when did the office of chaplain appear in craft lodges

The office of chaplain was created in 1738, with the officer appointed annually by the Grand Master 1.

The supplied sources do not state whether this creation and annual appointment applied to both the Antients and Moderns Grand Lodges. While it is recorded that the office was created in 1738 with the officer appointed annually by the Grand Master 1, the passages do not identify which Grand Lodge instituted it at that date or whether both bodies recognized it.

Additionally, a separate entry records that the office of Grand Chaplain was instituted on May 1, 1775, on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of Freemasons' Hall in London 1.

The supplied sources do not record the specific date when the office of chaplain was first established within individual Craft lodges in Bengal, though they do document early appointments to the position of Provincial Grand Chaplain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 2.

William Johnson, a chaplain of the settlement who had been a Freemason since around 1772 and previously served as Senior Warden of Lodge No. 1 in Bengal, was appointed Provincial Grand Chaplain, a role he filled for three years prior to his return to Europe in the late 1780s 2. The records note that several years elapsed in Bengal before the creation of a Provincial Grand Chaplain was considered 2. Later, on June 24, 1825, the Rev. Dr. Bryce was appointed Provincial Grand Chaplain of Bengal 2.