Bridlington Masonic Hall, St. Johns Avenue, Bridlington. YO16 4NG. Telephone: 01262 672519.

Bridlington Masonic Hall, St. Johns Avenue,
Bridlington. YO16 4NG.

Telephone: 01262 672519.

Londesborough Lodge 734

Londesborough Lodge No 734 - Royal Arch Chapter

What is Royal Arch Masonry?

Put simply, it is a continuation of Craft Freemasonry. Its members, called Companions, meet in a Chapter under a Grand Chapter. Chapters are ruled over by three Principals, who rule conjointly, and the Grand Chapter is ruled over by three Grand Principals, with a Pro First Grand Principal when the First Grand Principal is a Royal Prince, as at present.

Chapters in England and Wales are grouped as a Metropolitan area or in Provinces (based on the old Counties) and Chapters overseas are grouped in Districts. Metropolitan, Provincial and District Grand Chapters are ruled over by a Grand Superintendent who is appointed by the First Grand Principal as his personal representative for that particular area.

Origins

As with Craft Freemasonry, there is debate as to the origins of the Royal Arch, which is not helped by insufficient surviving evidence. From that evidence we learn that the Royal Arch was known in London, York and Dublin by the late 1730s. From Lodge Minute Books of the 1750s we know that the Royal Arch was being worked within Craft Lodges under both the premier and the Ancients Grand Lodges in England, and also in Lodges in Ireland and Scotland.
In the Grand Chapter archives there is a Minute Book of an independent Chapter meeting in Soho, London on 11th June in 1766 at which the Grand Master of the premier Grand Lodge was exalted. The Grand Lodge now regarded the Royal Arch as an innovation, additional to the Craft, and began to object to its being worked in Craft Lodges. The next month, the same Chapter, by way of a Charter of Compact, converted itself into The Excellent Grand and Royal Chapter of the Royal Arch of Jerusalem, the first Grand Chapter in the world.

Charters Issued

Charters for the first seven new Chapters were issued in 1769 and by 1813 one hundred and twenty Chapters were chartered to meet in England, Wales and territories overseas. To stimulate the growth of the Royal Arch the office of Grand Superintendent in and over a Province was introduced in 1778. Thomas Dunckerley was among the first to be appointed, not just to one Province but to eighteen Provinces, from Durham in the North to Cornwall in the South West.

However, the Ancients Grand Lodge regarded the Royal Arch as an integral part of their system and continued working it in their Lodges as a fourth degree. Indeed, their Grand Secretary, Laurence Dermott, described the Royal Arch as “the root, heart and marrow of Masonry”.

In 1817, four years after the Union of the two Grand Lodges, Royal Arch members of both of the former Grand Lodges were summoned to a meeting at Freemasons’ Hall. The Excellent Grand and Royal Chapter was opened in one room, and the Royal Arch members of the former Antients Grand Lodge opened a Chapter in a second room. Both groups then processed into the Grand Hall where the Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex, formed them into the “United Grand Chapter”, a title which was later changed to Supreme Grand Chapter. A set of regulations was presented and agreed, and this marked the new relationship between the Craft and the Royal Arch and the interdependency of the two.

To mark that inter-dependency:

Certain designated Officers within the Grand Lodge, if suitably qualified, automatically held equivalent office in Grand Chapter.
Chapters were to be no longer independently chartered but were to be sponsored by a Lodge, to whose warrant the Chapter was to be attached, and whose number and, later, name, they were to bear.
Chapters with Charters from the original Grand Chapter were to return those Charters in exchange for a Charter attaching them to a Lodge of their choice.
Former Ancients Lodges were to cease working the Royal Arch within their Lodges, and the Royal Arch members were to petition for a Charter forming them into a Chapter attached to that Lodge.
A preamble to the Regulations was to state that any matter not specifically covered therein was to be considered as being governed by the Book of Constitutions of the United Grand Lodge.

Supreme Grand Chapter has approx. 110,000 members in 3,500 Chapters across the 47 Provinces of England, Wales and the Channel Islands, and 32 Districts overseas. Supreme Grand Chapter meets at Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, as does United Grand Lodge. The head of Supreme Grand Chapter is the First Grand Principal, HRH the Duke of Kent, who is also the Grand Master of the Craft. His deputy is E. Comp. Jonathan Spence DL, Pro First Grand Principal, and he is also Pro Grand Master in the Craft.

As previously mentioned, certain other senior Officers in United Grand Lodge, if suitably qualified, also hold equivalent Office in Supreme Grand Chapter.

Most Provincial Grand Masters were, and many still are, also Grand Superintendents in the Royal Arch.

What happens in the Royal Arch?

In England the Royal Arch has four ceremonies: the exaltation ceremony to bring in new members and an installation ceremony for each of the three Principals. The exaltation ceremony is in two parts: a rather dramatic presentation of the principles of the Order followed by three lectures in which the history, symbolism and principles of the Royal Arch are further explained. Like Craft Freemasonry, the Royal Arch is open to men of all faiths.

The allegory of the exaltation ceremony is based on the Old Testament telling of the return to Jerusalem from the Babylonish captivity to rebuild the city and temple. In clearing the ground of the original temple for the foundations of the second temple, the candidate makes a number of discoveries which emphasise the centrality of God to man’s life and existence and, without transgressing the bounds of religion, lead the candidate to a consideration of the nature of God and his personal relationship with Him, whatever his religion might be.

In England, the Royal Arch is considered to be the culmination of “pure, ancient Masonry”. In the Craft, the candidate is presented with a series of eminently practical principles and tenets. If he practises these principles and tenets, he may hope to live a life pleasing to his God, however he worships him, and of service to his fellow man. But man is not simply a practical being. He has an essential spiritual aspect to his nature.

That spiritual aspect is introduced in the Third Degree, in which the candidate is led to a contemplation of man’s inevitable destiny, and it becomes the central message of the Royal Arch.

In that sense, “pure, ancient Masonry” can be seen as a fascinating journey of self-knowledge and discovery which begins with the Entered Apprentice Degree and culminates in Installation into the 1st Principal’s Chair of the Royal Arch, with the Royal Arch completing the practical lessons of the Craft by a contemplation of man’s spiritual nature, not replacing but reinforcing and supporting what he has learned from his religion.

In December 2003 the Quarterly Communication of UGLE pronounced the status of the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch to be: “an extension to, but neither a superior nor a subordinate part of, the Degrees which precede it”. (This seems to imply a natural continuation….).

One of the issues for Master Masons in the past has been the restriction of progression in the Royal Arch until a Companion has passed the Chair of his Craft Lodge. This ‘Installed Master’s qualification’ for the Third Principal’s Chair was dropped in 2004, thus opening up full progression in the Royal Arch.

Royal Arch Regalia

During the exaltation ceremony, the Companion is invested with the apron, jewel and sash of a Royal Arch Mason. The ribbons and the background to the Royal Arch logo are in white. As he progresses to the Third Principal’s Chair, they change to dark red and in due course, if appointed to Provincial rank (usually three years after vacating the First Principal’s Chair), they change again to dark blue, with the addition of a collarette with the appropriate jewel attached. Those who are appointed to Grand rank will have a larger apron with a full diamond border and a wider banded collarette and appropriate jewel.

It is worthy of note that the Royal Arch jewel is the only non-Craft item of regalia which may be worn in a Craft Lodge.

Summary of the links between the Craft and the Royal Arch:

The Royal Arch ceremony was worked in Craft Lodges in 1740s &1750s
Royal Arch Chapters are now attached by Charter to a Craft Lodge
The Supreme Grand Chapter and United Grand Lodge are both governed from Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street and the Regulations for both are contained in the Book of Constitutions issued by Grand Lodge and a copy of which is given to every Craft Mason on his Initiation
The Certificates from United Grand Lodge and Supreme Grand Chapter are very similar in design. They bear the same initials at the head of the certificate, representing I.T.N.O.T.G.A.O.T.U. , the same flat mosaic pavement of a Craft Lodge and the identical seal in the bottom right hand corner, except for the microscopic Hebrew characters around the top
The Grand Master in the Craft is also First Grand Principal in the Royal Arch, and other senior Masons also hold equivalent ranks in the Royal Arch
Most Provincial Grand Masters were, and many still are, Grand Superintendents in the Royal Arch
The Royal Arch jewel is the only non-Craft item of regalia which may be worn in a Craft Lodge
Suspension or expulsion from the Craft means automatic suspension or expulsion from the Royal Arch
One Provincial Grand Master in the north of England has emphasised the importance of the relationship of the Royal Arch to the Craft by introducing new criteria for Provincial Honours in the Craft: no Brother will be appointed to Active Rank if he is not a member of the Royal Arch. Brethren who have never been Royal Arch Masons can only be promoted to the rank of PPrGSuptWks
From “Freemasonry Today”, Summer edition 2009: ‘The Board (of General Purposes, UGL) believes that it is a matter of common ground that the teachings of the Royal Arch enrich those of the Craft and vice versa. Properly considered, therefore, each is inextricably interwoven with the other, with the result that no Brother’s Masonic experience can be considered truly complete unless he has been exalted into the Order of the Holy Royal Arch.’

In conclusion, then, Brethren:

The Royal Arch is (now) a separate Order from, but inextricably linked to the Craft, and it is regarded as the next natural step for a Mason to take after being Raised to the Third Degree, before branching out into the many other avenues of Freemasonry open to him.

The Londesborough Royal Arch Chapter meets on the second Wednesday of January, March, April, May, September
and second Thursday in November at 7pm.

Installation is on the second Wednesday in November starting at 6pm

Past First Principals

2024 Graham Jessop
2023 G. Sunley
2022 K.E Shaw
2021 P.C. Morrison
2020 P.Cooper
2019 P.Cooper
2018 P. Cooper
2017 K. Shaw
2016 R. H. Newman
2015 G. Reed
2014 R. P. Parsons
2013 E. R. Rudd
2012 R. G. Hurley
2011 A. D. Shipley
2010 C. J. Thomas
2009 D. A. Duffill
2008 J. R. J. Watson
2007 C. T. Massey
2006 P. Houlton-Jones
2005 P. Houlton-Jones
2004 R. I. Baker
2003 R. G. Muckart
2002 M. R. Wood
2001 D. J. Burnett
2000 G. Sunley
1999 A. Smith
1998 R. Hargreaves
1997 D. A. Durham
1996 R. B. Sims
1995 H. Smith
1994 B. Brown
1993 J. I. Gledhill
1992 M. C. Kelly
1991 J. R. Crowther
1990 R. Stead
1989 A. E. Abbott
1988 C. R. Dooks
1987 A. J. Ayre
1986 D. Clubley
1985 H. Nightingale
1984 B. H. Rodgers
1983 E. Millward
1982 J. U. Spence
1981 S. R. Atkinson
1980 A. Broadbent
1979 D. Clifton
1978 R. Thorpe
1977 J. Grey
1976 W. P. Stephenson
1975 C. A. Readhead
1974 J. A. Whitworth
1973 J. A. Whitworth
1972 F. N. Wilkinson
1971 F. A. Slim
1970 A. E. Topham
1969 J. J. F. Plowright
1968 G. J. Ward
1967 C. A. Readhead
1966 A. E. Topham
1965 J. J. F. Plowright
1964 L. H. Batchelor
1963 C. G. North
1962 H. W. Nattress
1961 F. A. Slim
1960 H. Grant
1959 O. Carlton
1958 O. Carlton
1957 C. E. Dooks
1956 H. W. Nattress
1955 W. Mason-Brown
1954 E. E. Rodgers
1953 C. H. Smith
1952 S. A. Austin
1951 H. Doley
1950 G. Melvin
1949 V. Doran
1948 F. P. Steel
1947 G. W. Roberts
1946 S. Dobson
1945 R. G. Little
1944 W. P. Field
1943 C. Hartley
1942 G. H. Stonehouse
1941 H. W. Jennison
1940 W. E. Bell Wadsley
1939 J. W. Walker
1938 J. W. Walker
1937 R. B. Smith
1936 F. V. Blyth
1935 J. W. Robinson
1934 E. Marsh
1933 H. R. Thompson
1932 A. J. H. Townend
1931 H. Musk
1930 G. E. S. Whitaker
1929 L. H. Smith
1928 W. G. Bennett
1927 W. E. Bell Wadsley
1926 T. Nightingale
1925 A. Gardam
1924 A. Whittington
1923 W. J. Stead
1922 A. J. Beckett
1921 V. E. J. Gould
1920 W. E. Stephenson
1919 C. H. Holmes
1918 E. Whiteley
1917 J. F. Garland
1916 Rev. C. Hutton Coates
1915 H. Bachelor
1914 E. Matthewman
1913 E. Matthewman
1912 O. E. Ives
1911 A. Thornton
1910 A. Gardam
1909 F. Lawson
1908 W. A. Wetwan
1907 B. Saggs
1906 H. Cattle Clark
1905 C. Nicholson
1904 H. F. C. Godfrey
1903 J. Willbourn
1902 G. Rennard
1901 J. McFaden
1900 W. H. Winpenny
1899 H. Cattle Clark
1898 C. Gray
1897 F. Creaser
1896 J. Rennard
1895 H. Watson
1894 J. R. Ansell
1893 H. Holgreaves
1892 S. Chadwick
1891 S. Chadwick
1890 J. R. Ansell
1889 H. Holgreaves
1888 E. Bryan
1887 J. Bordass
1886 J. Scott Wilson
1885 J. Elgy
1884 J. Dunn
1883 J. Scott Wilson
1882 H. Onslow Piercy
1881 R. Brigham
1880 H. Onslow Piercy
1879 W. Watson
1878 H. Onslow Piercy
1877 R. G. Smith
1876 E. C. Brockwell
1875 D. R. W. Porritt
1874 G. Fox
1873 W. H. Porritt
1872 W. H. Porritt

2024 G.M. Jessop

2023 G. Sunley

2022 K.E Shaw

2021 P.C. Morrison

2020 P.Cooper

2019 P.Cooper

2018 P. Cooper

2017 K. Shaw

2016 R. H. Newman

2015 G. Reed

2014 R. P. Parsons

2013 E. R. Rudd

2012 R. G. Hurley

2011 A. D. Shipley

2010 C. J. Thomas

2009 D. A. Duffill

2008 J. R. J. Watson

2007 C. T. Massey

2006 P. Houlton-Jones

2005 P. Houlton-Jones

2004 R. I. Baker

2003 R. G. Muckart

2002 M. R. Wood

2001 D. J. Burnett

2000 G. Sunley

1999 A. Smith

1998 R. Hargreaves

1997 D. A. Durham

1996 R. B. Sims

1995 H. Smith

1994 B. Brown

1993 J. I. Gledhill

1992 M. C. Kelly

1991 J. R. Crowther

1990 R. Stead

1989 A. E. Abbott

1988 C. R. Dooks

1987 A. J. Ayre

1986 D. Clubley

1985 H. Nightingale

1984 B. H. Rodgers

1983 E. Millward

1982 J. U. Spence

1981 S. R. Atkinson

1980 A. Broadbent

1979 D. Clifton

1978 R. Thorpe

1977 J. Grey

1976 W. P. Stephenson

1975 C. A. Readhead

1974 J. A. Whitworth

1973 J. A. Whitworth

1972 F. N. Wilkinson

1971 F. A. Slim

1970 A. E. Topham

1969 J. J. F. Plowright

1968 G. J. Ward

1967 C. A. Readhead

1966 A. E. Topham

1965 J. J. F. Plowright

1964 L. H. Batchelor

1963 C. G. North

1962 H. W. Nattress

1961 F. A. Slim

1960 H. Grant

1959 O. Carlton

1958 O. Carlton

1957 C. E. Dooks

1956 H. W. Nattress

1955 W. Mason-Brown

1954 E. E. Rodgers

1953 C. H. Smith

1952 S. A. Austin

1951 H. Doley

1950 G. Melvin

1949 V. Doran

1948 F. P. Steel

1947 G. W. Roberts

1946 S. Dobson

1945 R. G. Little

1944 W. P. Field

1943 C. Hartley

1942 G. H. Stonehouse

1941 H. W. Jennison

1940 W. E. Bell Wadsley

1939 J. W. Walker

1938 J. W. Walker

1937 R. B. Smith

1936 F. V. Blyth

1935 J. W. Robinson

1934 E. Marsh

1933 H. R. Thompson

1932 A. J. H. Townend

1931 H. Musk

1930 G. E. S. Whitaker

1929 L. H. Smith

1928 W. G. Bennett

1927 W. E. Bell Wadsley

1926 T. Nightingale

1925 A. Gardam

1924 A. Whittington

1923 W. J. Stead

1922 A. J. Beckett

1921 V. E. J. Gould

1920 W. E. Stephenson

1919 C. H. Holmes

1918 E. Whiteley

1917 J. F. Garland

1916 Rev. C. Hutton Coates

1915 H. Bachelor

1914 E. Matthewman

1913 E. Matthewman

1912 O. E. Ives

1911 A. Thornton

1910 A. Gardam

1909 F. Lawson

1908 W. A. Wetwan

1907 B. Saggs

1906 H. Cattle Clark

1905 C. Nicholson

1904 H. F. C. Godfrey

1903 J. Willbourn

1902 G. Rennard

1901 J. McFaden

1900 W. H. Winpenny

1899 H. Cattle Clark

1898 C. Gray

1897 F. Creaser

1896 J. Rennard

1895 H. Watson

1894 J. R. Ansell

1893 H. Holgreaves

1892 S. Chadwick

1891 S. Chadwick

1890 J. R. Ansell

1889 H. Holgreaves

1888 E. Bryan

1887 J. Bordass

1886 J. Scott Wilson

1885 J. Elgy

1884 J. Dunn

1883 J. Scott Wilson

1882 H. Onslow Piercy

1881 R. Brigham

1880 H. Onslow Piercy

1879 W. Watson

1878 H. Onslow Piercy

1877 R. G. Smith

1876 E. C. Brockwell

1875 D. R. W. Porritt

1874 G. Fox

1873 W. H. Porritt

1872 W. H. Porritt

The Londesborough Royal Arch Chapter meets on the second Wednesday of January, March, April, May, September
and second Thursday in November at 7pm.
Installation is on the second Wednesday in November starting at 6pm