On 8 January 1898, when the horse was the usual transportation and there was no fast track communication such as television and the computer, 32 prominent men from across the United States founded The Baronial Order of Runnemede. Their guiding design was to promulgate the "freedom of man under the rule of law".
Now, in the centennial year of that prescient occasion, is the time to review our accomplishments, appreciate our present, and reach to our future.
During more than one hundred years, this Order has had to maintain it's relevancy within an fast changing world, and to this end we have:
- Altered the original name from The Baronial Order of Runnemede to the Baronial Order of Magna Charta,
- Became a 501(c)3 corporation,
- Welcomed ladies to membership
- Been seated on the board of trustees of the. Magna Carta Trust in England,
- Recognized many world leaders with the "Magna Charta Day Award" (Sir Winston Churchill, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Masters of The Rolls of England Lords Donaldson and Woolf etc-),
- Established Pavilion branch operations throughout the world,
- Participated in the production of a full length film on Magna Charta,
- Established three foundations our aegis of Research, Charity, and Education,
- Merged The Military Order of The Crusades to within the umbrella of the Baronial Order.
As to our future, we will continue to generate activity commensurate with our inherited and designed responsibilities such as:
- Focus on enlarging our capital account
- Increase support of our Education, Charity, and Research Foundations
- Expansion of our Pavilion activities throughout the world (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc.)
- Petition Buckingham Palace for Her Majesty to become a Patron of the Order
- Activate our Internet name pages MAGNACHARTA.COM and MAGNACHARTA.NET for the dissemination of Magna Charta information including BOMC.
- Register, as an information source regarding Magna Charta and our Order, in every possible library, historical and genealogical organization in the United States and abroad.
- our participation in "The Greenwich Declaration" on 31 December 1999 to inaugurate the new millennium at Greenwich, England.
The Baronial Order is, indeed, pro-active with perspective and vision, that has brought us well into the 21st century. However, for us to merely be content with our genealogical good fortune is not quite enough. We must continue our momentum in the pursuit of our objectives - we are in the position of continuing to make a difference in bettering the world condition.