Lodge Oberon's Chair

04 August 23

The following article on the furniture of Lodge Oberon was written by JC Wilburd in May 1937 and supplied by the WM of Lodge Oberon, W Bro Terry Boyce.

There is no written history, but I still maintain that it is the oldest masonic chair in NSW. It appears that when soldiers and sailors from England were on Foreign Service in any part of the world, an Independent Charter was issued by the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland, to enable brethren of any Constitution to meet together.

It did not matter whether they were English Constitution, Irish Constitution or Scottish Constitution, they were united under an Independent Charter. The Charge of the Charter was always held by some officer of note, sailor or soldier, who was held responsible for the Charter.

Charter No 8 Independent was issued to the men on service in NSW guarding the convicts and then in making a road over the Blue Mountains. No 8 Charter was used by the soldiers as far as Bathurst in 1848. The convict system ceased in NSW and the soldiers withdrew and left NSW to return to England. No 8 Charter and the furniture of the lodge was left behind for the freemen to carry on.

Some years after, a group of men in Bathurst sent for and obtained a Charter from the Grand Lodge of Ireland and the Irish in No 8 Independent, left and joined the new lodge. They held their meeting in a different room and had their own furniture and regalia. The Scots, not to be outdone, applied for and received a Charter from the Grand Lodge of Scotland, formed a lodge, met in their own room and had their own furniture and regalia.

No 8 Independent seemed to fade out of existence, or its members joined up with the two lodges then existing in Bathurst.

Sometime after, Lithgow with its coal supplies, began to grow very fast, and some brethren of that town, wished to form a lodge there.

They made their desire known to the Bathurst brethren, and as it would have taken a long time in those days to make an application to the Old Country, and get a reply, it was decided [possibly by the last Master to hold No 8 Charter] that Lithgow could have the No 8 Charter, furniture, ballot box and squares to make a star, which they did, and called the Lodge No 8 Independent, which is now the name today. [1937]

Some years after the Union in 1888, a new Masonic Temple was built in Lithgow, and new furniture replaced the old.

The old No 8 Furniture was put aside in an outhouse [Old No 8 Independent is my Mother Lodge, and I was speaking to the original secretary VM Owens who held the job for 36 years] that we were trying to form a new Masonic Lodge in Oberon.

He said the old furniture they used was stowed away and I could obtain it very cheap if I wished. It was bought and I took it to Oberon and it was then that I saw the maker’s name and date on the Master’s chair.

The furniture consisted of one Master’s Chair, made of Spanish Mahogany, two Wardens Chairs, with Master’s and Wardens’ canopy over each chair, one double door knocker, a ballot box and about 40 cubes of black white wood, not marbles. The Master’s Chair was made by a man named Walker, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1842 so it is only five years short of 100 years old.

The Old No 8 Independent Charter is still to be viewed at Lodge No 8 Independent at Lithgow, and I am sure that Bro R Northey the Tyler, would be pleased to point it out to any visitor.

It has taken a lot of time and bother to get the information from the old Bathurst masons of whom I know so many, and being in the Post Office at Bathurst in 1879, I knew most of the masonic crowd by their notices being sent out, and seeing some of them trying to get home by rail all hours of the night or morning. I did not know anything masonic then, but I had reason to know when and where they met. I think this is of interest to you and which very few are now acquainted.

This article was first published in the Dec 2019 Freemasons Magazine.