The Founding of the Grand Lodge of Downpatrick

Downpatrick Lodge 367 from one of the early
Minute Books. Copied from the DownpatrickFreemason Website.

It is perhaps hard to appreciate from a distance the ideological and religious ferment of those bygone days. For those of a theological disposition, the precise relationship of Jesus Christ to God was a matter of passionate debate and disagreement, as exemplified in the trial of the Reverend Thomas Nevin,  So too was the question of who - if anyone - should be the symbolic and mediating link between earth and heaven. It could be the Pope, if one chose to be Catholic, the Monarch if you chose the Anglican route, or nobody much at all if you followed the dissenting tradition for whom the function of their leaders was more a matter of governance than direct intercession. 

Then there was the question of how this intersected with the rise of nation states and national identity, which also seemed to demand conformance to a common set of beliefs and values. For the English rulers of the time, this meant adherence to Anglicanism, and second class citizenship at best for others. 

Add to this the explosive concepts unleashed by the French and American revolutions that laid the base for universal rights and secular organisation, enormous economic and social disparities, and powerful vested interests in the status quo, and there you have a recipe for interesting times. 

Tongues will hence have fluttered wildly in the Downpatrick debating societies, not only in the Whig club, but also in the Downpatrick Grand Lodge of the Freemasons, Lodge Number 367 to be precise, after the issue of its official warrant in 1767. 

Edward Parkinson, who was to write about the West family at the turn of the twentieth century was a member of the Lodge. So too many years earlier was Thomas Russell, the Linen Hall librarian and United Irishman, who was to meet his end on the gallows outside Downpatrick prison in 1803. And so also, a generation earlier, was Godfrey West, the grandfather of Harriett Wombwell.

John ‘Yehya-en-Nasr’ Parkinson

http://www.muslim.org/woking/is-rev-mar14.htm

A few words are in order about John Parkinson, a distant cousin of the family through the West line.

John Parkinson was actually born in1874, in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland, his family having left County Down for Scotland. John was a particular devotee of astronomy and was a member of the British Astronomical Society. What is curious about him is that in 1901 he left behind his Presbyterian roots and converted to Islam, assuming the name Yehya-en-Nasr. He was a particular admirer of the Orroman Empire and wrote a number of volumes of poetry devoted to his new religion as well as continuing his astronomical research. His long epic poem the Osmanli Nameh was presented to the Sultan Abdul Hamid II himself, who was reportedly an admirer of Parkinson's work. He died in 1918, and since he had already been upset that the First World War had pitted the British against the Ottomans, it was probably for the best that he did not live on to see the final dismemberment of their empire.

For more about John Parkinson, see Yahya Birt's website.

The Parkinsons of County Down

View of Quoile Castle from Wikipedia

Thanks to the Ros Davies County Down website,  it emerges that the Edward Parkinson who wrote about the West family was born in 1866, the son of John Parkinson and Frances Edgar. He was a mason in the Downpatrick Lodge and died in 1914. He wrote about Downpatrick history and masonry, as well as the West family.

An ancestor, again named Edward Parkinson married Jane West of Quoile Castle on 24 Jun 1718 at Downpatrick Church of Ireland. 

Samuel Parkinson was born in Inch in 1843. He was the son of Clement Parkinson & Margaret Thompson. He married Mary Jane Clockie of Kilwinning, Scotland in 1874. He was the father of John Parkinson who was born in 1874 and  became a Muslim writer and scholar, and who composed the poem that was copied into the previous entry.

Both Edward and John Parkinson by the look of it were descendants of the West family of Quoile Castle and hence also distant cousins of Godfrey West and his descendants.

The West Family and the Parkinsons

There is an excellent summary of Captain Richard West and some of his descendants on the website The West Family of Ballydugan & Descendants.

Here it is noted that West graves can be located at Killough Parish Church, as well as at Saul Church, from the Quoile and Clogher branches of the family. 

Saul Church from Wikipedia

These graves include a Masonic headstone from 1786 for a John West ‘of ye quol’. I was curious however to see that the author of the blog quotes in full the following poem:

“Within the precincts of this holy place

The ashes of my dead forefathers lie.

Of Irish stock, but came from English race

They rest in peace beneath an Irish sky.

Within these walls, upon this sacred sod

They often raised their voice in praise of God.

A stout and sturdy race of yeomen bold

With reverent hand and heart they tilled the soil

Within the vanished centuries of old

They lived and died beneath the spreading Quoile

Within the western wind that fans my brow

I seem to feel their spirits moving now.”

John ‘Yehya-en-Nasr’ Parkinson, 1908

Given that Edward Parkinson at around the same time was compiling his own history of the West family in Ballydugan, partly in collaboration with a Captain E. E. West, the Parkinson family seemed to merit some further investigation. So too, in fact, did the reference to a 'Masonic' headstone.

The Wests of Clogher

There are no definitive links that show how Godfrey West is related to the main branch of Richard West. Blackwood calls him Godfrey West of Clogher, and we can assume from the age of his wife, Elizabeth Hadzor, that he was born in Clogher some time around 1730. There are records of a number of other Wests in Clogher at this time that may provide some clues however. They include:

• Richard West (1703-1788), who married Elizabeth. He is of an age to be Godfrey's father.
• John West (1745-1822), who married Margaret (died 1833). He is of an age to be a younger brother of Godfrey.

Also extant is the 1726 will of another John West of Clogher, which begins:

Sept 9, 1726 John West of Clogher, Parish of downe, County Down, first did appoint his brother Gadson should be paid forty-one pounds, ten shillings out of a bond of forty-three pounds, eight shillings and sixpence due him by his mother Hanah and brother Francis West, and the remainder of said bond he devises to his sister (Mary) Teale, he further devises to his brother Richard West the half of his house and tenement in Killough forever. 

The Richard West referred to in the will could conceivably be the same Richard West noted by Blackwood, and Godfrey's father. Equally, his father could be the John West, whose will it is, particularly when we recall that Godfrey was to name his first and only son, John.

The details in the will, given the reference to lands in Killough, may link up with the history of the West family of Ballydugan originally published by Edward Parkinson in 1906, where he states that in a: 

lease dated 12 January, 1709, Michael Ward of Castleward leased certain messuages, tenements, a garden, and two acres of land, situated in the town of Killough, to James West of Ballydergan, for the lives of the said James West and his sons, Richard and Francis. 

Killough Harbour - the original harbour was built by the Wards of
Castle Ward, Strangford. Photo from Wikipedia.

Parkinson considers it most likely that this James West was a son or grandson of the original Captain Richard West. A grandson, surely, given the time-spans involved.

The John West who married Margaret does have recorded children however, including Richard West (died 1872) The Reverend James Maxwell West (died 1883), Elizabeth West (died 1871) and Mary West (died 1875). Of these children, James Maxwell West married Annie Norman of Lisburn. Parkinson however refers to James as the Reverend Samuel Maxwell West, confirms the 1883 date of death and further tells us that Samuel was the last West of Clogher (or Clougher). He also mentions that the Thomas West who died in 1900 was the last male West of Quoile.

Putting all this together, this is about the best guess we can make:

1) Captain Richard West had a grandson, James West.
2) James West had a number of children, including, possibly, Gadson, Richard, Francis, John and Mary. He may have been married to Hanah.
3) Godfrey West was a child of one of those brothers, most likely, John.
4) Godfrey was therefore a x2 great-grandson of the original Captain Richard West, who was granted lands in County Down by Thomas Lord Cromwell. 

John Potter and His Associates

This house was built c. 1750 by Mr Thomas Nevin's son William, then owned by
Edward Southwell (Lord de Clifford) in 1777.
It was leased and then bought by James Crawford in 1799
and then by Richard Stitt in 1816 for £1500.
Copied from Ros Davies County Down site

As this review of John Potter's life and family have proceeded, certain names recur. There is, for example, James Crawford. He lived in English Street, Downpatrick, and was a partner in the Ballydugan Mill enterprise. Beyond this, he was also a member of the Downpatrick Whig Club in 1790. He too bought up lands and properties in the area, including Marlborough House, and in 1812 signed a petition for Catholic emancipation.

Then there is John Auchinleck of Strangford, another of the partners in the Ballydugan Mill project. According to the Ros Davies County Down site, in addition to having a distillery, he was in partnership with Thomas Parkinson in another smuggling operation from Quoile and Strangford. None of this prevented him from becoming a county magistrate and deputy lieutenant, and leaving substantial legacies to his sons after his death in 1800.

A common theme, however, running through these families seems to be their membership of the Downpatrick Whig Club in 1790. The French Revolution had taken place the previous year, and it was only six years since the conclusion of the American War of Independence. In both Downpatrick and in Ireland more widely, there were those who not unnaturally turned their minds to enhanced rights and liberties closer to home. Yet another dramatic episode was about to erupt, which would challenge the members of the Downpatrick discussion and debating groups to decide yet again what horse they were going to back as the Irish pot boiled over once more.