"O ' Canada we stand on guard for thee"
Orangeism, which was introduced into England, Scotland and Australia by soldiers serving in the British Army was to enter Canada by the same route. There were Orange Lodges in many of the British regiments, in Ireland there were 32 regiments with military Orange warrants and the Grand Lodge of England issued another 37 warrants to various regiments. When one realizes that 69 Orange warrants were in the British Army at one time or another during the early part of the nineteenth century it becomes apparent just how widespread the movement was among the military.
Orangemen had been a part of the British military since their inception and indeed a large number of Orangemen fought at the Battle of Waterloo with many of them serving in the 17th Light Dragoons. Every Orangeman in the regiment but one was killed and the survivor brought the warrant back to England with him. The first Orangemen in Canada were the soldiers that served in many of these British regiments. When their regiments were posted to the British North American colonies they took their Orange warrants with them. Life in early nineteenth century Canada would have been hard for them and it’s quite probable that Orange Lodge meetings were a welcome and sought after diversion, a change from the day to day drudgery of pioneer life.
One group of British soldiers who settled in the Province of Quebec on their release from the military were members of the Irish Yeomanry who settled at Shawville and the surrounding area. One of the former soldiers was named John Murphy and the Orange Lodge that the Murphys and their fellow soldiers formed was No. 27. It is a puzzling number because of the date thay they settled in the area. The year was 1804 and one would suppose that the lodge would have had an earlier number. The reason for the number becomes clear when it’s realized that the regiment that this group of ex-yeomanry were attached to was the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 27th Foot. These Orangemen simply took the number of their regiment and attached it to the Orange Lodge that they formed.
The name of the Lodge that they formed was ‘Royal Enniskillen L.O.L.’ and indeed the name of the Orange Hall that this Lodge meets in today is the Royal Enniskillen Memorial Orange Hall. Shawville is located in the Township of Clarendon, named after the commanding officer of the Yeomanry infantry that settled in the area.
There is a great deal of confusion over the official starting dates of lodges of that time because of the different bodies that issued warrants. Many of the earliest Canadian Orange Lodges were started under warrants issued by the Grand Lodge of Ireland and new warrants were later issued to these lodges by the Grand Lodge of British America which was instituted in 1830. To further add to the confusion, many Provincial jurisdictions also issued warrants. One example of this confusion was the above mentioned lodge, L.O.L. No. 27. The warrant for this lodge was issued to Thomas Corrigan on October 24, 1843 although the lodge had been in operation for many years.
Many of the original Quebec lodges were started under the authority of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. In 1804, Albert Hopper, a native of Roscrea, County Tipperary, arrived in Montreal with a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Ireland, which met in the year 1803 in Dublin, authorizing him to form Orange Lodges on behalf of that Grand Lodge in the British North American colonies.
Hopper wasted no time, forming a lodge in Montreal in 1804. An Orange Lodge, in all probability a military one, had existed in Montreal from at least 1800. That year a letter to Lieutenant-Governor Hunter made mention of "a subversive secret society which met in Montreal called the Orange Society" and the writer claimed that its aim was "to oppress Roman Catholics, and whose leaders were aiming at the destruction of the government in conjunction with the United Irishmen".
During the War of 1812 many British regiments containing Orange Lodges were sent to British North America to defend the colonies against the United States. It was from these soldiers that Orangeism took its hold in the New World. The earliest record of an Orange Lodge in the British North American colonies was in New Brunswick in 1783.
This lodge met under a charter issued in 1694 in London, England, the name on the charter being ‘Colonial, Patent No. 6’, and it was issued from Guild Hall, London, signed by Robert Ware. It was sealed with the Hestercomb Arms and certified under seal by the Goldsmiths of Lombard Street. It was brought to Parrtown [Saint John] by Lieutenant Andrew Hunter Stockton, the first man to be married in the city of Saint John. This lodge met in Saint John until 1815 under the authority of this warrant which granted the bearer the right to hold an Orange Lodge anywhere in British America. This is perhaps the first example of how Orangeism spread to North America via military personnel.
Toronto Orange Parade, 1870