From WBro Damien of Devotion A friend and reader from America recently asked me why we have the “United” Grand Lodge of Victoria rather than just Grand Lodge Victoria. The answer lays in our history....
Melbourne was founded in 1835 as an agricultural city and port, but flourished during the Gold Rushes of the 1850's. By the 1860's Melbourne was Australia's largest and wealthiest city - indeed the first Federal Parliament (1901) was held in Melbourne. Likewise, Freemasonry flourished in the State and its cities and towns.
In the 1800’s there were three regular Constitutions under which Masonic Lodges in Victoria worked. These three regular Grand Lodges were those of England, Ireland and Scotland – each having a District Grand Master in Victoria. There were also a noticeable number of irregular Freemasons working under a French Grand Lodge but that’s outside the scope of this short article.
Just as Masons have all over the world, local Freemasons decided they wanted self determination and decided to move away from geographically distant Grand Lodges by founding their own.
The first native Grand Lodge in Victoria was formed under a member of the Irish Constitution; George Selth Coppin (1819-1906), a theatre entrepreneur, comic actor and politician (MLA & MLC). Coppin formed Grand Lodge Victoria (GLV) in 1883. Of the three Constitutions working here the English by far had the largest number of Warrants and Freemasons. Coppin failed to attract the English Lodges to his new Grand Lodge - but despite that, there was a lot of inter-visiting; indeed Freemasons that were excluded in one of the European Constitutions would just visit or join the other Constitutions - it was all very loose. Once GLV was founded, Coppin could not get the number of Lodges he wanted, it was basically the Irish who supported GLV - but we do have warrants on the walls from GLV signed by Coppin; it was not a tin pot show but a legitimate Grand Lodge. Critically, despite requests for amity, GLV was not recognised by the three European Constitutions working here. It is reported that of the 121 regular lodges in Victoria when GLV was founded only 16 Lodges became members of that Grand Lodge.
Towards the end of 1887 the Earl of Carnarvon visited Victoria. He was Pro Grand Master for England and it is generally reported he encouraged a local Grand Lodge, just as in a wider sense he encouraged Australia’s Federation during his visit... and there was just the local leader to form that Grand Lodge.
Sir William John Clarke (1831-1897), was a hugely wealthy and well known Victorian businessman, philanthropist, politician (MLA) and community leader. The Australian Dictionary of Biography records "William was also a prominent Victorian Freemason and was elected Provincial Grand Master of the Irish Constitution in 1881 and District Grand Master of both the Scottish and English Constitutions in 1884, a unique record at that time....In 1885 he had largely financed the building of the Freemasons' Hall in Collins Street... . In 1889 he became the first Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of Victoria..." Clarke used his unique position as a District Grand Master of the three major Grand Lodges working here, and, cutting a long story short, he was able to united all of four Constitutions (UGLE, Grand Lodge of Scotland, Grand Lodge of Ireland, Grand Lodge Victoria) into one - critical in that was attracting the English Lodges – and hence - we became United Grand Lodge of Victoria (UGLV) under Clarke. About 6,000 Freemasons attended the celebrations. Clarke was not just an impressive Freemason, but businessmen and his stamp was left in many ways - including World Test Cricket – for it was on his property in Sunbury (now an outer suburb of Melbourne) that the Ashes were born (it is a cricket thing.) Coppin was also an impressive individual and also worth reading about – he left us with some great legacies and even played a role in establishing Torrens Titles in Victoria (it’s a lawyer thing but affects us all).
Coat Of Arms - UGLV The Coat of Arms of UGLV. Images within the quadrants represent the IC, EC, SC & VC which all united in the “United Grand Lodge of Victoria”
The unification of Lodges working under the Irish, English, Scottish and Victorian Grand Lodges is why we became the “United Victorian Grand of Lodge” in 1889.
The Combermere Lodge (EC) meets on the 3rd Tuesday in February, April, June, August, October & December. Installation June. You might also be interested in the EC Mark and Chapter Lodges still meeting in Victoria: Victoria Mark Lodge No 47
(EC) |
Freemasonry Victoria >