Auction Site Success
We are always on the lookout for Abbey Lodge artefacts. One way we do this is online using the eBay website. We’ve had an “Abbey Lodge 2529” saved search continuously active for around 18 years. Our intention was to find the missing Founder Jewels. There were 14 Abbey Lodge Founders but we can only account for 6 – we have 5 at Whalley and there’s one in the Museum of Freemasonry in London.
Previously we’ve had one related find – that of an Abbey Chapter 2529 Founder’s Jewel – which we won and put in our collection.
Then in mid-October 2025 an email notification with the title of our saved search popped in to our inbox. What could it be? Well, with bated breath we opened the eBay app on our smartphone to find out. It was the bottom part of an engraved Abbey Lodge Past Master’s Jewel in Hallmarked Sterling silver dating back to 1924. A complete Past Master’s Jewel is shown in this post.
As the engraving states it was presented to Worshipful Brother J. H. S. Matthews who was Abbey Lodge’s Worshipful Master in 1924. John Houghton Stabb Matthew’s was initiated in to a Preston Lodge in 1907 and joined Abbey Lodge 2529 in November 1918. He was an accountant of some standing.
As we really wanted to return this artefact to Whalley we went high with our bid and eventually won the item. It will be added to our collection next to J H S Matthew’s personal Hall Stone Jewel.
The search still goes on for those missing Founder Jewels!!
This is what a complete Abbey Lodge Past Master’s Jewel looks like. Having been the Worshipful Master of your Lodge, which is the highest honour the members of the Lodge have in their power to bestow on an individual, for a year you were presented with this Jewel complete with the personal engraving. This tradition has fallen by the wayside in many Lodges. Abbey Lodge have one such Jewel that the Immediate Past Master wears which is past on to his successor each year.
