IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GBR 1991 RMIG
Held at: Museum of Freemasonry
Title: Royal Masonic Institution for Girls archive collection
Date(s): c.1720 - 1987
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 148 boxes of files and items, small volumes, DVDs and VHS tapes; 257 large volumes; 4 framed photographs and 4 rolls of
Name of creator(s): Royal Masonic Institution for Girls
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Royal Masonic Institution for Girls was founded in 1788, by Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini who formulated a scheme to establish a school to aid the education of the daughters of deceased and distressed freemasons. The first School was based in Somers Place East, near Euston, London and was known as the Royal Cumberland School for the Daughters of Indigent Free Masons. In 1795, the School moved to larger premises in St George’s Fields, Westminster Bridge Road, London and changed its name to the Royal Freemasons School for Female Children. The School moved to even larger premises in Clapham Junction, London in 1858 and in 1868, the Institution formally adopted the name the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls. In 1880, the Institution opened a Junior School, known as the Royal Masonic (Junior) School for Girls, at the site at Clapham Junction. In 1918, the Junior School moved to Weybridge, Surrey where it remained until its closure in 1973. The Royal Masonic (Senior) School for Girls moved to its current premises in Rickmansworth Park, Hertfordshire in 1934. Due to a fall in pupil numbers, fee-paying boarding pupils were allowed to fill vacancies from 1965 and fee-paying day-girls admitted from 1972, if they were daughters of a freemason. In September 1978, the Royal Masonic School for Girls became a limited company, The Rickmansworth Masonic School Limited and girls from non-Masonic families were accepted to fill vacancies on a fee paying basis. In 1984, the School became an entirely fee-paying independent school, with the Institution paying the fees of girls placed there as a result of petitions.
As well as providing places at the Royal Masonic Schools, from 1906, the Institution also awarded grants for girls to attend schools local to them, a procedure known as out-education. They also extended their benefits to provide special grants for girls to pursue courses in further and higher education.
In 1971, HRH the Duke of Kent, as Grand Master, set up a Committee of Inquiry on Masonic charity, under the Chairmanship of the Hon Mr Justice Bagnall. In 1973, the Committee of Inquiry produced a report, known as the Bagnall Report, which recommended the merger of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and Royal Masonic Institution for Girls into a single Trust. In 1982, the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys merged with the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls and the trust deed establishing the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boy was signed. The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boy became active in 1986 and it continues to provide educational support to the children of Masonic families where required.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Contains records of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls (formally the Royal Cumberland School for the Daughters of Indigent Free Masons and the Royal Freemasons School for Female Children). This includes minutes, agendas, signature books, membership records, reports, business statements, interview books, correspondence and administration files of the Institution’s Courts and Committees; Festival records, including minutes, agendas, a signature book, cash books, ledgers, administration files and printed memorabilia; records concerning petitioners and beneficiaries, including petitions and certificates, précis of petitions, petition registers, admission registers, a register of Junior School staff and pupils, summer holiday administration files and general beneficiary administration files; financial records, including ledgers, cash books, purchase journals, annual reports and accounts, sealing registers, investment accounts and dividend received books, lists of grants awarded from the Institution’s funds, collector books, donation and subscription registers, lists of governors and subscribers and general financial administration and correspondence files; staff records, including personal, pay and pension administration files; property records, including architectural plans and maps, building, receipts and payments books, visitor books, schedules of deeds and other documents deposited with banks, deeds and leases, tenant and property management files for the Institution’s property in Great Queen Street, London, Parker Street, London and Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire and administration files concerning the closure and redevelopment of the Royal Masonic Junior School for Girls, Weybridge, Surrey and publicity records, including VHS tapes, photographs and general promotional material.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Arranged into 7 sub-fonds according to the functions of the Institution: Governance, Festivals, Petitioners and Beneficiaries, Finance, Staff, Property and Publicity.
Conditions governing access:
No access to be given without the prior permission of the Director of the Museum of Freemasonry. Some archives in this collection are subject to restricted access periods, with access conditions specified at the series level catalogue record.
Conditions governing reproduction:
No reproductions to be made without the prior permission of the Director of the Museum of Freemasonry and in conjunction with the Photography Policy observed by the Museum of Freemasonry.
Finding aids:
Item level descriptions available on our catalogue.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The records of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls were deposited with the Museum of Freemasonry on loan from the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys in 2009.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
This collection was deposited on loan by the RMTGB, together with the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys archive collection.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: 20/07/2009