Antient Lodge No 39
Manchester 1755
The forerunner of the Lodge of Friendship No.44 was constituted as Lodge No39 in Manchester on June 18th, 1755. At that time Manchester was a pleasant county town with no more than 20,000 residents. There were no railways, no canals but there were numerous Public Houses. The first recorded meeting of the Lodge was at St. Ann's Church and Mitre in 1755. The "Rules & Orders" were written and illustrated by Laurence Dermott who was the Grand Secretary of the Atholl or Antient Grand Lodge.
The Rules & Orders were written in the first minute book of Lodge No39 though the illustration (below) was transferred to a later minute book. The Lodge appears to have originally met on a Monday and two masters were installed each year on St John's Days.
The two figures drawn by Laurence Dermott at the top of the columns are labelled 'Virtue & Silence' and 'True Friendship' and appear to be the figures of young boys both wearing some sort of apron. The Motto Virtue & Silence is possibly a translation from 'Virtute et Silentio' and may be associated with the Royal Order of Scotland.
