Letter from James McGilluver, Worshipful Master of the Lodge held in the Eighty-fifth...

Letter from James McGillivrie, Worshipful Master of the Lodge held in the Eighty-fifth Regiment, No. 262 on board HMS Ganges, Spithead, Hampshire to Robert Leslie apologising for not sending a complete annual return but the Lodge chest has been packed up and left in a secure place as the Regiment was under orders to embark for Portugal. The Lodge will strive to comply with the requirements of Grand Lodge after members' safe return to England from service overseas.

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.