District Grand Lodge of the Bahamas & Turks
The District Grand Lodge of the Bahamas and Turks is recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England and is the governing body for English-constitution Freemasonry in the Turks and Caicos Islands as well as the Bahamas. The District traces its institutional lineage to the Provincial Grand Lodge of the Bahamas, officially founded in 1842, and maintains jurisdiction over lodges across two British territories in the northwest Caribbean.
The oldest lodge currently meeting in the Turks and Caicos is Forth Lodge No. 647, opened in 1855 in Cockburn Town, Grand Turk, by Frederick Henry Alexander Forth — the territory’s first Council President, a post held from 1848 to 1874. The lodge was originally known as the Turks Islands Forth Lodge. The lodge building on Front Street, Cockburn Town, with its hand-cut limestone construction characteristic of the salt-industry era in the Turks Islands, is regarded as one of the finest surviving colonial-era Masonic temples in the smaller British Caribbean territories.
Two further UGLE lodges complete the TCI complement: Coral Lodge No. 8888, which also meets in Cockburn Town, Grand Turk, at the same Front Street temple; and Caicos Islands Lodge No. 9661, which meets on Providenciales at the Regent Village Conference Centre. Providenciales, the most populous island in the territory today and its primary tourism and commercial center, is served exclusively by the Caicos Islands Lodge. Visiting Masons from UGLE-affiliated grand lodges may attend meetings at any of these three lodges; advance notice and proper documentation through one’s home grand lodge are the appropriate means of arranging a visit.
They provide lodge meeting schedules, district news, and contact information for all lodges across the Bahamas and Turks district.
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ administrative connection to the Bahamas District reflects the geographic and cultural proximity of these two British Overseas Territories. The islands were administered as part of the Bahamas colony for most of their British colonial history before becoming a separate Crown Colony in 1962. This administrative history explains why English Constitution Masonry in TCI falls under the same district as the Bahamas rather than under a separate Cayman or Jamaica district.
Providenciales — the main commercial and tourist hub, home to Grace Bay Beach and the island’s principal economic activity — has seen explosive growth since the 1980s and now supports lodge activity. Grand Turk, the administrative capital, is home to the older lodges with histories connected to the islands’ salt-raking colonial economy.
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