Lennox Lodge No 123 has the distinction of being one of the oldest surviving Freemason’s Lodges in the country. According to Lane’s Masonic Records the Lodge was formed in 1755 & consecrated on 1st May 1763.
On 26th December 1797 Mr Matthew Greathead, a carpenter from Richmond, was ‘Made a Mason’. Bro Greathead continued as a faithful and obedient member of the Lodge for 74 years and 4 days until his death at the advanced age of 101 years and 8 months on 31st December 1871.
Death, it seems, was no barrier to Bro Greathead’s attendance at the Lodge as the minutes for 5th January 1872 share his final meeting and journey to the grave over 10 pages.
Bro Greathead had expressed a wish to be interred with the formalities of the Order so the aptly named Worshipful Master, Bro Edward Mason, “Immediately made application to the V Worshipful Provincial Grand Master, of the Province, the Earl of Zetland for a legal power and authority to attend the funeral procession”. The dispensation was granted & the Lodge summoned for Friday 5th January 1872 at 1:30 p.m.
The night before the funeral the corpse was placed in the centre of the Lodge. The next day the Brethren “appeared in full black, white gloves, their jewels tassels and rosettes to their aprons covered in crape at the time appointed to open the Lodge which was suitably hung with black cloth”.
The Lodge was opened in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd degrees with solemn prayer and the Worshipful Master called upon the brethren to rise and gave the following proclamation:
“It having pleased the Great Architect of the Universe to take unto himself our much beloved brother Matthew Greathead who departed this life in hope of an eternal one on the 31st of December last this solemn assembly is convened to enable us to testify our sincere regard for his memory and to improve ourselves by celebrating his obsequies 'according to ancient custom of the Craft' funeral rites."
"I must notice that it has pleased the Great Architect of the Universe in his infinite goodness to prolong the life of out departed brother to an age rarely attained by man and by his death the oldest Freemason not only in England but it is believed of every other Land has passed to the presence of the Most High.”
The ceremony in the Lodge continued with suitable anthems sung to musical accompaniment on the harmonium.
The Lodge then formed a procession with the brethren carrying sprigs of yew, acacia and other herbs and bore the body, with regalia and 2 crossed swords, to the Parish Church of St. Mary.
The Chaplain of the Lodge, Revn J. S. Warman, conducted the funeral service inside the Church and at the graveside.
The brethren then threw their sprigs of evergreen into the grave, re-formed the procession and returned to the Lodge which was lowered from the 3rd Degree and closed with solemn prayer.
A suitable memorial was erected at the grave, which in testament to the Mason’s craft is the only memorial among the nearby headstones that remains properly upright.
