The Province of Kent covers the County of Kent and geographically along the East boundary of Mole Valley (Epsom & Ewell, Reigate & Banstead and Tandridge) - half of the Craft Province of Surrey.
Court of St. Justus No 13
Consecrated Thursday 7th December 2006 and meets at the Franklin Rooms in Gillingham.
Justus (died on 10 November between 627 and 631) was the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury. Pope Gregory the Great, sent Justus from Italy to England on a mission to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism, probably arriving with the second group of missionaries despatched in 601. Justus became the first Bishop of Rochester in 604 and attended a church council in Paris in 614.
Following the death of King Æthelberht of Kent in 616, Justus was forced to flee to Gaul but was reinstated in his diocese the following year. In 624, Justus became Archbishop of Canterbury, overseeing the despatch of missionaries to Northumbria. After his death, he was revered as a saint and had a shrine in St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury.
Justus was a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England by Pope Gregory I. Almost everything known about Justus and his career is derived from the early 8th-century Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of Bede. As Bede does not describe Justus' origins, nothing is known about him before he arrived in England. He probably arrived in England with the second group of missionaries, sent at the request of Augustine of Canterbury in 601.
Some modern writers describe Justus as one of the original missionaries who arrived with Augustine in 597, but Bede believed that Justus came in the second group. The second group included Mellitus, who later became Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Court of St. Justus meets on the 1st Wednesday in June, 1st Tuesday in August, 4th Friday in November (Installation) at the Franklin Rooms Masonic Centre, Franklin Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4DG.
Court of St Alphege No 39
Consecrated Friday 28th March 2008 , the Court originally met at the Dartford Masonic Centre until 2023. It now meets at the Wilmington Masonic Centre.
Ælfheah (c. 953 – 19 April 1012), more commonly known today as Alphege, was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Winchester, later Archbishop of Canterbury. He became an anchorite before being elected abbot of Bath Abbey. His reputation for piety and sanctity led to his promotion to the episcopate and, eventually, to his becoming archbishop. Ælfheah furthered the cult of Dunstan and also encouraged learning. He was captured by Viking raiders in 1011 during the siege of Canterbury and killed by them the following year after refusing to allow himself to be ransomed. Ælfheah was canonised as a saint in 1078. Thomas Becket, a later Archbishop of Canterbury, prayed to Ælfheah just before his own murder in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.
Ælfheah was born around 953, supposedly in Weston on the outskirts of Bath, and became a monk early in life. He first entered the monastery of Deerhurst, but then moved to Bath, where he became an anchorite (an ascetic monk, withdrawn from society). He was noted for his piety and austerity and rose to become abbot of Bath Abbey. The 12th century chronicler, William of Malmesbury recorded that Ælfheah was a monk and prior at Glastonbury Abbey, but this is not accepted by all historians. Indications are that Ælfheah became abbot at Bath by 982, perhaps as early as around 977. He perhaps shared authority with his predecessor Æscwig after 968.
Ælfheah was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to die a violent death. A contemporary report tells that Thorkell the Tall attempted to save Ælfheah from the mob about to kill him by offering everything he owned except for his ship, in exchange for Ælfheah's life; Thorkell's presence is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, however. Some sources record that the final blow, with the back of an axe, was delivered as an act of kindness by a Christian convert known as "Thrum". Ælfheah was buried in Old St Paul's Cathedral. In 1023, his body was moved by King Cnut to Canterbury, with great ceremony. Thorkell the Tall was appalled at the brutality of his fellow raiders, and switched sides to the English king Æthelred the Unready following Ælfheah's death.
The Court of St. Alphege meets on the 4th Saturdays in April & August and the 2nd Saturday in December (Installation) at the Wilmington Masonic Centre, Hawley Road, Wilmington, DA1 1PA .
Court of King Ethelbert No 56
Consecrated Tuesday 19th May 2009 and meets at the Canterbury Masonic Centre.
The Canterbury Cross is one of the crosses that are used to symbolise the Christian faith. It is so called because it was designed after a Saxon brooch, dating c. 850 that was found in 1867 in Canterbury, England.
The original cross, kept at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, is a bronze cruciform brooch, with triangular panels of silver, incised with a triquetra and inlaid with niello. This cross features a small square in the centre, from which extend four arms, wider on the outside, so that the arms look like triangles, symbolising the Trinity. The tips of the arms are arcs of a single circle, giving the overall effect of a round wheel.
As a stone cross is erected at Canterbury Cathedral and the crosses are sold at the souvenir shop there, the Canterbury Cross is familiar to those who made pilgrimage there. It is sometimes used as a symbol to represent the Anglican Communion. For example, in 1932, a Canterbury Cross made up of pieces of stone from Canterbury was sent to each of the Anglican diocesan cathedrals of the world as a visible symbol of the communion with Canterbury.
The Court of King Ethelbert meets on the 3rd Tuesdays of February, May (Installation) and December at the Canterbury Masonic Centre, St Peters Street, Canterbury, Kent. CT1 2DA.
Court of King Eadbald No 72
Consecrated Wednesday 15th December 2010, and meets at Dover Masonic Hall.
The Court logo is the enigmatic coin which has been associated with the earliest issues of Anglo-Saxon gold coinage struck in post-Roman Britain ever since an example was recovered from the watershed 1828 Crondall Hoard deposit of c. AD 670. However, it was not until the 20th Century that a more assertive attempt was made to associate this issue to the chronicled Kentish King Eadbald.
The emergence of new specimens finally enabled the obverse inscription to be deciphered as reading the name 'Audvarld'.
This spelling was immediately noted for its similarity to the 'Auduarldus' in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica (written c. AD 731). Consequently, whilst one should be often cautious about drawing relationships between historical texts and physical evidence, today this type is generally accepted as having been struck in Eadbald's name.
The Court of King Eadbald meets on the 3rd Wednesdays of February, October and December (Installation) at the Dover Masonic Hall, Snargate Street, Dover, Kent. CT17 9DA.
Court of Hengist & Horsa No 78
Consecrated Monday 14th November 2011, and meets at Oakley House Masonic Centre, in Bromley.
Hengist and Horsa are Germanic brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings of Kent.
Most modern scholarly consensus now regards Hengist and Horsa to be mythical figures, and much scholarship has emphasised the likelihood of this based on their alliterative animal names, the seemingly constructed nature of their genealogy, and the unknowable quality of the earliest sources of information for their reports in the works of Bede. Their later detailed representation in texts such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle can tell more about ninth-century attitudes to the past than anything about the time in which they are said to have existed.
According to early sources, Hengist and Horsa arrived in Britain at Ebbsfleet on the Isle of Thanet. For a time, they served as mercenaries for Vortigern, King of the Britons, but later they turned against him (British accounts have them betraying him in the Treachery of the Long Knives). Horsa was killed fighting the Britons, but Hengist successfully conquered Kent, becoming the forefather of its kings.
A figure named Hengest, possibly identifiable with the leader of British legend, appears in the Finnesburg Fragment and in Beowulf. J. R. R. Tolkien has theorized that this indicates Hengest/Hengist is the same person and originates as a historical person.
Hengist was historically said to have been buried at Hengistbury Head in Dorset.
The Court of Hengist & Horsa meets on the 3rd Monday in February, 1st Monday in June and the 2nd Monday in November (Installation) at Oakley House, Bromley Common, Bromley, Kent. BR2 8HA.
Court of St. Honorius No 89
Consecrated Saturday 12th January 2013, and meets at the Paddock Wood Masonic Hall.
Honorius (died 30 September 653) was a member of the Gregorian mission to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism in 597 AD who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. During his archiepiscopate, he consecrated the first native English bishop of Rochester as well as helping the missionary efforts of Felix among the East Anglians. Honorius was the last to die among the Gregorian missionaries.
A Roman by birth, Honorius may have been one of those chosen by Pope Gregory the Great for the Gregorian mission to England, although it seems more likely that he was a member of the second party of missionaries, sent in 601. It is not known if his name was given to him at birth or if he chose it when he became archbishop.
In 627, Honorius was consecrated as archbishop by Paulinus of York at Lincoln. Honorius wrote to Pope Honorius I, asking the pope to raise the see of York to an archbishopric, so that when one archbishop in England died, the other would be able to consecrate the deceased bishop's successor. The pope agreed, and sent a pallium for Paulinus, but by this time, Paulinus had already been forced to flee from Northumbria. When Paulinus, after the death of King Edwin of Northumbria in October 633, fled Northumbria, he was received by Honorius and appointed to the bishopric of Rochester. The papal letter is dated to June 634, and implies that news of Edwin's death had not reached the pope. This evidence may mean that the traditional date of Edwin's death may need to be moved to October 634. The papal letter may also mean that the traditional date of consecration for Honorius may need re-dating, as the long gap between 627, when he is said to have been consecrated, and 634, when he finally received a pallium, is much longer than usually found. It may be that Honorius was consecrated closer to 634. The papal letter to Honorius is given in the Ecclesiastical History of the medieval writer Bede.
Honorius had few conflicts with the Irish missionary efforts, and admired Aidan, one of the leading Irish clergy. Honorius died on 30 September 653, the last of the Gregorian missionaries. He was buried at the Church of St Augustine in Canterbury. He was later revered as a saint, with his feast day being 30 September. His relics were translated to a new tomb in 1091, and around that same time a hagiography of his life was written by Goscelin. In the 1120s his relics were still being venerated at St Augustine's.
The Court of St. Honorious meets on the 2nd Saturday in January (Installation), the 2nd Monday in July and the 2nd Monday in October at the Masonic Hall, Maidstone Road, Paddock Wood, Kent. TN12 6DJ.
Court of King Stephen No 140
Consecrated Thursday 4th July 2019 at Gillingham, the Court originally met at the Faversham Masonic Centre until 2022. It now meets at the Whitstable Masonic Hall.
King Stephen (1092 or 1096 – 25 October 1154), often referred to as Stephen of Blois, was King of England from 22 December 1135 to his death in 1154. He was Count of Boulogne jure uxoris from 1125 until 1147 and Duke of Normandy from 1135 until 1144. His reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda, whose son, Henry II, succeeded Stephen as the first of the Angevin kings of England.
Stephen was born in the County of Blois in central France as the fourth son of Stephen-Henry, Count of Blois, and Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror. His father died while Stephen was still young, and he was brought up by his mother. Placed into the court of his uncle Henry I of England, Stephen rose in prominence and was granted extensive lands. He married Matilda of Boulogne, inheriting additional estates in Kent and Boulogne that made the couple one of the wealthiest in England. Stephen narrowly escaped drowning with Henry I's son, William Adelin, in the sinking of the White Ship in 1120; William's death left the succession of the English throne open to challenge. When Henry died in 1135, Stephen quickly crossed the English Channel and, with the help of his brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester and Abbot of Glastonbury, took the throne, arguing that the preservation of order across the kingdom took priority over his earlier oaths to support the claim of Henry I's daughter, the Empress Matilda.
The early years of Stephen's reign were largely successful, despite a series of attacks on his possessions in England and Normandy by David I of Scotland, Welsh rebels, and the Empress Matilda's husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. In 1138, the Empress's half-brother Robert of Gloucester rebelled against Stephen, threatening civil war. Together with his close advisor, Waleran de Beaumont, Stephen took firm steps to defend his rule, including arresting a powerful family of bishops. When the Empress and Robert invaded in 1139, Stephen was unable to crush the revolt rapidly, and it took hold in the south-west of England. Captured at the battle of Lincoln in 1141, he was abandoned by many of his followers and lost control of Normandy. He was freed only after his wife and William of Ypres, one of his military commanders, captured Robert at the Rout of Winchester, but the war dragged on for many years with neither side able to win an advantage.
After a busy summer in 1154, King Stephen fell ill with a stomach disease and died on 25 October at the local priory, being buried at Faversham Abbey with his wife Matilda and son Eustace.
The Court of King Stephen meets on the 1st Thursdays of July (Installation), and September and the 1st Wednesday in February at the Whitstable Masonic Hall, 150 Cromwell Rd, Whitstable, Kent. CT5 1NA.