THE BUILDER AUGUST 1925

Daniel Coxe and St. John's Lodge, Philadelphia

By BRO. DAVID MCGREGOR, New Jerse
(Concluded from last month)

Surely Franklin was sufficiently conversant with the eighth section
of the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England, which he had
recently published, to know just exactly what was meant by the term
"rebel brethren"; if, as is claimed, he had not himself been a
regular Mason at that time, it would have been a case of the pot
calling the kettle black !

No one will doubt that Franklin had a sufficient command of the
English language to use the proper words to convey his thoughts;
therefore when he used the word privileges he meant exactly what it
implies, viz., that they were then enjoying something that had been
granted to them, not an inherent right assumed by them; and the
granting of those privileges must have been by a person who had the
authority to do so --none other than the Grand Master of England.

In making the request Franklin approached the matter as would any
regular Mason, expressing his willingness to submit himself to
higher Masonic authority wherever it existed, at the same time
asserting the dignity of his own position in the words, "The Grand
Master of Pennsylvania only yielding his chair when the Grand
Master of All America shall be in place."

As to the extension of Price's jurisdiction, it is unfortunate that
neither the newspaper notice of it in the Boston prints, nor the
original document or even a copy of it can be found. Nor does the
records of the Grand Lodge of England contain any reference to it,
as they do in regard to Coxe's deputation. It is desirable to know
whether or not it was limited territorially as were most all such
deputations issued by the Grand Masters of England, so as not to
include territory where Provincial Grand Masters had been already
appointed.

FOR "ALL AMERICA"

This limitation has been ignored in Bro. Melvin M. Johnson's
references to these deputations in his recently published
Beginnings of Freemasonry in America, leaving the reader to infer
that all deputations to the Provincial Grand Masters of New
England, with the exception of Robert Tomlinson, were for All
America unrestrictedly. We know this is not a fact. True, the
newspaper's report of Price's deputation to Franklin as Provincial
Grand Master of Pennsylvania in 1735 designates Price as "Grand
Master of His Majesty's Dominions in North America", which on the
face of it is not correct, as it was not within the province of the
Grand Master of England to depute to any brother an authority of
equal prestige to his own, that belonging exclusively to the Grand
Lodge as a body, his powers being limited to the deputizing of
Provincial Grand Masters, so that, as in all others emanating from
that source, Price's deputation must have been for a Provincial
Grand Mastership.

The omission of this qualifying prefex leads us to suspect that
territorial limitations were also omitted-- thus establishing a
precedent that has become a regular habit among the historians of
New England Freemasonry.

It was no doubt known to Grand Master Crauford that a
self-perpetuating deputation had already bee issued for a
Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania;
and it is highly improbable that he would have done anything to
cause confusion or dissension among the brethren here by permitting
the overlapping of jurisdictions.

In regard to this report which appeared in the Philadelphia Weekly
Mercury as to Price's appointment for all America, it looks rather
strange that such an important item of news failed to appear in
Franklin's Philadelphia Gazette. It is scarcely conceivable that
after making application for it, if it was received and accepted by
Franklin, he would have neglected to give it all the publicity
possible, in order that the "false and rebel brethren" of
Philadelphia might be promptly informed, as it was to meet their
criticisms that the deputation had been asked for. If Franklin did
receive it, his refusal to publish it seems to indicate that Price
had not been able to satisfy him fully as to his authority as Grand
Master of All America as he had requested him to do. In fact,
neither Price nor any of his successors ever had any authority
delegated to them to appoint anyone to the office of Provincial
Grand Master, the full extent of their deputations being the
appointment of a Deputy Grand Master and Grand Wardens, also the
issuing of warrants for the institution of subordinate lodges
within the territory prescribed by their deputation; therefore if
Price did issue such a deputation to Franklin he assumed an
authority that belonged only to the Grand Master of England.

While even admitting that Price may have received some authority or
order to extend his territorial jurisdiction, we are not prepared
to admit, as claimed by Bro. Johnson, that its publication in a
Philadelphia newspaper was "unequivocal evidence of the extension
of Price's authority over all America, and Pennsylvania's
recognition thereof". Surely he does not mean to suggest that
Bradford's Weekly Mercury (a paper not in any way identified with
Masonry, and one which earned for itself the appellation of being
the first anti-Masonic paper in America) presumed to represent the
Pennsylvania Masons, the only persons whose recognition could be
considered in the matter! In fact, its non-appearance in Franklin's
paper may rather be looked upon as an absolute refusal on the part
of himself and those for whom he spoke to recognize it in any way.

GRAND LODGE MET AS USUAL

This much we know. The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania continuing on
the even tenor of its way, met on June 24, 1735, and elected a
successor to the office of Provincial Grand Master for the fourth
or fifth consecutive year. Had Franklin and the Grand Lodge
accepted the deputation from Price dated Feb. 24, 1735, it is not
likely that he would have been requested or even willing to retire
from the chair, after serving but four months under the new
dispensation. If Price's deputation meant anything to Franklin, it
surely meant at least a full year of service under it.

In later years Price does not appear to have been so certain as to
that extended deputation to All America; in one letter he said he
had received it in 1735, instead of 1734; and when the Provincial
Grand Lodge in Boston petitioned for a deputation to Jeremy Gridley
to be "stiled Grand Master of All America," which they persisted in
asking for on every opportunity, Price urged the granting of the
comprehensive title in a letter to the Grand Master of England,
under date of Aug. 6, 1755, in which he said he had received his
deputation from the Right Honourable Lord Montague in April, 1733
(which was for New England only), "which I held for four years, and
constituted several Lodges, and was succeeded in the office by Bro.
Tomlinson" (whose deputation was also for New England only). No
mention whatever was made of a deputation for "All America." Then
he proceeded: "Now with my consent all the brethren in North
America have made choice of our Bro. Jeremy Gridley, Esq., to be
Grand Master for three years." The only lodge officially
represented on that occasion outside of those in Boston, was the
New London Lodge. Price was surely suffering from an attack of
Bostonitis, in which the mental vision of the patient is so
restricted that he believes that "The Hub" is the whole wheel !

Despite this request so strongly urged and endorsed. Gridley's
deputation was, as usual, issued for "Provincial Grand Master of
all such Provinces and places in North America, and the Territories
thereof, of which no Provincial Grand Master is at present
appointed".

Price's memory was evidently failing him when in 1768 he claimed in
a letter to the Grand Master of England that "his deputation was
the first that the Grand Lodge ever issued to any part of America".
If he did not know better, he was sadly ignorant of what his
protege and successor in Solomon's Chair, Jeremy Gridley, was fully
cognizant of years before.

We find that when Jonathan Hampton applied to Jeremy Gridley in
1762 for a warrant to institute a lodge in Elizabethtown, N.J.,
Gridley refused to grant it until he was fully satisfied that
Daniel Coxe did not still have jurisdiction over that Province; and
it was only after Hampton had apprized him of the fact that Coxe
had died before Gridley was appointed Provincial Grand Master, that
he acceded to the request and granted a warrant for the second
known lodge in New Jersey.

PRICE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE "ALL AMERICA IDEA"

The more modern and modified form of the claim that "The deputation
to Price was the first to be transmitted across the seas", must now
be also abandoned in view of what was proven in my previous
article.

It is quite apparent that Price was largely responsible for the
promulgation of this unrestricted "All American" idea; and as he
advanced in years he became more and more obsessed with it, until
he actually permitted himself to believe that no other deputation
of equal Masonic authority was ever granted to an American. Of the
actual existence of such deputations he was forcibly reminded by
the Grand Secretary of England, who, in answer to a request that he
[Price] be given proper priority in the records of the Grand Lodge
of England, advised him that "no deputation which has been granted
since your appointment, for any part of America can affect you, as
their authority can only extend over those Provinces where no other
Provincial Grand Master is appointed", as did his. This equality of
jurisdiction in Provinces where no Grand Master existed, is clearly
shown in the case of New Jersey, where within a few years lodges
were instituted on warrants derived from three Grand Jurisdictions,
New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania; New Jersey being then,
Masonically speaking, a no-man's-land.

This obsession of Price goes beyond the bounds of charitable
interpretation when, after having for the fourth time installed
successors to himself in the office of Provincial Grand Master, he
turns around and challenges the Grand Secretary of England to find
that he had at any time resigned from the office of Grand Master of
All America. Did he consider himself to be a Supreme Grand Master,
exercising authority over and above the regularly appointed
successors to himself as Provincial Grand Master where no Grand
Master had been appointed?

While we are willing to draw the mantle of forget fulness over such
evidences of mental aberration, we do not feel justified in
accepting his claims as to his authority or the extent of his
jurisdiction in the year 1734/5 but fully believe that he had no
jurisdiction over Pennsylvania, where a Grand Lodge existed; nor
had he any authority to appoint a Provincial Grand Master anywhere
in America. The attempt to use Franklin's letters to Price, as
proof of the irregularity of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, is
utterly futile.

