Letter of Thomas Channon, Secretary, Lodge held in the First Regiment East Devon...

AR/998/62

Letter of Thomas Channon, Secretary, Lodge held in the First Regiment East Devon Militia, No. 193 [erased], Exeter

13 September 1799

Letter of Thomas Channon, Secretary, Lodge held in the First Regiment East Devon Militia, meeting at the Kings Arms, Totnes to Robert Leslie, Grand Secretary, 28 Tokenhouse Yard, London seeking advice concerning the Unlawful Societies Act issued as 39 George 3rd C79, granting exemption from the legislation provided lodges register with the Clerk of the Peace. Channon informs the Grand Secretary of the difficulties in complying as members are dispersed into different cantonments and the last Lodge meeting held the previous June. With copy postscript note by Leslie apologising for not sending instructions about the legislation but he had not heard where to send the details but he assures Channon that as this military lodge meets with the consent of regimental officers there should not be a problem. Leslie advises the Lodge to refrain from meeting until March 1800 and then make a return to the Clerk of the Peace using the form sent and provided for this purpose.

1 letter

A Lodge meeting in the 1st Regiment of the East Devon Militia was granted a warrant by the Antients' Grand Lodge to meet as No. 216(A) on 24 October 1781. The Lodge met at Roborough Down, Devon but the regiment was soon on the move. The Regiment was stationed usually within counties along the South Coast but it also spent some time in Gloucestershire?, Staffordshire and Ireland. In 1817 the Regiment settled at Exeter, Devon, where the Lodge met at the Golden Ball inn, Mary Arches Street. In 1830 the Lodge relocated to the Market House Inn, Guinea Street, Exeter, where it continued to meet until it was erased in 1835.