1820. Introduction: Freemasonry and Acknowledgements
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Richard Hayton 2009 |
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