Sir Sampson Gideon, Lord Eardley (1748-1824)
Provincial Grand Master 1796 - 1824
1796. In Revolutionary France, the Directoire appointed a young General Napoleon Buonaparte to command of the Army of Italy, forever changing the face of Europe. Also in 1796, though on a different plane, in a different spirit, probably with much less justification and certainly with less dramatic results, the 'Moderns' or Premier Grand Lodge appointed Sampson Eardley, FRS, FSA, 1st Baron Spalding as Provincial Grand Master for Cambridgeshire. HRH George, Prince of Wales, was the Grand Master at the time, with the Earl of Moira as acting deputy; with what we now know as 'Pro-Grand Master'. In considering Eardley's fitness or enthusiasm for the job, it is perhaps as well to bear in mind R.W. Bro. Bathurst's 'impression that any peer, baronet or MP who was invited to dine with Grand Lodge was apt to be made Provincial Grand Master irrespective of whether there were any Lodges in his part of the world or not'.
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Provincial Grand Lodge of Cambridgeshire
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Extract from
"Cambridgeshire Encompassed",
by kind permission of
W.Bro. Jim Whitehead
Provincial Grand Masters
© Copyright 2008: Provincial Grand Lodge of Cambridge
Created and maintained by: Roger Outram
