Chapter 4
Visit to Jedburgh and death of Henry Scott Riddell.
A deputation consisting of Br. J. Wilson and eight members of 111 visited Jedburgh l04 on 10th July 1868, when deputations from several others Lodges in the province were present. During the evening Br. Wilson conferred the “M.M.’s” degree on 20 Fellow Crafts of the Jedburgh Lodge.
The celebration of St Johns Festival is noteworthy for on that occasion the brethren of both Lodges 424 and 111 joined in procession and dined together afterwards.
On 2nd August 1870 the brethren assembled to follow the Mortal remains of their late Bard Br. Henry Scott Riddell to his last resting place at Teviothead Cemetery.
“That Churchyard
That Lonely is lying amid the deep green wood
By Teviot’s wild strand”
No one felt his loss more keenly than his Brother Masons of 111. He was elected Bard of the Lodge in December 1863 and was regularly elected every year until his death in 1870, but there is no record in the minute book referring to his initiation. It is unlikely that he would be elected an office bearer of the Lodge if he was not a member, so in spite of his name being omitted from both the minute book and roll book, we may safely conclude he was a member and the fact that he held the office of Bard may be taken as proof of that, the omission of his name must therefore have been due to an oversight
In November 1882 a deputation from 111 was present at the consecration of Selkirk’s new Lodge room and at the laying of the foundation stone at the Cottage Hospital deputations from as far away as Largs, Arbroath, Campbeltown, and Irvine being present.
The Lodge books contain the record of a Lodge meeting held on 12th April 1872 when the extraordinary number of 14 brethren were raised to the degree of Master Mason.
On 21st February 1874,a interesting and unusual ceremony took place in the 111 Lodge room when Br. Robert Wilson and Francis Dick were installed as RWM’s of St Johns 111 and St Junes 424 respectively.
The first mention of a Burns Supper appears in the minute of January 1874 and the Lodge recorded its protest against assertions of infidelity, sedition and disloyalty made by the present Pope (in 1738 Pope Clement XII forbade all Catholics to become Freemasons, two years later membership was punishable by death).
A letter was received from Grand Lodge on 21st March 1873 stating that the installation had not been carried out to their instructions and they could not register the RWM until he was properly installed.