St.Peter's Operative Lodge No.284

St.Peter's Operative Lodge was formed for the sake of the benefit fund and, until the breaking up of the second fund in 1866,the affairs of the fund were at least as important as the Masonic affairs. Yet the small number of members prevented the growth of two factions in the lodge as we read about in the story of other lodges. Indeed, if it had not been for the benefit fund motive, it is difficult to see that the Masonic interest could have been maintained after 1840.

A few years before the lodge was founded, Captain John Henderson in his Agricultural Report said there were 5 box clubs in Thurso. These were:-
(1)    The Trades Society, formed in 1785, (85) members;
(2)    The Society of United Craftsmen, formed in 1796, (130) members;
(3)    The Fishers' Society, formed in 1793, (75) members;
(4)    The Farmers and Craftsmen Society, formed in 1809, (156) members;
(5)    The Friendly Society, formed in 1809, (43) members.
Henderson commented that the second suffered from mismanagement and that the third consisted of old men. By 1840,when the Reverend Walter Ross Taylor was writing his contribution to the New Statistical Account of Scotland, the number was still 5 and they were said to be from 20 to 40 years old. It may be that the Trades Society collapsed and this led to the demand for a masonic benefit fund just at the difficult time after the Napoleonic Wars.

The original bye-laws are given in full in Appendix One and are full of interest. Some points are considered here. The second article restricts the age of an entrant to 45 years. This is, of course, a benefit fund requirement and a later part of the same article allows for Freemasons to be in the lodge but not in the fund. Such are referred to as Honorary Members.
The masonic fees are as follows:-
Entered Apprentices    £ I/ 6/-
Fellowcraft                          7/6
Master Mason                      10/6
                                   £ 2/ 4/-
The wages of a tradesman at this time would be about 2/6 per day. The full fee, therefore, represented something like 18 days work. For this reason it was common for a member to remain as an Entered Apprentice for a year before proceeding to take the next two steps. These might be taken in one evening.
In the third article we find the requirement that
there should be two sets of nominees for office. One was to be proposed by the sitting office-bearers and the other by those out of office. The election was to be by ballot. The minutes are not sufficiently detailed to tell us exactly how this rule was observed but twice in the early years the office-bearers were elected by a majority. The rule would be devised to prevent the fund being controlled by a clique. There are traces of the influence of the rule much later after the lodge had entered the new speculative phase.
The fines mentioned in this third article for any refusing office after being out for a year and the rapid turnover of office-bearers both show that office was as much a duty as an honour.
The duties of the Deacons, it will be seen, were to visit and report on the sick but, despite the importance of these duties to the fund, the minutes seldom name holders of the office. This was because the Deacons were appointed not elected and this continued to be true as late as 1875.
The twelfth article discloses that the lodge colour is dark blue and describes undress aprons of a design quite different from those used today. Moreover, members are "at liberty to ornament these aprons in any other respect as they may see proper". During the history of the lodge the colour has been variously described as "dark blue","blue",and "royal blue" and is now associated with gold trimmings.

It is not easy to follow the fortunes of the first benefit fund because we have only a partial record but the main income is available. We give below the five-yearly totals:-
1818-1822  £ 62
1823-1827  £131
1828-1832  £200
1833-1837  £198
1838-1842  £123
1843-1847  £ 96
These may be compared with a list of the number of entrants:-
1820-1822    23
1823-1827    32
1828-1832    13
1833-1857    9
1838-1842    4
1843-1847    2
After about 1830 the lodge was not attracting new members in sufficient quantity to replace the natural losses by death or default. Eventually the income began to fail and the fund became less desirable even to existing members.
The quarter pence had remained at l/6d from 1818 but in 1834 became 2/-. A reduction was made just before the fund was wound up. The entry money was raised to 5/- in 1821 and to 10/6 in 1826. This was a natural change because later members would benefit from the accumulated fund as it built up.

The benefits, too, were adjusted to suit the state of the fund. The following table summarises them.

                             1821        1831       1834        1837
M.M. to 13 weeks    5/-          4/-         3/6           3/6
to 26 weeks            3/-          2/6         2/-           2/1
F.C. to 13 weeks     4/6          3/6         3/-           2/7
to 26 weeks           2/6           2/-         2/-           2/1
E.A. to 13 weeks     4/-           3/-         2/6           2/1
to 26 weeks           2/-           1/6          I/-            l/-

If a brother was sick for more than 26 weeks, he was superannuated.

                               1821               1831
M.M.                      2/- weekly   £4 annually
F.C.                        1/6  ..          £3  ..        
E.A.                        1/-  ..          £2
Until 1834 the superannuation paid to a widow was fixed at the same rate as would have been payable to her husband. Reductions were made then and again in 1837.

                     Member      Widow
M.M.                  £3            £2
F.C.                   £2/14       £1/14
E.A.                   £2/ 8        £!/ 8

There was also provision in the bye-laws for payments to orphans but is not clear how this varied.

We do not have the total in the fund for each year but the following table shows its progress:

From 1832 the bulk of the fund was on loan to James Sinclair of Forss. He was then offering 4% interest, a better rate than that offered by the bank. When the bank's rate was raised to 5%,the lodge was able to get the same terms. But it proved difficult to have the loan repaid when the members decided to close the fund.

A motion to dissolve the fund was put at the Old St.John's Day meeting in January 1845. There were 9 members in favour, including the Treasurer, and 6 against, including the Master, the Wardens and the Secretary. The discussion was continued all that year. In March the vote for dissolution was raised to 15 with 7 against and in June to 16 with 8 against.
A new vote was taken at the annual meeting and was again for dissolution by 17 to 9. It was now settled in principle but they made heavy weather of the details. On 30th June the Master would not sign the minutes. The Senior Warden was made Interim Master and signed the book but it was later tampered with by the next Secretary and just what was in dispute is not clear.
The committee eventually obtained the money and it was shared out in 1848. They also had possession of the mortcloth which they were willing to hire out. Moreover, they declared that they were "irresponsible" for the lodge papers, books and jewels. The division was made according to the following rules: each widow was to be given burial money and each member the fees he had paid to the lodge; the rest was to be divided between the members, superannuates and widows according to the length of time they had been paying into the fund. Thus the widows of two founders and a superannuated founder received £11/11/9 each, two other founders £10/9/9, and a third £10/2/3. In all 55 persons participated.

The second fund was set up at the annual meeting in 1848 with 14 members paying 3/- each as entry money. The new quarter pence were set at 1/-. This fund was always much weaker than the first and the income dropped steadily with the years. There is very little known of the rules but it seems likely that it was only intended to provide a death benefit.
Despite the restricted scale it must have served its purpose because it lasted for 18 years. The motion that it should be dissolved was considered from the annual meeting of 1865 to that of 1866 but was unopposed. £32/16/- was then shared out with the five surviving founders of the second fund receiving just under £4/10/- each.

It was in 1830 that the lodge had its first opportunity to show its mettle at a public ceremony when it took part in the laying of the foundation stone of the new parish church(now known as St.Peter's Church). Although the leading role was played by one of the heritors, the lodge acquitted itself well. A full account is given in Appendix Three. The minute concludes: "The business of the night being over, the Brethren sat down to enjoy themselves, when many appropriate toasts were drunk with all the honours."
The lodge is not known to have taken part in any other public event until the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Robert Burns. The minutes say little about this but a book was published on the subject of Scotland's tribute. The Thurso contribution is used below.
"Despite fulminations from the pulpit",an afternoon procession was arranged for 25th January 1859. The "populace determined to have and did have a holiday". There were pipers "perambulating the town in different directions" in the morning. "At half-past twelve o'clock the Freemasons, marching to their favourite air, in beautiful order, adorned with aprons, and carrying in their hands their insignia, proceeded from the Caledonian Hotel, headed by the sword and standard-bearers, to the front of M'Donald's Square." There they were joined by the tailors, the shoemakers, the operative masons and the joiners. These, together with three bands of pipers, the John O'Groat Musical Band and the Thurso Flute Band, formed the procession. They went to Pennyland and "for some time perambulated the town." The "pulpit" was not, however, without influence because we read that they were all "drenched to the skin" before the procession started.
On 1st June 1860 about four thousand were present at the laying of the foundation stone of the Miller institution. After Dr.Mill, the Chief Magistrate, had delivered a ""long speech in somewhat extravagant language" and Dr. W.R. Taylor, the parish minister, had conducted a religious service, the "Masonic Lodge proceeded to their duties". Copies of the John O'Groat Journal and the Northern Ensign were deposited along with coins of the period and an account of the foundation. Then the formal laying was performed by Sir George Sinclair of Ulbster who is not known to have been a Freemason. Corn, wine and oil were then distributed and the "Grand Master" ,Alexander MacDonald, handed over the "Square & Compasses" to the local architect.

When John Norie died in 1847, Grand Secretary put forward the name of Hector Gavin, an old member of Canongate Kilwinning Lodge No.2, as a successor. It seems unlikely that the lodge took any action at that time and we know of no other Proxy Master until John Coghill was appointed in 1864. There are some notes on the later Proxy Masters in Appendix Six.
Despite its remoteness from Grand Lodge, St.Peter's Operative Lodge was not remiss in its duties. The entrants were all registered - except, possibly, for an occasional error in Thurso or in Edinburgh - and, after the brief period when the degree of Master Past the Chair was being worked, the lodge was seldom guilty of acting contrary to the laws. This is worthy of note because wealthier and less remote lodges often held back dues and generally behaved as they pleased right through last century.

It will be quite clear by now that it was only a handful of members who met when the lodge was called
together. Sometimes matters of importance were left over until  a better attendance might be expected. But, despite the lack of numbers, the lodge almost always managed to have some sort of celebration on St.John's Day. The first occasion that we can be sure that pipers were sent out was at the end of 1828 when the Tyler and another were engaged. They are mentioned nearly every year thereafter. In 1840 Angus Mackay was to employ another piper and a drummer "to perform the duties of the day by going the whole round of the Town at 8 o'clock in the morning and at 11 o'clock forenoon". They were also to be in attendance at the procession and the dinner. But the numbers fell even for this annual event. In 1830 there were about forty brethren present at the dinner. By 1840 the attendance was down to about twenty and a few years later the dinner booking was as low as ten.

William Nicol was a member of a family of shoemakers in Thurso, of whom several were members of the two lodges. He was entered in 1826 and was a regular attender. He occupied the two Wardens' chairs in his career but he came into his own as Tyler from 1869 until 1880. In the centenerary brochure is given "The Address to Brither Will Nicol".
Alexander MacDonald, joiner, was entered in 1825 and was nine times Master from 1836 to 1860. He was in the chair for the latter two public events noted above.
Alexander Forbes Sutherland, clerk, was entered in 1859. At the end of the following year he was elected to the chair, which he occupied for four successive terms. In the first two of these he was also Secretary. He was later a Master of Lodge Oriental No.472, Suez. He was , perhaps , a founder of that short-lived lodge.
Sinclair Campbell was for a long time Secretary of the lodge and it was suggested that he should be given a salary. This he refused, however, and he was presented with a silver snuff box "with an appropriate motto" .

An interesting relic was handed over to the lodge in 1841 by Donald Dunnet. This was the "Master Rod" of the Hibernia Lodge of the Irish Constitution. Hibernia was a moving military lodge within the Black Watch which existed from 1801 to 1840. How the rod turned up in Thurso is not revealed.
In 1845,at the usual St.John's Day dinner, the guest of honour was the "Father of the Lodge".Alexander Davidson. It was just 50 years since he had been entered in St.John's Lodge. He lived for another 14 years.
Prom 1859 the lodge resumed an old bad custom of allowing members to postpone payment of the fees for the degrees provided someone else guaranteed them. This habit persisted for some twenty years.
In the 1840's there were only three Entered Apprentices made within the lodge and only one of them was raised in Thurso. Another, John Henry Devon, was a professional ventriloquist who was passed and raised in St.Andrew Lodge No.215, Strathaven.

Chapter Six