Finding a freemason

A young family historian named Julie contacted me recently, desperate to know a little about her greatgrandfather and a very old leather wallet that he had once owned. Julie sent me photos of everything she had found, along with a description of the objects.

On the flap of the wallet (or masonic case), barely decipherable, was what appeared to be her greatgrandfather’s surname, prefixed by the word ‘Bro’. This was followed by some indistinguishable letters, the last of which appeared to be ‘lodge 1?20’. Inside the case were the remains of two leather ceremonial freemasons aprons, about 40 centimetres by 30 centimetres, with a tatty cloth boarder.

Julie told me that, according to family