Letter from Benjamin Gee, Worshipful Master of the Lodge held in the Eighty-fifth...

AR/1379/20

Letter from Benjamin Gee, Worshipful Master of the Lodge held in the Eighty-fifth Regiment, No. 262 to Robert Leslie, Grand Secretary

14 May 1809

Letter from Benjamin Gee, Worshipful Master at Brabourne Lees, Kent of the Lodge held in the Eighty-fifth Regiment, No. 262 to Robert Leslie, Grand Secretary sending a list of members from the 68th Regiment of Foot for whom Gee seeks membership certificates, including Nicholas Ross, Peter Harmon, Hugh Borland, James Halloran, Michael Shortell, William Queen, Robert Baker, James Broadfoot and Owen Hebble. In addition Gee seeks certificates for members initiated since the last return, namely Lieutenant Henry B Irwin, Lieutenant Robert Melville and John King, a civilian. Also seeks registration of members from Lodges meeting under the Grand Lodge of Scotland and Grand Lodge of Ireland, namely Thomas Power, John Kielley, John Quinn and John Gillespie. Gee mentions the urgent need for the certificates and a warrant to form a Lodge in the 68th Regiment as both Regiments are under orders for embarkation. Endorsed by Robert Leslie that the certificates were sent two days later.

1 document

This unnamed lodge was established on 1 January 1801 as No. 298(B) by the Antients' Grand Lodge. It was a travelling military lodge based in the 1st Battalion of the Eighty-fifth Regiment. In 1801 the regiment was based in Jersey, where the lodge met at an unknown location. In 1803 the Lodge relocated with the Regiment to Stoney Hill, Jamaica, West Indies. When the Regiment returned to England in 1809, the Lodge met in barracks at Brabourne Lees and Hythe, Kent and at Ottery St. Mary, Devon. After 1814, a year after the union between the Antients' and Moderns' Grand Lodges to form the United Grand Lodge of England, the Lodge was renumbered as No. 379 and represented members from all battalions of the Eighty-fifth Regiment. The Lodge was renumbered again to meet as No. 262 in 1832. The movements of the Regiment and Lodge after 1814 are unclear although they met on St. Vincent's, West Indies, in 1845. The warrant was returned on 3 August 1846 by order of the Regiment's commanding officer and the Lodge was erased.