The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX When he was 23 years of age he was installed a Knight Templar in the Jerusalem Conclave on the 11th of July, 1856, In 1861 he was elected Commander of the Love and Friendship Precep- tory, Stockport, and in 1863, succeeding Brother William Romaine Callendar, M.P., D.L., he became the Commander of the Jerusalem Conclave. Further honours fell to his share, and he was elected Grand Vice-Chancellor of the Province under Brother William Courtenay Cruttenden, P.G.C., and in 1864 was appointed Grand Constable of England. In the same year he was called abroad on commercial business and travelled extensively in America, the West Indies and Cuba. Before he left England he revived the old York degrees of Heredom-Kadosh, formerly worked under the Duke of Sussex, being helped in this important work by old members who had been admitted in 1823 and 1833. In 1869 he was admitted into L’Ordre du Temple, the continuation of the Knights Templars in Paris. This body claims an uninterrupted succession of Grand Masters from the time of Jacques de Molay, who, it is said, invested as Grand Master Marc Larmenius in 1307, when the Order was first impugned, before he himself perished at the stake. Later, Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, and several scions of the French Royal Family, were Grand Masters. It was atime of much activity, a Masonic Renaissance, in which the Very Illustrious Brother John Yarker played an important réle, and many other old Rites were rescued from the oblivion into which they had fallen—such were the Rite of Mizraim, the degree of Ark Mariners, the Red Cross of Constantine, Babylon, Palestine, Philippi, etc., and, the most notable of all, the Ancient and Primitive Rite which was established by him in Manchester in 1871. Very properly, therefore, we find that in 1870 the Royal Grand Council of Ancient Rites appointed him Royal Grand Superintendent of Lancashire of these and other old Orders. For his Masonic scholarship and literary work, he was elected a member of the Masonic Archeological Institute at its establish- ment in 1862, Thesame year he was created a Sovereign Prince Rose Croix of the Palatine Chapter of the A. and A. Rite by Brother Cruttenden, M.W., but as their claims conflicted with the old Templar grades he ceased attending. It would be impossible to enumerate all the offices he held and all the honours that were bestowed upon him; here, however, is a short list of the more important: Royal Grand Commander of the Rose Croix and Kadosh, 1868 to 1874. Scottish Rite of 33° (and received certificate dating from 1811), January 27th, 1871. Admitted 33° of Cerneau Rite and honorary member in New York, August 2ist, 1871. Installed Grand Master 96° of Ancient and Primitive Rite at Freemasons’ Hall, London, October 8th, 1872. XX