By the Articles of Union between the two existing Grand Lodges in England, signed and sealed in 1813, pure Antient Masonry was defined (Art. 2.) and a Lodge of Reconciliation set up (Art. 5) consisting of eighteen “worthy and expert” Brethren (nine appointed by each Grand Master) together with the two Grand Secretaries, to establish ‘Perfect uniformity” (as defined in Art. 3) in all the Warranted Lodges. Several Grand Officers were added later and in the ensuing two years, eight Brethren were appointed to fill vacancies caused by non-attendance, absence abroad, etc.

The Lodge of Reconciliation started work immediately and continued to meet over two and a half years until May 1816. In the following year, the Stability Lodge of Instruction was founded under the sanction of Lodge of Stability No. 381 (now No. 217). Of the members of the Lodge of Reconciliation, no less than ten joined, three as founders (James McCann, Philip Broadfoot, and Thomas Satterly) and seven later, including the Rev. S. Hemming DD., (WM of the Lodge of Reconciliation) and the two Grand Secretaries. Five of these had joined by March 1822.

The support given and the interest shown in this new “General Lodge of Instruction” by so many distinguished, diligent and expert members of the Lodge of Reconciliation, sufficiently guarantees its standing and the authenticity of its workings. James McCann had attended the Lodge of Reconciliation twenty-four times out of thirty, three of them as WM, eight as Warden and four in other offices. Philip Broadfoot attended twenty times and was in office on eleven of them, and Thomas Satterly eighteen times, four as a Warden and seven in other offices. At the full rehearsal of the Lodge, before the Grand Master, on 20th May 1816, McCann acted as SW, Broadfoot as SD, and Satterly as JD. These three, and others, were sent as accredited emissaries all over the kingdom to instruct the more distant Lodges (Dr E. H. Cartwright).

The Stability Lodge of Instruction is the oldest Lodge of Instruction still in existence. The other major influence on craft ritual, the Emulation Lodge of Improvement, came into being in 1823 and its most celebrated member, Peter Gilkes, who joined in 1825, is recorded as having stated in 1830 that in that Lodge he taught “only lectures”, indeed, according to Sadler, the Lodge was founded for “‘working the lectures only, on a new system” (History of Emulation Lodge of Improvement). It was the Ceremonies, seemingly, which were arranged and demonstrated by the Lodge of Reconciliation and which the founders of the Stability Lodge of Instruction, fresh from those labours, set about teaching to all recognised Brethren. This teaching was perpetuated by Philip Broadfoot and his colleague and successor, Peter Thomson PSGD, by his successor Henry Muggeridge who was preceptor for thirty-tour years, by whose name, this ritual is sometimes known, and by F. W. Golby PAGDC and others, down to the present time.

J. E. D. Watkins VRD., PJGD.