Petition to form Hirsel Lodge, No. 297 sent to the Antients' Grand Lodge

Petition to form Hirsel Lodge, No. 297 sent to the Antients' Grand Lodge requesting a warrant to form a lodge in the Berwickshire Militia after receiving sanction to proceed from Lord Home, Commanding Officer. The Petition names James Ballantyne as Worshipful Master; John Wallace as Senior Warden and William Gillies as Junior Warden. The Lodge is recommended by Prince Edwin's Lodge, No. 249 [SN 1437], meeting at the White Hart Inn, Woodbridge and lists proposed members as James Ballantyne, armourer; John Wallace, adjutant's clerk; William Gillies, private; George Liddle, sergeant; John Wright, private; James Dunn, private and John Walker, private. Formation of the Lodge is recommended by Samuel Elvis, Worshipful Master; James Baxter, Senior Warden; James Mickleburgh, Junior Warden; James Smyth, Senior Deacon; John Fisher, Junior Deacon; John Fisher, Treasurer and William Elvis, Secretary of Prince Edwin's Lodge, No. 249 [SN 1437].

Hirsel Lodge was granted a travelling warrant as No. 237B by the Antients Grand Lodge on 28 March 1811 and named in 1814. After the Antients' and Moderns' Grand Lodges formed a Union in 1813 as the United Grand Lodge of England, the Lodge was renumbered as No. 297.  The Lodge was a military lodge meeting in the Berwickshire Regiment of Militia. The Lodge travelled with the regiment, which in 1811 was stationed at Woodbridge, Suffolk. Although the complete movements of the regiment are unknown, it appears to have spent some time in Edinburgh in 1812 and at Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1813. There are no entries for the Lodge after 1814 and it was erased in 1820.