THE BUILDER JUNE 1925

Studies of Masonry in the United States

By BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, Editor
PART IX. 
THE FOUNDING OF DULY CONSTITUTED MASONRY IN MASSACHUSETTS

IN this department for April (the Study Club was omitted last month
to make way for the special British number) something was said
about the personal career of Henry Price, who was deputized by Lord
viscount Montague, Grand Master of England to be "Provincial Grand
Master of New England and Dominions and Territories thereunto
belonging." Price returned from England to Boston in the spring of
1733; on July 30 of the same year he called together a group of
Boston brethren and then and there brought into existence a
Provincial Grand Lodge. So far as the existing written records show
this was the first Masonic body to be organized in America under
written auhthority. As shown in earlier chapters of this series a
lodge was in existence in Philadelphia in 1731, perhaps in 1730,
but thus far nobody has discovered anything of a written character
to show how it was organized.

Price appointed as his Deputy Andrew Belcher, Esq., son of Governor
Jonathan Belcher (see THE BUILDER, October, 1924, page 312), and
Bros. Thomas Kennelly and John Quane as Grand Wardens. Little is
known of the circumstances attending this important event because
the early records are meager; the oldest existing account is found
in the Charles Pelham MS., written in 1750, some seventeen years
after the event; but this has nothing to do with the authenticity
of the account, which fits squarely into all the known facts of the
period. Moreover, Pelham based his own narrative on older
documents, "When Charles Pelham (in 1750) wrote the record of this
evening in the first existing volume of the Grand Lodge record
book," writes Bro. Melvin M. Johnson in his Beginnings of
Freemasonry in America, "he either copied from the Beteilhe
Manuscript or both were taken from an original now lost."

In the same connection Bro. Johnson goes on to relate how th e
First Lodge of Boston came into existence. "For in language so
nearly identical that the accounts could not have been written
independently, both report that after forming the Grand Lodge Price
ordered his Commission or Deputation to be read, and then ordered
to be read a petition of eighteen Brethren addressed to him praying
that they might be Constituted into a regular Lodge by virtue of
said Deputation. Ten, at least, of the petitioners had been 'made
here,' i. e., had been made Masons in Boston in some of the earlier
meetings held, like those in Philadelphia and elsewhere perhaps,
without charter or warrant but according to 'Old Customs.'
Thereupon he granted the prayer thereof and did then and there in
the most solemn manner according to ancient custom and form as
prescribed in the book of Constitutions, constitute them into a
regular Lodge. This original petition, apparently in the
handwriting of Henry Hope, who that evening was chosen Master, is
still in the archives of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, bearing
the original signature of the petitioners. . . ." (Beginnings of
Freemasonry in America, pages 80, 81.)

These brethren had "met at the house of Edward Lutwych, at ye sign
of the Bunch of Grapes in King's street [now state street], Boston,
New England"; their first meeting as a lodge was held Aug. 3, 1733,
when "John Smith was made." It adopted its by-laws printed in full
by Johnson and in the Massachusetts Grand Lodge Proceedings, 1871,
on Oct. 24 of the same year. The earliest known records of the
lodge begin with an entry under date of Dec. 27, 1738; and a list
of members is set forth in the Massachusetts Grand Lodge
Proceedings, just mentioned, beginning on page 386.

THE "MASTERS LODGE" WAS ORGANIZED

A certain amount of mystery hangs about the next lodge constituted
in Boston. Known as the Masters Lodge it was organized Dec. 22,
1738, with Henry Price as its W. M. and Francis Beteilhe as
secretary, the latter a business partner of Price's. The existing
records, written by Beteilhe, and. now in the archives of the Grand
Lodge of Boston, begin with the date of constitution. The first
regular meeting of this lodge was held Jan. 2, 1738/9.

Why was it called "Masters Lodge"? It is known that not all its
members had been Masters of lodges. Was this lodge brought into
existence expressly for the purpose of working a degree new in the
Masonic system? There is some hint of such a thing having been done
in England. Or did it practice what would now be known as a "higher
degree"? Bro. Johnson accepts this latter alternative. "I believe
the answer to be that the degree worked by the Masters Lodge was
what is sometimes known as the 'Chair Degree' or installation of a
Master, absorbed nowadays in the United states by the Royal Arch
Chapter and transformed into the degree of 'Past Master'."

As indicating a different function than this, or at least as
showing that at the period a theory of the Masters Lodge was held
in Massachusetts other than that set forth by Bro. Johnson, is the
case stated in. the charter issued to a lodge in Newport, Rhode
Island, by Jeremy Gridley, Grand Master of Massachusetts. In that
official paper, dated March 20, 1759, are statements to show that
the Masters Lodge may have been a lodge organized to confer the
Master Mason Degree:

"Know ye that Whereas a Considerable Number of Master Masons have
from Time to Time congregated themselves at Newport in the Colony
of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations within our district as
a Lodge of Master Masons, and have therein raised some Brothers of
the Fellow Craft to Master Masons, not thinking but they had
Authority so to do, and have now Petitioned us to confirm the said
Degree, and to form theln into a Masters Lodge.

"We therefore by the Authority given us, by the Grand Master of
Masons, do hereby confirm the said Degree to which any Bro's have
been so raised and do appoint Our Beloved and Right Worshipful
Brother John Maudsley to be Master of a Right Worshipfull Master's
Lodge, to be held at New Port, he taking Special Care in Choosing
Two Wardens and other officers necessary for the due reputation
thereof, and do hereby give and grant to the said Lodge all the
Rights and Privileges which any Master's Lodge of Free and Accepted
Masons have or ought to have," etc., etc.

There is need that this whole subject of Masters Lodges in the
early Colonies be carefully traversed by a competent student; the
findings would undoubtedly throw needed light on the earliest
ritualistic developments and at the same time, perhaps, on the
beginnings of the Higher Grades in America.

A third lodge, called The Second Lodge in Boston, was organized by
Grand Lodge, Feb. 15, 1749/50; and still another, called The Third
Lodge in Boston was similarly constituted on the 7th of the
following month. The former was to meet at the Royal Exchange
Tavern, the latter, at the White Horse Tavern.

MANY LODGES ARE CHARTERED

Meanwhile the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts (known as the "St.
John's Grand Lodge" in after years) had chartered lodges outside of
Massachusetts, a few of which may be noted, the first of these
being in 1736, for a lodge at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from which
six representatives sent a petition to Henry Price under date of
Feb. 5, 1735/6. The records of this lodge, showing the adoption of
a set of by-laws on Oct. 31, 1739, are still in existence; as is
also the above mentioned petition, now in the archives of the Grand
Lodge of Massachusetts. The language in this petition is most
interesting, and shows that a lodge was already in existence at the
time it was made:

"Wee the under named persons of the holy and Exquisite Lodge of St.
John do request a deputation and power to hold a Lodge According to
order as is and has been granted to faithful Brethren in all parts
of the World- wee have our Constitutions both in print and
manuscript as good and as ancient as any that England can afford,"
etc.

In regard to the next lodge to be mentioned in chronological order
it will be necessary to postpone discussion until some future
chapter, for there are many questions to be raised concerning it;
in the present paragraph it will suffice to say that somewhere
between 1735 and 1738 it is believed that Massachusetts chartered
a lodge in Charleston (then CharlesTown), S. C. Charles W. Moore
gave the date as Dec. 27, 1735, but this is certainly an error. Dr.
Mackey, in his History of Freemasonry in South Carolina, gives the
date as reputedly of 1738, when he says: "There is, however, no
longer any doubt that the lodge said to have been held in 1738 in
Charleston, at 'the Harp and Crown,' received its warrant from St.
John's Grand Lodge of Boston. . . ."

While Robert Tomlinson was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge at
Boston he went to England by way of the West Indies, where he
visited Antigua, and founded, so it is believed, a lodge there. A
lodge had been already organized in the preceding year. In this
connection it is worth noting that in September, 1734, the Earl of
Crauford chartered a lodge at Montserrat, in the West Indies, the
second known to have been constituted in the Western Hemisphere on
the basis of a written instrument.

Masonry was planted in Nova Scotia under Massachusetts authority in
1738, or thereabouts. While in Boston in 1737 Erasmus James
Phillips was made a Mason, and upon his return to Annapolis Royal
in the following year organized a lodge, of which he himself was
made the first Master. "In the Boston Gazette of March 12, 1738,"
wrote Bro. R. V. Harris [see THE BUILDER, August, 1924, page 228],
"we find a note of the appointment by Henry Price of Major Phillips
as Provincial Grand Master of Nova Scotia; and on the occasion of
his next visit to Boston in April, 1739, he appears as such in the
minutes of St. John's Lodge." Under Phillip's authority a lodge was
organized at Halifax, N. S., July 19, 1750.

It was in this wise, by planting a lodge here and there as need
arose, that Freemasonry spread under the leadership of
Massachusetts, so that by the middle of the century some forty or
more lodges had been warranted or officially recognized by
Massachusetts authority, beginning with Henry Price.

TOMLINSON FOLLOWED PRICE

Price was succeeded in office by Robert Tomlinson. Inasmuch as all
authority proceeded from the Grand Master of England it was
necessary that the brethren at Boston send there a petition for "a
new Grand Master." This they did on June 28, 1736, in which they
requested that Tomlinson be appointed to rule over them. In
response thereto the Earl of Loudoun, Grand Master of England,
issued a Deputation to Robert Tomlinson to be Grand Master of New
England; this bore date of Dec. 7, 1736. Inasmuch as the document
was some time in reaching the colony Price continued in office, and
on the 27th of the same month made Tomlinson his Deputy. By April
20, 1737, Tomlinson received his Deputation, and on the following
st. John's Day sat in the Grand East. His term of office lasted
until July 16, 1740.

Of Tomlinson's early life little is known, but it appears that he
came originally from Antigua. He was made a Mason in the First
Lodge at Boston Jan. 13, 1735; became a member of the Masters
Lodge; and in 1736 become W. M. of the First Lodge. From that
position his advance in office was rapid, as already indicated.
Incidental to his first presiding as Grand Master on St. John the
Baptist's Day in June, 1737, occurred what is believed to have been
the first public procession of a lodge as such in America. This
attracted wide attention, and was noted in Saint James' Evening
Post, published in London, in its number dated Aug. 20, 1737. After
relating how Grand Lodge was opened, and giving a list of the
officers appointed, this account goes on to relate that after this
"the Society attended the Grand Master in procession to his
Excellency Governor Belcher's, and from thence the Governor was
attended by the Grand Master and the Brotherhood to the Royal
Exchange Tavern in King street, where they had an elegant
entertainment." (This incident is especially worth noting by those
brethren who look upon feasts as a modern contrivance out of
keeping with the traditions of the Craft; the opposite is the case,
for in early times feasts were among the great events of the
Masonic year, and considered among the normal functions of the
lodge. ) When a similar feast and procession was held in 1739 it
was celebrated in doggerel verse, printed in the American Apollo,
the first of many such satirical descriptions of the doings of
Masons, whose regalia, highly colored parades, and mysterious
customs appealed powerfully to the imagination of the times.
Tomlinson died while visiting in Antigua in 1740.

OXNARD BECAME GRAND MASTER

He was followed in office by Thomas Oxnard, who received a
Deputation from Lord Ward, Grand Master of England, under date of
Sept. 23, 1743, a copy of which, duly attested, is in the archives
of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. This instrument was received
in Boston in March of the following year, from which time Oxnard
served in the Grand East. According to this Deputation he was to be
"Grand Master of North America," as a quotation will show: "NOW
KNOW YE We John Lord Ward have Nominated Constituted and Appointed,
and by these Presents do Nominate Constitute and Appoint Our Well
Beloved Bro. Thomas Oxnard, Esq., To Be Provincial Grand Master of
North America, etc." Gould believed that Lord Ward made an error in
thus appointing Oxnard for the whole of North America. Bro. Ossian
Lang believes the Deputation was intended to mean for all North
America where there was not already a Grand Master in authority,
and points out the fact that whereas Oxnard, evidently acting upon
the plain words of his Deputation, appointed Benjamin Franklin as
Deput Grand Master of Philadelphia in 1749; this action was
evidently set aside by the Grand Master of England who, a few
months later, appointed William Allen to be Grand Master of
Philadelphia, thereby going over the head of Oxnard. During his
term ( 1743-1754) Grand Masters of England appointed Richard Riggs
for New York, William Allen for Philadelphia, Francis Goelet for
New York, George Harison for New York, and Peter Leigh for South
Carolina, which would indicate that the Grand Lodge of England did
not look upon Oxnard as holding authority for the whole of North
America. These and many other facts in the case show that during
the first half of the eighteenth century there was much confusion
in the minds of officials on both sides of the Atlantic as to the
Provincial Grand Lodge system in the Colonies; at an rate such
facts as are of record are most confusing to a present day Mason.
Perhaps the surest clue out for such an one is to hold firmly in
mind the fact that a Provincial Grand Master was the creature of
the Grand Master of England; that all his authority as Provincial
Grand Master was of the delegated variety; and that this authority
was extended, revised, or withdrawn according to needs or changes
of policies on the part of the Grand Masters of England. If for a
period the influence of Massachusetts more or less predominated in
Colonial Masonry it was not because the Grand Lodge of England
extended to Massachusetts peculiar powers or privileges, but
because Massachusetts Masonry was so virile, its leaders so capable
and so active, and its geographical situation, relative to the
centers of population, so central that its influence sprang out of
natural causes.

Of Oxnard and of the Oxnard family much is known, because the
Oxnards played a leading part in the public life of their day.
Thomas Oxnard himself was born in England in 1703. He was made a
Mason in the First Lodge of Boston Jan. 21, 1735/6; became W.M. of
the lodge in December of the same year; helped found the Masters
Lodge; became Tomlinson's Deputy in 1739; and served as Grand
Master from March 6, 1743/4 to June 25, 1754. His son Edward became
a notorious Tory during the Revolutionary period, and was banished
from the Colonies; his son Thomas became prominent in the Masonry
of Maine. An account of the family will be found in Willis' History
of Portland, and in the New England Historical and Genealogical
Register.

GRIDLEY WAS AN OUTSTANDING LEADER

Upon Oxnard's death in 1754 Henry Price served as Grand Master pro
tem for a year, upon which Jeremy Gridley was appointed to the
office. Of Gridley (brother of Richard Gridley of equal fame)
himself a book might be written, he was active in so many fields,
being school teacher, some time preacher, lawyer, public official,
journalist, author, a citizen of substance, and a leader in
Masonry. Unlike his predecessor in the Chair of Solomon he was
American by extraction, having been born in Boston, March 10,
1701/2. After receiving an education at Harvard he climbed steadily
up the steps of promotion until at last he stood forth among the
mightiest of his day, of wide influence and commanding personality.
He was made a Mason in the First Lodge, May 11, 1748; was raised in
the Masters Lodge in 1750; became W. M. of the First Lodge in 1763;
and in October of the following year was recommended by Grand Lodge
to succeed Price, serving temporarily. When no reply was received
to this petition Price, in August of the following year, himself
addressed a letter to the Grand Master, interesting because of the
many facts it contained concerning Massachusetts Masonry, among
which was the statement, "Here is not less than Forty Lodges sprung
from my First Lodge in Boston." Meanwhile, and under date of April
4, 1755, James Brydges, Marquis of Carnarvan, Grand Master of
England, had issued a Deputation to Gridley appointing him to be
"Provincial Grand Master of all Such Provinces and Places in North
America and the Territories thereof, of which, no Provincial Grand
Master is at presently appointed," etc. This was received in
Boston, Aug. 21, 1755, and on the first day of the next October,
with great eclat, Gridley was installed Grand Master, and held
office until his death in 1767, after which Henry Price once again
served as Grand Master pro tem.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

When and by whom was the Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts
brought into existence? On what authority was it organized? Whom
did Price appoint as his Deputy? What are the oldest existing
records of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts ?

When was the First Lodge in Boston organized? Under what
circumstances? What evidences are to show that Masons were living
in Boston prior to 1733? When did the First Lodge hold its first
regular meeting?

When was the Masters Lodge organized? Why was it called "Masters
Lodge"? How many degrees were practiced at that time? What does
Gridley's charter to the lodge at Newport, Rhode Island, indicate?
What is Johnson's theory concerning this Masters Lodge?

When was the second lodge organized? the third lodgc? When and by
whom was the lodge at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, chartered? When
did Massachusetts charter a lodge in South Carolina? Where is
Antigua? What was the second lodge constituted by written authority
in the Western Hemisphere?

When and by whom was Freemasonry planted in Nova Scotia? Name two
lodges that were organized there.

By whom was Henry Price succeeded as Grand Master? Tell what you
know about Robert Tomlinson. Where and when was the first lodge
procession held in America? What part did feasts have in early
American Masonry?

When did Thomas Oxnard receive his deputation? What was the scope
of Oxnard's authority? What is your opinion concerning this?
Describe the Provincial Grand Lodge system then in existence in the
colonies? Define the authority of a Provincial Grand Master. Tell
what you know of Thomas Oxnard.

By whom was Oxnard succeeded? Who followed Henry Price as Grand
Master? Tell what you know of Jeremy Gridley. By whom was Gridley
followed?

NOTES AND REFERENCES

On Henry Price see bibliography given on page 116 of THE BUILDER
for April last.

On all subjects treated in the above chapter see Beginnings of
Freemasonry in America, Johnson, New York, 1924; consult index. On
the organization of the Grand Lodge see also The Freemasons Monthly
Magazine, Charles W. Moore Boston, Vol. XXIII, page 260. The
History of Freemasonry, Robert Freke Gould- Philadelphia, 1889,
Vol. IV, page 330.

On the First Lodge see Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts; 1871, page 374, 386. Charles W. Moore, Vol. XXII,
page 173, Vol. XIX, page 131. Gould, Vol. IV, page 243.

On the Masters Lodge see Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts; 1871, page 322. For Gridley's charter to New port,
Rhode Island, see History of Freemasonry in Rhode Island, Henry W.
Rugg; Providence, 1895, page 34.

On Masonry in Nova Scotia see THE BUILDER, August, 1924, page 227.

On Tomlinson see History of the Most Ancient and Honorable
Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons in New York, Charles T.
McClenachan, New York, 1888, Vol. I, page 85. History of the
Ancient and Honorable Fraterility of Free and Accepted Masons, and
Concordant Orders, Stillson and Hughan; Boston, 1891, page 241.
Gould, Vol. IV, page 332. History of Freemasonry in the State of
New York, Ossian Lang, New York, 1922, pages 12, 14. Massachusetts
Proceedings; 1871, pages 219, 308; 1916, page 237.

On Oxnard see McClenachen, Vol. I, page 85. Stillson and Hughan,
page 241. Gould, Vol. IV, pages 249, 332. New England Historical
and Genealogical Register, Vol. XXVI, page 3. Massachusetts
Proceedings; 1871, pages 312, 318, 350; 1916, page 211. Benjamin
Franklin as a Freemason, Sachse; Philadelphia 1906, page 3. History
of Freemasonry in Maryland Edward T. Schultz; 1884, Vol. I, page
85.

On Jeremy Gridley see Moore, Vol. XIX, page 134. Gould, Vol. IV,
page 253. Massachusetts Proceedings; 1871, pages 320, 321, 351,
362, 364. Stillson and Hughan, page 242. McClenachan, Vol. I, page
86.

On all the above subjects see also Mackey's Revised History of
Freemasonry, Robert I. Clegg; Chicago, 1921; consult index. For a
list of the Grand Masters in Massachusetts from 1733 to 1870 see
The Lodge of St. Andrew, and the Massachusetts Grand Lodge; Boston,
1870, page 289.

