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Consecrated February 7th 1786
1786----PRESENT (AND STILL
GOING STRONG).
To all of you who have taken
the time to visit our website, “thanks”. I shall only try and
give a short account of Domatic Lodge’s history as there is a
far more informed version in our own history book.
Firstly the name Domatic. Many explanations
have been put forth as to what the word means but as far as this
lodge is concerned it quite simply means practical, so when
applied to a brother it meant Practical Stonemason.
Therein is the origin of our lodge. It was
a Practical, or more correctly an Operative Lodge, as initially
all its brethren came from mostly the building trade. The
preparatory work for Domatic was started by W.Bro Fenwick
and W.Bro Sinclair of Middlesex Lodge No’ 143 and Kent Lodge No’
15 respectively, our “Mothers!”.
The lodge was consecrated on 7th February
1786 as Lodge number 234 in the minutes of the “Antient or
Atholl Grand Lodge”, at the “Sign of the Ship” Inn which
overlooked Lincoln Inn Fields, Holborn, London. This public
house is still there, now as “The Ship Tavern” in Gate Street,
Holborn, just around the corner from Grand Lodge. There is a
plaque fixed to wall stating a Lodge was consecrated there in
1786 by the Earl of Antrim with the number 234. It was not until
1863 that you first see our present number 177. Anybody who has
ever visited the “Ship” will realise by its size that as the
Lodge numbers quite quickly increased that it was not possible
to remain there and they moved twice within the next few months
until they came to the “Sign of the Sun” also in Gate Street.
Due to pressure to accept what we now call
speculative masons the lodge applied for a second warrant which
was granted in December 1789. Holding two warrants at the same
time is still an event unique to English Freemasonry. It became
unworkable though holding the two warrants and in 1796 the
second was sold off for £1, and hence started a new Lodge, “The
Lion and Lamb”, who, like us, are still doing well today.
I should just like to add here that we
still have the original minute books which are presently held at
Grand Lodge, which considering some that we seem to have lost on
the way, appears to be a major achievement! Also at Grand Lodge
are some of the original Collar Jewels.
The lodge has met at many venues during its
life, one of the more well known probably being the “Hercules
Pillars” in Great Queen Street. The Lodge moved there in 1813,
the same year as the Act of Union between the Antients
(Ancients) and the Moderns. Whilst at this location it’s an
amazing fact that although the difference that had occurred
before between the Antients and the Moderns, Domatic gave a
voluntary contribution to purchasing of the two original
buildings forming Freemasons hall! Combining this with the fact
that we were involved with the purchase of the London Masonic
Centre at Clerkenwell, we have another unique situation for a
Lodge. Considering these two buildings, in different
circumstances I suppose we would be looking at quite a healthy
return on our money by now !
A small sample of informative bits drawn
from nearly 225 years.
The original Initiation fees were 2 Guineas
and the subs were 2 pence per meeting. By 1837 the Initiation
fees were 4½ Guineas and the subs 1s 6d.
In 1845 while meeting at the Falcon in
Fetter Lane, for twenty four members and fifteen visitors the
house bill was £6 18s 0d.
In November 1883 the Lodge received a
telegram from the Grand Master the Prince of Wales, later to
become King Edward V11 in response to birthday greetings from
the Lodge.
In February 1886 the Centenary meeting was
held at the “Criterion Restaurant”, Regent Circus where there
were 99 members and a total attendance of 207 Brethren.
Out of nineteen different meeting places,
the longest the Lodge has remained at any one venue was 75 years
at “Anderton’s Hotel”, Fleet Street, between 1864 and 1939. Many
years more than some Lodges even last !
We now meet at the Central
London Masonic Centre, Clerkenwell Green, London. in which we
are a Founder shareholder.
clmcltd.co.uk
After the war finished in 1945 the
membership of the lodge rose to 85 full members and 55 country
members.
At meeting in 1947, having started at 2.30
they raised 2 candidates, passed 2 more, initiated 5, presented
5 certificates and were still dining by 6.30! Something to try
next year, maybe!
Domatic Lodge has had 245 Masters to the
present time.
In 1986 our Bi-centenary year, the Master
of the Lodge for that year was W.Bro Len Grimaldi, the last time
we had a Grand Officer of the Lodge. The meeting was held at the
“Café Royal” and approximately 250 brethren were in attendance.
To date Domatic Lodge has in a family tree
basis been responsible for the creation of over 70 Lodges.
Domatic Lodge remains one of only
approximately 130 “Atholl or Antient Lodges” still in existence.
Well as I said this is just a short history
of Domatic Lodge and I should like to say that I was responsible
for most of the information therein, but I have to say that
distinction falls to the late W.Bro Freddie Knights a fifty year
long member of the Lodge of which there has been a few. Indeed
we have one at the moment, but he wouldn’t thank me for
mentioning his name !
W.Bro Fred was also part of the only
occasion when three generations of a family have all been
Masters of the Lodge. His father Arthur, himself and his son
Douglas.
Finally I would like to finish by saying
two things. Firstly at a March meeting in 1996 I was one of a
total of eleven Brethren in the temple at the Abercorn Rooms,
the Great Eastern Hotel. We then went on to sit eight at the
festive board, two of them were guests and one was a visiting
Grand Officer ! There was no need for formality, we just sat
round a table and chatted. Things had got that bad with the
number of members, that I remember discussing with W.Bro Jeff
Harvey, at that meeting, whether we should “throw our warrant
in”. THANK GOD WE DIDN’T. We now have over 30
members and our numbers are increasing nicely. We have 25 plus
at regular meetings and double that at Installations.
And secondly many years ago there was tell
of a brother who came on horse back from Bournemouth to a
meeting taking two days just to get there. So please May I never
hear how difficult it is to get to meetings nowadays!
W.Bro. T. (Alfie) Stacey L.G.R.
If you wish to purchase a book on the
History of Domatic Lodge, or enquire on membership of this
Ancient Lodge, please click on the link
below.
treasurer@domatic.co.uk
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