CARIBBEE ISLANDS OR LESSER ANTILLES

A name sometimes applied to the whole of the West Indies, strictly comprising only the chain of islands from Porto Rico to the Venezuelan coast of South America. Three Lodges were at work in 1739 at Antigua. Others had been chartered and were on the Grand Lodge Books but they had ceased to exist and were dropped from the Register.

In 1738 Governor Matthews was appointed by the Grand Lodge of England Provincial Grand Master of the Leeward Islands. A Masonic Province was also established by Scotland in 1769. A Provincial Grand Lodge was opened at the Windward Islands in 1740 and Brother Thomas Baxter was first Provincial Grand Master.

In the same year the “Moderns” Grand Lodge of England authorized Lodge No. 186. The Grand Lodge of Ireland established another Provincial Grand Lodge at Barbados, but it was soon abandoned.

A Lodge, Albion, was opened at Bridgetown, Barbados, in 1790 by the “Ancient” and it remained in existence although three others warranted by the same authority' soon ceased work. Other Lodges were chartered in the Islands by the Grand Lodges of England, Holland, France, Pennsylvania, etc.