1755 to 1757

The evidence for Lodge No 43’s existence from 3rd December 1755 is contained in the financial records of the Antients Grand Lodge which include a return from the Lodge [Membership Register B folio 173] by reference to that date referring to nine Brethren members, namely:-

Anthony Woods

John Witherall

Robert Woods

John Richeson

Thomas Oldham

Thos. Iliffe

Thos. Hirst

William Garrett

Danl. Marshall

22nd September 1761

The Coronation of King George III took place on this day and, to celebrate the occasion, the City of Coventry organised a procession when the Mayor, Alderman Hewitt, and all the Aldermen, with bands, streamers and ensigns, paraded through the City and the cavalcade was closed by the fraternity of freemasons in their proper badge. Beautiful cockades of coronation ribbon and laurel were worn. There was hearty singing and all returned via St. Mary’s Hall where the conduits ran red and white wine™. The finale was an impressive fireworks display.

Lodge No.43 – Antients

Bro. Thomas Oldham

Of the several Thomas Oldhams around at the time, the likeliest candidate is the man who became a freeman in 1736 as a Much Park Street Ward silkman; a member of the Corporation from 1751, he preceded a namesake as Mayor on 15th October 1754 and remained on the Council till 1766, having already served as a City Chamberlain for the year from October 1742 and as Sheriff for the year from October 1748; rose to be head master of the Weaver’s Company in 1754; as a Great Meeting feoffee (the congregation was by then becoming Unitarian :its present church is in Holyhead Road); he invested gifts and bequests, himself paying church-dues which show that he was wealthy, as do the City’s Land Tax assessments. He owned land in Much Park Street and Cross Cheaping Wards, and at Exhall; was a trustee of both Sir Thomas White’s Charity and Bond’s Hospital; and died on 30th October 1767, aged 52.

Bro. Thomas Iliffe

In 1752 and 1762 he was a St. Michael’s Churchwarden.

Bro. William Garratt

He was a Cross Cheaping Ward silkweaver who was made a freeman in 1753.

Bro. Daniel Stokes

Probably the Daniel Stokes who was described as a Bishop Street Ward Weaver when granted the freemanship in 1779.

Bro. James Ellis

A Spon Street Ward weaver who became a freeman in 1768.

Bro. Christopher Bottrill

He was styled engine-weaver when he received an apprentice from Katherine Bayleys charity-school in 1772. He signed the 1785 Petition.

Bro. John Mather

He was landlord of the Formidable Inn at the time of the 1783 Coventry Races. He signed the 1785 Petition.

Bro. Isaac Steane

He was a Spon Street Ward Weaver when admitted a freeman in 1768.

Bro. Edward Bird

He was described as a brazier from Cross Cheaping Ward on receiving the freemanship in 1775.

Bro. Joseph Sawrey

He was a Bishop Street Ward breeches-maker and glover when becoming a freeman in 1773.

Bro. Joseph Vernon

This Brother was also a signatory of the 1785 Petition. A Joseph Vernon was called an apothecary from Spon Street Ward when he became a freeman in 1736, but the same description was given to another Joseph Vernon admitted to the freemanship in 1780.

Bro. Richard Sawrey

This Brother, who was one of those who signed the Petition to join the Moderns in 1785, is shown in the Land Tax assessments as being of relatively poor means. His occupation is noted in some records as a breeches maker and in others as connected to a metal trade.

At the same time he participated in civic affairs, to the extent that he is shown as an invitee, in Alderman Hewitts Journal of 1790, to the Mayors Feast at St. Marys Hall in 1755.

Other records reveal that he served in several offices, namely as Holy Trinity Overseer of the Poor; Corporation Warden (in charge of the Corporation movables) in 1766; a Member of the Corporation from 1771 to 1778; and an Election Commissioner in 1780.

He was a signatory to a Holy Trinity parish meeting in1768 to raise a mortgage to repair the workhouse.

He owned and rented land at Spon End, a Palmer Lane stable and garden, and property at Newfield (now part of Radford).

Sawrey was also making gloves , for on 26th February 1777 the Council resolved to pay him £13-6-10d for gloves provided for corporation servants between 1772 and 1776; and on 3rd June 1778 he was paid for gloves for the lady (i.e. the actor playing Lady Godiva) at the great fair.