Quatuor Coronati Lodge: Our Next Meeting

Quatuor Coronati Lodge meets five times a year on the second Thursday in November (Installation); third Thursday in February; second Thursday in May; fourth Thursday in June; and second Thursday in September. Lodge meetings are usually held at Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London.
Members of QCCC are very welcome to attend Lodge meetings. Please email us in advance if possible to let us know you will be present: secretary@quatuorcoronati.com.

Thursday, 17 February 2022
William Perfect: PGM of Kent and Doctor Of Medicine
Susan Snell

The Lodge meeting will be held at Freemasons’ Hall, 60 Great Queen Street, London.
The Summons is available for download here: 17 February 2022 – Summons. The paper can be read in advance by clicking here: AQC 135.02 Susan Snell

Please note that all AQC papers are copyright QC/QCCC and should not be reproduced or circulated.

Other than with respect to the annual Installation Paper, questions and comments on each paper should be submitted in advance or within 24 hours of the delivery date to editor@quatuorcoronati.com.

The Paper

Unique among contemporary officers in Freemasonry, William Perfect was a country doctor who specialised in midwifery, smallpox vareolation, and caring for those with mental illnesses. He was appointed the Provincial Grand Master of Kent in 1794.

Perfect was initiated c.1765, although no written record survives. He relocated True and Faithful Lodge from Dartford to West Malling after taking on a medical practice in the town, and later joined Old Union Lodge, which met close to his London consulting rooms on the Strand. He served as Provincial Grand Orator and Deputy Provincial Grand Master in Kent before his appointment as Provincial Grand Master.

A published author who wrote medical case studies on midwifery and insanity, Perfect contributed numerous poems and prose articles to The Freemasons’ Magazine and other Masonic periodicals. Several of his verses were sung at Lodge meetings and included in anthologies of Masonic songs. He was also active in the theatre and took part in local productions, despite warnings about the potential damage to his professional reputation.

His charismatic personality and influence encouraged cohesion in a large and geographically disparate Province, divided into East and West Kent since 1973, and led to the creation of several new lodges, including the short-lived Perfect Lodge, Woolwich named in his honour.

The paper touches on the changing role of doctors in eighteenth-century society and how professional gentlemen and Freemasons negotiated town and country relationships. For more information visit the William Perfect Manuscript at Canterbury’s Kent Museum of Freemasonry:https://museumfreemasonry.org.uk/william-perfect-manuscript

The Speaker

Susan Snell qualified as a professional archivist in the 1980s. After working in local government, a charity, the banking sector and a national museum, Susan joined London’s Library and Museum of Freemasonry in 2005. Committed to promoting access to the archive collection, Susan contributes articles across all sectors in order to raise the profile of less well-known aspects of resources available for research at the Library and Museum. As part of her ongoing research, Susan has raised funds with the Kent Museum of Freemasonry to conserve and digitise a manuscript written by William Perfect (c.1734 – 1809), a past Provincial Grand Master. This paper brings her research on William Perfect up to date.

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