FREEMASONRY TODAY
Dr. Robert Crucefix – founder of the Asylum for Aged and Decayed Freemason
Library & Museum of Freemasonry
The Second Grand Principle: Masonic Charity
The basis of English Freemasonry is on three Grand
Principles; Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. Early
this year, the Library and Museum hosts an exhibition
telling the story of the second of those Grand Principles,
Relief – or Charity as it is more commonly known.
When the first Grand Lodge of England came about in
1717, masonic lodges had already been involved in the relief of
fellow masons for many years. The Old Charges of operative
lodges made it clear that it was the duty of the lodges to look
out for travelling stonemasons in need of work or relief.
In 1727, the Premier Grand Lodge set up a Committee of
Charity, consisting of all the Grand Officers and the Masters of
all London and Westminster lodges. The purpose of this was to
distribute voluntary contributions collected from lodges for a
central charity fund.
In 1733 the Committee was expanded to include the
Masters of all lodges and it also took on an increased role,
looking at matters of discipline, amendments to the
Constitutions and making reports to Grand Lodge. As well as
being a forerunner to today’s Grand Charity, the Committee
was also a proto Board of General Purposes.
The rival Antients Grand Lodge, established in 1751
followed suit, with a Stewards Lodge carrying out the same
functions of the Committee of Charity. By the end of the
eighteenth century, masonic charity was creating charitable
institutions.
The Premier Grand Lodge had started the Royal
Cumberland School for Girls, which would evolve into the
Royal Masonic School for Girls and both Grand Lodges had
funds for educating the sons of indigent freemasons, which in
the nineteenth century would evolve into the Royal Masonic
Institution for Boys. The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and
Boys has its origins in all these initiatives.
The passing of the New Poor Law of 1834 raised the
prospect that Freemasons who fell on hard times could end
their lives in workhouses. Robert Crucefix, Freemason, doctor
and editor of the Freemasons’ Quarterly Review, saw the need
for drastic action and campaigned for the opening of an Asylum
for Aged and Decayed Freemasons, which opened in Croydon
in 1850.
This and a scheme by the Grand Master, the Duke of
Sussex, to provide financial aid for elderly masons, were the
building blocks of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.
Sussex had opposed schemes involving bricks and mortar,
including the Asylum and an earlier attempt to build a boys’
school, arguing that money was best spent on financial aid to
the individual. Only time will tell which approach was the
most successful.
Freemasonry’s support for non-masonic charities has a long
history. In 1733, the American colony of Georgia was created
with a scheme to re-establish some of the ‘worthy poor’ of
England in the colony. Grand Lodge helped with financial aid
from the lodges and with manpower, from some of its own less
fortunate members.
Freemasonry’s grants to non-masonic charities were greatly
increased in the nineteenth century. Funds were made available
to causes both home and abroad – £100 to flood relief in
Hanover in 1825, £1,000 to Lancashire cotton districts hit hard
by the American Civil War in 1863 and £4,000 to the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution in 1877. English Freemasonry has
supported international relief efforts and worthy causes
throughout its history.
The exhibition will look at the origins of all the modern
masonic charities and some that no longer exist. It will examine
how they were formed and what they achieved and what they
are doing now.
It will also look at fund raising, from lodge charity boxes to
Festival jewels, from classic car runs to theatre shows.
Freemasonry’s contribution to outside charities will also feature,
including donations from individual lodges to local charities and
Grand Lodge donations to international relief efforts.
The Second Grand Principle: English Masonic Charity runs
in the Library and Museum from 12th January to 19th June 2009.
Martin Cherry, Librarian at the Library and Museum of Freemasonry
Issue 47, Winter 2008/9
|
© Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2010
|
|
