|
The term "Ulster-Scot" is not a new
one as far as the Orange Institution is concerned.
For the records of the Grand Orange Lodge of
Ireland show that in 1872 a warrant was granted to a Lodge
in Tyrone which was to be known as the Ulster-Scot Loyal Orange
Lodge.
And a year later, the Grand Lodge minutes for
December 1873 detail that a warrant - number 2002 - had been
issued to a Lodge in Belfast which was to be known as The
Ulster Scot.
It is not clear what became of L.O.L. No. 340
in Tyrone, for the warrant book for 1875 reports that the
warrant was then operating in Glenavy in County Antrim, having
been issued to William James Smyth.
When the Grand Orange Lodge of the United States
met in Boston in 1894, meanwhile, one of the District Lodges
represented, was the Ulster-Scot District, represented by
Reuben Yates, the official report of the gathering tells us.
And the Defender newspaper produced by the Orange
Order in England details in January 1911 that Ulster-Scot
Lodge No. 287 had met at the Welcome, Fore Street, Devonport.
A number of naval brethren were on Christmas leave, reducing
the numbers somewhat, it was related. Worshipful Master of
the Lodge in 1911 was W. Macavoy, while Robert Longhead of
Arva, County Cavan, was visiting the Lodge that month and
four new members were initiated.
The Lodge also decided to write a congratulatory
letter to Brother Raycroft "on being one of the first
mechanicians to be promoted to warrant officer in the navy,"
it was outlined.
Many Lodges were, and are, of course, strongly
Ulster-Scots, even though their names may not be so explicit
as the brethren in the 1870s.
|
