Masonic Seals.

MASONIC SEALS .

LONDON , SATURDAY , ATJGVST 21 , 1867 .

No . I . BY BEO . WILLIAM JAMES HUGHAN . We have been favoured with inrpressions of three seals belonging' to the Lodge and Chapter , & c , of Banff , through the kindness of Bro .

Stenhouse Bairnsfather , P . M ., 92 , and on sending them to the FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE the proprietor considered them well worthy of reproduction in these pages . Accordingly , the following remarks are simply in explanation of their character , and nature of the lodges to which they belong .

Banff has occupied an important position Masonically for some years . One of the lodges has preserved its minutes from the first decade of the eighteenth century , and many of the records of the St . John ' s Operative Lodge , No . 92 , are

full of interest , and , referring as they do to the Mark , Eoyal Arch , and Kni ght Templar degrees , are valuable ancl instructive , being written longbefore either the Grand Chapter or Grand Conclave was formed .

According to the Eoll of Lodges under the Grand Lodge of Scotland , St . Andrew ' s , Banff ; was constituted A . D . 1736 , but although this date is given it must not be forgotten that it existed some time before then , and that its records prove its being in working order A . D . 1708 . We are in

possession of a facsimile of three of its minutes , dated respectively December 27 , 1708 , 1709 , and 1710 . The first seal , however , belongs to the Operative Lodge , now " numbered No . 92 , and constituted 1764 . " We believe , though , that this date is but an approximation , and that the one eno-raved on the seal is the more correct of the

two . The emblems depicted thereon need no explanation . The gavel and mallet are seen and easily recognised , with their companions , the chisel and the trowel . The careful student will also find references to three Craft degrees . The

minute-book of the lodge commences 1764 , and from that date the Roll of Masters is complete . At that date the lodge numbered some forty-two members . The bye-laws of 1764 are exceedingly interesting , and some time , when our engagements

become less , we may hope to give them in extenso . They provide for a "Master ' s eldest son being ' entered apprentice' gratis , upon clearing the expenses of the meeting , " and for any brother who should be guilty of swearing in the lodge , to

be fined " twopence sterling for each oath . " St . John ' s , No . 92 , being an oj . erative lodge , has also worked the Mark degree for more than a century , but for many years has not allowed any brother "to attain the degree of Mark Master Masons until they are Eaised Master . "

The " Operative Eoyal Arch Chapter , No . 4 , " seal A . D . 17 G 5 , for one who knows the history of the lodge in connection with ivhich it is formed , is of no common value . It is numbered as the fourth on the list of chapters in Scotland , but to

our mind is well worthy of the third rank as to antiquity , and probably the second , as its bye-laws during the same year contains several regulations respecting the Eoyal Arch , and evidently in such a manner as to warrant its being considered the

members had been familiar with that degree before that year . Brother Bairnsfather—who has been Master of 92 , and P . Z . of No . 4 for several successive years , and is the historian of the lodge—has very kindly extracted a number of these laws and

regulations , and they all tend to show that the Chapter of Banff is ono of the oldest in the world , and instituted almost immediately after the institution of the degree itself . Bro . Bairnsfather tells us there is a tradition to

the effect " that the whole of the high degrees were obtained by the members from an Irish regiment quartered in the town of Banff about the year 1764 , " and I am inclined to think this tradi-