|
|
METROPOLITAN WORKING
By Bro. Peter Hamilton Currie
This paper provides information relating to 'Metropolitan working' and it's direct descent from 'Stability working', with reference to the three degrees of the Craft and latterly including a reference to the Holy Royal Arch. The purpose in putting the paper together has been to supply information for Brethren seeking to form a new Lodge and who had heard that Metropolitan working - a working that they desired to espouse for their own particular reasons - was a direct lineal descendant of Stability. Their information is quite correct but it would be invidious merely to offer lists of Preceptors through the past two centuries without attempting to put 'flesh on the bones', so to speak. We need to have more than a title - we need to know what Stability working is and how it principally differs from other workings not descended from it.
ORIGINS
At the Union of the two Grand Lodges (1813) a lodge was formed at the behest of the Grand Master, H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex, K.G. The purpose of this lodge was to produce a form of ritual including the openings, closings and obligations in all three degrees together with the Installation ceremony which had been regarded as one of the Antient Landmarks by the adherents of the Grand Lodge of the Antients. This lodge - the Lodge of Reconciliation - was presided over by Rev. Samuel Hemmings DD., and included among its members, Philip Broadfoot, (Stabilty L. No. 217 [381,264]), Peter Thomson (Lion and Lamb L. No. 192 [325, 227])and Thomas Satterly (Tranquillity L. No. 185 [308, 218]). These three Brethren all joined the Stabilty Lodge of Instruction in 1817 and were subsequently joined by seven other past members of the Lodge of Reconciliation. Thus the Stabilty Lodge of Instruction, the source from which all our rituals spring, can be held to have contained ten former members of the lodge specifically set up to establish the post Union working. No other Lodge of Instruction can make a comparable claim.
Philip Broadfoot Peter Thomson
SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES
There are many noticeably different practices to be observed in the performance of Stabilty ritual and the various rituals descended from the original taught in the Stability Lodge of Instruction. There follows a list of some of the more obvious of these differences.
· It is the only working where the candidate is left on his own while the Deacons perambulate the Lodge collecting alms.
· The W.M. never says 'Brother Deacons'. 'In Stability working' the Deacons are considered to be competent to perform their various tasks at the allotted times without prompting from the W.M. or anyone else.
· The lodge is always squared in 'Stability working'. · The Tracing Boards are always laid flat in the centre of the floor of the Temple and turned there.
· The W.M. always comes down onto the floor of the lodge to explain items to the candidates in the various degrees.
· The Deacons always carry their wands at all times. If it is required that they relinquish them temporarily in order to turn a TB over then both wands are laid down parallel to the TBs while this is effected.
· The practice of clapping in approbation at the apron investiture in the first degree is not found in 'Stability working' although in some lodges the badge is struck at this point.
· The origin of the H Sn in the second degree is peculiar to Stability lodges and their descendants. It almost certainly takes its origin from a noted agreement between William Williams, PGM Dorset and Bro. Shadbolt of the Lodge of Reconciliation.
· In the instructions for preparing candidates there is no baring of the l. or r. b. The Stability b. is not divided!
· The first degree working tools are peculiar to Stability working and it's descendants.
· The Sn of the FC. Note Cr...s..n in Stability.
· Completing the Sn in the second degree before starting a new Sn in the third.
There are, of course many other differences but they would require an in depth study which is not relevant to our present purpose. E.H. Cartwright refers to '...the so-called Metropolitan working.' in A Commentary on the Freemasonic[sic] ritual (Hepworth & Co., Tunbridge Wells, 1947) p.38. Under the following heading:
STABILITY (or Stab.)
'...several London workings that are derived from it, [Stability] of which Golby mentions the Domatic, (now known more in the context of a ritual used for the Holy Royal Arch), the South London, the East London and the West London workings and the so-called Metropolitan working'.
Cartwright refers in a footnote to Golby's A Century of Stability (Herald Press, Bath, 1921) pp. 134 et seq. I give the burden of these pages insofar as it may concern us in the present enquiry.
p.134 '...A cursory examination of a few old Masonic periodicals under the heading of "Metropolitan Lodges of Instruction," has disclosed reports of the meetings of many such Lodges carried on in various parts of London by former pupils of the Stability Lodge of Instruction'.
I would not have subscribed to there being a 'Metropolitan working' for either the three degrees or the Holy Royal Arch on this evidence alone since the term is both descriptive and generic in this context BUT he [Golby] goes on to say on p.137:
'..."The Freemason" for 11th February, 1871, reports the Metropolitan Lodge of Instruction meeting at Fleet Street, with Bro. James Brett as the Preceptor, supported by Bros. Major Finney, George Kenning, and others. Bro. Brett, of the Domatic Lodge, joined the Stability Lodge of Instruction in the year 1856, Bro. Finney in the same year, and Bro. Kenning six years later. It may be that it was from this Lodge of Instruction that the so-called "Metropolitan working" derived its name, although I have now found, looking further back than Golby, that the following was reported in "The Freemason" for 7 August, 1869: "METROPOLITAN MASONIC MEETINGS For the Week ending August 14, 1869...Tuesday, August 10. Metropolitan Chapter of Instruction, George Hotel, Aldermanbury at 7; Comp. Brett, Preceptor [and] Friday, August 13. Metropolitan Lodge of Instruction, George Hotel, Aldermanbury at 7; Bro. Brett, Preceptor. So not only was Brett providing Craft instruction as a Lodge Preceptor, he was also giving tuition to Companions in the context of the Holy Royal Arch. Should this therefore lead us to infer that, having been tutored in Craft working in the Stability tradition by Muggeridge, Brett had also been so tutored with respect to the Holy Royal Arch? Does the ritual of the Domatic Chapter contain a version of the working whose lineal descent might claim equal validity to the "Grand Original" in 1830 (i.e., the Sussex or 'Perfect' ritual, versions of which are known as 'Complete', 'Aldersgate', 'Standard', Domatic', &c., see Bernard E. Jones Freemason's Book of the Royal Arch [Harrap, London, 1971] p. 175 et seq.), as does Stability from the ritual laid down by the Lodge of Reconciliation?
Thus according to Golby
there was a 'Metropolitan working' even if dignified by the qualification 'so-called'.
The preceptor of the Metropolitan Lodge of Instruction, and his supporters, were all
members of the Stability Lodge of Instruction and had studied there under it's Preceptor,
Henry Muggeridge. The third leader of the Stability Lodge of Instruction (1851-1885),
Muggeridge was preceded by Peter Thomson (1817-1851)(joint leader with Philip Broadfoot 1817-35) and Philip Broadfoot (1817-35). Broadfoot
and Thomson both frequently attended meetings of the Lodge of Reconciliation under the
Revd. Samuel Hemmings and (later) William Williams. (For exact records of attendance,
see Wonnacott E.W.P. on 'The Lodge of Reconciliation', AQC XXIII (1910) pp.215-307).
It was at these meetings of the Lodge of Reconciliation from 1813 -1816 that the forms
of the openings closings and obligations of the new U.G.L.E (1813) were established.
The names of Finney and Brett have now faded into relative obscurity but George Kenning's
lives on in Toye, Kenning and Spencer, to say nothing of the Cyclopaedia (ed. Revd.
A.F.A. Woodford, 1878), which bears his name and in which, curiously, there is not a single
mention of the word 'Metropolitan' in the present context!
Henry Muggeridge
The Holy Royal Arch 'Metropolitan working' has proved to be of less interest than might have been thought. Nevertheless, the letter of 20 September 1977 emanating from the Librarian at Grand Lodge (see below) reveals in its last paragraph that the Metropolitan Lodge of Instruction under the sanction of the Victoria L. No. 1056, was regularly listed in the Masonic Year book until 1924. The copy of J.C. Harvey's History of the Metropolitan Lodge of Instruction, No. 1056 shows that it was still in existence in 1926 and that their working now seems to be Taylor's. The similarity between Taylor and Stability workings is very close indeed and, given the above information, hardly to be wondered at. The sheet headed 'Post-Union Lodges of Instruction is taken from Ivor Grantham's 1950 Prestonian Lecture on Lodges of Instruction and makes the succinct point that three original members of the Lodge of Reconciliation were founder members of the Stability Lodge of Instruction in 1817 and were subsequently joined by seven others at a later date. No member of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement was ever a member of the Lodge of Reconciliation and its leader Peter Gilkes had only attended three or four times during the public demonstrations given by that Lodge.
Cutting taken from The Freemason for 11Feb. 1871. Facsimile of a letter from
The Grand Library relating to The Metropolitan Lodge of Instruction PRINCIPAL BRETHREN OF THE METROPOLITAN LODGE
OF INSTRUCTION Brett, Jas.
Domatic L. No. 177 (206)Joined Stability L of I 25 April 1856. Finney, Wm. Hy.
Caledonian L. No. 134 (156) " " 19 Dec. 1856. Kenning, Geo.
Lion and Lamb L. No. 192 (227) " " 05 Dec. 1862. POST-UNION LODGES OF INSTRUCTION (Extract from Ivor Grantham's 1961 Prestonian Lecture)
In the year 1817, within little more than twelve
months of the dissolution of the Lodge of Reconciliation, the Lodge of Stability No.
217 sanctioned the formation of the Stability Lodge of Instruction. Of the seventeen
founders of this Lodge of Instruction three had been members of the Lodge of Reconciliation,
and seven other members of the Lodge of Reconciliation subsequently joined the Stability
Lodge of Instruction. The Emulation Lodge of Improvement, at first called the Emulation
Lodge of Instruction, was formed by the Lodge of Hope No. 7 in 1823. Of the twenty-three
founders of this Lodge of Instruction none had been a member of the Lodge of Reconciliation,
but one who had been a member of the Lodge of Promulgation subsequently attended four
meetings of the Lodge of Reconciliation for his own guidance. Much ink has been spilt over the rival claims of Stability and
Emulation to have transmitted to the present day the actual words of the ceremonies
agreed upon more than a century ago. Obviously it is not possible for both claimants
to be right. Impartial examination of the available evidence has led at least one
student to the conviction that neither body can substantiate its claim to have preserved
the ipsissima verba of the ceremonies confirmed by Grand Lodge in the year 1816,
but that the essential elements of those ceremonies are still reflected in the work of
both those Lodges of Instruction. It would be inappropriate in this place to attempt to argue the
merits of these two friendly rivals-Stability and Emulation; but it certainly is
appropriate to record that the traditions of the Stability Lodge of Instruction have
been handed down from one individual leader to another, while in the case of the
Emulation Lodge of Improvement the traditions of that school have been entrusted to the
safekeeping of a committee. In the case of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement numerous other
Lodges of Instruction have been formed by Emulation enthusiasts in London, in the Provinces
and even in Districts overseas, to promote the ritual of their choice. These satellite
Lodges of Instruction are of necessity officially sanctioned by regular Lodges, but in
practice these Lodges of Instruction appear to work under the general supervision of the
Emulation Committee.
TITLE PAGE OF J.C. HARVEY'S HISTORY
THE PRECEPTOR AND HIS ASSOCIATES
Research PHC
Links to further information on Muggeridge
http://www.lionandlamb.org.uk/muggeridge.html Copyright ©
Stability Ritual Association MM.
email address:
stability.ritual@sky.com