This item that predates the Province of Guernsey and Alderney by over a decade, and appears to have no local relevance apart from the Lodge No 99, but it is an interesting piece of very early English Freemasonry.
The item is a leather disk with two Masters squares riveted onto it, one with the name “Lomax Lodge No 99” stamped, on one side and on the other side a list bearing the date “April 1741” and the names of the Officers of the Lodge.
The Leather disk appears to have come from the base of possibly a leather powder keg, and the Masters Squares appear to be made out of zink galvanised metal.
A search of the Lodge name and number along with the date from the label we have a possible match, The Lodge holding the number technically has no name.
That Lodge was founded in 1729, although the Warrant is dated the 17 February 1733, originally holding the number 111. In 1740 the Lodge was renumbered as 99 and was then meeting at the Golden Fleece, Goodman’s Fields, London. They moved to a new meeting house in 1741 meeting at Bowling Green, Goodman’s Fields, London. This area is in between Billingsgate and White Chapel.
Efforts have been made to try and locate the Inn named Bowling Green and it has long since gone we suspect. It is possible that Lomax was the name of the Proprietor many Lodges around this date technically held no name but were named after the Inn or Proprietor. This Lodge 99 changed number in 1755 to number 57, but the warrant had lapsed for this Lodge by 1761 and so the warrant was withdrawn.
Lodge number 99 was a number issued to Doyle’s Lodge of Fellowship for a brief period of time about 90 years after the date recorded on the back of the leather disk. The date of Doyle’s obtaining No. 99 was in a period when all the Lodge numbers were reissued.
