En:Red Apron Lodge

Red Apron Lodge

source: Albert Gallatin Mackey, "MACKEY'S HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY", Moss & company, 1874

Under the English Constitution nineteen Lodges are privileged to recommend one of their subscribing members each year to serve as Grand Steward. These are known as Red Apron Lodges because the English Grand Stewards' aprons are lined and edged with crimson and the collars are of the same color. The Lodge numbers and names are as follows:

l. Grand Master's Lodge. 2. Lodge of Antiquity. 4. Royal Somerset House and Inverness Lodge. 5. Saint George's and Corner Stone Lodge. 6. Lodge of Friendship. 8. British Lodge. 14. Tuscan Lodge. 21. Lodge of Emulation 23. Globe Lodge. 26. Castle Lodge of Harmony. 28. Old King's Arms Lodge. 29. Saint Alban's Lodge. 46. Old Union Lodge. 58. Lodge of Felieity. 60. Lodge of Peace and Harmony. 9l. Lodge of Regularity 99. Shakespeare Lodge. 197. Jerusalem Lodge. 259. Prince of Wales Lodge.

The first mention in the English records of any particular method of selecting the Grand Stewards is in 1775 when a statement is made that the twelve Stewards, that being then the number, came from eight Lodges. In 1813 there were nine Red Apron Lodges. The Grand Master in 1815 nominated eighteen Lodges to return one Grand Steward each. In 1904 the Old King's Arms Lodge, which had lost its privilege in 1852 and whose place had been taken by the Old Union Lodge, was restored to the list, from which time the number has been nineteen.