Letter from William Row, Worshipful Master of the Lodge held in the Eighty-fifth...

Letter from Sergeant William Row, Worshipful Master of the Lodge held in the Eighty-fifth Regiment, No. 262 at the Barracks, Hythe, Kent to Robert Leslie apologising for the discrepancies in names provided on the annual return but will send fees for registering Brothers Kennedy, Burgess, Goodwin, Gaffney, Patterson and Barrett, who are members of the Grand Lodge of Ireland; James McGillevrie, a member from the Grand Lodge of Scotland; Brother Smallwood from Lodge, No. 171 [?Prince Edwin's Lodge, No. 171B, [SN 1427], Bury, Lancashire] and Brother Cormoughy, a member from Oldstone Lodge, No. 449, Antrim, Grand Lodge of Ireland. Mentions obtaining Craft and Royal Arch certificates for Daniel Quinn.

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 of Light Dragoons. 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.