A Forged Warrant?
Right Worshipful Sir, on this your official visit I sadly must inform you of an irregularity in Grand River Lodge. Section 275 of the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario states that the warrant must be present in the lodge room when the lodge is open. In my researches I have discovered that this thing hanging on our wall purporting to be our original warrant is a forgery. I hope that you will give the brethren freedom of the lodge in order to inspect it, and I will explain my findings during that time we usually devote to Masonic education.
How do I know this to be a forgery?
- It is dated 1861 - that’s correct
- It is signed by Thomas D. Harrington, G.M.; Thomas Harris, G.S.; and W. B. Simpson, D.G.M.- they were the holders of those offices in 1861, so that’s correct.
- It says “Berlin” - that was the name of Kitchener then
- It is made out on the standard form proscribed by the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario. - it says “The Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario”. But Ontario did not exist in 1861. And before 1874 our grand lodge was styled “The Grand Lodge of Canada”
- Look at the signatures again. Although at first glance they appear different, look at the S’s and the n’s. They’re all the same. They were all written by the same person.
- And look at the way Thomas Harris signed the Proceedings of the Tenth Communication of Grand Lodge in 1865 - quite different.
So why we do have a forged warrant? Our original warrant was destroyed when the lodge hall burned. The Berlin News Record of Jan 26, 1901 states that “The Masonic Hall is gutted, all the paraphernalia and Craft records being destroyed. Among the latter are documents dating back to 1861 when the Lodge was organized, and no money value can be placed upon them, as they cannot be replaced.” The cause of the fire was supposed to be “spontaneous combustion”. What must then have happened is that our warrant was recreated in 1901 using the standard form of the day, one that said “The Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario”. And the Grand Secretary of the day copied the signatures from other Grand Lodge documents of the original period which were still in existence in Hamilton, and dated it 1861.
Right Worshipful Sir, I must withdraw my previous accusation. It appears that our warrant is not a forgery, but rather a reproduction.
(After Lodge R. Wor. Bro. Ray Daniels informed me that nowadays the practice in replacing a warrant is to date it in the present time, and have the present Grand Lodge officers sign it, but to place a note at the bottom indicating that it replaces a warrant issued in the past)