THE HUMBER LODGE

Over the years there has been much discussion about the origins of the Humber lodge. The original Warrant of 1756 was reissued to a new lodge, the Ancient Knights Templar [no 53] on 17 th April 1775 at the Buck and Dog tavern in Strand Street, Liverpool. This lodge was suspended in 1807 for irregular and anti social behaviour over several years, so when some members of the order wanted to form a lodge in Hull, with the encouragement of members of local military lodges temporarily stationed in Hull [the Knights of Malta Lodge [no 120] attached to the 2 nd Regiment of Royal Lancashire Militia and an unnamed lodge [no215] Royal Regiments of Cumberland Militia] they were able to purchase this Warrant from the non-functioning Ancients lodge in Liverpool. Such purchases were not unknown.

Warrant of Humber Lodge 1775 (originally issued1756)

Courtesy of T. Fisher and the Humber Lodge.

Courtesy of M.J. Philips.

It was delivered to a T. Larard, a watchmaker for 5 guineas [He was probably the father of the Thomas Larard who features later.] The lodge in Liverpool had been called the Ancient Knight Templar and the new Hull lodge bore the same name. The new lodge, founded in 1809, flourished under the WM William White, a master mariner. In 1810 it seemed preferable to the members to rename it the Humber Lodge. 208 members were initiated in the first 10 years, in spite of which the lodge experienced financial difficulties. A letter from WM William Seymour to Grand Lodge is preserved there, indicating that they needed help to relieve the financial problems of a visiting brother who had been incarcerated in Hull’s gaol. The writer could have been William R. Seymour, a whitesmith, who had been the Master of the Minerva Lodge in 1798.

In 1813 the Ancients and Moderns united. Their differences had been mainly of a minor nature in ritual, installation ceremonies and the Royal Arch degree. [A Royal Arch Chapter was formed in 1811 in this lodge.] The differences between the Ancients and Moderns nationally may have been relatively small but it took time to heal the rifts for much bitterness of feeling had developed over the years. There were a few teething troubles between the Humber [Ancients] and the Rodney and Minerva [Moderns] such as the harmonisation of initiation fees and visiting recognition rights. Such problems were gradually resolved. WM Seymour wrote to Grand Lodge saying that they could not afford to attend a Lodge of Reconciliation in London. In fact none of the northern lodges attended.

There were only 28 members in 1815 in spite of many new members having been initiated. Perhaps resignations were numerous or there was a failure to pay subscriptions, and an unwise level of expenditure, but clearly money was tight.

In 1816 a military lodge no 426, [previously no333A] of the 92 nd Regiment, was stationed in Hull. It was an Ancients lodge and no doubt would attend the meetings of the Humber Lodge. It was erased in 1832 from the roll of the Grand Lodge.

In 1817 the Treasurer [a previous member of the Minerva Lodge] was privately of the opinion that the lodge needed members of more probity, power and influence than those that drank the assets of the lodge into debt. [Coltman Smith]. The lodge had many seafaring brethren! Things got worse during 1817-1819. James Stothard was the WM from 1817-1821. He clearly did not fulfil the role well and it is to be supposed that the lodge hardly met. He kept no records for three years. He was dismissed for financial irregularities and the lodge now virtually penniless had to sell most of its assets in 1819, raising £67 -15 - 11 d, and then later regroup under Robert Brown. At this time the active membership was 10 and by 1820 it was to all intents a dead lodge.

The lodge met at the Fleece [landlord George Blythe], an inn tucked away out of sight behind the frontages of shops in the Market Place. There they stayed until 1821. From 1819-1821 meetings were infrequent and badly attended. The Fleece continued in business until 1915 when it was destroyed by a bomb dropped by a Zeppelin. Davis, the draper next door was also totally destroyed. Edwin Davis was a Mason in the Minerva Lodge in 1861 and a founder of the Kingston Lodge in 1864. The unlucky landlord, one Demetrious Frank survived in the cellar with his family, but the pub which had been one of the oldest in the Town was no more. Frank had been a well known Rugby league player in 1897playing for Hull Rugby club. He made 153 appearances for them and played for Yorkshire.

Damage from Zeppelin bomb in 1915.

From Jordan G.J. the Story of Holy Trinity Parish Church.

Humber Lodge moved, perhaps for a lower rental, to the Black Swan in Dock Street in 1821. The membership was then 11. This was the public house to which Mary Clark had gone as landlady in 1803, [after leaving the Masons Arms in Mytongate]. There, the Warrant was retrieved on 22nd November 1822, under intriguing circumstances. The landlady had been looking after the Warrant for the Treasurer and was talked into giving it to the WM Robert Brown against the strict instructions of the Treasurer not to give it to anyone but himself. The latter had been holding it as security against a debt owed to him by the lodge. The Treasurer complained at this trickery so the Provincial Grand Master Dundas suspended the Warrant and instituted an enquiry. Membership was then down to 12.

William Crow, who was the WM of the Minerva in 1823, was helpful to them during the subsequent enquiry. The suspension was lifted after eleven months, with assistance from Crow. In 1824 he became a member of Humber.

By 1823 the lodge members and the Black Swan had parted company. They then rented the sky parlour at the Turks Head in Mytongate, a few doors from the Rodney lodge and nearer to the Minerva Lodge in Dagger Lane and Prince Street. The landlord was one Joseph Jarvis who held the pub between about 1823 -1834. The attendance in this garret was a paltry six or seven so the Lodge must have been on the edge of closing at this point. The illustration shows the Turks Head on Mytongate opposite the bottom of Dagger Lane circa 1885.The windows of the sky parlour can still be seen - just.

The Turks Head.

By courtesy of Hull Museums.

Disaffected members of the Minerva lodge got together with the owner of the Masonic Hall in Mytongate, one Bro. Shackles who also possessed the Warrant. They met there clandestinely in 1820-22, because the Rodney was defunct at that time. One of them was William Crow from the Minerva who held different views about the running of the Minerva from some of his fellow members. He and several brethren from there plus a few scattered Rodney members tried to run Masonic meetings for 2 years. However Grand Lodge would not recognise them unless they paid off the debts that the Rodney Lodge owed to Grand Lodge. They were but 30, the debt large and the rent high, so they abandoned this scheme of forming a more disciplined lodge with better ritual. The group slowly infiltrated the struggling Humber Lodge and eventually took it over. Crow became WM after 8 months and Humber slowly grew but there were still only 12 active members by 1825. At this time some lodge furniture and items such as glasses were bought from the now defunct Rodney Lodge. The working of ritual became more important than the measure of the intake of alcohol. The Crow and Feetam influence was beginning to bite. Feetam was another who joined the Humber Lodge in November 1824, whilst still with the Minerva and before the main exodus of 1827. Larard, who joined the Humber Lodge from Minerva in February 1825, presented a sword to the Humber Lodge in 1826. Both Feetam and Larard gave long and useful service to Masonry. Another brother was Robert Roach, a master mariner, who had originally joined Humber in November 1824, whilst still a member of Minerva. He resigned the latter in 1827. He soon caused trouble in the Humber Lodge, possibly in relation to blackballing candidates and consequently was excluded. Roach was in a business with Crow because Crow was the part owner of a ship the Packet in 1825, along with the Clarke’s, his cousins. The captain of the ship was one Robert Roach. He bought out the Clarke’s and Crow in February 1828 before selling out in his turn to Joseph Gee. The ship was later lost in Northern waters in 1837[Hull Archives shipping register].

It is likely that Crow introduced Roach to masonry but in 1827, aggrieved at being excluded from the Humber Lodge Roach got his revenge against the lodge and the Craft by revealing Masonic secrets to all who would listen and by advertising Richard Carlile’s book on Masonic ritual which revealed the full ritual and secrets. Grand Lodge deemed it wiser to starve the situation of the oxygen of publicity until it all eventually went quiet.

Carlile, publisher and printer, was a free thinking reformist and agitator who spent much time in jail for his views, but he was probably the first to successfully fight for the freedom of the press in those times. He was an Atheist who thought to bring down Christianity by exposing Masonry as empty tomfoolery so that he could by analogy expose Christianity as being the same. His book was so accurate that many Masons used it as a training manual for their ritual.

Roach clearly would be excluded from Masonry and there is no mention of him again in Masonic circles for some time. It is not recorded how Crow reacted to this exclusion of his friend and colleague. Roach disappeared without trace until 1839 when properties in Middle St and the Golden Ball pub in Grimsby Lane were involved in transactions involving a Roach. Oddly enough a Robert Roach was involved in a property deal with a William Crow in 1845 and the land was in Bush Dyke Close, adjacent to the Humber Lodge. Crow had been dead for several years by then. Such is the hand of coincidence. Even more odd is that Roach also appears in the 1831 Directory for the first time and is listed as living next door to Crow in 24 Nile St, where he stayed for the next several years. His name occurs sporadically in property deals thereafter. It is possible that they shared a house, as the numbering in directories of the time was not always accurate. A Robert Roach, master mariner existed in Hull for some years, possibly his son, or another of the same name and occupation. The Kingston Lodge register reveals that a Robert Roach, master mariner, from the Pilots office, an ex member of the Humber Lodge joined in 1887 and resigned in 1892.

It was recognized by all the lodges that amalgamation was an attractive concept but none wanted to occupy the others’ site. The result was that nothing ever came of it until on 23 rd Mar.1827 Minerva and Humber met under the chairmanship of William Crow to formulate plans for building a new lodge. This followed a luminous speech by Bro. Larard at a Humber meeting on 21 st March 1827, at which he proposed that members of the Humber and Minerva Lodges should unite for the purpose of erecting a’ Free’ Lodge. This was seconded by Bro. Feetam. Many Minerva members had reservations about the scheme so Humber went ahead on its own and 5 days later bought land from a Mrs Osborne to build on. Mrs. Sarah Osborne, the daughter of Mr. William Jarratt, thrice Mayor of Hull, was given the land as a dowry when she married Robert Osborne, the Recorder for Hull in 1793. They lived at ‘Braffords’ near Riplingham. She sold this land in Osborne St. to the Lodge soon after Robert Osborne died in 1826, for she had 3 unmarried daughters to support. Bro. Thomas Kidd, a builder from 29 Dock Street and a member of the Minerva Lodge had an estimate of £340-7s-2d accepted to build the new lodge on April 19th against competition from Bro. Appleyard of Minerva. Both were building houses in the area at the time. In the meantime the Humber Lodge fell out with the landlord of the Turks Head, Joseph Jarvis, who had been one of their members since 1823. When they gave notice of their plans to move, he was unhappy at the threatened loss of income which, though it appeared slight, must have been significant to him. [These were difficult times for trade, amidst strong competition from many public houses in what was a severe depression.] When the Lodge next met on 1st. April 1827, there was a hostile atmosphere. The landlord, Jarvis pointed out that the Warrant was not on display and so the lodge could not conduct any business. This was rectified when the WM produced it and tied it around his waist! At the end of the meeting Jarvis demanded that the Warrant be left on the premises on display. It was clear that he wished to obtain it so that he could prevent the Lodge meeting anywhere other than at his establishment. He had arranged for the police to be present and two constables had appeared, to keep the peace while he seized the Warrant, when the meeting finished at 11.30pm. The WM was temporarily arrested but was soon released. Jarvis, when thwarted, had told them to clear out and take their furniture with them. He then accused the brethren of removing some of his furniture. This provocation resulted in some riotous behaviour by the brethren who, perhaps, were not entirely sober. The new candidate that evening, William Thomas Hill, who worked for the Hull Gas Company, had to help remove the lodge furniture, an unusual start to his Masonic career. The shock of it all may have shortened his Masonic career for he soon left. The Masonic furniture was taken by the members to Feetam’s house at 62 Mytongate which was nearby. Joseph Jarvis attended the Phoenix Lodge the next day supported by Bro. Ridsdale of the Humber Lodge, giving his version of events and complaining about the behaviour of the Humber Lodge members. This caused some friction between Phoenix and Humber on the issue [Shackles]. The Phoenix Lodge members feeling that the good name of Masonry was being dragged into the mud wrote a letter of complaint to Grand Lodge and were duly reprimanded for their pains.” One lodge should not complain publicly about another, only through Provincial Grand Lodge “They were rebuked for their extremely turbulent and quarrelsome spirit in the letter. There was an enquiry by W Bro. Beverley when Jarvis was also reprimanded and apologised. The outcome of the enquiry was reported at the next Humber Lodge meeting on 2 nd May 1827. At this meeting certain names were proposed for membership and Bro. Charles Wilson announced they were going to be blackballed. Bro. Roach was heard to say Damn Grand Lodge it is all humbug and a catch penny. Bro. Ridsdale who was the most senior and a founder member of the lodge was also disrespectful, as was Jarvis. The WM settled things down but all four were rebuked. This little group who supported the Landlord in his desire to keep the lodge meeting at the Turks Head were probably more interested in the social side of Masonry, than the other members, who wanted more emphasis on ritual and their own premises. At a later meeting in May they were excluded from the lodge for attempting to get their own way by threatening to bring down the lodge by blackmail. The first attempt at defeating a majority decision by blackmail was thus snuffed out. Some of them appeared as visitors occasionally, in later years and Charles Wilson certainly was involved with Humber Lodge affairs. It is possible that Bro. Jarvis became a member of Minerva shortly after leaving Humber. There was a Mason of that name there in 1836, as Senior Warden. Jarvis’s wife ran the Turks Head until 1838. Perhaps he had had enough.

Soon after, in 1828 there was more trouble because three members, Bros. S.S. Walton, aged 32, a ship builder, Thomas Larard, aged 30, a watchmaker and jeweller, probably the son of the first SW of this lodge [Larard is listed as having come from the Royal Regiment Cumberland Militia of Hull No 270 originally], and Thomas Kidd aged 24, the builder[who joined Humber on June 6 th 1827], hatched a plot to blackball every new candidate and thus bring the lodge to its knees. Three black balls were needed to prevent a candidate’s name going forward and so if they united they could prevent any new members joining or being initiated and thus slowly drive the lodge into extinction. They seemed an unlikely set of allies. There were only two candidates accepted, one in February and one [Kelly an actor] in March. After that there were none which suggests that the plotters were beginning to implement their threat. On May 26th a resolution adopting new Bye-Laws had been proposed by the WM and adopted. When this blackballing situation became known there was an emergency meeting at which the plotters themselves were excluded, on the grounds that they were capable of blackballing everybody. This was held on July 4 th. The three were excluded under these new Bye-Laws. At this emergency meeting of July 4th further amendments to the Bye Laws were passed relating to the exclusion of members and the taking of minutes in Lodge other than by the Secretary. No doubt the three appealed, for they had been excluded by new rules which were not valid at the time of their expulsion. Following an enquiry by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, W.Bro. Beverley and communication with Grand Lodge, this exclusion was not confirmed, the charge being too vague and against “natural justice”. This information was communicated to Bro. Walton but Bro.Thomas Feetam, without even seeing it, claimed the letter a forgery and would not allow it read out to the lodge. The latest Bye Laws of July 4th were then confirmed on July 30 th. After these changes in the Bye Laws were confirmed, there was a meeting at which these three, Walton, Larard and Kidd resigned. They did this before they could be excluded, on the grounds that they had rebelled against a majority decision. They had seemed to be active and respected new or relatively new members. The reason for their behaviour is unknown but may have been connected with the election of Bro. John Ridgeway to some office within the lodge. Walton implied in writing, that Ridgeway was not a proper Mason but there may have been some disappointment on his side at not being elected himself. Larard may well have objected to the new rules. Larard’s later behaviour in the Minerva Lodge suggests that he was someone who might be inclined to pursue small points of procedure. He was also a local political activist for the Liberal Party. Kidd possibly lost the contract for building the new lodge and might well have been resentful. Widespread blackballing seemed rather an extreme response. Their threat clearly was not seriously implemented before they were somewhat hastily and harshly excluded. It was probably a bluff that went wrong. Nevertheless there were no new members from April to September of that year, 1828.

Walton and Kidd had defected from the Minerva Lodge earlier in support of Crow. Walton and Larard were even trustees of the new building and signed the deeds as such. Larard had been a member since 1825, but Walton only joined on the 6 th June 1827 at the same time as Kidd. They are not mentioned as trustees in the Humber Lodge records, presumably because they had severed their membership with the lodge. Of the three, Bro’s Walton and Larard returned to the Minerva Lodge where they gave long and useful service. Kidd disappeared from view.

The Humber Lodge having collected its Warrant from the Turks Head went briefly to the Humber Tavern at 31 Humber St [later called the Alexander Inn] but finally settled at the Neptune Inn in Chariot Street until their new lodge was built. The new lodge was to cost £340 and the land £204. The generosity of Crow in particular, Feetam and presumably Bro. Eglin, a local merchant, ensured that they soon reached their immediate target and could proceed with the building.

On 7 th May 1827, there was a ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone at which 100 people gathered before dining at the Neptune Inn. Under the foundation stone was laid a lead lined box which contained several brass plates [including one from Ward’s father in law see later] containing the names of Crow, Larard, and Walton. The latter two were originally trustees before resigning. Amongst the coins placed in the box was a copper token which was minted in Hull to replace the shortage of coin in the Napoleonic wars. These coin tokens were never redeemed. John. K. Picard, who minted them, eventually went bankrupt with major gambling debts owed to the Prince Regent, [later George the 4 th.] Pickard’s house, bought in 1838 by W.E. and B.M.Jalland, was on the site where Holderness House now stands, in Holderness Road, Hull. B.M. Jalland [Mayor of Hull in 1836 and 1846] was instrumental in bringing in James Clay as an MP for Hull. The box was dug up 133 years later when workmen were clearing the site after the bombing in the 1940’s, and were digging the foundations for Telephone House in Carr Lane and Ann Street. The box was presented to the Lodge in 1960. [Hull Daily Mail 22/12/1960]A faded picture of the box and contents still exists in the newspapers files but the quality does not merit reproduction.

Four months later, on 19 th Sept.1827, the building was complete. It was a simple, one storey building of a small size. The Temple was 50ft. long and 25 ft. wide, an area 1250 square feet, with an entrance porch way added on. The land cost a guinea a square yard. Compared with the much larger building in Mytongate it was more modest than the claims of its builders warranted though it was in a new and better location. It was reported as being very elegant within, and with a good organ built in 1833. The organist was George Lambert, one of a family of organists who served at Beverley Minster and in his case Holy Trinity Church, Hull. [Smith R.] This he did for 48 years until his death in 1838 at the age of 70 years. When he started in Hull in 1789, there were only two organs in the area, neither of them Masonic. It is stated that George Lambert was an old fashioned organist and a poor choir master but he was a staunch Mason and when he died the Masons of the Humber Lodge of which he was a member and the Minerva Lodge members, combined to put a memorial tablet to him in the south wall of the Holy Trinity church Inscribed:

Though like an organ now in ruins laid,

Its stops disordered and its frame decayed,

This instrument, ere long new tuned shall raise

To GOD its builder notes of endless praise .

He had played the organ for the Rodney and possibly the Minerva Lodges as well as the Humber and given long and faithful service.

It seems likely that Crow and friends [including an earlier Treasurer of the Humber to whom the lodge owed money], had ambitions to have a splendid lodge made up of brethren who were wealthier and better connected than the previous members. They wanted members who would advance the prestige and power of the lodge, and not constantly be in a state of penury. In this they succeeded. Humber was solvent, well managed, and the membership grew rapidly but not just at the expense of the other lodges. “Its members were able to congratulate themselves on the seaworthiness of their ancient vessel.”[The Freemason] At the first meeting on 3rd. October 1827, there were 37 brethren present. Humber was pleased with its building. Shaw says that after 5 years it had the glamour of antiquity clinging to its weather-beaten walls which was slightly exaggerating the facts. It would be about the shape and size of an average village Methodist chapel. In later years it was expanded and enlarged considerably to make it one of the best temples in the north of England. Its membership in 1837 included a large number of mariners from various ports. Some were whalers and one, Joseph Taylor was probably the captain of the Swan in 1817-19. This was a redundant Gun Brig from the Royal Navy, of the type that Crow would have commanded. It was built in 1767. Not only that, but the Swan was involved, as was Crow, in the Nore mutiny, and it was involved in an amazing escape from the Arctic in 1836, after being frozen in for 16 months in The Davis Straits ,being thought lost. One of the sailor’s wives even remarried in this time, thinking her husband lost. When she found out, she disappeared, apparently preferring her new husband to the old; the fickle creature.

In 1829, John Ward, a young mason who had only been a member of Humber for 2 years was made WM. He was a joining member from the Minerva and married to Esther, the daughter of Bro. Leonard, a butcher, who had been previously a member of Rodney Lodge. John Ward was at that time already gaining a reputation as a marine artist. He had learned his basic skills as an apprentice at T. Meggitts, painters, whose premises were in George Yard. Meggitt, a house painter, was a member of the Phoenix Lodge, and had several promising young marine artists as apprentices including Thomas Binks [1799-1852] and William Griffin, son of Thomas Griffin, a painter from Minerva Lodge. They became close friends with Ward. Ward painted a famous set of pictures of HMS Britannia, a first rate, 120 gun ship of the line launched in 1820, and successor to the name of the vessel that Crow had sailed in.

HMS Britannia by John Ward.

Courtesy of Hull Museums.

John Ward was becoming known as an up and coming marine artist so even then his pictures were in demand. [Credland] His interest in house and ship painting rapidly declined after he had finished his apprenticeship and concentrated on painting and teaching painting. He was influenced by William Anderson [1757-1837] in his seascapes. Anderson was a friend of the painter Julius Caesar Ibbotson who had come from Leeds as a child to be apprenticed to John Fletcher the local ship painter. His parents thought that as the boy had a talent for art he should become an artist. The advert for the apprenticeship for which they were applying for him, was for that of an artist painter or so they thought. It was in fact for a painter and decorator. The young Ibbotson soon got fed up with spending day and night painting pub doors and ship sterns. He learned enough though to be a good decorator of the ships bows, sterns and rendition of fancy work. By chance he helped Tate Wilkinson, the actor manager, with some scene painting for the theatre’s “Arabian Tales” and nearly joined the theatre but when his employer John Fletcher retired he still had 2 years to complete his apprenticeship, so he ran away to London at the age of 16 and eventually became an artist and a friend of Anderson. Ward met Anderson through this connection.

John Fletcher was the grand father of Thomas, a painter and a Mason of the Rodney and Minerva Lodges and Tate Wilkinson was a practising Mason of York. Ward too was a Mason in the Humber Lodge, so the ramifications of these friendships probably influenced marine painting. Sadly John Ward died in 1849 from Asiatic cholera, at his house in North St Hull in the presence of his pupil William Settle. He was only 50 years old. The disease had visited Hull in 1832 but this time the death rate was much greater. The reason for this was that although the authorities had improved the sanitation in Hull somewhat in the interim, they had also changed the source of the water supply. In 1845 the Stoneferrry reservoir had opened which took its water from the river Hull. Unfortunately the river was the repository of part of the town’s sewage as was the Humber. This was true of Beverley Beck also. The water was screened for dead animals and other large debris and was allowed to settle in order to remove sediment, but it did not remove bacteria. The peculiar mix of diluted salt water from the tidal Humber and the rain water from inland produced a favourable environment for the cholera vibrio bacteria which survived for quite a long time in it. This contaminated water, at whatever the state of the tide, was pumped into the houses of rich and poor alike. No one was spared. The richer people did have had some advantages. 10,000 of them left the town for instance and their level of crowding was much less but the end result was that 1 in 40 of the population died including John Ward The death rate was as bad or even worse than anywhere else in the country. It is ironic that a few years later in 1854, during the Crimean War, there was an outbreak in the fleet and HMS Britannia lost more than 80 men from cholera. Ward had painted several of his best known pictures of the new Britannia. He may well have been encouraged by William Crow to do so. Ward remains to this day the doyen of marine painters of his era. He was laid to rest by 40 of his Masonic brethren and his memorial stone still remains at the Trinity House Chapel. ” A link is broken; a light is extinguished; the falling down of a strong pillar”[Shaw] What is less well known is that two other brethren from this lodge, J. Brady and Elias Hart [WM 1837-38] also died of the cholera at this time. Cholera claimed some famous people including Tchaikovsky, Dumas and Lenin’s mistress, and it would be another 30 years or more before the causative bacterium was isolated. Ward’s paintings had been collected by his brother Masons such as Frost, Clarke, Samuelson, and Bethel Jacobs. RA Marillier, the Waterworks engineer, who was a member of the Minerva Lodge and later the Kingston, investigated the possibility of drawing water from higher up the river Hull at Wawne. Fortunately someone else showed how more water could be taken from the Springhead source which was pure and so there was no repetition of this disaster.

John Ward

From a painting in possession of Humber Lodge, destroyed by enemy action,1941

Crow died in 1834, and the eulogy stated that due to him the Humber Lodge had one of the most splendid and commodious temples in the Kingdom. A portrait of him was presented to the Lodge by Bro. and Mrs. Charles Wilson. He was presumably reinstated in the Lodge after his upsets of 1827. At about the same time in December 1834, William Hutt became a member. [Tessyman] He married the mother of John Bowes of Bowes Museum fame, who was also related to the Bowes Lyons the family from which the late Queen Mother came. He became an MP for Hull in 1832 as a Liberal reformer, along with the brother of Rowland Hill [of postage stamp fame] whose descendant lives in Hull today.

In 1835 Feetam presented a gift from the late Bro. Crow, a blue silk banner, to be hung on the east side of the lodge.

In 1836 Eglin died abroad of cardiac disease aged 34yrs [probably rheumatic but possibly congenital heart disease.] ” He had gone to that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller ever returns.” When Thomas Feetam the other stalwart of those early days died “ He was summoned to obtain knowledge of the great secret of Eternity.”[ Shaw]

Later the Humber Lodge went from strength to strength and by 1858 was expanding the premises further. It is said that by 1840 it was numerically the largest lodge in England. By 1938 the membership had grow to a staggering 286. A number of honoured citizens had sheltered beneath its banner and it had members from far and wide; from S.Shields to Teignmouth, even Hamburg. It possessed much wealth and its members were, as were Minerva’s, responsible for much of Hull’s civic development over the next few years.

In 1841 Humber had a further plot in relation to blackballing. They were always a most turbulent lodge. It appears that James Clay, a Liberal, stood for Parliament for Hull on several occasions without success. He was initiated into the Humber Lodge in 1841and there were those who at the initial ballot tried to blackball him. One of his friends, or supporters got wind of the plot and rigged the ballot box in the lodge so that no ball would go into the black ball section. The black ball proponents knowing that they had been thwarted demanded an enquiry. Too late; Clay was admitted. The Provincial Rulers, based at York, did not want to do anything other than reprimand the perpetrators and make a plea to keep politics out of Masonry. Clay eventually got elected for Hull in 1847 as a Liberal MP. In 1852 he was re-elected but was soon unseated, as the Conservatives proved that bribery had occurred in this Election. No doubt all the parties did the same. This solidly Liberal area got a Tory for a change. In those days only the freemen and more recently the £10 householders could vote. The former had been accustomed to have their votes bought for a suitable bribe over many generations, the so called Burgess Rights. They expected between 2-4 guineas from the Candidate and as there were 4500 voters it was a costly business. If the freeman voted with both his votes for one candidate it was called a “plumper.” The votes were made public so the candidates knew who they had to pay. In addition many minor jobs were created, such as runners, musicians, colour men, chair protectors and messengers. Each job carried an additional fee which brought in a little more money to some burgesses. This money was given via a ticket which the voter produced to prove he was on the pay roll. Some years later someone going through the desk of George Coulson, [wine merchant] who had recently retired found some of these tickets. George and his brother Edmond were the grandsons of the first WM of Minerva. They at one time, in 1831, leased the house in Cottingham upon which Castle Hill Hospital now stands. The only fragment remaining is the Folly at one end of the site. George had been WM of Minerva in 1821-22, preceding William Crow. It is of interest that William Wilberforce was elected to Parliament as MP for Hull in 1780 and the expenses of the freemen both local and those from afar cost him £8000[equivalent to a million pounds today.]

Clay was soon back. He was a friend of Disraeli’s ,indeed they had as young men travelled together on a Grand Tour of Europe and beyond, and had contracted a social disease in a house of ill repute in Malta on the same evening. Clay’s manservant was one Tita Falcieri, an ex gondolier who had worked for Byron and Shelley and no doubt steered the young men through the sights, sounds and temptations of those foreign climes. He was later employed by the Disraeli family back in England. Clay enjoyed a moderately successful political career and was popular in Hull. He was said to have a fine and powerful speaking voice and had travelled more than most. He was an international expert on Whist and wrote a book on the subject. His father had been in the Navy but later became a wealthy Baltic merchant. [Markham] He joined the Minerva lodge in 1861 presumably at the prompting of Pearson and Samuelson. In 1868 he became a joining member of the Kingston Lodge as did his fellow Member of Parliament C.M. Norwood. Hutt and Norwood, though Liberals represented the interests of the ship owners in Parliament and as such frequently crossed swords with Samuel Plimsoll MP for Derby who was trying to introduce legislation for the benefit and increased safety of seamen. This meant banning the overloading of vessels and pensioning off the overloaded, over insured, old and badly maintained ‘coffin ships’. [Jones 2007]

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about Clay is that his eldest son Frederick, a minor musician and composer, was the man who introduced those two Masons Gilbert and Sullivan to each other who gave the world the well known operas. James Clay himself, never took office, had a fine manner of oratory, was a close confidant of the Prime Minister and was an MP for Hull, just like his predecessor William Wilberforce in fact though not as saintly. Clay’s membership of the lodge coincided with its rise to power and wealth.

The Humber Lodge attracted some other interesting people to its banner, too many to mention fully, but one of interest was a powerful figure in Hull, Alderman Anthony Bannister who was WM in 1847. He was a wholesale coal merchant and ship owner who promoted the building of a railway line to Withernsea, and the development of the resort. This railway was called the Hull and Holderness Railway and was built in 1854. It is said that Bannister wanted to bring in the agricultural products of East Holderness by rail, whereas heretofore they had been brought by boat to Hull via Hedon and Patrington Havens. Much of the farm produce was destined for the West Riding, but the Havens were silting up and the railway seemed a good alternative. The extension of the line to Withernsea was a copy from the railway king George Hudson’s concepts of coastal resort development. He had built the York –Scarborough line in 1845 and opened the Hull –Bridlington line in 1846. The line heading to Patrington took a northern sweep to Withernsea, which up to that time had been an insignificant small place with a population of 109. Bannister had found his watering hole for Hull. In 1860 the line was leased out to the North Eastern Railway as it was too small for an independent existence. In 1964 a certain Dr. Beeching closed this line down.

Bannister was 37yrs old, at the height of his powers, a rough and ready man with a broad Yorkshire accent. He served as Mayor in 1851 and 1855 and was so well thought of that he was given honorary membership of Minerva Lodge on or before 1861. In 1847 Thomas Storrer, a cement manufacturer, was imprisoned for a debt of £60 owed to Bannister, who forced Storrer into bankruptcy over the matter and became the assignee. At the time Storrer’s affairs were in Chancery for other reasons. He was not bankrupt but in spite of the aid of a lawyer, Mr. Arden he did not defend himself well and so was made bankrupt. Bannister extracted the money owed to him and to Storrer’s lawyer from Chancery but although Storrer was in credit he was not then released from Hull Gaol because Bannister as Assignee refused to sign the release papers. Bannister later claimed that it was nothing to do with him, but that Storrer was in contempt of the Bankruptcy Court. This stand off went on for six years with Storrer refusing to accept he had been bankrupt and Bannister refusing to sign release papers. Hull Prison at that time stood in Kingston St. but was replaced soon after by the present one on Hedon Road in 1870, as it was chronically and desperately overcrowded. Eventually Storrer’s’ family became in such poor straits that he had to make a move, and with the aid of well wishers obtained his release. In 1858, when he found out what Bannister had done six years earlier in order to retrieve the debt, he sued him. Bannister may have claimed innocence but he was no doubt pleased to settle out of court for damages of £225 to Storrer, with all blame and other actions dropped. It was a complicated case which did Bannister no credit even by the harsh standards of the day, but he remained a popular and influential figure and was involved in many local events thereafter. He became a founder member of the Kingston Lodge in 1864 but resigned in 1871. Bannister was the chairman of the committee that organised the building of the new Town Hall designed by Cuthbert Brodrick and was the friend of Lord Ashley, Hutt, Clay and CM Norwood, those MPs who became local Masons. A remnant of Brodrick’s Town Hall remains in Pearson Park, appropriately enough, to this day.

Bethel Jacobs was another honorary member who cannot be over looked. Jacobs was the son of Israel Jacobs a goldsmith and jeweller. He joined his father in 1823 in the business in Market Place. He was very gregarious, had a fine singing voice, and was prominent in the city’s life; in local societies, activities and in local Jewish affairs. He was a keen archer and marksman who won prizes and designed trophies. He made many of the ceremonial silver items for the town, such as silver trowels, salvers, snuff boxes, candlesticks and cups. He was the Worshipful Master of the Humber Lodge in 1840 and a WM of the Humber Mark Masons at one time. Examples of his work as a jeweller still exist. In 1845 he made a presentation piece for Dr. Alderson who was moving to London. It weighed 450 ozs and cost £350. In 1854, when Queen Victoria visited the town, he, together with his work was given the accolade “by Royal Appointment”. He died in 1869 and is buried in Delhi Street cemetery. [Credland]

A name familiar to most people in Hull is J H Fenner. John Henry was the son of Joseph Henry Fenner, who in spite of several bankruptcies managed from small premises in Bishop Lane and Chapel Lane to build up an international company specialising in drive belting for machinery: He fell from his pony and trap in 1886 and died from a head injury aged 50. John Henry took over the business together with his brother. John Henry had just had his 21 st birthday party at the Blue Bell Inn, Market Place; [where the earlier Masons had met] when he took over the business. He became WM of the Humber Lodge in 1900. To this day, the Fenner products, or similar ones, rule our lives, as in our cars and refrigerators.

One of the more amazing, though less well known characters of this lodge was Jeremiah Stark. He was an initiate of the Rodney Lodge in 1809 and was a faithful member there, riding in on horseback, a distance of 20 miles from Rimswell for each meeting, never missing one. At the demise of the Rodney he joined the Phoenix Lodge, until 1831 when it ceased. He then joined Humber Lodge and was promptly made the Secretary there, a post he kept until his death, except for the year 1838, when he was WM. He was a rate collector by occupation. He died, in 1863, aged 77, and was buried in one of the graves owned by the Humber Lodge, “to lie till Resurrection’s Morn.” [Shaw] These graves lay in front of Feetam’s vault in Hull General Cemetery, and were purchased originally in 1861 in memory of Thomas Feetam, who died after a short illness in 1858, aged 65.

William Day Keyworth was born in 1817and died in 1896. He was the WM of the Humber Lodge in 1867and Hon. Almoner to the Kingston Lodge in 1869 for several years. He had been in London, training as a sculptor under Sir Francis Chantrey and his assistant Henry Weekes. [Chantrey was a famous English sculptor, a Yorkshire man, whose work is displayed throughout the world from America; George Washington in Boston USA, to Sir Thomas Munro in Kolcata or Calcutta] Keyworth returned to Hull in 1834 and was associated with the Earles. He married, in 1840, the daughter of William Binks, a local painter and decorator and member of the Minerva Lodge. One of his sons, William Day Keyworth the Younger, was born in 1843 in Baker St. in Hull. Father and son between them were responsible for many of the busts and statues in Hull, some of which can still be seen even by the concert goer or music enthusiast as he or she climb the stairs at the City Hall. Sadly some of the Keyworths’ work has disappeared but some of the busts which used to grace the old Hull Royal Infirmary are being found a new home shortly. [Lewin personal communication]. Chantrey’s work was partially destroyed in the Second World war, some plaster casts being smashed up to create space for an air raid shelter at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

.

There were many changes to the buildings over the years and a surviving aerial photo shows the final temple exterior before destruction in May 1941 when it was demolished by a stick of 5 high explosive bombs and incendiaries which left Osborne St. including a sister lodge, the De La Pole Lodge nearby, in total ruin. The destruction occurred, oddly enough, on the 147 th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the building. The high explosive bomb hit just opposite the Lodge which was gutted whereas the De la Pole Lodge did not receive a direct hit but was damaged mainly by blast. The net effect was that the Humber Lodge lost virtually all its possessions but the De la Pole was able to rescue some of its furniture including the organ. Legend has it that following the bombing of the Humber Lodge, on the one wall remaining upright there was still hanging in splendid isolation the Warrant of the Lodge, the original document from 1756, which was retrieved and is still in use. [See picture of Warrant] A photograph of the bombed De la Pole Lodge remains but because of copyright restrictions cannot be shown. Copies can be obtained from the Hull City Archives.

There remains also an internal photo of the Humber Lodge in the era before the bombing destroyed it. [Shaw]. Note the diagonal carpet pattern, the electric light on the pedestals instead of candles, Crow’s globes and the texts on the walls. One such reads along the lines of” Meet it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. There is no photograph of the exterior known to the author except an aerial view. This view can be viewed in the files of the Hull city archives.

Earlier that very night ASF Oliver had been initiated into the Kingston Lodge. [The Kingston Lodge was a tenant of the De la Pole Lodge]

The De La Pole Lodge had been formed in October 1876 and after a number of changes of premises over the years had finally in 1905 bought a redundant Methodist church a little bigger than the Freemasons Hall in Mytongate. The description of the De la pole lodge is given in The Builder - The new Masonic Hall of the De la Pole Lodge of Freemasons situate in Osborne Street, Hull was dedicated on the 4 th inst.by the Right Hon. Lord Bolton. The new temple has been acquired by purchase from the Methodist New Connexion and is within two minutes walk of the tramway terminus in St John Street. It has been completely gutted, and there are now only the outer walls left of the original building in Osborne Street. On the basement is the Masonic temple.41ftby28ft. 6 in., and height15ft.At the north end is the covered dais, 21ft. by 10ft, which is raised two stepsabove the floor of the room and separated from the lodge by one elliptical and two semi arches, supported by fluted Corinthian columns. The side walls have Corinthian columns and arches. Fibrous plaster squares of about 8ft each divide the ceiling, and the same material has been used for the girders supporting the room above. The side platforms are also arranged above the floor of the lodge. Near the entrance to the temple is the organ. For heating purposes high pressure pipes are laid under the platform. The entrance hall is laid with mosaics and from this access is gained to a corridor 42ft long by 6ft. wide. A mahogany staircase leads to from this to the banqueting hall on the first floor. This hall is 43 ft .long by 24 ft. wide, 13ft high at the side walls and 19ft high at the centre of the segment or curvedceiling. The roof of the building is carried on curved steel ribs , the side walls being ornamented with 12in.Corinthian pilasters and caps. The curved ceiling is panelled and executed in fibrous plaster relief. In addition there are the stewards room and other offices .The contractors for the structural alterations have been Messrs S Johnson and Son, Mirfield; for the fibrous plaster and other work ,Messrs Harrison and Andrews, Hull. The works have been carried out under the superintendence of Mr. Ernest Whitlock, architect, Hull .

Brother Oliver had a narrow escape and an initiation to remember. Interestingly the organ, [referred to above ]made by that well known local firm of organ builders Foster and Andrews, was rescued from the ruins and in 1945 was renovated and placed in the chapel of the Trinity House Hull.

.

It is a matter of record that the Minerva Lodge opened its doors for the remainder of the war to these orphaned lodges. They were very grateful and this surely proved that old rivalries had been well and truly put behind them.

Introduction: Freemasonry and Acknowledgements
Hull Masons: The Pioneers
At the sign of the George and The Kings Head
The Rodney Lodge
The Minerva Lodge
The Humber Lodge
The Phœnix Lodge
William Crow RN
Conclusion
Bibliography

Designed by Richard Hayton 2009
email hayton@hayton.karoo.co.uk