The Philalethes, October 1996

Extraordinary  Mason

by Bob Ellenwood, MPS

    John Ross Princlple


Chief of the Cherokee Natlon

In 1766 John McDonald, a Scotsman,
was appointed as a Deputy Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs to the Cherokee
Nation. John McDonald married Anna
Shorey, who was a half-blood Cherokee
daughter of William Shorey,
McDonald's interpreter. They had a
daughter, Molly, who became the wife
of Daniel Ross and, subsequently,
mother of John Ross. Molly was one-
quarter Cherokee Indian.

John Ross was born on October 3,
1790, in Rossville, GA.

In 1813 and 1814, the Cherokee na-
tion furnished between 600 and 700
warriors to the United States to help
quell an uprising by some hostile
Creeks. Among these warriors were
young John Ross and George Gist
(Guest), who was to become better
known as Sequoyah and he developed
the Cherokee alphabet. John Ross was
23 years old and had been tutored by
whites hired by his father, Daniel Ross,
to teach his family. John had completed
his higher education at Kingsport, TN,
and although only an eighth blood; in-
wardly, he was all Cherokee. John Ross
was a slight man of medium height (5'
6 "), with blue eyes and brown hair
weighing about 150 pounds, and could
easily have passed as a white man. John
was also a Christian and member of the
Methodist Church. He was also a mem-
ber of the Masonic Fraternity. He was a
member of Olive Branch Lodge, Num-
ber 297, inJasper, TN.

John spent his whole life working for
the Cherokee Nation. Early in his
career for the Cherokee Nation, John
Ross acted as interpreter for the Chief
of Cherokees for many years.

The Governor of the state of Georgia
wanted all the lands claimed by the
Cherokees and the other four civilized
tribes, therefore, he was constantly try-
ing to get the U.S. Government to move
the five civilized tribes west, (and some
people from the Cherokee Nation
moved to Arkansas during the early
1800's). On behalf of the Chiefs of the
Cherokee Nation, John Ross wrote to
the Creek Chiefs, trying to get them to
cooperate with the Cherokees and not
to give up any more Indian land in
Georgia.

In the fall of 1819, John Ross was
elected President of the National Com-
mittee and served as such for many
years.In January of 1824, he went, as
part of a party of delegations, to Wash-
ington, D.C., to talk to President
Monroe and Secretary of War, John
McKee. In October of 1824, he was
elected president of the convention that
wrote and adopted the Cherokee Con-
stitution--much of which was written
by John Ross himself. The Cherokee's
Constitution was modeled after that of
the United States, and it was adopted on
July 26, 1827 . John Ross was instrumen-
tal in its writing as he was very fluent in
the English Language.

John Ross was elected Principle Chief
of the Cherokee Nation at the Fall coun-
cil in 1828, just a few months before
Andrew Jackson was elected President
of the United States. He was 38 years
old when he became Principle Chief.
One of his Indian names was Tsan
Usdi, or LittleJohn. But he stood might
tall in the Cherokee Nation and
amongst other Indians also.

Ross was so popular with the
Cherokees that everywhere he went,
"the people" (as he called them) would
line up in two diagonal lines in the local
square. Where they awaited patiently
their turn to "take Chief Ross by the
hand. " Their dark eyes were visibly
brightened upon encountering Ross's
steady blue ones.

In July of 1830, the Legislative Coun-
cil of the Cherokee Nation increased the
Principles Chief's powers . He was
authorized "...to employ such counsel
or counsels and such other agents as he
may think necessary and proper to aid
in the conduct of the said proceedings
and the arguments of each of the case or
cases, on the part of this nation, or in
the offices of citizens of this nation, as
he may think proper...and he is hereby
authorized to draw on the Treasurer of
this nation, and issued warrants, for the
payment of such counsel fees, and ex-
penses, as he may judge proper and
necessary.

On July 23, 1832, several of the major
tribal leaders became advocates of a
treaty to cause the removal of the
Cherokee people to the west. Some of
the more important men to take this
stand were: Major Ridge, his son,
John; Elias Boudinot; Andrew Ross
(one of John's brothers); and William
Shorey Coodey. This caused a specter of
disunity at the General Council held
that year, and started trouble among
the Cherokees that was to last for a long
time. A month after this incident Elias
Boudinot resigned as editor of the
Cherokee Phoenix, the Cherokee's
National newspaper.

During the Cherokee General Council
in October of 1832, John Ridge, Presi-
dent of the National Committee, intro-
duced a resolution to discuss a treaty
with President Jackson. The General
Council firmly rejected Ridge's pro-
posal and instead sent Joseph Vann,
John Baldridge, Richard Taylor, and
John Ross to Washington, D.C.

When John Ross returned from D.C.
in April of 1833, he found his wife,
Quatie, and their children confined to
two rooms in their large house. Soon
after the Ross family was forced to
move to Tennessee.

In the fall of 1834, the "Ridge" party
(later known as the Treaty party) tried
to cause the Cherokees to sell out and
move west.

Throughout 1834 and 1835 John
Ross's mail was intercepted by the
United States Government whenever
possible.

In late 1835, the Cherokee National
Party had to keep some of its members
from executing John Ridge, Major
Ridge, John's Ridge's father), Stand
Watie, and Elias Boudinot (John
Ridge's cousins) These members of the
tribe were called traitors.

On December 5, 1835, Chief John
Ross and a historian by the name of
John Howard Payne were arrested by
25 of Georgia's Guard and imprisoned
for 13 days before being released.

On December 29, 1835, nine-tenths of
the Cherokee people "voted to invest
John Ross with full power to adjust the
Nation's difficulties in whatever way he
might think most beneficial. "

On March 27, 1838, John Ross re-
ceived a letter from the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs which informed him
that the United States Senate Com-
mittee on Indian Affairs had all, but
one, voted to back the President in his
treaty to remove the Cherokees west of
the Mississippi. The total Senate vote
was 36 to 10 to back the President in the
upholding of the treaty.

John Ross stayed in Washington,
D.C., trying to arrange the collection of
some money for Cherokee's back an-
nuities and to arrange for approxi-
mately 200 old and infirm Cherokees,
who were too feeble to emigrate, to re-
main in their respective communities as
United States citizens. He was always
looking out for his people. At the same
time he made a call on Major General
Winfield Scott and established a rela-
tionship between them that later
benefitted the Cherokee Nation as a
whole.

Thereafter, when John Ross asked
General Scott for favors for the
Cherokees, they were usually granted.
Thus, emigrating Cherokees, in 1838,
were afforded luxuries not afforded
many Southeastern Indians who emi-
grated west between 1832 and 1842.

The Cherokees were very badly
treated by the Army, against the pro-
mises of General Scott and contrary to
his orders. At a makeshift council held
at the Cherokee's prison camp at
Aquohee on August 1, 1838, Cherokee
headmen who were prisoners there, and
John Ross, incorporated into council re-
cords the announcement that Principal
Chief Ross was empowered to assume
the additional title of "Superintendent
of Cherokee Removal and Sub-
sistence. "

According to the book " The
Cherokees" by Grace Steele Wood-
ward, "Preserved also by Ross was his
Masonic demission from the Olive
Branch Lodge in Jasper, Tennessee.
Dated April 11, 1827, the demission
stated that Ross, a Master Mason, re-
mained in good standing with the order
of Free and Accepted Masons. " In-
cluded with this dimit. again
quoting from "The Cherokees: ". "Of-
greater importance to Ross doubtlessly
was a record of the Cherokee council
held on August 1, 1838, in the Aquohee
prison camp. Signed by Ross and a Cher-
okee council committee, this record is
unique, for no other tribe of American
Indians has been known to hold a re-
corded council when captives of a white
government. "

The fall and early winter of 1838 saw a
part of the Cherokee Nation take final
leave of its ancient and beloved home-
land and head west. This was the start
of the infamous "Trail of Tears." The
first group, consisting of 1,103
Cherokees, left for the west on October
1, 1838. Quoting from John Burnett, a
private in Captain McClellan's com-
pany ("Original Birthday Story of Pri-
vate John G. Burnett"), "...One can
never forget the sadness and solemnity
of that morning....

"I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested
and dragged from their homes, and
driven by bayonet into the stockades.
And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an
October morning I saw them loaded
like cattle or sheep into six hundred and
forty-five wagons and started toward.
the west.

"...Chief Ross led in prayer and,
when the bugle sounded and the wag-
ons started rolling, many of the child-
ren...waved their little hands good-bye
to their mountain homes."

Because of his wife, Quatie, Ross was
prompted to abandon the overland
route, taken by the other detachments
at Paducah, Kentucky, and to continue
westward by boat. This was in early
March of 1839 when the weather was
bad. Sleet, snow, and cold winds from
the north forced the detachment to land
and camp near Little Rock, Arkansas.

Encamped on a bluff overlooking the
Arkansas river, Quatie gave her blanket
to a sick child who, like Quatie and
many other members of this detach-
ment, had contracted a cold. Although
the child who received Quatie's blanket
recovered, unfortunately Quatie's ill-
ness developed into pneumonia and she
died.

Quatie was only one of many of the
Cherokee people who died during this
"Trail of Tears." According to records
that Chief Ross kept, out of the 13
detachments, 424 emigrants died while
in route to the west. However, accord-
ing to historian and Cherokee authority
Grant Foreman, out of the total of
18,000 Cherokees who went west after
the treaty of 1835, about 4,000 died;
either in the stockades prior to the emi-
gration or on the journey itself.

When the Cherokee people all arrived
in the west, Arkansas and Oklahoma,
they were divided into three factions;
those who had moved west quite a bit
earlier, those who had become advo-
cates of the Treaty signed by the
"Ridge faction" (also known as the
Treaty Party), and the majority, who
had come west with the Principle Chief,
John Ross. Shortly after their arrival,
those known as the "Ridge faction"
joined with the Cherokees who had
come west much earlier and sought to
take over leadership of the Cherokee
Nation. Although John Ross had over
four-fifth's of the Cherokee people be-
hind him, this faction still fought to dis-
place him as Principle Chief and even
had the United States Government's
representatives on their side because of
lies they had spread about John Ross.

Sometime after John Ross had tried,
in vain, to reunite the nation and had
made several trips to Washington,
D.C., the situation became really bad
between these two factions and onJune
22, 1839, the day after the Cherokee
Nation's council had adjourned, some
of the Cherokees decided to "fall back"
upon old traditions. Major Ridge, John
Ridge, and Elias Boudinot, the main
leaders of this faction, were all assassi-
nated during the night or early morning
hours.

This caused Chief. Ross much trouble,
for his defamers blamed all of this on
him personally. He wrote a letter to
General Arbuckle, the general in charge
of Indian affairs and commandant of
Fort Gibson, stating:

"It has become my painful duty to
report to you that I have just heard that
Elias Boudinot is killed. Upon receiving
intelligence of this unhappy occurrence
I immediately requested my brother-in-
law, John G. Ross...to ascertain if these
facts are true. "

Contrary to Ross's defamers, "the
people" meant equally as much to Ross
as he to them. Throughout his long
chieftaincy, Ross alluded continually in
addresses and correspondence to "the
people." Ross wrote to John Ridge in
September, 1834, " Our country and
our people, should always be our motto
and their will should direct us in the
path of duty. "

Finally, on September 6, 1839, Ross
was able to reunite part of the west-east
Cherokees. They met in joint assembly
at Tahlequah, their new capitol. A new
constitution, based on the old, was for-
mally adopted by this council, com-
prised both eastern and western
Cherokees. At the same time Ross was
unanimously elected Principle Chief of
the Cherokee Nation, and David Vann,
a western Cherokee, was elected as-
sistant or second chief.

This council adjourned in early Oc-
tober, and shortly thereafter, on Oc-
tober 10, 1839, John Ross and his
nephew, William Shorey Coodey, left
for Washington, D.C. Upon their ar-
rival in the nation's capitol, the Chief
and his nephew made the unpleasant
discovery that the prestige of the east-
ern Cherokees was practically nonex-
istent. Neither President Van Buren nor
his Secretary of War, Joel R. Poinsett,
would recognize either Ross or Coodey
as representatives of the Cherokee Na-
tion, because of General Arbuckle's
communication about the murders of
the members of the other faction and
his blame upon John Ross.

Although the Indian Agent, Stokes,
had attested to John Ross's upright
character and had advocated that he be
recognized as the Principal Chief,
elected by a majority of over four-fifths
of the total population of the Cherokee
Nation, nonetheless Stoke' s word
against General Arbuckle's did not im-
press the president.

Throughout the first and second ses-
sions of the TwentySixth Congress, the
status of Ross and his delegation did not
change.

When Chief Ross returned home, in
October of 1840, he appeared at the
council and explained to the people that
the Delegation to Washington had failed
and that the main reason was because
the Government there had considered
the Cherokee Nation as disunited. After
his speech the multitude appeared
highly pleased with the Principal
Chief's address.

In 1845, on September 1, eleven of the
original settlers of the Western
Cherokee Nation and forty-three mem-
bers of the Treaty Party (as the "Ridge
Party was sometimes known) decided to
move to Texas. This caused members of
this minority group to appeal to the
United States to divide the Cherokee
Nation and treat each individual part as
a separate tribe. On April 13, 1846,
President James Knox Polk (on the rec-
ommendation of the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs) asked Congress to enact
legislation providing for this division.
The House Committee on Indian Af-
fairs' introduced a bill authorizing the
division of the Cherokee Nation. One
area to be occupied by the minority,
composed of the Western Cherokees
and members of the Treaty Party, the
other by the majority, because they
could not be induced by the War De-
partment to abandon either their
government or their Principal Chief
John Ross.

As he had always done, John Ross op-
posed this proposition. He employed all
the political strategy at his command,
and caused the defeat of this legislation.
This led to a full scale investigation into
allegations that had been running ram-
pant for many years, since the deaths of
the Ridges and Boudinot, by a govern-
ment commission composed of Colonel
Roger Jones, adjutant general of the
United States Army, and Governor
Pierce M. Butler, Stokes' successor.
The influence of one particular
Cherokee who, acting as Principal
Chief in John Ross's absence in Wash-
ington, had the enviable ability of com-
manding the respect of even his ene-
mies, and was noted for his truthful-
ness; his testimony was of tremendous
value to the commission.

This resulted in a new treaty being
signed on August 6, 1846, in Washing-
ton, D.C., which decreed that the lands
in the Cherokee Nation were for the use
and occupancy of all Cherokees. It
further provided for the adjudication of
all Cherokee claims and the settling of
all other unsettled matters, including
the extension of amnesty to fugitives ac-
cused of minor and major crimes.

All three factions of the Cherokee Na-
tion, the Treaty Party, the Westerners
(or Old Settlers), and the Eastern
people, were represented in Washington
at the signing of this tremendously im-
port ant treaty. Supposedly, after the
signing of this treaty, even John Ross and
Stand Watie shook hands.

Afterwards, at Tahlequah, the
Cherokee Capital, delegates from
twenty-one tribes living in or adjacent
to the Indian Territory convened, at the
invitation of John Ross, in the large
council shed in the public square in
June of 1843. The purpose of this meet-
ing was to settle intertribal differences.
Some have said that this was the most
important Indian council ever held on
the American continent. This Grand
Council voted to end the devastating
wars between all those tribes repre-
sented and to settle intertribal differ-
ences by law instead of by bloodshed as
had been done in the past.

In "The Cherokees", Hannah Wor-
chester remembered that Chief John
Ross spoke to the Grand Council in
English and that Ross's speech was
translated first into Cherokee, then into
Creek, and on and on until it had been
translated into eleven languages for the
benefit of all the tribal representatives.

Then on September 2, 1844, Chief
Ross took a second wife. He married
Mary B. Stapler of Wilmington,
Delaware.

Again John Ross's enemies were try-
ing to cause him problems. Some of
them started circulating rumors about
how he was using money belonging to
the Cherokee Nation for his person ex-
penses. At question was the upkeep of
his home "Rose Cottage." This cost
was investigated by a government in-
vestigator, Major Ethan Allen Hitch-
cock. In his report Major Hitchcock re-
ported, "After much attentive observa-
tion I am of the opinion that John Ross
is an honest man and a patriot laboring
for the good of his people. "

A new national newspaper was estab-
lished in 1844, The Cherokee Advocate.
Its first Editor was William P. Ross,
John's nephew. William P. Ross was not
only an active Mason but served as
Cherokee Lodge's first Secretary and its
third Worshipful Master.

By 1851, Tahlequah, the Capital of the
Cherokee Nation, had eight stores, two
dentists, and a new lawyer. The next
year, led by Chief Ross, the Council
donated enough land, to the local Ma-
sonic Lodge (Cherokee Lodge, No. 21)
and the " Sons of Temperance, " to
enable them to build a two-story frame
building. After the building was
completed the Masonic Lodge used the
top floor for their meetings, and the
" Sons of Temperance " the ground
floor.

Quoting from the history of Cherokee
Lodge written by Brother George
Moser, "The two-story building was
erected in 1853 and owned jointly by
the two with the Sons of Temperance
occupying the lower floor, and the Ma-
sonic Lodge on the upper floor. This
building was used for various pur-
poses--Lodge, school, church, and
community. It was dispensed with for
lodge purposes in 1890 and was finally
torn down about the year 1932."

The Civil War was a trying time for
Chief Ross, he tried and tried to keep
the Cherokee Nation out of the war and
in the Union. In fact, he tried his best to
keep all the territorial tribes neutral.
However, a southern officer, Albert
Pike, kept after the Indians to join the
Confederacy. Some of the "Treaty
Party" including, Elias C. Boudinot
and Stand Watie, gathered those
Cherokees who were willing and
formed a military unit to fight for the
south.

On May 17, 1861, Chief Ross wrote
to Lieutenant Colonel Kanady,
"...under existing circumstances my
wish, advice, and hope are that we shall
be allowed to remain strictly neutral;
our interests are centered in peace. "

On August 1, 1861, Captain Pike
wrote John Ross a curt letter saying that
he had made formal alliances with the
Choctaws, Chickasaws, Lower Towns
Creeks, and a number of the Plains In-
dians and also said, "I do not propose,
now, on the part of the Confederate
States of America, to enter upon any
further argument in regard to the sub-
ject (of an alliance). ..nor to seek to offer
through you, to your people proposi-
tions for an alliance offensive and
defensive, or of protection on the one
hand and wardship on the other....

"...I wish only, as you have declined
to enter into any arrangement what
ever with the Confederate States, even
for the purpose of a real neutrality, now
and for all future time to exclude the
conclusion that the Confederate States
will...hereafter feel themselves bound to
pay the Cherokee People the pur-
chase--money with interest of the
800,000 acres of land Iying between
Kansas and Missouri. That was offered
by me as one of the terms of an alliance,
offensive and defensive, which being re-
jected, the proposition is now with-
drawn forever....In electing to remain
neutral and really in alliance with the
Northern States, you will have elected
also to look to them for the price of the
land, of which they have already
plundered you. "

This was the determining fact that
caused John Ross and the Executive
Council to make an alliance with the
South. In the summer of 1861, at a very
troubled session, in which they re-
viewed every facet of the Nation's situa-
tion, the council and John Ross reluc-
tantly concluded that the preservation
of its rights and the very existence of the
Cherokee Nation demanded an alliance
with the Confederacy.

Some of the Chief's of the other Indian
Nations found it difficult to believe that
John Ross had decided to join with the
Confederacy. But approximately one
year later, July 15, 1862, Ross and his
family, together with all the Cherokee
Nation's records, were captured and
taken first to Kansas and from there to
Washington and then Philadelphia. The
Ross family set up house keeping in a
large two-story Colonial house a resi-
dence that belong to John' s second wife.

After the Rosses left Tahlequah, Stand
Watie and his men plundered in and
around Tahlequah burning the Ross
homestead (Rose Hill) as well as one of
his brothers (Daniel Ross) general store.

Chief Ross spent a lot of time in Wash-
ington, D.C., having several confer-
ences with President Lincoln wherein
Ross explained the reasons for the
Cherokee Nation having thrown their
lot in with the Confederated forces. Evi-
dently, he was able to convince Lincoln
because Lincoln's sympathies and sense
of justice seem to have been deeply
aroused. Lincoln intervened on Chief
Ross's behalf and attempted to get the
Union forces in and around the Indian
Territory to provide some protection to
the remaining Cherokees against the
marauding Confederate forces.

When the Civil War came to an end
with Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865,
Chief Ross was anxious to get the
Cherokee Nation pulled together, re-
built and its government back on the
proper track. Unfortunately, John's sec-
ond wife died, at the age of 39, in
Philadelphia on July 20, 1865. They
had been married for almost 21 years.

John Ross had been Principle Chief
for almost forty years and would not or
could not abandon his beloved
Cherokee Nation until a fair and equi-
table treaty had been negotiated be-
tween them and the United Stats.

However, when he arrived back in the
west at Fort Smith, AR, he found that
the commissioners appointed by the
United States Government were after
his hide. He had served his nation well
for these many years and the U. S.
Government officials were calling him a
traitor and would not recognize him as
Principle Chief any longer.

Then in October of 1865, the
Cherokees called a council in Tahlequah
in order to elect delegates to go to
Washington on Chief Ross's behalf and
to present to the President a memorial
on his behalf. After this council was
over John Ross collapsed and was con-
fined to his bed, the seventy-five year
old chief was not only ill but suffered
from heartbreak and sorrow.

Finally, he improved enough, by
November, to accompany the Cherokee
treaty delegation to Washington. Soon
after their arrival they gained an
audience with President Johnson where
the delegation's leader, Thomas Peg,
presented to the president a long hand-
written memorial that had been care-
fully prepared by their national council.
It was written in behalf of the Principle
Chief and said in part, "in behalf of the
Honorable John Ross now and for forty
years Principal Chief of the Cherokee
Nation. "

During this period, March of 1866,
Ross was confined to his bed in the
hotel much of the time. The two fac-
tions of the Cherokee Nation were still
at it, trying to get the U.S. Government
to divide the Cherokee Nation into two
parts. But Ross, acting through his
agents and using an unbelievable
amount of political acumen and ex-
perience, figuratively speaking, moved
mountains to prevent the disruption of
the Nation he had so loved and served
for over fifty years.

Finally, on July 19, 1866, the
Cherokee delegates and the United
States government officials came to an
agreement. The Cherokees signed a
treaty.

Principal Chief Ross was dead set
against this treaty but at least he had
succeeded in keeping the Cherokee Na-
tion intact. Ross did not live to see the
part of the treaty he was against most
cause chaos among his people for on
August 1, 1866, in Washington, D.C.,
Principle Chief John Ross's spirit de-
parted from his body to go to the happy
hunting ground above. He was tem-
porarily buried in Brandywine Ceme-
tery next to his second wife.

Then, almost one year later, on June
1, 1867, John Ross's body was removed
and carried to Tahlequah where special
services were held and he was reburied
in the Ross Family cemetery adjacent to
the former site of Rose Cottage.

Finally, in summary of this great Ma-
sonic leader of the mighty Cherokee
Nation a few looks at what others
thought of Principal Chief John Ross.

In his book "A History of Okla-
homa, " Grant Foreman said that John
Ross did more for his tribe than any
half dozen other Cherokees. Without
question he was the foremost Cherokee
of the nineteenth century.

John Ross was small in stature but he
"walked tall" among the Cherokees.
Everywhere he went within the
Cherokee Nation, Indians of all descrip-
tions, suave and prosperous mixed-
bloods from the fertile valleys, or poor
and primitive full bloods of the moun-
tain coves, turned out to take him by
the hand. It was said that his popularity
with the Indians had been cemented by
his marriage to a nearly full-blood wife,
a retiring woman known as Quatie.

On one occasion the son of a lawyer
John Ross had retained for the
Cherokees said, "During the time of
troubles of his people he spent many
days at my father's house. He appeared
to center his mind and soul in the wel-
fare of the Cherokees. I remember him
well. . .His complexion was a little florid.
He had a dark brown, brilliant eye."
Also, it has been reported that John
spoke English like a white man and, al-
though was never fluent in Cherokee,
yet in sympathy and spirit he was a
thoroughgoing Indian, as devoted to
ancestral lands of the Cherokees as any
full blood; and his people would have
been hard pressed to find a more dedi-
cated or able man to serve as Chief.
John Ross had vigor, intelligence, char-
acter, integrity, and an iron will; and he
needed every one of these qualities to
defend the rights of his people, as one
might suspect, because of the people in
Georgia and the Georgia and United
States Governments that were out to rid
themselves of the Cherokees.

George Catlin, Indian Artist, de-
scribed John Ross as "civilized, highly
educated, accomplished, devoted, ur-
bane and temperate. "





When did Freemasonry Begin?

No one knows when Freemasonry
began. The first written reference to
Masonry as an organization appeared
in 1356 when a Code of Mason Regula-
tions was formally drawn up at the
Guildhall in London., England. In 1376
we find information about the London
Masons' Company and it's interesting
to note its early evolution. According to
Grand Lodge, it leased in 1463 some land
and buildings for 99 years, and the
buildings were converted into the first
Masons' Hall. (In the 99th year it pur-
chased this property outright); in 1472
the company was given a Grant of
Arms with the motto "God Is- Our
Guide," later changed to "In the Lord
is all our trust." The Arms, but slightly
changed, remain part of the Arms of the
Unted Grand Lodge of England today.

What is the Regius Manuscript?

The first know document about
Freemasonry. It was written about A.D.
1390, and was evidently copied from an
older document. It is written in Middle
English making it difficult for the non-
linguist to decipher. Over the years
severa linguists have translated it into
monder English.

From Masonic Trivia and Facts written
by Allen E. Roberts, FPS

The Philalethes, October 1996
