Callowhill Masonic Lodge No 453

The Lodge was constituted on the 3rd September, 1767, the first officers being:- Terence Clarke, W.M. John Brown and James Reilly, Wardens. These are the original Grantee, the number of members is not recorded. Apparently the Lodge was allowed to Lapse for some time and on 2nd July, 1795, the Warrant was "revived" on payment of the price of a new one for the original.

About the year 1820 the Papal Bull against Freemasonry reduced the number of Masons in Ireland considerably. As far as Callowhill was concerned there were only four registered members up to 1770 and eight up to 1876 when there was an influx of members.

On the 15th October, 1873, the Warrant was surrendered to Grand Lodge on trust by a Wor.Bro. Sankey. It would seem that this was done on the advice of the Provincial Grand Lodge. The Warrant was restored on the 8th January, 1876, and Mr. Andrew Johnston and Major Blaney Winslow made application to join the Lodge on the same day. As the Warrant had been surrendered in trust, Grand Lodge recognises it as having been held since 1767. In the same year, 1876, Bro. Michael McManus made application for a new Master Mason's Certificate as the on issued to him in 1837 had been lost.

The present Masonic Hall was purchased from the Erne Estate in 1919 at a cost of £150. It was burned down on the 18th June, 1920, and a malicious injury claim of £617.15.1(£617.75 1/2) was paid as compensation. The Lodge met in Derrylin Parochial Hall until the 31st March, 1924, when apparently the newly reconstructed hall was ready for occupation, the contract having been carried out by a Wor. Bro. Bloomfield from Brookeborough. The late Wor. Bro's. E.G.Hall and J. Cousins played a prominent part in tiding the lodge over these difficult years.

On the 17th July, 1926, an occasional Communication of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Tyrone and Fermanagh was held in the Hall for the purpose of consecrating and dedicating it. The Deputy Provincial Grand Master, Right Worshipful Bro. R.W.Wilson, presided in the absence of the Worshipful Provincial Grand Master through illness. On the same day the Secretary of the lodge, Wor. Bro. Edward G Hall, was presented with a suitably inscribed Past Master's Jewel by the members of the Lodge as a token of their esteem for him. His son, Wor. Bro. J.G.Hall is a member of the Lodge.

A service to mark the Bicentenary of the Lodge was held in Derrylin Parish Church on Sunday , 3rd September, 1967. The Preacher was V.Wor.Bro.Very Rev.T.V.Perry, M.A., Dean of Clonmacnoise, Grand Chaplin of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Meath. To commorate the Bicentenary, the Lodge presented the Church at Derrylin with Churchwardens' Wands suitably engraved. When the Lodge celebrated the Bicentenary the Longest Serving members were Wor. Bro.James Foster initiated 1905, and resident in New Zealand; the Secretary and Chaplin, V.WorBro. Very Rev. Dean F.W.Grant, M.A., (1907), Wor. Bro. William. A. Thonton,J.P., (1911) and Wor. Bro. Andrew J Surphlis (1917).