Inside

In our first edition we mentioned that we would be bringing content from Brother Grumpy. Perhaps many of us could carry that alias from time to time but we do have a real one. He is also known as V.W.Bro.Martin Ian McGregor, PGLec. Who lives in New Zealand and publishes research articles in a Masonic Newsletter in New Zealand titled Brother Grumpy’s Masonic Moments. We are indebted to him for allowing us to reprint some of the articles he has in his files. So who is Brother Grumpy? V.W.Bro.Martin Ian McGregor, PGLec. alias Brother Grumpy V.W.Bro.Martin Ian McGregor (now 76) was born, raised and educated in Warwickshire, . He trained in architecture and first worked for architectural firms in Birmingham, mainly involved in the design of schools, hotels, office buildings and group housing. He travelled extensively overseas from the age of thirteen and, at twenty-four, he travelled overland through Europe and the Middle East to Mumbai and thence by ship to Sydney. He worked as an architect in Melbourne and Fiji before arriving in New Zealand in 1968. In New Zealand he studied construction management and contract law at Auckland University and has qualifications in computing. He is a former Associate of the New Zealand Institute of Management and a former member of the New Zealand Property Management Institute. His interests include genealogy and family history, historical research, photography, design, human genetics, painting, writing, gardening and home projects. He was formerly a member of the Heraldry Society and is a member of the Clan Gregor Society. He is currently writing an historical novel based around his notorious ancestor, Duncan Ladasach MacGregor of Ardchoille. V.W.Bro.McGregor was initiated in Lodge Taimau No.331 in 1984. He is Past Master of Lodge Te Puke No.261 and three times Past Master of The Southern Cross Lodge No.9, secretary of that Lodge for twelve years and its last Master when it closed in 2016. He rewrote the by-laws of Lodge Te Puke and Southern Cross Lodge and authored the History of the Southern Cross No.9 for its 150th.anniversary. He is also three times Past Master of the Research Lodge of Southland No.415 and its current secretary, treasurer, editor of its Transactions and librarian. He was invested as Grand Steward in 2004 and Grand Lecturer in 2008. He has authored a large portfolio of Masonic papers, some of them published on Spanish and Italian web sites, and a video published on Lewis Masonic and M.A.T.S.O.L. Formerly Southland District Communications Officer, he was appointed Southland District Education Officer in 2013 and re-appointed in 2016. He is editor and producer of the ‘Masonic Moments in Southland’ email newsletter. He is now a member of the Fortitude Lodge No.64. Aside from the Craft Lodge, he is a member of the Southern Cross Royal Arch Chapter No.3, the Southern Cross Cryptic Council No.3, the Southland Preceptory No.6 Knights Templar (Past Preceptor and Prior, Past Grand Sword Bearer, District Grand Registrar, Chancellor and Treasurer of the Preceptory), Murihiku Rose Croix Conclave No.26, Otago Southland Conclave Knights Templar Priests and Order of Holy Wisdom. This month we bring you a paper from his archives titled Thomas Dunckerley which tells of his involvement in the Craft, Mark and the . It seems appropriate therefore to also include an introduction to the Holy Royal Arch.

Thomas Dunckerley

An Introduction to the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch

Thomas Dunckerley

Thomas Dunckerley (23 October 1724 – 19 November 1795) was a prominent freemason, being appointed Provincial Grand Master of several provinces, promoting , introducing Mark Masonry to England, and instituting a national body for Templar masonry. This was made possible by an annuity of £100, rising to £800, which he obtained from King George III by claiming to be his father's illegitimate half-brother. In 1735, Dunckerley was articled to William Simpson, a barber and peruke maker of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, but ran away after just two years to join the navy.[2] He is recorded from 14 April to 4 August 1742 as an able seaman on the muster book of HMS Namur.[3] On 6 January 1745, the minutes of Trinity House at Deptford record that 'Mr Thomas Dunckerley being Examin'd & found Qualify'd to be a School Master in her Majesty's Navy & having produc'd a certificate (as usual) of his Sobriety & good Affection to his Majesty, he was certify'd accordingly'.[4] He is first mentioned in Admiralty records on 19 February 1744, when not quite twenty years of age, he was appointed schoolmaster on a seventy gun ship called the Edinburgh. In 1746 he was appointed Gunner on a sloop, a term equivalent to Chief Gunnery Officer. He proceeded to posts as Gunner on larger ships, including the 90-gun Prince. From 1757 to 1761 he served on the Vanguard as both Gunner and Schoolmaster. On this ship, he saw service at the Siege of Quebec. After service on the Prince, he was superannuated in 1764. According to Dunckerley, it was in 1760, while attending his mother's funeral, her neighbor, Mrs Pinkney, told him of her death-bed confession. While her husband was away on the business of the Duke of Devonshire, she had been seduced by the Prince of Wales (later King George II), who was Thomas' natural father. Being immediately called away to sea, this information was of no immediate use to him. However, on his superannuation in 1764, monies owed to him were not paid due to incomplete paperwork, and he was obliged to pay medical expenses after an accident caused his daughter to require an amputation of the lower leg. This left him in debt and, arranging for his pension to be paid to his family, he took ship with the Frigate Guadeloupe to the Mediterranean. The next year, he was put ashore at Marseilles with scurvy. On his recovery, with the help of Captain Ruthven of the Guadeloupe and the financial assistance of freemasons in Gibraltar, Dunckerley managed to lay his case before several persons of rank on his way back to England. Finally, in 1767, his mother's statement was laid before King George III, who accepted Dunckerley's claim to be the half- brother of his father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, the son of George II, and provided an annuity of £100, which quickly rose to £800. Dunckerley's claim of royal paternity was not universally accepted in his lifetime. On his death at least one contemporary cast doubt on his illegitimacy. Recent studies also claim to refute his own version of his parentage. Dunckerley was initiated into freemasonry at Lodge No 31, at the Three Tuns in Portsmouth, in January 1754. In 1760, he obtained a warrant for a lodge aboard the Vanguard, which he took to form London Lodge (now no. 108) in 1768. After leaving the Vanguard, he obtained a warrant for a lodge on the Prince, which he later transferred to the Guadeloupe. With the Vanguard warrant, he obtained a roving commission from the Premier Grand Lodge of England to inspect the state of the craft wherever he went, under which authority he installed the first Provincial Grand Master of Canada, Col. Simon Frasier, in Quebec in 1760. In 1767, he was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Hampshire. At that time, the office of Provincial Grand Master had fallen into disuse, but Dunckerley would personally revive it in several counties, although the exact chronology is hard to establish. He is known to have been the Provincial Grand Master for Essex at least from 1776, and a document of 1786 appoints him Provincial Grand Master for the Counties of Dorset, Essex, Gloucester, Somerset and Southampton, the City and County of Bristol and the Isle of Wight.[6] In 1785, Dunkerley founded the Lodge of Harmony number 255, at the Toy Inn at Hampton Court, presumably as his own home lodge. It was at Dunckerley's request that the Province of Bristol was created, still unique in English Freemasonry as the only province confined to a single city and having all of its lodges meeting in the same building. In 1766, the Moderns who worked the Royal Arch degree formed a Grand Chapter with Lord Blayney at its head. He made Dunckerley his Grand Superintendent, in which capacity he authorized chapters, and toured his provinces creating new chapters and Royal Arch masons, frequently (according to some historians) exceeding his authority. Although Dunckerley belonged to the Moderns Grand Lodge, he leaned towards the Antients in ritual, making him a natural ambassador for Royal Arch Masonry in his own Grand Lodge. He was one of the signatories on the original charter of the Moderns Grand Chapter. The first evidence of Mark Masonry is in 1769, when Dunckerley, at a Royal Arch Chapter, made several brethren Mark Masons and Mark Masters. It is possible that Dunckerley created the degree. In 1791, Dunckerley became the Grand Master of the first national Grand Conclave of English Masonic Knights Templar. His energy and organizational zeal contributed to the growth of the order until his death in 1795. After this, the institution became moribund until revived by the Duke of Kent almost a decade later. The encyclopedist blamed Dunckerley for inventing Royal Arch Masonry, and splitting the third degree in the process, removing the true word of a mason to the new degree, and losing the original "pure" form of the ritual forever. This is unlikely, as the Royal Arch degree was worked for at least a decade before Dunckerley's initiation. He published several charges, lectures and songs dedicated to different branches of freemasonry. Together with Grand Secretary Heseltine and William Preston, he campaigned and raised funds for the first dedicated headquarters of English freemasonry, the first Freemasons' Hall. During his lifetime he held various high masonic offices: Past Senior Grand Warden of England, Provincial Grand Master for the Counties above mentioned, and Past Grand Master and Grand Superintendent of Royal Arch Masons over eighteen counties. His major contribution was to the emerging "higher degrees", the Templar, Royal Arch, Ark Mariner, and Mark degrees. Not only did he successfully promote them, he organized them, standardized their ritual, and forced them to keep proper records.

An Introduction to the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch The Craft and the Royal Arch

Since the early days of speculative Masonry the Craft and the Royal Arch have enjoyed a very close affinity. Today, the two Orders are administered side-by-side at Freemasons’ Hall in London and the regulations governing both are published together in the Book of Constitutions. The Grand Master, if an installed First Principal, automatically assumes the office of First Grand Principal in Supreme Grand Chapter. In addition, if likewise qualified, the Craft Grand Registrar, Secretary, Director of Ceremonies and Treasurer also hold the equivalent offices in Supreme Grand Chapter. The majority of Royal Arch Chapters are attached to a Craft Lodge and at least bear its number, if not its name. Membership of the Royal Arch

A Master Mason is eligible to be exalted into the Royal Arch four weeks after the date of his Raising. Royal Arch meetings are termed convocations and are held in units called Chapters. Members of the Order are referred to as Companions. A single ceremony of “exaltation” is conferred on a Brother, who is then entitled to wear the distinctive and colourful regalia of the Order – he is also required to wear his Royal Arch jewel in his Craft Lodge. After progressing through various Chapter offices he will be eligible for installation into three successive Chairs and will then be entitled to be addressed as Excellent Companion. Provincial and Grand ranks are awarded in much the same way as in the Craft. The head of the Order in the Province is called the Most Excellent Grand Superintendent in and over Hampshire and Isle of Wight and he is the equivalent to the Provincial Grand Master in the Craft. The Evolution of the Royal Arch

Shortly after the formation of the Premier Grand Lodge in 1717 the third or Hiramic degree began to be viewed as disappointing and anti-climactic, in that the genuine secrets were lost. As a result, it was inevitable that a further ceremony would be introduced to rectify the deficiency. This gradually developed into the Royal Arch and initially was used to distinguish Brethren, who had presided as Master of their Lodge. However, with time this requirement was eased and reduced to “…having passed the chair” and this resulted in a rapid increase in the popularity of the Royal Arch in the 1750s.

In 1756, a group claiming to adhere to the old principles of the Craft broke away from the Premier Grand Lodge and formed what became known as the Grand Lodge of the Antients. As a result, the original Grand Lodge was paradoxically labelled as the Moderns. There were many reasons for the schism, but over time they became focussed on the status of the Royal Arch. In essence, the Antients worked it as a fourth degree in their Craft Lodges, while the Moderns took the opposite view and officially refused to acknowledge it as part of the Craft, although they did set up a Body authorised to regulate it as a separate Order. Eventually common sense prevailed and in 1813 the two Grand Lodges came together under the leadership of the H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex to form the United Grand Lodge of England. This was possible because of a compromise or “fudge” that enabled the Antients and Moderns to reconcile their differences over the Royal Arch. This was formerly ratified in 1853 by the following Preliminary declaration to The General Laws and Regulation for the Government of the Craft: -

By the solemn act of Union between the two Grand Lodges of Free-masons of England in December 1813, it was “declared and pronounced that pure Antient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz., those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch”.

Thereafter, for 190 years Royal Arch Masonry laboured under the stigma that it was not a separate degree, but rather an adjunct to the Craft. Happily, this situation has now been rectified by the following addendum to the original wording: -

At the Quarterly Communication of 10th December 2003 the United Grand Lodge of England acknowledged and pronounced the status of the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch to be an extension to, but neither superior nor a subordinate part of the degrees that precede it.

As the Pro Grand Master stated on that occasion: - “The intention is not to change the wording, which many of us consider sacrosanct, but to permit it to be interpreted in a way which will allow us the freedom to recognise the Royal Arch as a sovereign and independent Order, whilst still being indissolubly linked to the Craft” What does the Royal Arch add to Craft Masonry?

Freemasonry, as we know it today, developed towards the end of the Renaissance during a period that is appropriately described as the “enlightenment”. At that time it was thought that man had the potential, by means of self-analysis, to utilise his soul or psyche to perceive the presence of God within himself – the psyche being considered the bridge between the physical and sacred worlds. The Royal Arch ritual contains a great spiritual message that will enable every Freemason to contemplate his personal journey of discovery in the light of eternity. Only then will he be able to uncover true wisdom and achieve a complete knowledge of himself. It provides each Brother with a personal epiphany – a moment of sudden realisation of that light, which is from above. It is the vision that requires each one of us to shield our eyes from the brightness of the Divine presence and to bend with humility in realisation of our destiny.

Thus, the Royal Arch can truly be said to be the foundation and keystone of the whole Masonic structure.

Article produced by the Provincial Grand Chapter of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight http://www.hampshireroyalarch.com/the-order/an-introduction-to-the-supreme-order-of-the-holy- royal-arch