264 Cressing History

Knights Templar & Knights of Malta

Introduction

This short paper is an updated version of the one created for the first 200 meetings some years ago. At one time it was thought that this Preceptory would not make this milestone in its history. The fact that it has achieved this age and is still going strong is the result of the resolution of several of its senior members and the Provincial Priors.

All of the official records were lost in the upheavals around 1980, and the early information is taken from “a Homage” by E.Kt. Raymond Everest written in 1977 to commemorate the jubilee of Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation.

The Name

It is well documented in several sources that there was an important centre for Knights Templar at Temple Cressing in the county of Essex for many years. Indeed when the original Great Priory and Temple were established in London there was a grant of land at Temple Cressing in Essex. As early as 1137 the Templars had an abbey and lands at Temple Cressing. The purpose of the abbey was twofold; to provide food for Great Priory from the land and to provide spiritual nourishment for the poor and distressed Knights returning from the Crusades. In many ways the abbey at Cressing was considered part of the Temple in London and used the seal and insignia of that establishment.

Knights Templar and its associated orders died out in Essex during the middle of the nineteenth century when the Temple Cressing commandery moved to Surrey in 1866. There appears to be no trace of the Order until just before the foundation of this Preceptory in 1930.

The Consecration

When the Consecration of this Preceptory was set in motion there were two other Preceptories in the County of Essex but there was no KT Province. The summons for the Consecration was sent out with the Registrar as V.E.KtRev.F.E.Crate.

The Most Eminent and Supreme Pro Grand Master at that time was Major General T.Calley. He conducted the consecration in Mark Masons Hall, Great Queen Street, London on 22nd May 1930.

The Agenda

  1. The Knights form an Arch of Steel
  2. The Consecrating Officer enters accompanied by the Great Officers, assumes the Chair, appoints his officers and opens the Chapter.
  3. The Consecrating Officer states the object of the meeting and calls upon the Great Prelate to offer prayer.
  4. The Great Prelate recites the Collect.,
  5. The Consecrating Officer summons the Petitioning Knights to appear before him.
  6. The Warrant is read by the Great ViCe Chancellor.
  7. The Consecrating Officer enquires of the Petitioners if they approve of the Knights who are nominated to preside over them.
  8. The Great Prelate gives an Oration on the nature and principles of the Order.
  9. The Petitioning Knights march around the Preceptory three times.
  10. The Consecrating Officer proceeds round the Sepulchre scattering corn.
  11. The Petitioning Knights march around the Preceptory twice.
  12. The Great Prelate gives an Invocation.
  13. The Consecrating Officer Proceeds around the Sepulchre pouring wine.
  14. The Great Prelate gives an Invocati9n.
  15. The Petitioning Knights march around the Preceptory twice.
  16. The Consecrating Officer proceeds around the Sepulchre sprinkling oil.
  17. The Great Prelate gives an Invocation.
  18. The Greta Prelate carries the Censer around the Preceptory three times
  19. The Candles are lighted.
  20. The Consecrating Officer declare the Preceptory duly consecrated.
  21. The Great Prelate gives an Invocation.
  22. The Standards are lowered and crossed before the Consecrating Officer who consecrated them.
  23. The Great Prelate gives an Invocation.
  24. The Standards are placed in their positions.
  25. The Consecrating Officer constitutes the Preceptory.
  26. The Herald Proclaims
  27. The Herald Proclaims
  28. The Great Prelate Offers Prayer and the Benediction
  29. The initial business then follows:
  30. The Installation of the Preceptor
  31. The Investiture of the Constables
  32. The Election of the Treasurer
  33. The Appointment and Investiture of the Officers
  34. The Election of the Outer Guard
  35. The Election of the Committee members to frame the bylaws
  36. The Election of the Consecrating Officers as Honorary Members
  37. Proposals, Etc.

The Founders

There were 17 founding Knights for the Preceptory.

The first Preceptor was E.Kt. E.J.Marsh. V.E.Kt Crate who had acted as the founding Registrar, and so was in many ways the driver for the founding, was appointed the First Chaplain of the Preceptory.

Though the consecration was done in London, the place designated in the bylaws for the regular meeting was the White Hart Hotel, Romford. The regular meetings were scheduled to be held on the third Wednesday of March and May and the fourth Wednesday of October.

In the original equipment of the Preceptory, the Bible is worthy of mention. It was printed by John Baskett of Oxford and dated 1727. It is still used in all of the meetings.

The Province of Essex

Shortly after the consecration of the Cressing Preceptory, the Province of Essex was formed. The first Provincial Prior was Rev. F. Crate. At the time of the formation, there were two other Preceptories in the Province; Maplestead No 256 (formed 1928) and de Mandeville No 261 (formed 1929).

Before the second meeting, the First Constable died. The following year the Preceptor Elect died between the time of election and installation.

During the war of 1939-45, the Preceptory met in various places including Mark Masons Hall in Queens-way. In 1948/9 Masonic year, the three meetings were held in Upminster. However, from March 1950 the meetings reverted to the White Hart Hotel, Romford. There was also the occasional meander to Mark Masons Hall, Southend and Colchester for a meeting.

There were periods when there was no candidate for the meeting but on other occasions, they have installed three Knights in a day. This was particularly true immediately after the war when the aim was to rebuild the Preceptory to a viable strength.

Province of Oxon., Berks. and Bucks

In 1956 the Preceptory met at The Bull, Gerrards Cross. This was intended to be the new home with the installation meetings taking place in the County of Essex. However, the following year the venue changed again to the Masonic Hall at Gerrards Cross (with the installation remaining in Essex).

It continued in this fashion until there wa.s interest in forming a Preceptory at Aylesbury. In 1963 there were six Preceptories in the Province of Oxfordshire and Berkshire and the Provincial Prior (Major Robert Lloyd) was keen to see the Order grow. As the County of Buckinghamshire was no man’s land Cressing had to decide which Province to support, Essex or Oxford. The formal process to move Provinces was begun at the Installation meeting on 4th June 1963 at the Masonic Hall, Colchester. The Provincial Priory of Essex was held immediately after the Cressing Installation. At this meeting the Provincial Prior acted as Chaplain for the Cressing meeting so was very involved in the move.

An emergency meeting was then held on 31 July 1963 at Gerrards Cross. The proposal, which was put to the meeting, was “To consider the position of the Preceptory in relation to the possible inclusion of Buckinghamshire into the existing Province of Oxfordshire and Berkshire and to take such action as necessary.” After some discussion Cressing agreed to transfer its allegiance from Essex to the new Province of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire This enabled the application of the Knights in Aylesbury to be considered as part of the new Province. The officers present at the meeting were:

E.Kt E. Cromack                                 Preceptor

Kt. G.Large                                        Constable

E.Kt. F.A.Morgan                               Treasurer

E.Kt. J.R.Parsons                                Registrar

E.Kt. J.Clarke                                      Marshal

Kt. J.Porter                                       Herald

Kt. R.Hall                                           Capt. of Guards

E.Kt. S.Cohnan                                   Outer Guard

There were also present two other members and the Provincial Sub Prior (V.E.Kt Littler Smith) and the Provincial Vice Chancellor (E.Kt. R. Woods). The meeting did put one condition on the move, “that the new Preceptory of Aylesbury should not meet at Gerrards Cross”. However, the next regular meeting in October 1963 (no 95) of the Preceptory reversed this decision and it was not until a Grand Masters Council instructe the Provincial Vice Chancellor to advise the errant Cressing that it could not belong to Essex and continue to meet in Gerrards Cross.

At the meeting in March 1964 (no 96) the Preceptor), agreed unanimously to transfer from Essex to the new Province. The Installation meeting that year was held under the auspices of the Province of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

The reasons behind the move have been lost in the mists of history but it is probably significant that the E.Kts Cromack and Morgan were senior members of the Buckinghamshire Craft and Mark Provincial Lodges. This also begs the question of how the wandering between the two areas begins since it is not an insignificant distance between Rumford and Gerrards Cross. It has been suggested to me that there was a group of RAF officers in the Preceptory and so the concentration of Air Force bases in South Bucks and West Middlesex could have been the trigger.

The meetings continued to be held at Gerrards Cross until the centre closed suddenly on the death of the owner E.Kt H.Pearce.

The Wandering

With the death of Harry Pearce the Preceptory had to find a new home, as had all the other Masonic units that used that Hall. However, the problems of Cressing were made more complicated by the fact that the Sepulchre and Altar were made of tables borrowed from the Hall and covered with suitable material. These were no longer available so the new home had to provide all the equipment needed for a Templar meeting. All of the equipment meanwhile went into storage. Somehow around this time the old minute books and the warrant were mislaid.

The Preceptories at Slough and Amersham provided temporary accommodation for the first few meetings until a more permanent home was found with Robert Lloyd Preceptory in Henley. The Provincial Sub Prior was not completely happy with this solution as it took the Preceptory outside the county. Regardless of this, the Preceptory continued to meet at Henley until the numbers attending were so low that the new Provincial Prior (Leslie Felgate Dring) decided that extra support had to be provided. In fact, both he and Llew Griffiths (the Provincial Vice Chancellor) usually attended every meeting The numbers attending continued to fall and sometimes there were fewer than ten Knights at a meeting. The reason for the low numbers caused concern but research showed that the Preceptory had moved too far west of its membership and so new recruits were nearly impossible to find. With the encouragement of the Provincial Prior and the Vice Chancellor a new home was found in the Beaconsfield Masonic Centre.

The final meeting at Henley was surprisingly well supported as the photograph at the back of this booklet shows. I will leave it to the reader to identify the members and the visitors.

The new Home

In some ways, the move to Beaconsfield reunited this Preceptory with many of the Masonic units that met previously at Gerrards Cross. It also meant that we could not rely on another Preceptory to provide the furniture needed to form a Preceptory. This caused a lot of extra work for the members because the damage done to our equipment while it had been stored had to be repaired. The members set to with enthusiasm and the work was spread amongst them. An Altar and Sepulchre were designed and built by the members and a new Altar Cloth was designed and sewn. The sword, shield and other metal items were repaired while the banners had to be patched. E.Kt Llew Griffiths the Provincial Vice Chancellor made a triptych for use by the meditating Knight The Provincial Prior dedicated the new furniture, as it became available. The equipment of the Preceptory was completed by the addition of a Banner, which was dedicated by the new Provincial Prior Norman Bliss at meeting No 199 in 1998. The member Knights involved were:

Altar and Altar cloth     Kt.J.S.Bowler

Sepulchre                      Kt. W.E.Windsor

Sword                            E.Kt P.R.S.Renacre

Repairs to Shield, etc.   E.Kt. R.Baniard

Repairs to the Banners Kt.K.Saunders

Banner poles                 E.Kt S.Brooker

Preceptory Banner        E.Kt S.Brooker and Kt.K. Saunders

The Preceptory banner is shown at the /front of this booklet and is a reminder of the founding of the first Abbey at Temple’ Cressing and the consecration of this Knight Templar Preceptory. It is based on the badge of Great Priory which the founding six Preceptories were allowed to use.

Honorary Members

The Preceptory has never been one for giving Honorary membership easily. Until 1948 the Provincial Prior of Essex was a member. However, his successors have been Honorary members until the death of R.E.Kt A.Murphy in the 1980’s.

Currently, we are lucky to have the Most Eminent and Supreme Grand Master as an Honorary Member; he was elected while he was Provincial Prior of this Province and provided a large amount of support and encouragement in order to get the Preceptory re­established.

Only one past subscribing member is currently an Honorary Member namely Peter Renacre. He served the Preceptory as Marshall through many years and is well worthy of that honour.

Notable Landmarks

The 1933 meeting of the Priory of Essex was held under the banner of the Cressing Preceptory for the first time.

The Preceptory confirmed its move to Buckinghamshire in 1964.

The fiftieth-anniversary meeting, in 1980, was held in Gerrards Cross. It was attended by the Provincial Prior, Sub Prior, Prov. Prelate, both Prov. Constables and the Prov. Organist. There was also present the Provincial Prior of Essex accompanied by his Sub Prior and Deputy Marshal. In total, there were 46 Knights at the celebration.

The original warrant and the other records were mislaid in 1980 and the new warrant of confirmation was issued by Great Priory in 1982. It was presented to the Preceptory by E.Kt Bob Weatherhead.

The Preceptory became homeless with the closure of Gerrards Cross Masonic Hall and eventually settled in Henley Masonic Hall. It left there for Beaconsfield in 1994. The dedication of the Altar and sepulchre was done by Leslie Dring in that year.

In 1998 Norman Bliss and the Provincial Priory dedicated the Banner ready for use at the next Provincial Priory in September. At this celebration which was also the regular installation meeting, there were nearly 50 Knights including most Provincial Officers.

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