Freemasonry in Gloucestershire

Photocopies of book Freemasonry in Gloucestershire and newsletter, extract from minutes.

<p>See D4432/8/10 for the Charter of the constitution of the Royal Gloucester Masonic Chapter, 1818; D7498 for records of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire, 1818-1970; D7903 for Freemason's yearbooks for the Province of Gloucestershire, 1978-1999; and Provincial Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire with some account of the older lodges of the Province by George Norman (Cheltenham, 1991) in ROL</p>

Anonymous donor, 17 November 2000

The Royal Lebanon Lodge was the fourth Freemasonry Lodge to be formed in Gloucestershire and the third in Gloucester itself. On 18 January 1799 the Ancient's Grand Master, the Duke of Atholl, issued a warrant for a new Lodge at Gloucester. The new Lodge (No.316) was established at the Booth Hall Inn in Westgate Street, Gloucester. It was named nine months later by its members; Lebanon Lodge was first mentioned in the minutes for 1 October 1799 and it was then called Royal Lebanon Lodge on 5 November 1799 with no explanation for the term "royal". In 1817 the Lodge, then No.401 on the United Register, moved to the Bell Hotel.

The Grand Lodge forfeited the warrant of the Royal Lebanon Lodge (then No. 278) on 5 December 1838 due to non-payment of dues for several years. However, the original Royal Lebanon Lodge was unaware of its erasure and continued to meet until 1840. It held 3 meetings in 1839 and 2 meetings in 1840 before holding its last meeting on 17 June 1840.

The new Royal Lebanon Lodge was constituted by a warrant from the Grand Lodge of England dated 14 February 1844 and opened on 7 May 1844 as Lodge No. 724 at the Masonic Room, Eastgate Street, Gloucester; it became No. 493 in 1863.