Secretarial Letter, signed 'William Guthrie' (Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland), to Charles Sharpe, carrying itemised details of 'the arrears &c due by the different Lodges' in Dumfriesshire.

4to, 3 pp. Bifolium. Very good on lightly-aged paper. Minimal damage has been caused to the second leaf (affecting two or three unimportant words of text) by the breaking of the red wax seal. Addressed by Guthrie 'To Charles Sharpe of Hoddam Esqr [Hoddam Castle] | Provenance Grand Master for Dumfries Shire'. Small circular red ink postmark. Docketed. Guthrie's letter, in a secretarial hand but signed and with an initialed postscript by him, covers the two centre pages. He writes that 'a great proportion' of the lodges are in arrears, 'some of them 20 years and upwards'. 'The funds of the Grand Lodge are at present very much Exhausted by the liberal supplies they have been induced to afford to Indigent Brethren for these three years past'. He also mentions the laying of 'the foundation Stone of the new Jail at Dumfries'. He cites the minutes in support of a demand that Sharpe 'enforce a strict compliance'. The recto of the first sheet carries a list of fifteen numbered lodges, headed 'Dumfries Shire | Charles Sharpe Esqr P. G. M.', giving the dates of 'last pay[men]t.' and 'last Certificate'. At the foot of the page is quotation of a six-line resolution by the Grand Lodge 'of 2d May last' regarding arrears.