Lodge of Truefriendship, 218. Meeting at Stapleton Masonic Hall Park Road, Stapleton Bristol. A very friendly Lodge with lots of history and taditions.
Lodge
"True Friendship" No 388 Was Granted a Warrant by the Most
Worshipful Samuel Middleton, Provincial Grandmaster and was
composed of the non-commissioned officers of the 3rd Brigade
In recent years various Worshipful Brethren spent considerable time
in investigating the Lodge history, during which period, in the
archives at Grand Lodge, has been traced the application dated 3rd
March 1798 submitted to Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and
Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of England,
according to the Old Institutions, of asking for a warrant.
This was a most significant discovery, and it is felt it will be of
considerable interest to Members; it is now beyond reasonable doubt
that a warrant, dated 6th December 1794 was granted to the Lodge By
the Provincial Grand Lodge of Bengal, and it is hoped that further
early documents may come to light.
If so, whether or not they will ever approve a continuous
connection with the Original Lodge of True Friendship, which was
granted a warrant by the Most Worshipful Samuel Middleton,
Provincial Grand Master on 26th December 1773, when the Lodge was
composed of non-commissioned officers of the 3rd Brigade, remains a
moot point, but on the basis of the documents previously
unavailable this still seems unlikely, as the history of the
original Lodge, which was inconclusive, lapses entirely in the
1793, after which date nothing is recorded until the application
for the warrant referred to above of 3rd March 1798.
The
recent findings again emphasis that the name of the Lodge was
"Lodge of True Friendship" and not "Lodge True Friendship",
although it was observed that in the Masonic Yearbook, the Lodge
was still referred to as "218 Lodge True Friendship".
In view of the latest information, and the previous representations
made in 1938, from which date the Lodge was styled the "Lodge of
True Friendship", a reference was made to the Grand Lodge of
England asking that the reference in the Masonic Yearbook should be
changed, and a letter has recently been received from District
Grand Lodge of Bengal Reproducing the Following Paragraph from a
Letter from the Grand Secretary:-
"The librarian has now investigated this matter and in view of all
the evidence available I am having the lodge shown in all our
records, including the Masonic yearbook as the "lodge of true
friendship".
On 9th November 1995 Grand Lodge was pleased to present the Lodge
with a Bicentenary Warrant dating continuous working of the Lodge
from 16th December 1794. The fact that the Lodge began under a
Local Warrant, constitutionally granted by a Grand Master under the
Premier Grand Lodge, and then accepted a warrant granted under the
Ancients Grand Lodge was not a rare occasion in those days. Exactly
16 years after this Lodge was so constituted, the Atholl Grand
Lodge united with the Grand Lodge of England to become the United
Grand Lodge of Free and accepted Masons of England. Since then it
has been under the Authority of the United Grand Lodge of England,
that this Lodge has continued to work, and on 29 December 1904, the
United Grand Lodge issued a Centenary Warrant to Lodge of True
Friendship.
