The First Essex Daylight Lodge

Paper 40/2007 Title The First Essex Daylight Lodge ? Author Bro Alec Hall – United Kingdom Southchurch Masonic Study Circle is currently engaged in a project to record information from the surviving Returns made by Lodges in Essex to comply with the Unlawful Societies Act of 1799. The Project objective is to provide an important and unique educational and research resource for Social Historians, Masonic Historians and the Genealogist in general.i In 1799, fears of a Jacobite Rebellion spurred Prime Minister Pitt’s government into passing legislation that restricted many human rights and making any organisation Unlawful that demanded an oath of obligation by its members. William Pitt, (not a Freemason,) made an exception for the Craft providing each Lodge made a full annual disclosure to a local Justice of the Peace, listing details of its members. During this research, we came across the following Return made in 1799 for the Lodge of Good Will, Number 401, written by Lodge Secretary Bro. John Heard Lambert, Cabinet Maker, living in Braintree Essex.ii The hand-written heading from this Return reads as follows:-
“A register to be enrolled pursuant to an Act of the 39th Year of his present Majesty, entitled ‘An Act for the more effectual Suppression of Societies established for seditious and treasonable purposes and for better preventing treasonable and seditious practices of a Lodge of Free Masons called the Lodge of Good Will being No.401 and usually held at a private room in Braintree in the County aforesaid on Mondays on or after the full Moon at Three O'Clock in the afternoon in each month and composed of the following members’ Viz.” A list of all 24 members of the Lodge for that year follows.
The Lodge was busy on the afternoon and evening of the 29th January 1799 when James Coote aged 32 carpenter, John Coote 30 hairdresser, Dent Hopper 30 surveyor and Jacob Wright 50 victualler, all from Braintree, were made Freemasons. Only the oldest man, Wright, appears on the Returns for that year. iii
War loomed and men often joined the Craft because it gave protection to their families should they fail to return from military service. The Lodge of Good Will received its Warrant in 1786 when it met at a private room in Braintree, later meeting at ‘The Bull’, Church Street. It returned its Warrant on the 7th June 1823. iv Pilgrims used Braintree, called Branchetreu in the Doomsday Book, as a stopover on their way north to St. Edmundsbury and Walsingham. Its importance grew when its market charter was granted in 1199. The wool-cloth trade brought further prosperity and later, silk weaving became a local industry so that by 1800, the district population was c40,000. v No doubt Lodge members, who mostly lived within a 4 mile radius of Braintree, were slightly inebriated after their meetings. Since there were no streetlights, the full moon would assist them, (and their horses) to find their way home during the winter months.
Is this the first written evidence of a Daylight Lodge meeting in Essex?
References. i The Essex Oaths Project database is not yet completed but is available for use at:- http://www.southchurch.mesh4us.org.uk The database is free to use and will remain free. ii Essex Record Office , Chelmsford, Essex holds these Returns. The Reference for the
Good Will Return is : Q/RSm 1-32 iii Information provided by the Library and Museum of Freemasonry. http://www.freemasonry.london.museum iv Lanes Masonic Records. http://www.freemasonry. dept.shef.ac.uk/lane/ v Braintree History. http://www.daysoff.co.uk/essex/braintree/braintree-history.html