The Barton in Hamilton
The Barton Lodge No 6 is celebrating a unique Masonic milestone this year, as they turn 225 years old, and if it were not for the COVID19 outbreak a few days after this meeting would have enjoyed a wonderful banquet, but on this evening the GJW and I were joined in lodge by the Grand Master, MWBro David Cameron, who had lived across the road from the candidate and watched him grow up, and who now watched him at his Initiation, proudly becoming a Mason.
Congratulating the members this evening on joining "The 225 Club" were two members of The Ancient St John's Lodge No 3 who had both travelled from Kingston to enjoy the degree and education that was also provided.
As written in an article entitled "Early History of Freemasonry in Upper Canada" by MWBro Freed, PGM, Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario, who says:
"The Barton Lodge, No.6 on the register of the Grand Lodge of Canada, was the ninth of those warranted by William Jarvis. Its charter was dated November 20th, 1795. The document cannot now be found; but the receipt for the charter fee is preserved, dated Nov. 1795, and Lane's Masonic Record (English) says the date of the original warrant was Nov. 20th, 1795.
The first members were men who were called in Canada United Empire Loyalists. They had lived in various parts of the country now forming the United States, had adhered to the royal cause in the War of the Revolution, and at the end of the struggle they were deprived of their property, and compelled to seek new homes in the then almost unbroken wilderness of Upper Canada. Those who settled on or near the spot on which Hamilton now stands put down stakes in the forest (for the land was not surveyed), and started life anew.
Among these pioneers came Davenport Phelps, a missionary sent out under the auspices of Trinity Church, New York. He was also a notary public, and withal Grand Secretary of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Upper Canada, of which William Jarvis was Provincial Grand Master. Several of the settlers at "the Head of the Lake," as the country at the western extremity of Lake Ontario was then called, were Masons; and when Davenport Phelps came among them he apparently found no difficulty in gathering them together in a Masonic fold."
As written in an article entitled "Early History of Freemasonry in Upper Canada" by MWBro Freed, PGM, Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario, who says:
"The Barton Lodge, No.6 on the register of the Grand Lodge of Canada, was the ninth of those warranted by William Jarvis. Its charter was dated November 20th, 1795. The document cannot now be found; but the receipt for the charter fee is preserved, dated Nov. 1795, and Lane's Masonic Record (English) says the date of the original warrant was Nov. 20th, 1795.
The first members were men who were called in Canada United Empire Loyalists. They had lived in various parts of the country now forming the United States, had adhered to the royal cause in the War of the Revolution, and at the end of the struggle they were deprived of their property, and compelled to seek new homes in the then almost unbroken wilderness of Upper Canada. Those who settled on or near the spot on which Hamilton now stands put down stakes in the forest (for the land was not surveyed), and started life anew.
Among these pioneers came Davenport Phelps, a missionary sent out under the auspices of Trinity Church, New York. He was also a notary public, and withal Grand Secretary of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Upper Canada, of which William Jarvis was Provincial Grand Master. Several of the settlers at "the Head of the Lake," as the country at the western extremity of Lake Ontario was then called, were Masons; and when Davenport Phelps came among them he apparently found no difficulty in gathering them together in a Masonic fold."
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