Baldwin Encampment.

Baldwin Encampment. The modern Order of Knights Templar was originated probably at some time in the third quarter of the 18th century, the place being unknown. It is undoubtedly one of the French Hauts Grades, modified to English taste, and may have entered England through Ireland. A local organization of Knights Templar was called an Encampment though in the last century that name was changed to Priory in England and Com­mandery (1856) in the United States and, in the lat­ter, Encampment was applied only to the triennal meetings of the Grand Encampment, consisting of representatives of the Grand Commanderies of the several states.

The Baldwin Encampment (now Priory) at Bristol, England, has a legendary or traditional origin in times immemorial as created by the fugitive knights who escaped the (comments removed) in 1314. This connection is not historically proved and was first mentioned in a newspaper for January 25, 1772. The first internal record of the Baldwin Encampment at Bristol is a document dated December 20, 1780, in which that body called itself Supreme Grand and Royal Encampment of the Order of Knights Templar of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitallers and Knights of Malta, &c., &c. These Knights could have been no heirs of the stricken Templars of the 14th century for the Knights of Malta were rivals of the Knights Templar and had no compunction about taking over such as they could find of the con***cated properties of the latter. Moreover, the Knights of Malta are supposed to have survived as a separate order into recent times. The document in question proceeds to announce that it was made pursuant to a Charter of Compact, but the participating bodies are unknown. As the declared head of the group, however, the Baldwin body promulgated twenty statutes for the government of the Order.

That is virtually all that is known of the Baldwin Encampment until 1791, when Thomas Dunckerley (q.v.), who already was Provincial Grand Master at Bristol and Grand Superintendent of Royal Arch Masons at that place, was made Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and at once adopted an aggressive policy that caused the Order to spread, resulting in a Grand Conclave and later a Grand Priory in London. The latter body became and, for some years, remained inactive, until 1843, when it attempted to assume control of the Order and was opposed by Bristol, largely because of the demand that the latter surrender its right to confer the Rose Croix Degree. In 1857, the Baldwin Encampment assumed its old position as Supreme Grand and Royal Encampment. The differences between London and Bristol were resolved in 1862 under a compact whereby Baldwin was to be subordinate to the Grand Conclave of England and Wales and, together with five other Preceptories, should take precedence over all others and should, itself, be a Provincial Grand Priory with the right to confer the Order of Knight of Malta. In 1881, the English Scottish Rite made an arrangement whereby the Baldwin Chapter Rose Croix headed the list and became a District by itself.