Our visit to the Jersey Masonic Library and Museum, the fifth of the joint trips Michael Baigent and I have undertaken, was to prove enjoyable and instructive. The Channel Islands have a unique history, not least because they were the only part of British Territory occupied by the Germans in the Second World War.
    These traumatic events had many repercussions, in particular on the Masonic heritage of Jersey. The Temple in St Helier was appropriated by the occupying forces on 19 November 1940 and The Secret Field Police sealed all the rooms containing valuable Masonic artefacts and priceless items in preparation for the systematic looting and destruction of the contents of the building two months later by special German troops, the Einsatzstab.
    The librarian and curator at the time, George Knocker, described how he discreetly walked up and down the opposite side of the street to witness, over a two day period, the pillaging and burning of cherished books and documents, records and lodge furniture. The present Library and Museum is dedicated to his memory.
    After his death in 1952 there was a hiatus until the appointment of Dennis Perrin in 1981. Since the latters’ retirement, after 11 years of dedicated service, it has proven difficult to find a long-term curator: the search continues. Meanwhile Dennis remains the main contact for all matters relating to the Museum. His enthusiasm is infectious and his Masonic knowledge and standing unsurpassed not only in Jersey but throughout the UK. He was recently distinguished with the Order of Service to Masonry, the highest honour that the Grand Master bestows on any member of the Craft.
    Brethren of the Province of Jersey take great pride in their splendid classical style Masonic Temple with an external staircase and imposing porch with four Corinthian columns rising 26 feet high which was consecrated on 25th May 1864. The greatest concern of the Brethren who established the Jersey Masonic Temple Company in November 1862 was finance. Funds were raised in many ways but new legislation on Limited Liability that same year allowed joint stock companies to be formed. These circumstances led to the creation of one of the great ephemeral curiosities unique to the Island: the 1866 issue of the Jersey Masonic One Pound Note. One example of this rare currency item survives in the Museum.
    As we entered the building through the side door, Dennis directed us into the Provincial room where we enjoyed a first taste of Masonic artefacts. Several interesting prints decorate the walls, including an early 18th century edition of William Hogarth’s famous ‘Night’. On display on well-illuminated shelves is a range of gavels in their original decorative presentation boxes and the top shelves exhibit a few select pieces of early Masonic pottery. One large Sunderland jug struck our attention immediately. The attractive transfer decoration was that of a man-of-war, NORTHUMBERLAND 74, the number referring to the vessel’s 74 guns. Although unidentified, the design suggests that Moore & Co of Southwick produced this piece, between 1789, when the company was founded and 1830. Typical also is the decorative ditty in one of the panels on the side of the jug:

Let Masonry from Pole to Pole
Her sacred Laws expand
Far as the mighty waters roll
To wash remotest land
That virtue has not left mankind
Her social maxims prove
For stamped upon the masons mind
Are unity and love

This is the first verse of an old song published in William Preston’s 1796 edition of Illustrations of Masonry. There is a Jersey connection in the name and date painted on top of the glaze: Jeane Mourant 1845 - a well-known Jersey mason. Upstairs in the Museum we found a matching jug in the identical Sunderland style and decorated with the same transfer. It appears that these were originally purchased in London and brought back to Jersey where Mourant added his name and the date. Two other pairs of ‘Jersey’ jugs complement a rather nice collection of Worcester, Staffordshire and Sunderland earthenwear of various styles and periods. A rare unidentified hexagonal pair of exceedingly attractive white pottery jugs have golden Masonic emblems as decorations. The jugs were clearly intended as utilitarian implements, probably custom ordered. The logo reads, Farmers Lodge No. 302 Jersey, now the Yarborough Lodge No. 244. A second matching pair of jugs are attractively coloured with a dark blue line across the lip of the jug and another encircling it on either side of the coat of arms of the United Grand Lodge. The word JERSEY is stencilled below.
    Dennis takes particular pride in the extensive Library he has assisted in re-building over the last few decades. It was first put together by Loge La Cesaree in 1858 and passed on to the Province some years later. The boost to the library holding, however, came with the recent bequest of the late Cosby Jackson, a Past Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge. It now includes, among many other volumes, a first edition of Anderson’s Constitutions, all of the major exposures of the 18th Century, and a very wide selection, appropriately, of French texts. One series of manuscript ritual books in the library is worthy of attention. It is attributed to Dr Henry Hopkins, a talented and well-known Jersey mason, who ‘published’ a set of rituals in his own handwriting. The quaint symbolically annotated texts incorporate the Craft degrees as well as the opening and closing of Provincial Grand Lodge.
    Dennis’ adrenalin levels rose considerably when, in 1992, some colleagues making repairs to the roof of the building informed him that a number of items dating well before the occupation had been discovered in the attic. Quite a few unusual artefacts emerged. Until about 1860 the building was lit by gas fires for which special glass lamp globes, decorated with the square and compass, were used. Eight of these original globes were found and soon used as lampshades in the anteroom to the main hall, several additional ones are on display in the Museum. Also discovered were a number of local soda siphons, which caused considerable furore in Provincial Grand Lodge. Freemason, Peter P Deslandes, a Jersey merchant, had been effectively disciplined in October 1879, for claiming the square and compass design on the bottles to be his own Trade Mark!
    The Museum can be visited by appointment Monday to Friday 10.00 to 4.00 by telephoning Dennis Perrin at 01534 851105 or the Provincial Grand Secretary (Bro Barry de la Mare) 01534-853084.

EMERGENCY REGALIA
The recovery from the German occupation is reflected in the small collection of emergency aprons that were distributed to the Brethren at the first Lodge meetings following the war. The Germans had either looted or burnt all of the regalia and much of the furnishings stored in the Masonic Hall. The Brethren, eager to meet as soon as possible, created the aprons from various materials, ranging from linen and calico to starched paper, on which the emblems of Craft and Royal Arch were faithfully reproduced with paint, pen and ink. Provincial Stewards were presented with their own red aprons. These remained in use for a year or more, until clothes rationing ceased and regalia was again available.

JERSEY BANKNOTE
The Jersey banknotes are unique and exceedingly rare. They are genuine Masonic banknotes, subject only to allowing a little leeway to the definition of a banknote. As the need for the financing of the newly built Masonic Temple in Jersey increased in 1866, a few masons came up with an ingenious scheme to raise funds: a circulating currency note that was effectively an interest free guaranteed ten year loan. The One Pound notes, issued by authority of the board of the Masonic Temple Company over a period of several months of the same year, had all the ingredients of a legal tender banknote. The design, which resembled the Bank of England, One Pound note, was executed by William Adams, Provincial Grand Secretary of Jersey from 1857. They were known as 'redeemable certificates' ; perfectly legal issues at the time. The Provincial Masonic coat of arms appears on the top right of the note and an engraved view of the Temple on the opposite side. The notes, hand numbered, dated, and signed, by the trustees state: 'Payable on Demand', the catch lies in the printed repayment date, ten years after issue! An added clause: Payable to the Sultan of Turkey and the Khedive of Egypt indicates the contributory nature of the note. In October 1998 an example of the Jersey £1 note fetched £ 1,400 at a Phillips auction in London.

THE TWIN GLOBES
One of the most important and valuable items stolen by the Nazis were two fourteen-inch Terrestrial and Celestial globes created by the famed Cary family of globe makers and dated circa 1810. The Germans had photographed the lodge room to allow its recreation in an antimasonic exhibition in Belgrade, in 1942, and the globes appear in one of these photographs. They have never since been found. They have, however, been replaced by somewhat simpler globes and columns presented to the Provincial Grand Lodge by Freemason Stanley Amy, an amateur cabinet maker, who converted two of the posters of an antique bed to two decorative and handsome pillars mounted with celestial and terrestrial globes. The globes do not match, the celestial being an earlier French globe whilst the terrestrial is in a later English version, but they do handsomely decorate the lodge room and are a constant reminder of the beautiful furniture that once decorated the Temple

MISSING
The depleted collection of books in the Jersey Library following the war was enhanced by the return of some 250 books by the British Army, all of which have a note attached to the bookplate stating: This book was looted by the Germans January 1941 and returned to Jersey by the British Army in March 1947. Among these is a rare booklet which was presented to the library by a local brother in 1935, entitled Statutes of the Royal and Exalted Religious Military Order, Grand Elected Masonic Knight Templars of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes of Heredom, dated 2 June 1791 (revised edition 1809), coinciding with the election of Thomas Dunckerley as head of the Order. The title is a quaint reminder of the confusion of the degrees and orders in pre-union days. It incorporates a foldout list of Knights Templar encampments between 1790 and 1810 and copies of correspondence between Jackson – who rediscovered the booklet in 1972 - and the Librarian at Grand Lodge. The letters in question mention the existence of a Charter attached to the Statutes and signed by several Knights Templar, including Johann Christian Buchurdt, and the counter signatures of Waller Rodwell Wright, Vice Chancellor and Robert Gill, Registrar. This document is now missing from the Library. The Province of Jersey would be grateful to hear from anyone who may know its whereabouts.