Druids

Druidism in NSW

On 17 May, 1869, the AGM of the Order of Druids (UK) at Staleybridge determined to assist the development of their Order in the colonies by sending a 'License or Dispensation' authorising the establishment of an 'Australian Board of Management to the Newcastle District of New South Wales'. The document, having survived, shows that the authorisation was to run only until 31 October, 1872.
A further surviving document shows that Newcastle brethren had asked the Order of Druids (UK) for a dispensation which when sent on 16 July, 1867, was addressed to members of the Rock of Hope Lodge No 77, 'at the house of Brother Henry Bruniges' at Burwood, a coal village at Newcastle, County of Northumberland.
The surviving minutes of that lodge, actually called by the brethren the 'Bud of Hope Lodge', had been initiated at a meeting on 16 January, 1864 at 'the Junction' where it was agreed that Henry Bruniges would 'make an application to Mr Joseph Wagdon for a Dispensation to open a Lodge of Druids'.
Joseph Wagdon was a local man and he was called to chair the first formal meeting on 24 January where the lodge officers were elected and installed for 3 months. He clearly had the power to issue dispensations for the Order of Druids in the UK for in 1867, at Morpeth, he was addressed by members of the 12 lodges then established in the Newcastle area as 'Past Most Worthy Royal Excellent Grand Arch', a title apparently awarded to him by the Order.

Registrars' records show a 'Newcastle District Branch, Druids' was registered in March, 1868, a 'Hand of Freedom Lodge, Newcastle' in April, 1868 and the 'Loyal Friend in Need Lodge, Borehole, No 99, Newcastle District' in June, 1870. These appear to have been the only official NSW registrations.
In February of 1867 the first Sydney lodge of this Order was reported established at Hinchy's Hyde Park Hotel, cnr Bathurst and Castlereagh Sts, 'as a branch of the district lodge, Newcastle.' The Sydney lodge officers duly applied to Newcastle for a dispensation to operate.
At Wagdon's funeral at Wallsend on 10 May, 1880, no Druid presence was recorded. A Masonic service followed a procession which also contained large contingents of Grand United and Manchester Unity Odd Fellows.
Clearly, there had been changes in Druidism in NSW between 1867 and 1880.
A 19th century set of Rules of the Ancient Order of Druids claims that the United Ancient Order of Druids was a breakaway in 1834 from the original Ancient Order said to have been 'revived' in 1781 by Hurle and others. It is clear from these Rules that a major revision occurred within the Ancient Order in 1849. A 1916 article in the UK Rechabite Magazine records that the Order of Druids was an 1858 breakaway from the UAOD at a time when there was also, besides the Ancient Order, a Modern Order, a Loyal Order, a Bolton Unity of Druids and 'the Druids under the Grove.'
An advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald for 28 September, 1846 invited brethren of the UAOD to a meeting to form a Sydney Lodge and a Mr James Himen is credited with having established a lodge at Port Phillip (Victoria) in 1850. Neither of these could be maintained, the latter suffering from member losses to the gold rushes. Himen and others came together in 1861 to establish a Grand Lodge of Australia, presumably of the UAOD.

The UK Order of Druids extended the power of authorisation held by the original 'License or Dispensation' with a further document, also surviving, dated 23 June, 1873, until such time as an AGM in either the UK or in 'the colonies' would revoke it.
Brother Robert J Beavis who died 7 November, 1898, is remembered as a key founder of UAOD in NSW. It is said that as Master of the Ancient Order of Druids in NSW he negotiated amalgamation with the Order of Druids by way of a Charter obtained from England which was sent to and held in Victoria and by which NSW became a sub-branch, a 'District Grand Lodge', of what is not clear. Beavis, it is said, continued to negotiate with England and obtained a Charter for NSW in its own right.
A 1910 Austral Druid version (April, p.10) has it that in 1877 Beavis federated the NSW Ancient Order with Victoria's Grand Lodge, but shortly after assisted the members of the 'Australian Order of Odd Fellows, Iron Duke Lodge' to become members of the Ancient Order of Druids, which it must be assumed, continued. Earlier articles in the same magazine (October, 1909, February, 1910) assert that the Victorian UAOD, having 'assimilated' five Sydney lodges of the Order of Druids in Dec-January, 1877, namely Pioneer, Prince Alfred, Belmore, Stonehenge and Rose of Australia, allowed that 'District' to retain its identity and control of its own financial affairs. It is further claimed that a movement to obtain Grand Lodge status for NSW began in 1881 and was successful by January, 1883 when the first Grand Lodge meeting was held. This is recorded as being of the UAOD.
A Memo of Agreement between UAOD, Grand Lodge, NSW and the Grand Lodge of Australia, [in Victoria] dated the 5 December, 1882 allowed transfer of members between either branch of the UAOD, under certain conditions, including the agreement being subject to the approval of both Sydney and Newcastle Districts. It would appear Sydney was keen but not so Newcastle.

In Newcastle, in October 1883, both UAOD and the 'Grand United Order of Druids Friendly Society' were actively recruiting members, the latter claiming the 'Young Man's Friend Lodge, No 3, Wallsend' and the 'Lily of Australia Lodge, No 5, Waratah'. The Rock of Hope Lodge at the Junction is apparently by then part of the UAOD.
A memoir by Mrs Mary Anne Davis of Minmi, another mining village near Newcastle, recalled night-time processions of Druids in the 1880's. Two abreast, all with long white beards, with faces turned green with some sort of powder, and carrying flaring scrub 'torches' they were 'weird and frightening.'
The book, History of Broken Hill, claims that Druidism there dates from 1887 when South Australian brethren met 'at the Hill' and determined on a local branch. They approached both NSW and Victorian Grand Lodges but both refused to issue a dispensation. The members then approached South Australia and were accepted as the Silver Star 'branch', formed 3 May, 1888. When in 1901 NSW legislators passed a Friendly Society Act insisting on registration of all societies the Success Lodge, UAOD, seceded from South Australia and joined NSW, in 1902. The other Broken Hill Druids remained with SA until 1907 when officers from both States met on the Barrier and negotiated a peaceful transition of Railway and Triumph Lodges (both formed in 1896) to NSW's jurisdiction by way of an 'Indenture of Agreement'.
The Austral Druid of November, 1902, reports formation of the first Ladies Druid lodge in NSW, the 'Lady Rawson', and in 1905 that of 'Pride of West Wallsend' another ladies lodge, interesting since no male lodge was apparently yet operating in that coal village.
In 1905, also, 2 Newcastle lodges, the Hand and Heart, Newcastle, and the Hope of Carrington, both of UAOD but under jurisdiction of a Newcastle Grand Lodge moved after negotiation to join the Grand Lodge of NSW. In November, 1909 that Newcastle Grand Lodge finally 'amalgamated' with the Sydney-based Grand Lodge.

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