One of the twelve lodges constituting the District
in 1895.
Well before the Lodge was formed, the Ford and Jeppe
Estate Company offered the intending founders a
stand and in the event the masonic hall was
completed by June 1893, two months before the
Consecration. The signatories to the petition
included two District Grand Masters to be, George
Richards and J Waldie Peirson and a third, G S Burt
Andrews, was initiated in the Lodge in January 1894.
The Lodge financed the erection of the masonic hall
partly by issuing debentures of £5 each, free of
interest, to members and partly by way of a loan of
£400; but thanks largely to many of the early
members donating their debentures to the Lodge, all
indebtedness had been cleared by 1897.
There were twelve regular and fifteen emergency
meetings in the first year. On 20 December, 1897, in
Bulawayo, Sir Alfred Milner decorated Bro Herbert
Stephen Henderson with the Victoria Cross. Bro
Henderson had been put through the three degrees in
Jeppestown Lodge, in May of that year, at successive
weekly meetings and there could have been a military
reason for this haste. He had earned this rarest of
decorations 'for valour' in Rhodesia a year earlier,
during the Matabele rebellion, when he had led his
horse, bearing a wounded colleague, on foot for 35
miles through dangerous country to Bulawayo. (For
Valour; Ian S Uys.)
Up to the time of the South African War, hardly a
month went by without one or two emergency meetings,
and two degrees were often conferred at one meeting.
However, the Edwardian era saw quieter days.
The Lodge premises in Hans Street served Jeppestown
Lodge and its tenants well for many years but
eventually became very expensive to maintain. So in
1977 an offer from the District Grand Mark Lodge was
accepted, the premises were refurbished, and
Jeppestown Lodge became a tenant. But in the event
fewer Mark and Royal Ark Mariner Lodges moved to
Hans Street than had been hoped and in 1991 the Mark
District sold the hall to an outside organisation.
Thus, after just under a century at Hans Street,
Jeppestown Lodge moved,with some sadness to
Kensington Hall.
Overall the Lodge has maintained steady progress
over the years and it can count many stalwarts among
its members, including one Grand officer in W Bro
Graham Granger, who has been very active, in recent
years, in both the Craft and Royal Arch Districts.
The Lodges pairing with Barberton Lodge has worked
to the benefit of both Lodges.
Exsequi Lodge meets at Park
Lane in Johannesburg, South Africa on the fourth Monday of
February (Election Meeting), April (Installation Meeting),
June, August, October and November. Exsequi is a Freemasons
Dining Lodge and masonic guests are most welcome.
Freemasonry a web site for and about Freemasons - South African
Lodges
