THE BUILDER MAY 1915

THE ESTABLISHMENT AND EARLY DAYS OF MASONRY IN AMERICA
By Brother Melvin M. Johnson
Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts

Chapter I

NO study of Modern Masonry is intelligible without an understanding
of the events of the year 1717. This has been generally known as
the year of the "Revival of Masonry." More properly, it should be
called the year of Masonry's Transmutation or Reincarnation, for
then occurred a remarkable change in the structure of the
institution. And an equally remarkable change in its substance and
character focusses upon that year. Prior thereto, Masonry was an
operative institution with speculative features. In 1717, it became
a speculative institution and promptly dropped all operative
features except the use of tools and implements of operative Masons
as symbols. Prior to that year there never had been a Grand Lodge,
although there were occasional Assemblies of Masons of vicinities.
Since that time Grand Lodges have been the controlling authority of
the Institution. Prior to that time, "a sufficient number of Masons
met together within a certain district with the consent of the
Chief Magistrate of the place, were empowered to make Masons, and
practice the Rite of Masonry without a Warrant or Constitution." On
the 24th of June, 1717, at the Goose and Gridiron Tavern in Saint
Paul's Churchyard, London, the Grand Lodge of England was
organized, and among a variety of regulations which were proposed
and agreed to at this meeting was the following:

"That the privilege of assembling as Masons, which had hitherto
been unlimited, should be vested in certain lodges or assemblies of
Masons convened in certain places; and that every lodge to be
hereafter convened, except the four old lodges at this time
existing, should be legally authorized to act by a warrant from the
Grand Master for the time being, granted to certain individuals by
petition, with the consent and approbation of the Grand Lodge in
communication; and that without such warrant no lodge should be
hereafter deemed regular or constitutional."

This regulation in a more elaborate and accurate form was among
those compiled by George Payne in 1720 when he was Grand Master,
and adopted by the Grand Lodge of England on Saint John the
Baptist's Day in 1721, as follows:

"No set or number of Brethren shall withdraw or separate themselves
from the lodge in which they were made Brethren, or were afterwards
admitted members, unless the Lodge becomes too numerous; nor even
then, without a Dispensation from the Grand Master or his Deputy;
and when they are thus separated, they must either immediately join
themselves to such other Lodge as they shall like best, with the
unanimous consent of that other Lodge to which they go (as above
regulated) or else they must obtain the Grand Master's Warrant to
join in forming a new Lodge."


"If any set or number of Masons shall take upon themselves to form
a Lodge without the Grand Master's Warrant the regular Lodges are
not to countenance them, nor own them as fair Brethren and duly
formed, nor approve of their acts and deeds; but must treat them as
rebels, until they humble themselves, as the Grand Master shall in
his prudence direct, and until he approve of them by his Warrant,
which must be signified to the other Lodges as the custom is when
a new Lodge is to be registered in the list of Lodges." (Anderson's
Constitutions )

These Regulations were adopted for the government of all lodges
thereafter, at least so far as the Grand Lodge of England extended
its jurisdiction. That jurisdiction was almost immediately extended
by deputation and otherwise throughout England and over all British
possessions. An edition of the printed Regulations was first
printed for the use of the lodges in and about London in 1723. The
first edition printed in America was that published by Franklin in
Philadelphia in 1734, though copies of the English edition, both in
print and in manuscript, are known to have been previously in the
possession of the brethren of Boston, Mass., and Portsmouth, N. H.,
and regarded by them, as by Franklin, as the constitutional and
fundamental law of the Masonic Fraternity.

In considering the history of Masonry as well in America as
elsewhere, it is necessary to remember, therefore, that before the
adoption of these regulations, Lodges were regular though meeting
without Charter, Warrant, Deputation, or other specific authority
than that which was inherent in the Masons themselves. Such
meetings may properly be called "Lodges according to the ancient
custom," but subsequent to the adoption of these regulations no
Lodge in the world has been regular, unless organized prior to
1717, or unless meeting by authority of a Gland Lodge or its Grand
Master. Always bearing this sharp line of demarkation in mind, we
may turn to a study of the early days of Masonry in America.

1606.

"The Masonic emblems, Square and Compass, with the date 1606, large
and deeply cut on a flat slab of trap rock and much worn by time
and weather, but still quite distinct, were discovered in 1827 upon
the shore of Goat Island in Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia.
Historians have concluded that this was a stone upon which the
French had engraved the date of their first cultivation of the soil
in memorial of their formal possession of the country."

This is the earliest footprint of Masonry in America, but about it
we probably shall never know more, though we may well infer that
Masons enthusiastic enough to have left this monument would have
met and worked "according to the ancient custom."

1656 or 1658.

There is a legend of modern fabrication that certain Hebrews were
given the "Degrees of Maconrie" in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1656
or 1658. The authority for this legend is claimed to be a document,
dilapidated and indistinct "found among the effects of a distant
relative of Brother N. H. Gould." Persistent inquiry has failed to
gain a view of this precious document or a clue to its whereabouts.
No credit is given to it by the Masonic students of Rhode Island
and it is doubtless a figment of someone's vivid imagination. I
challenge its production for inspection. If the stories told about
it are true, then its falsity is self-evident for in those days
there were no such things known as "degrees" in Masonry. There were
ranks among the workmen but "degrees" were unknown until after
1717. The "Degree" system of Blue Lodge Masonry was fabricated in
part from the earlier ceremonial of making, by Desaguliers, Payne,
Anderson and their collaborators during the decade following the
organization of the Grand Lodge of England, in 1717.

1705

No presence of Masons or Masonry in the Western Hemisphere is
historically established until 1705. The senior Mason of America of
whose membership there is historical proof is Brother Jonathan
Belcher, Colonial Governor of Massachusetts from 1730 to 1741, who
was born at Cambridge, Mass., January 8, 1681. After graduating at
Harvard in 1699, he visited England remaining for six years, and in
1704 was there made a Mason. He returned to Boston in 1705,
remaining there as Governor until 1741. Governor Belcher was an
enthusiastic Mason. On Saint John the Baptist's Day in 1737
occurred the first public procession of the Fraternity in America,
Governor Belcher being in the line as it passed from his official
residence to the Royal Exchange Tavern in King St., Boston, where
the Feast of Saint John was celebrated. He was entertained by the
Fraternity of Boston on February 9, 1743-4, and soon after sailed
for England where he visited the Grand Lodge, bearing testimonials
from the First Lodge in Boston. To his son, Andrew, reference will
be made later.

If the foundation of Masonry in America is to date from the first
presence here of members of the Craft, then precedence must be
given to Boston as its first home in the New World.

1715.

A legend, which unfortunately has been given undue credence by some
Masonic historians, relates that one John Moore, collector of the
Port of Philadelphia as early as 1703, wrote a letter in 1715 in
which he speaks of having "spent a few evenings in festivity with
my Masonic Brethren." I do not doubt the presence of Masons in
various parts of the American Colonies in 1715 including both
Philadelphia and Boston but regard statements about the "John Moore
letter" as pure fabrication. If Horace W. Smith ever had it, as
alleged, it ought to be produced or its absence accounted for.
Careful inquiry among his acquaintances discloses repeated but
unsuccessful attempts to see it. I am unable to find any one among
his contemporaries or among those having had the best opportunities
to talk with Mr. Smith and to see the document, if it existed, who
believes there ever was such a letter. I should not have given it
any notice in this article had it not been for the fact that Bro.
Newton has referred to it in "The Builders," accepting this and
some other erroneous statements of Brothers Hughan and Stillson at
their face value. These Brothers were learned historians of the
highest standing, but they were not infallible. Even Homer nods.

1720.

Rev. Mr. Montague, who many years ago was settled at Dedham, Mass.,
was on a committee to investigate the title of King's Chapel in
Boston to certain property rights. While investigating this subject
abroad he discovered that a Lodge of Masons had met in King's
Chapel, Boston, in 1720, though the meetings were shortly
discontinued. Bro. Sachse, the learned historian and librarian of
Philadelphia, has kindly informed me that confirmation of the
assertion that Masonic meetings were held in Boston in these early
days is to be found in the library of the American Philosophical
Society.

1721.

The official records of the port of Boston show that on September
18, 1721, the vessel "Freemason" owned in Boston, cleared from
there for the West Indies. Her Boston owner or owners must have
been of the Fraternity to choose this name. It seems fair to assume
though here my reasoning is solely upon probabilities--that Belcher
and the ship-owner were not the only Masons in Boston in those
days. Boston was then quite a populous town containing many
immigrates from England. The type of her citizens favors this
conclusion. Is it not likely that they met together?

The above historical facts, coupled with Masonic tradition and
sound reasoning, lead irresistibly to the conclusion that Lodges
"according to the ancient custom" met in Boston and doubtless in
other of the British Colonies of America prior to the adoption and
promulgation of the above Regulations of 1721. They were perfectly
regular "according to the ancient custom." It was not usual in
those days to make, much less to preserve, records of these
evanescent Lodges, and therefore we are without historical evidence
of most of the Masonic occurrences of these early days.

If, then, Masonry in America is to date from the first meetings of
Masons upon her newly settled shores, it must date from the Lodge
held in King's Chapel in 1720 and precedence be given to Boston.

1730.

We learn from the Pennsylvania Gazette of December, 1730, printed
by Benjamin Franklin, and from an account book kept by him which
begins June 24, 1731, that Lodges were then meeting in
Philadelphia. All Masonic historians agree that these were Lodges
"according to the ancient custom," that it to say without Warrant
or other extraneous authority. Such lodges, however, since the
promulgation of the above Regulations of 1721 were irregular and
clandestine.

If this be not granted as an axiom, it certainly must be conceded
that they were such from the moment that England asserted her
authority over the colonies here, for there does not exist in the
United States or Canada a single regular Lodge today which is not
held by authority derived directly or mediately from what is today
the Grand Lodge of England--the body organized in 1717.

In making this assertion, I am not unmindful of those charters or
warrants emanating from the schismatic Grand Lodge of "Ancients"
which played prodigal for half a century but which more than a
century ago returned home and was welcomed with open arms by His
Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, Grand Master of the legitimate
Grand Lodge, who thereafter for many years presided over the
re-united family.

Authority over the colonies was definitely asserted at least as
early as June 5, 1730, when the Grand Master of England issued a
Deputation to Brother Daniel Coxe, as Provincial Grand Master for
the Provinces of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for the
period of two years. There is no evidence whatever that Daniel Coxe
ever exercised this deputation, or even that he was on this side of
the ocean during the two years therein named. Indeed historians are
agreed that during that period he remained in England, endeavoring
to perfect his title to nearly half the Continent of North America
which he claimed to own by virtue of a grant to his father, who was
physician to Charles I. and Charles II. Had Coxe ever exercised
this deputation, he would have been the founder of duly constituted
Masonry in America, but the non-exercise of his deputation renders
his name a negligible one in the history of Freemasonry in this
country. It is certain that Coxe was in England as late as Jan. 29,
1731, for on that day he was present at a meeting of the Grand
Lodge of England. During that year he was registered as a member of
Lodge No. 8 at the Devil Tavern within Temple Bar. This was the
year after the issuance of his deputation. I can find no indication
of his presence in America between 1728 and 1734, before which
latter date his commission had long since expired.

1731.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston Jan. 17, 1706.  He left Boston
in October, 1723, although he was again in Boston the following
year. On October 11, 1726, he arrived in Philadelphia after a trip
to London. In 1730 Franklin was not a Mason. He was then
twenty-four years old and was publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette.
In its issue of December 8, 1730, he republished what had been
circulating for some time in England as an exposure of Masonry.
This may have aroused his interest in the Institution, for in
February, 1731, he was made a Mason in Philadelphia in a Lodge
which, though without a Warrant or Charter, apparently made Masons
as did the various irregular assemblies or Lodges referred to
above. On June 26, 1732, the Pennsylvania Gazette speaks of
Franklin as Junior Grand Warden. That Franklin himself recognized
the irregular character of whatever Masonry there then was in
Pennsylvania will subsequently appear.

1733.

We now come to the time of the appearance of Henry Price as
Provincial Grand Master in America. Henry Price was born in London,
1697, as appears by his original gravestone now in the Masonic
Temple, Boston. It is recorded upon this gravestone that he removed
to Boston in 1723. If so, he returned to England, for it is
recorded in the minutes of the Grand Lodge of England that in 1730
Price was a member of Lodge No. 75, meeting at Rainbow Coffee House
in York Buildings. This Lodge is now The Brittannic, No. 33. 

Under date of April 2, 1733, the Right Honorable and Right
Worshipful Anthony Lord Viscount Montague, Grand Master of the Free
and Accepted Masons of England, issued his deputation, saying, "We
have Nominated, Ordained Constituted and appointed and do by these
Presents Nominate, Ordain, Constitute and appoint Our said
Worshipful and well Beloved Brother Mr. Henry Price, Provincial
Grand Master of New England aforesaid and Dominions and Territories
thereunto belonging." It authorized him to appoint his Deputy Grand
Master and Grand Wardens, and "To constitute the Brethren (Free and
Accepted Masons) now Residing or who shall hereafter reside in
those parts, into One or more Regular Lodge or Lodges, as he shall
think fit, and as often as Occasion shall require." This deputation
very carefully distinguished between regular and irregular Masons.
Price came promptly to Boston and on July 30 of the same year
formed his Provincial Grand Lodge. On the same evening he received
a petition for the organization of the first Lodge in Boston. The
original petition is still in the archives of the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts.

I am inclined to believe--though I cannot assert it as being a
proven fact--that among those who applied to Henry Price on July
30, 1733, for the Charter of the First Lodge in Boston, were a
number of Brethren who had been made Masons in America in some of
those earlier irregular Lodges referred to. This applies (as shown
by the Pelham list written in 1751, still in the Massachusetts
archives) to Bros. James Gordon, William Gordon, Andrew Haliburton,
Samuel Pemberton, Thomas Moloney, Robert Peasley, John Gordon, and
John Baker, all of whom signed the petition.

Price granted the prayer of this petition and on Aug. 31, 1733,
constituted the First Lodge in Boston. On October 24 this First
Lodge in Boston adopted its By-Laws.

Price immediately became a prominent man in the affairs of the
Colony. His close associations with Governor Belcher are shown by
the fact that the Governor appointed him Cornet with the rank of
Major and Governor Belcher's son Andrew, then Register of Probate
for Suffolk County, was the first appointee of Price as Deputy
Grand Master.

1734.

In 1734 Henry Price's Commission was extended over all North
America. This appears not only from the Proceedings of the
Provincial Grand Lodge, but also over the signature of our Brother
Benjamin Franklin who was closely in touch with Masonic affairs in
Boston. He was in Boston in the spring of 1731, and probably
present at the celebration of the Feast of St. John the Baptist on
June 24. In August of this year there was an advertisement in the
Boston newspapers of the Constitutions as published by him. As the
head of the Fraternity in Philadelphia, on November 28, 1734, he
wrote two letters to Price, one official and one personal, as
follows:

The Official Letter.

Right Worshipful Grand Master and Most Worthy and Dear Brethren:

We acknowledge your favor of the 23d of October past, and rejoice
that the Grand Master (whom God Bless) hath so happily recovered
from his late indisposition: and we now, glass in hand, drink to
the establishment of his health, and the prosperity of your whole
Lodge.

We have seen in the Boston prints an article of news from London,
importing that at a Grand Lodge held there in August last, Mr.
Price's deputation and power was extended over all America, which
advice we hope is true, and we heartily congratulate him thereupon,
and though this has not been as yet regularly signified to us by
you, yet, giving credit thereto, we think it our duty to lay before
your Lodge what we apprehend needful to be done for us, in order to
promote and strengthen the interest of Masonry in this Province.
(which seems to want the sanction of some authority derived from
home, to give the proceedings and determination of our Lodge their
due weight) to-wit, a Deputation or Charter granted by the Right
Worshipful Mr. Price, by virtue of his Commission from Britain,
confirming the Brethren of Pennsylvania in the privileges they at
present enjoy of holding annually their Grand Lodge, choosing their
Grand Master, Wardens and other officers, who may manage all
affairs relating to the Brethren here with full power and
authority, according to the customs and usages of Masons, the said
Grand Master of Pennsylvania only yielding his chair, when the
Grand Master of all America shall be in place. This, if it seems
good and reasonable to you to grant, will not only be extremely
agreeable to us, but will also, we are confident, conduce much to
the welfare, establishment, and reputation of Masonry in these
parts. We therefore submit it for your consideration, and, as we
hope our request will be complied with, we desire that it may be
done as soon as possible, and also accompanied with a copy of the
R. W. Grand Master's first Deputation, and of the instrument by
which it appears to be enlarged as above mentioned, witnessed by
your Wardens, and signed by the Secretary; for which favors this
Lodge doubt not of being able to behave as not to be thought
ungrateful.

We are, Right Worshipful Grand Master and Most Worthy Brethren,

Your Affectionate Brethren and obliged humble Servants,

Signed at the request of the Lodge, Philadelphia, Nov. 28, 1734. B.
Franklin, G. M.

The Personal Letter.

Dear Brother Price--I am glad to hear of your recovery. I hoped to
have seen you here this Fall, agreeable to the expectation you were
so good as to give me; but since sickness has prevented your coming
while the weather was moderate. I have no room to flatter myself
with a visit from you before the Spring, when a deputation of the
Brethren here will have an opportunity of showing how much they
esteem you. I beg leave to recommend their request to you, and to
inform you, that some false and rebel Brethren, who are foreigners
being about to set up a distinct Lodge in opposition to the old and
true Brethren here, pretending to make Masons for a bowl of punch,
and the Craft is like to come into disesteem among us unless the
true Brethren are countenanced and distinguished by some special
authority as herein desired. I entreat therefore, that whatever you
shall think proper to do therein may be sent by the next post, if
possible, or the next following.

I am, Your Affectionate Brother and humble servant,

B. Franklin, G. M 
Pennsylvannia Philadelphia, Nov. 28, 1734.

P.S.--If more of the Constitutions are wanted among you, please
hint it to me. 
(Address upon said letters:)
"To Mr. Henry Price
"At the Brazen Head
"Boston,
"N. E."

These letters were destroyed at the burning of Masonic Temple in
Boston on April 6, 1864, prior to which time they hung in frames in
the Temple observed by all men. In the official letter, Franklin,
acting as he himself says at the request of his Lodge, acknowledges
its want of lawful authority and prays that Henry Price by virtue
of his Commission from Britain which had been extended over the
whole of North America, would confirm the Brethren of Pennsylvania
in the privileges they then enjoyed of holding their Lodge, etc.,
admitting that the Grand Master of Pennsylvania would thereafter
yield his chair whenever the Grand Master of North America, to-wit,
Henry Price, should be present. The prayer of Franklin was granted
and thereafter he always kept closely in touch with the Provincial
Grand Lodge in Boston as will subsequently appear.


Reference has now been made to all that is known of Masonry in the
Western Hemisphere down to and including the founding of duly
constituted Masonry in America. Laborious and thorough research of
many learned and studious historians has been for many years
devoted to the subject. In the early eighteenth century it was
often proclaimed by those familiar with all the facts--including
Henry Price himself--that Masonry in America originated in Boston.
No one has yet successfully contradicted that claim. No one has
ever presented any evidence whatever of the exercise here of any
authority from the Mother Grand Lodge of the World, the Grand Lodge
of England, prior to organization of the Provincial Grand Lodge in
Boston on June 30, 1733. It is now settled beyond any attempted
contradiction that Henry Price did act by lawful authority and
under the first commission of any kind exercised on this side of
the Atlantic Ocean. It is thus that Henry Price is the Founder of
Duly Constituted Masonry in America, and his Provincial Grand Lodge
the Mother Grand Lodge of the Western Hemisphere. That Grand Lodge
has persisted without a break from his day to ours and is now the
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

If the foundation of Masonry here is to date from the first
exercise of lawful deputed authority, then precedence must be given
to Boston and to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

(To be continued)

