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

Letter of Thomas Channon, Secretary, Lodge held in the First Regiment East Devon Militia, meeting at the Mermaid Inn, Exeter to Robert Leslie, 28 Tokenhouse Yard, London informing the Grand Secretary that the Lodge has relocated from Lewes to Eastbourne, East Sussex and then to Exeter, Devon. Letter includes a Petition for a revised warrant for a Lodge to meet in the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards at the Minotaur Inn, St Sedwells, Exeter. Lists the petitioners as Leonard Wiswould, Worshipful Master elect from Lodge No. 501 (I.C.), Tuam, Co Galway, Grand Lodge of Ireland; James Baldock, as Senior Warden elect, Hamilton Kilwinning Lodge No. 164 (S.C.), Lanarkshire, Grand Lodge of Scotland; Dimmick Moody, as Junior Warden elect and William Powell from St Cyre Lodge No. 157 (S.C.), Auchtermuchty, Fife, Grand Lodge of Scotland; John Brien and James Pallis from Hamilton Kilwinning Lodge No. 164 (S.C.), Lanarkshire, Grand Lodge of Scotland; Isaac Bissue from St James's Operative Lodge No. 124 (S.C.), Edinburgh, Grand Lodge of Scotland; William Proctor, Lodge No. 355, Sligo (I.C.), Grand Lodge of Ireland and William Royall, St James's Operative Lodge No. 124 (S.C.), Edinburgh, Grand Lodge of Scotland. Includes a list of officers and members of Lodge No. 216 and requests a warrant, a copy of the by laws and an Ahiman Rezon and a dispensation for the proposed new lodge.

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.

There is no record that the proposed lodge in the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards was granted a warrant. The membership register records that a warrant was granted to a lodge to meet in the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards as Lodge No. 197C [SN 1472} at Exeter in 1806 but they were not permitted to assemble or meet by its Colonel soon after this date. The members listed below sought to obtain another warrant in 1807 but warrants were only issued to travelling lodges with the approval of commanding officers of military regiments.