BOMBAY

A seaport on the west coast of India. The first Lodge to be established in Bombay was opened in 1758 but it disappeared from the register in 1813. In 1763 James Todd was appointed Provincial Grand Master.

A Provincial Grand Master of Western India and its Dependencies, Brother James Burnes was appointed in 1836 by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. None had been appointed by England since the time of Brother Todd. Brother Burnes was a very active Freemason and it is a curious fact that Brethren even left the English Lodges to support the new Scotch Bodies.

English Freemasonry became less and less popular and finally ceased to be practiced until 1848 when Saint George Lodge No. 807, was revived.

In 1886 Scotland had issued nineteen Charters to Lodges in Bombay and twelve years previously Captain Morland, successor to Brother Burnes, was raised to the position of Grand Master of all Scottish Freemasonry in India.

The Craft took no firm hold on the natives of India.

Several of the princes were initiated but the Parsees made the first real advance in the Order when Brother Cama, one of their number, was elected Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of England. The first Hindu to hold important office was Brother Dutt who became head of a Lodge in 1874 (see India and Madras).