Who was John Lane?
Born in 1843, John Lane had an eye for detail. As a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, he worked as an accountant but was also secretary to a cemetery company and a collector of insurance. However, we know him as a freemason and author.
Lane was initiated in 1878 in Jordan Lodge, No. 1402, Torquay, he became Master of the same lodge four years later. He joined Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076 in 1887 one year after the formation of the famous research lodge.
In 1886 Lane published his first book, Masonic Records 1717-1886. The book comprises detailed research of freemasons’ lodges including their historical dates and meeting places. His friend and fellow West Country freemason, William James Hughan, had tried to dissuade him from undertaking the mammoth task, but changed his mind when Lane showed him the early proofs. In the introduction to the second edition published in 1895 Hughan, himself a renowned masonic historian wrote:
... Having had an intimate knowledge of the ‘Masonic Records’ throughout its several stages, I have no hesitation in declaring that the Volume is a monument of perseverance, research and fidelity, and well deserves the hearty support and lasting gratitude of the Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons…
During his research for both editions, to ensure accuracy and completeness Lane used a wide range of sources both published an unpublished including; Grand Lodge Registers and Minutes, Grand Lodge Proceedings, Warrants and Warrant Books, Engraved Lists, Calendars, Histories and Lodge Minutes. In his own words:
…there is not an Engraved List or Masonic Calendar known to be in existence in this country that has not been collated and carefully examined and compared by me in the preparation of this work.
Other books by Lane include, A handy book to the study of the engraved, printed and manuscript lists of lodges from 1723 to 1814 from 1889 and Centenary warrants and jewels… from 1891. He contributed several papers to the Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge and made his name as the research lodges statistician. In 1888, the Grand Lodge of Iowa, which had just started building one of the world’s largest masonic libraries, gave Lane the honorary rank of Past Senior Grand Warden. In 1895 the United Grand Lodge of England awarded him the rank of Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies. It was in this year that the second edition of his Masonic Records was published, whose copyright Lane assigned to the United Grand Lodge of England. Lane died just four years later at the relatively young age of fifty-six but his Masonic Records remain one of the essential tools of the masonic historian, over one hundred year after their publication.