What are the details to be submitted in the annual returns?

Annual returns are a universal requirement across all Masonic bodies, including Craft Lodges, Royal Arch Chapters, Conclaves, and Preceptories 2. Under early regulations established for the Craft, the Master or Wardens were required to submit a list of all members made or admitted since the previous communication 1. The general record kept by the Grand Lodge Secretary recorded each lodge, its customary times and places of meeting, and the names of all its members 1.

In addition to membership rolls, returns submitted for registration and warrants specified the names of the present officers—requiring a minimum of seven registered Masons—along with the lodge's meeting time and place 3. These annual submissions are accompanied by capitation dues, which form a vital part of the revenue supporting the governing Grand Body 2. Historical practice under the English Constitution also required returns for registers and certificates to be made out on separate papers to enable proper filing by the Grand Secretaries 3.

Works cited

From the library. Each claim above is numbered to the work and page it came from.

James Anderson The Constitutions of the Free-Masons 1723 · p. 32 Anderson's Constitutions sets out the earliest regulation requiring lodges to return lists of new members, meeting times, and membership rolls to the Grand Lodge.

Arthur Edward Waite A New Encyclopædia of Freemasonry (Ars Magna Latomorum) and of Cognate Instituted Mysteries: Their Rites, Literature and History 1921 · pp. 24-26 Waite notes that annual returns accompanied by capitation dues are a universal rule across all Masonic bodies and orders.

C. H. Malden A History of Freemasonry (Under the English Constitution) on the Coast of Coromandel: Together with Histories of the Old Madras Lodges Which Were Founded Before the Union: Together with Appendices and a Map 1895 · p. 96 Malden records historical English regulations specifying that lodge returns must report at least seven registered officers, meeting details, and separate documentation for registration and certificates.

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