FREEMASONRY.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Collection of books and ephemera associated with masonic lodges in Cawnpore, India. An intriguing grouping of material shedding light on the hierarchical structures and elaborate social life of freemasons in northern India between the wars.This material concerns the activities of two Cawnpore lodges: the venerable Lodge of Harmony, Number 438 (consecrated in 1836); and the "Ark in Cawnpore" Lodge of Royal Mark Mariners, attached to the Sir John Edge Lodge of Mark Master Masons, Number 497 (consecrated in 1918). Included is a 1929 edition of the bylaws of the "Ark in Cawnpore", a 1930s edition of the bylaws of the Sir John Edge Lodge, and a 1936 detailed history of the Lodge of Harmony. This tells how Harmony was formed in Cawnpore in 1834 by a group of British military officers and warranted two years later. "Of records prior to the Mutiny of 1857 and from that date until 1859 there are none. All the property of the Lodge including documentary records and regalia was lost. There are many stories, or surmises perhaps, regarding what happened to the Lodge property during this period. Probably the most authentic, and the certainty the most interesting, theory is that Wor.-Master R. A. B. Johnston took all the property from the Lodge building and buried it, or deposited it, in General Wheeler's Entrenchments" (p. 5).Accompanying these publications are 17 finely printed programmes (not including 2 duplicates) for ceremonial dinners at various lodges, primarily the Lodge of Harmony

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