Warranted on the 8th March 1758 and granted a Centenary Warrant in 1874, The Beaufort Lodge meets on the first Tuesday in each month (except for June, July, August and September) and holds its Installation at the October meeting. Although the oldest lodge in the Province, numerically the lodge ranks second to the Royal Clarence Lodge, where seniority was decided by the re-numbering of lodges at the union between the ‘Ancients’ and the ’Moderns’ in 1813. 

The lodge originally met at The Bell in Broad Street, later moving to The Guinea in Small Street, and then in 1765 removed to the ‘Duke of Beaufort’ on the Quay. 

At this time the adoption of distinctive titles had commenced and in 1771 the lodge was named “The Beaufort” 

The lodge banner bears the arms of the Duke of Beaufort and has the motto ‘Mutare Vel Timere Sperno’ which translates to ‘I scorn to fear or to change’. 

The Beaufort Lodge has contributed to the existence of many daughter lodges within the Province, many of which have gone on to have daughter lodges of their own. 

Apart from its strong relationships with other lodges in the Province, the lodge also has excellent relationships outside the Province and continues to exchange fraternal visits with these on a regular basis, such as the Isca Lodge No. 683 in Newport where the first visit took place in 1876. 

Looking beyond the Craft, in 1846 the lodge was granted a warrant to form the Beaufort Chapter, and in 1974 many members went on to become founder members of a new lodge in the Mark Degree - The Ernest Dunscombe Lodge, which was named in memory of Ernest John Dunscombe, the Provincial Grand Master in the Mark Degree from 1949 to 1960 and a member of the Beaufort Lodge from 1894 to 1963.