National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons
Electronic Newsletter, March, 2009
TO MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY MAGNA CHARTA DAMES AND BARONS, POTENTIAL MEMBERS AND THOSE
WHO SHARE OUR INTEREST IN THE PRINCIPLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY
FROM LEWIS L. NEILSON JR.,
CHANCELLOR
DATE: March 19, 2009
If this is the first
Electronic Newsletter that you have received from our Society, please read the
paragraph OUR E-MAIL LIST below. The link to the Newsletter on the
Website is:
http://www.magnacharta.org/enews032009.htm
The link to the Website is:
http://www.magnacharta.org.
Topics: New Information ***
***Centennial Dinner in
Washington DC - Saturday, April 18, 2009
***Luncheon in Philadelphia – Friday, April 17, 2009
***Magna Carta Trust – 50th Anniversary Celebration
***Magna Charta
Partners
***1215 Magna Carta Tour –
Overview – New Video Added
***Magna Carta Lecture June 2009
***Magna Carta Conference June 2010 - University of Lincoln
***News From Brookfield Publishing
Reissue of Magna Charta in 2015 - 800th
Anniversary – Reminder
Participation in State Divisions and New Divisions
Greetings - Please send new email
addresses
Thank you
Potential Members
Contributions
***OUR E-MAIL LIST
I wish all of our Divisions
Colonies and Chapters well with your programs and meetings.
If you are a member of our
Society with email you should have received an email with the username and
password (case sensitive) for the “Members Only” section of our website. If you
are a member and did not receive this email
please let us know.
Centennial Dinner in
Washington DC - Saturday, April 18, 2009
Our Washington DC
Centennial Dinner is scheduled for Saturday, April 18, 2009 at the University
Club. We encourage you to attend. As in prior years we are planning a reception
portion for those who might have additional activities that evening. We
especially welcome Patron participation even if you are unable to attend the
dinner. Our speaker is Francis Webb Neate, Esquire with his talk entitled
“Magna Carta Within the Rule of Law” (history of the concept of the Rule of Law
and the place of Magna Carta in its development). Mr. Neate is the Chair of the
Rule of Law Action Group of the International Bar Association, an initiative he
pioneered as the main focus of his presidency during his term in 2005 and 2006.
In his presidency he encouraged Bar Associations and heads of state to respect
the Rule of Law.
You will observe a response
form on the website, link from “what’s new”.
Luncheon in Philadelphia – Friday, April 17, 2009
We are planning a luncheon
in Philadelphia in Friday for members and guests to meet Francis Neate, Esquire.
You will observe a response form on the website, link from “what’s new”. Since
seating is limited we please let us know promptly if you are interested in
attending. We will consider changing the location depending on the response.
Magna Carta Trust – 50th Anniversary
Celebration
I attended the celebration
dinner in October and have included a page on our website including some still
pictures and the text of the talk given by The Rt Hon The Baroness Scotland OC
Attorney General. As many distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen attended the dinner
who could have shared useful experience and perspective on the Magna Carta, I am
embarking on an initiative to invite them to furnish either written or video
presentations of what they would have said at the dinner if given the
opportunity. We will add the responses to the website.
Magna Charta Partners
We are initiating Magna Charta Partners for
those who share interest in our purposes but are not members. We plan for an
Advisory Council. You may be a MC Partner by application, either by explaining
your service in support of our purposes or by including a contribution. There is
detailed information on our website. While we have grown to over 17,000 members,
I am still surprised at the number of people who are proposed for membership but
have not completed the lineage forms as well as the number of people, relatives
of members, who have responded to our “lost members” pages but have not taken
the next step to become members. We would like you to participate as Magna
Charta Partners in support of our Society and our purposes.
1215 Magna Carta Tour –
Overview – New Video Added
The 1215 Lincoln Magna
Carta is on Exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley California. The
Library sent video of the opening in January 2009 of the Exhibit with permission
to include the video on our website. An excellent talk was presented by the Very
Reverend Philip Buckler. I invite you to view the page for the Exhibit which is
on our website.
The New York Society Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York has
announced in the January issue of their publication, The Patriot, that the Magna
Carta will be on display September 15, 2009 to December 15, 2009 with an
exhibit, Foundations of Freedom. We anticipate that additional information
concerning this Exhibit will be available from the New York Sons of the
Revolution Website.
There can be a number of
additional Exhibit opportunities leading up the 800th anniversary in 1215 and I
would welcome suggestions.
At Lincoln Cathedral the Magna Carta Lecture will be delivered by
the Rt Hon Frank Field MP on Friday 5 June 2009 at Lincoln Cathedral. If any of
our members are interested in attending please let us know so that invitations
can be requested. In addition, we may be able to schedule additional events or
programs related to Magna Charta depending on the number interested. Information
about this Lecture is also available from the Cathedral website.
Magna Carta Conference June
2010 - University of Lincoln
The Conference
is scheduled for June 2010. We attended the first Conference in 2008 and added
all of the Video we recorded from the Conference. If you have not visited the
page for the Conference on our website you are encouraged to do so.
News From Brookfield
Publishing
Lineage Forms will be added
which can be completed by computer and then printed out and mailed with
supporting documentation. Original signatures are needed for the application and
the supporting documentation needs to be included.
Reissue of Magna Charta in 2015 - 800th
Anniversary - Reminder
We are continuing with
planning for the Reissue and welcome interest in a Committee to be established
for this purpose.
Our March Newsletter
provided information concerning the Reissue Project and I encourage you to
review that information.
Participation in State
Divisions and New Divisions
We will be sending lists of
new members to most of the State Division Regents or local Regents. If you are a
member and wish to participate at the State or local level, please let us know.
The "members only" section of our website includes contact information for our
State Divisions. Please be reminded that it is necessary to first be a member of
the National Society in order to participate in State Divisions or Chapters of
Colonies.
Several of our members have
expressed interest in forming new Divisions. Thank you for your interest and we
look forward to assisting with this effort.
Greetings
On behalf of the Officers
and Council of the Society, I bring greetings with this Newsletter. We continue
to develop awareness of Magna Charta and its message. We ask each of you to
participate with us in continuing the long tradition of friendship and
fellowship which has continued over many years. We need to increase the number
of members and friends on our email listing. Please ask your relatives or
friends to send us their E-mail address. Please also send us the E-mail
addresses of friends who are interested either in lineage societies or in
memorializing Magna Charta. For the future, please propose new members for our
Society. Please also attend your local meetings and include your children and
grandchildren. We have a very special organization and I hope that you will help
us to maintain its traditions.
Thank You
We continue to be pleased
with the response from our members to update addresses and provide new addresses
for those who have been lost. Many members who were eligible to do so have
appointed successors. Updated address lists will be sent to the State Divisions.
I am, however, saddened to learn when our members are deceased. I and the
Society are grateful for the time, dedicated effort and financial contributions
that many of those members have given to our Society. As I update the deceased
role with members who I have worked with and known during the past nineteen
years, I am reminded that we need to express appreciation on an ongoing basis to
all of those who are helping to make our Society a wonderful organization. Thank
You!
Potential Members
If you are not a member of
our Society and are eligible, I hope that you will join. If you are not eligible
but share our interest in history and genealogy, we encourage you to remain on
our Email list. We also welcome your participation in our ongoing genealogical
research projects and our Tours. We welcome and encourage new members and remind
those submitting lineage information to include copies of referenced material.
As mentioned in prior
E-Newsletters, membership continues to be of vital importance to our Society. If
you wish to speed up or facilitate the membership process, please include with
the Proposal Form a well-documented lineage (including copies of the
documentation) to either a known ancestor or to one of the qualifying Barons. If
you have sent lineage information without the copies, you may also speed up the
process by sending copies of the documentation. Lineage Forms are provided on
the Website.
Contributions
We rely on member
contributions for our Society operations and we plan to build our endowment in
connection with the 100th Anniversary of the founding our Society in
1909. We hope you will consider contributions, including contributions of
appreciated securities. Our Society is a public charity under Section 501(c)(3)
of the Internal Revenue Code.
OUR E-MAIL LIST
We continue to
significantly increase our e-mail list. To those of you who are new
to our list we welcome you to receive our Electronic Newsletter and hope that
you will find our Society and our mission to be interesting. Since a primary
mission of our Society is to develop awareness of Magna Charta we wish to
expand the circulation of our Electronic Newsletter by increasing our e-mail
address list particularly including those who are members of lineage
societies and/or those who share our interest in the principles of
Constitutional Liberty. I would like to thank those who have shared their email
lists since our last Electronic Newsletter.
We encourage you to check
our Website regularly for new developments and information. The link to the Newsletter on the Website is:
http://www.magnacharta.org/enews032009.htm The link to the Website is:
http://www.magnacharta.org.
Our E-mail list is made up
of those who have sent us e-mail, of members and friends of the Society who have
responded to our Newsletter request for E-mail addresses and others who we
believe might be interested in our Society or mission. If you would prefer not
to receive future Electronic Newsletters, however, please let us know. If you
have friends who you believe might be interested in our Society, please forward
this e-mail. If you have received this as a forwarded e-mail, please visit our
Website at for more information about our Society. You may also contact our
Society Office at 215-836-5022.
Do not hesitate to contact
me with questions or suggestions.
Chancellor@magnacharta.org
Sincerely,
Lewis L. "Ted" Neilson, Jr.
Chancellor
National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons
Email:
Chancellor@magnacharta.org
Website:
www.magnacharta.org
Telephone: 215-836-5022
Fax: 215-836-5056
Mailing Address: PO Box 4222, Phila., PA 19144