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MASONIC PAPERSby Bro. S. BRENT MORRIS 33° G.C.THE HIGH DEGREES IN THE UNITED STATES : 1730–1830 |
Freemasonry in
the United States of America had an unusual early history. Imported from
Europe—England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Germany—it quickly became one
of the most important colonial organizations. “In the generation of the
[American] revolution, Masonry’s ability to embody the period’s diverse
cultural demands gave it enormous power.” (1) It remained an exclusive
organization through the revolution, and then began expanding it membership base
into the middle class. It is ironic that the Craft was attacked for its
perceived elite influence as it began to open up its membership. In 1826 in New York William Morgan published an exposé of Masonic
rituals.(2) He was later abducted by Masons in Canandaigua, New York and
subsequently disappeared. It was widely believed he had been murdered as part of
a Masonic conspiracy. The public outcry led to the creation of the first major
“third party” in American politics, the Anti-Masonic Party. By 1830,
Freemasonry was dead or sleeping in most of the United States. Like Pompeii
after Vesuvius, nearly everything Masonic was destroyed by the eruption of
anti-Masonry. It was not until 1840 that the fraternity began to recover from
this nearly fatal blow. Thus we can neatly frame the initial era of American Masonry between two events: the opening of the first lodge in about 1730 and the near destruction of the Craft by about 1830. Freemasonry grew and evolved in the United States during this period, primarily through importation of rites and degrees. The innovations that occurred were refinements, not wholesale manufacture of degrees. American Masons seemed well aware their fraternity was a European creation and looked to that continent as the source and origin of all that was “regular” in Masonry. There is little evidence of American ritual creativity at this time. 1730: The Beginnings of American Masonry
Like so many
Masonic events, the first appearance of Freemasonry is not precisely known.
Jonathan Belcher (1681–1757), a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts and later
Governor of the Colonies of Massachusetts and New Hampshire from 1730–41 and
the Colony of New Jersey from 1747–57, was made a Mason in London ca. 1704. He
is one of the very few Masons known to have joined the Craft before 1717.(3) It
is possible he held private Lodges at his residence before time-immemorial or
chartered Lodges appeared. On 5 June 1730, the premier Grand Lodge appointed
Daniel Coxe (1673–1739) Provincial Grand Master for New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, giving the first official Masonic recognition of the English
colonies. Bro. Coxe does not seem to have exercised his authority, even though
he lived in New Jersey from 1731–1739.(4) The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
possesses a book marked “Liber B” which contains the records of the earliest
known Pennsylvania and American Lodge. The first record is for 24 June 1731, and
in that month Benjamin Franklin (1705–1790) is entered as paying dues five
months back. Franklin’s entry implies Lodge activity from at least December
1730 or January 1731.(5) No earlier Lodge records exist in the United States, though there
are suggestive comments in newspapers.(6) Thus we are safe in setting 1730 as
the date for the beginning of American Masonry.(7) Whatever Masonic meetings may
have been held before 1730 were not recorded, and activity after 1730 rapidly
increased and is documented. As we move forward from 1730 we see an increasing Masonic presence
in the English Colonies. The first lodge in Boston was constituted 30 July 1733,
at the house of Edward Lutwych, an inn at the Sign of the Bunch of Grapes in
King Street. In 1736, Solomon Lodge No. 1 of Charleston, South Carolina held its
first meeting. By 1738 there is evidence of Masonry in Savannah Georgia and New
York City, and 1739 saw the meeting of the lodge at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Additional Provincial Grand Masters were appointed after Daniel Coxe from 1733
through 1787: twenty-two by the moderns, six by the ancients, and four by
Scotland. Most American Lodges originated from one of the British Grand
Lodges—England, Scotland, and Ireland, though Germany, France, and other Grand
Lodges issued charters. Traveling British military Lodges spread Masonry through
much of North America as they initiated civilians in the towns where they were
stationed. Also imported from England was the rivalry between the Ancient and
Modern Grand Lodges. Many states had competing Grand Lodges that eventually
merged after the Union of 1813 in London, though South Carolina did not see
Masonic unity until 1817. Modern Masons tended to be conservative in promoting
the fraternity, prosperous, and loyalists, while Ancient Masons were aggressive
in expanding Lodges, working-class, and revolutionaries. After the American
Revolution, United States Masonry was strongly Ancient in its organization and
practice. Prince Hall and African Lodge No. 459 In 1775 John
Batt initiated fifteen free African-Americans in Boston. Batt was Sergeant in
the 38th Regiment of Foot, British Army and Master of Lodge No. 441,
Irish Constitution. When the Regiment and Lodge departed in 1776, the fifteen
new Masons were left with a permit to meet, to walk on St. John’s Day, and to
bury their dead, but not to make Masons. They in turn applied to the Grand Lodge
of Moderns for a warrant and were chartered as African Lodge No. 459 on 29
September 1784 with Prince Hall as the first Master.(8) In 1792 when the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was formed, African
Lodge did not join but remained attached to England. This could be due to
loyalty to the premier Grand Lodge or to racism from the newly formed Grand
Lodge. However, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts also didn’t recognize St.
Andrews Lodge, which had a Scottish charter.(9) There is evidence that white
Masons visited African Lodge and that England relied on Prince Hall for
information on Boston Lodges.(10) In any event African Lodge continued its
separate existence until 1813 when it and all other English-chartered American
lodges were erased from the roles of the newly formed United Grand Lodge of
England. Then in 1827 officers of African Lodge declared themselves independent
and constituted themselves as a Grand Lodge. From these origins grew the large,
parallel Masonic organization known today as “Prince Hall Masonry.” The Influence of Itinerant Masonic Lecturers The early forms
of Masonic ritual in the United States are even less known that those in England
and France. We do not have the large number of 18th century
documents—Gothic constitutions, manuscript catechisms, memory aides—that can
be found in Europe. Presumably the first rituals were transmitted mouth-to-ear,
and Lodges may have patterned their ceremonies after some of the exposés,
either imported or printed domestically. The first American exposé was Benjamin
Franklin’s 1730 reprint of The Mystery of Freemasonry, but there do
not seem to have been any exposés of American ritual practices until the
anti-Masonic period, ca. 1826–1840. With a diversity of ritual sources, the work in American Masonic
Lodges must have been variegated during the 1700s. This began to change in 1797
when Thomas Smith Webb (1771–1819) published The Freemason’s Monitor or
Illustrations of Masonry. It acknowledged that “The observations upon the
first three degrees are many of them taken from Preston’s ‘Illustrations of
Masonry,’ with some necessary alterations” to make them “agreeable to the
mode of working in America.” (11) For example in the cornerstone ceremony,
Preston says, “No private member, or inferior officer of a private lodge, is
permitted to join in the ceremony.” Webb is much more democratic and allows
the participation of “such officers and members of private lodges as can
conveniently attend.” (12) Webb was the first and most prominent of several Masonic Lecturers
who toured the country teaching a uniform of ritual to Lodges, Chapters, and any
other body they could convince to pay their fees. These lecturers often had
“side degrees” available for sale or as gifts. Webb trained Jeremy Ladd
Cross (1783–1861) who succeeded Webb as the generally recognized chief
ritualist. Cross’s great contribution was his 1819 The True Masonic Chart
or Hieroglyphic Monitor. It was largely Webb’s Monitor with a
few small textual changes and one major visual addition: forty-two pages of
engravings by Bro. Amos Doolittle. Doolittle’s engravings did more than illustrate Cross’s text,
they provided a memory map for students learning the ritual. Each image on a
page was a milestone in the lectures. By associating an image with a portion of
ritual, it was possible to mentally review an entire lecture by thumbing through
a few pages of Cross’s Chart. The book was very successful and has
influenced the artwork in almost every subsequent American Masonic monitor. Other Masonic
lecturers trained by or with Webb and Cross include John Barney (1780–1847),
James Cushman (1776–1829), David Vinton (d. 1833), and John Snow
(1780–1852). They each seemed to concentrate on a different part of the
country, much as salesmen have defined territories. There was some cooperation
among the lecturers and not a small amount of competition. These teachers, with
the aid of Cross’s Chart and similar
books, helped standardize ritual and spread ceremonies, such as the Royal and
Select Master Degrees. The Royal Arch The first
“high degree” to appear in America was the Royal Arch Degree. In fact, the
first recorded conferral of this degree anywhere occurred in December 1753 at
Fredericksburg Lodge in Virginia, where George Washington (1731–1799) was
initiated an Entered Apprentice in 1752. The American Royal Arch ritual is based
upon the story of Jeshua, Zerrubabel, and Haggai and the rebuilding of the
second Temple in Jerusalem. The degree began to spread steadily throughout the
colonies: 1758—organization of Jerusalem Chapter in Philadelphia; 1769—organization
of St. Andrew’s Chapter, Boston; 1790—organization
of Cyrus Chapter Newburyport, Massachusetts; 1792—organization
of a Chapter in Charleston, South Carolina; 1794—organization
of Harmony Chapter, Philadelphia. Other unrecorded or forgotten degrees and chapters doubtlessly
occurred. In 1795 the First Grand Chapter was formed in Pennsylvania, and in
1797 the first national American organization was created—the General Grand
Chapter of the New England States, which is today the General Grand Chapter of
the United States. Additional Grand Chapters quickly followed in Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island in 1798. By 1830 there were twenty-one
Grand Chapters in the United States. (13) The early conferral of the Royal Arch Degree seemed to be based on
the authority inherent in the charter of a Lodge. Not surprisingly, it was
Ancient Lodges that were most likely to see this high degree authority inherent
in their charters. Royal Arch Chapter in the United States, in contrast to their
English counterparts, quickly organized themselves into state Grand Chapters
and, with the exception of Pennsylvania and Virginia, quickly placed themselves
under the authority of the General Grand Chapter. This federal form of Masonic
government paralleled the federal government adopted with the U.S. Constitution
in 1789. One amusing quirk of American Royal Arch Masonry is worth noting:
our presiding officer is not the King, representing Zerrubabel, but the High
Priest, representing Jeshua. The generally accepted explanation is that American
patriots couldn’t stand to have a “King” rule over them, even in a Masonic
context Thus Royal Arch Chapter officers were reorganized to give the governing
position to the High Priest. As Lodges had a “chair degree,” the Past Master’s Degree, it
only made sense that the Royal Arch should have one too, and so the Order of
High Priesthood came into being. It is not mentioned in Webb’s 1796 Monitor,
but it is in his 1802 edition as well as Cross’s 1819 Chart. It is
usually conferred on High Priests before they can assume the Oriental Chair of
Solomon. The degree, still worked today, may have had European ancestors, but
its genealogy is uncertain. It is also known as the Order of Melchizedek, and
there is mention of such an Order conferred in Massachusetts in 1789. It is not
certain the degrees are connected by anything other than name. The Growth of the Chapter Degrees As in England
the Royal Arch Degree in the United States can only be conferred on Past
Masters. American practice soon required the conferral of the chair ceremony to
qualify candidates as “virtual Past Masters.” The Chapter degree seems to
have contained the essential elements of the Lodge degree, but the candidate was
given humorous trials and tribulations to endure. The earliest record of the
Mark Degree is in 1783 at the Royal Arch Chapter in Middleton, Connecticut. Soon
the Mark was adopted by Royal Arch Chapters as the first in their sequence of
degrees. This is in contract to most European jurisdictions where the Mark is
independent and controlled by its own Grand Lodge. The Most Excellent Master Degree, a uniquely American degree in
origin, first appeared by name at the Middleton Chapter with the Mark Degree in
1783. Its legend revolves around the completion of the Temple of Solomon and the
placement of the keystone in the Royal Arch. It may contain elements from older
European degrees, but its current organization is unique to the United States.
Thomas Smith Webb published a description of this degree in his 1797 monitor as
the third of three degrees leading to the Royal Arch, and it has remained in
that position until today. The sequence of degrees conferred in American Royal
Arch Chapters since then (except for Virginia and West Virginia) is 1. Mark Master Mason, 2. Past Master, 3. Most
Excellent Master, 4. Royal Arch
Mason, 5. Order of High
Priesthood for High Priests. The Cryptic Degrees The Degrees of
Royal and Select Master seem to have originated as side degrees available from
itinerant Masonic lecturers. They are known collectively as the “Cryptic
Degrees” or the “Cryptic Rite” because their legend deals with the secret
vault or crypt beneath King Solomon’s Temple. The Select Master Degree was
conferred at Charleston, S.C. in 1783, and the Royal Master Degree in New York
City in 1804. In 1810 the degrees became permanently associated together with
the formation of Columbia Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters in New York
City. (14) (Even though the “Grand” is in the name, the body was local.) Cross included these two degrees in his popular 1819 illustrated
monitor, producing a nine-degree system extending from Entered Apprentice to
Select Master. The degrees were some times conferred in Royal Arch Chapters, but
slowly emerged as independent Masonic bodies, governed by state Grand Councils
of Royal and Select Masters and a national General Grand Council. The earliest
independent Councils were formed in 1810—New York City, 1815—New
Hampshire, 1817—Massachusetts,
Virginia, and Vermont, 1818—Rhode
Island and Connecticut. By 1830 there
were Grand Councils in ten states. Under the influence of Cross’s Chart
and other monitors, the Select Master’s Degree came to be viewed at the
culmination of “Ancient Craft Masonry,” even if Councils were found in only
a few metropolitan areas and their degrees available to only a few. This is
probably the beginning of the American “York Rite,” consisting of the
Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, Council of Royal and Select Masters, and
Commandery of Knights Templar. Knights Templars and the American York Rite. The first
reference to a Masonic Templar degree is found in the minutes of St. Andrews
Lodge, Boston, an Ancient Lodge, when on 9 April 1769, William Davis received
the Excellent, Super Excellent, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar Degrees. South
Carolina has a seal dated 1780, Maryland has a Templar diploma dated 1782, and
New York records the degree in 1783. In 1796 the first Commandery (or Encampment
or Priory) was established in Colchester, Connecticut, and eventually received a
charter from England in 1803.(15) Today in America a Commandery of Knights Templar confers the Order
of the Red Cross, the Order of Malta, and the Order of the Temple on Christian
Masons. In 1816 the Order of Malta was placed as the last degree in the series
until 1916 when it returned to second place. The Red Cross legend is similar to
the Knight of the East and Prince of Jerusalem detailing the return of
Zerubbabel from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. It tells an
interesting story and provides important background in understanding Masonic
Temple legends, but it is entirely out of place among Christian chivalric
orders. Nonetheless it remains and provides an important part of the York Rite
legends. Taken
together, the Craft Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter, Royal and Select Council, and
Knights Templar Commandery form the American “York Rite.” The name is
inexact as the degrees did not originate in York, England, but then again the
Scottish Rite did not originate in Scotland. Lodges became widespread in the
states, Chapters were found in larger towns, and Commanderies were less common.
The broad base of the York Rite and its democratic government made it very
popular in the United States. Reflecting the widespread belief that the York
Rite was the purest and oldest form of Masonry, some American Grand Lodges
originally styled themselves, “Ancient York Masons” (A.Y.M.). The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite The most
notable high degree event in the United States occurred on 31 May 1801 when John
Mitchell (ca. 1741–1816) elevated Frederick Dalcho (1770–1835) to the 33rd
Degree, and they then elevated another seven until there was a constitutional
number to open a Supreme Council. Their actions were announced to the world in a
circular dated 4 December 1802. The opening of the first Supreme Council 33°
was preceded by considerable “Scottish” activity. Etienne Morin (1693?–1771) received authority in 1761 from Paris
or Bordeaux to promote Masonry throughout the world. This included propagating a
rite of twenty-five degrees, sometimes known as the Rite of Perfection. Morin
moved to San Domingo and soon appointed six Inspectors General. (16) The most
successful of these was Henry Andrew Francken (d. 1795), from whom fifty-two
Inspectors descended, though he only appointed six himself. After Morin’s
arrival in America, bodies of his rite were soon established: 1764—Loge
de Parfaits de Écosse, New Orleans, Louisiana; 1767—The
Ineffable Lodge of Perfection, Albany, New York; 1781—Lodge of
Perfection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1783—Lodge of
Perfection, Charleston, South Carolina; 1788—Grand
Council, Princes of Jerusalem, Charleston, South Carolina; 1791—King
Solomon’s Lodge of Perfection, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts; 1792—Lodge of
Perfection, Baltimore, Maryland; 1797—Sublime
Grand Council, Princes of the Royal Secret, Charleston, South Carolina; 1797—La Triple
Union, Chapter of Rose Croix, New York. (17) Inspectors propagated the degrees of this rite with little
organization, often for the fees they could negotiate. The Supreme Council’s
motto, Ordo ab Chao, is indeed appropriate for the situation. Webb’s Monitor
had monitorial instructions for the ineffable degrees, which served to make
American Masons aware there was more than the York Rite. Thus when the Mother
Supreme Council formed itself in 1801, it did not operate in a vacuum. In August 1806 Antoine Bideaud, a member of the Supreme Council of
the “French West India Islands,” visited new York City and found an
opportunity to make a little extra money. He conferred the Scottish Rite degrees
on four Masons for $46 each and then created a “Sublime Grand Consistory, 30°,
31°, and 32°.” Bideaud’s authority was for the islands only and certainly
did not extend into New York, which was under the jurisdiction of the Charleston
Supreme Council. (18) In New York City in October 1807, Joseph Cerneau (d. 1827?), a
jeweler from Cuba, constituted a “Sovereign Grand Consistory of Sublime
Princes of the Royal Secret.” Cerneau was a “Deputy Grand Inspector, for the
Northern part of the Island of Cuba” under Morin’s rite. His patent limited
him to confer the 4° through 24° on Lodge officers, and the 25° once a year.
Early records are sufficiently vague that it cannot be determined if the
original members of Cerneau’s Consistory thought they had the 25° or the 32°.
With even less authority than Bideaud, Cerneau launched his foray into high
degree Masonry in New York. (19) The Bideaud
organization was “healed” by Emmanuel de la Motta, Grand Treasurer of the
Mother Supreme Council on 24 December 1813. This group assumed control of what
is today known as the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. The Cerneau Consistory
ignored de la Motta’s actions, but decided they had to expand their degrees to
thirty-three to “keep up with the competition.” They eventually claimed
jurisdiction over the “United States, Their Territories, and Dependencies.”
Thus in 1830 there were three competing Supreme Councils in the United States.
All three became dormant during the anti-Masonic period. Side Degrees The last
category of pre-1830 degrees is “side degrees,” conferred under irregular
circumstances with little formal authority. They sometimes were communicated by
itinerant lecturers, sometimes by Masons who possessed the degree, sometimes for
a fee, sometimes for free. Some of these degrees could have coalesced into a
rite if anti-Masonry hadn’t crushed them. There is scant information on them,
sometimes little more than a title mentioned in passing. A search of all
American Lodge minutes before 1830 might yield a few more names, but probably no
more rituals. Some of our information comes from two exposés from the
anti-Masonic period, David Barnard’s 1829 Light on Masonry and Avery
Allyn’s 1831 A Ritual of Freemasonry. Both authors seemed to been
originally motivated in “saving” the American public by exposing the
“evils” of Freemasonry. However, general interest in Masonry was spurred on
by the public conferral of the degrees by anti-Masonic troupes. This interest,
in turn increased demand for exposés, especially those complete with passwords
and grips. Bernard obliged this demand by adding the secret work from
Delaunaye’s Thuileur, without regard for whether it matched the
American degrees he described. (20) It is often difficult to know if the degrees
described were widely worked, if at all. Of these many degrees, only the
Heroines of Jericho seems to be an American original. It survived and is worked
today by Prince Hall Masons. Another source
of pre-1830 side degrees is a series of newspaper articles, “Recollections of
a Masonic Veteran,” by Robert Benjamin Folger (1803–1892). Published in
1873–74, these articles describe his fifty years in Masonry with a few
comments about side degrees. Finally, there is tantalizing evidence that
Zorobabel Lodge No. 498 in New York City worked the Rectified Scottish Rite and
may have conferred the fourth degree, Scottish Master. (21) Pre-1830 American Masonic Side Degrees Knight
of the Christian Mark Bernard, Allyn Knight of the
Holy Sepulchre Bernard, Allyn Holy and Thrice
Illustrious order of the Cross Bernard, Allyn Knight of the
Three Kings, Allyn Knight of
Constantinople Allyn, Folger Secret Monitor
Allyn, Folger Ark and Dove
(RAMs only), Allyn Mediterranean
Pass Folger Knight of the
Round Table (fun degree), Folger Aaron’s Band
(similar to High Priesthood), Folger Master Mason’s
Daughter (for women), Folger True Kindred
(for women), Folger Heroine of
Jericho (RAMs, wives and widows), Allyn 1830: The End of the First Era of American Masonry As early as
March 1826 a New York Mason named William Morgan began plans to publish the
“secrets of Freemasonry.” This created quite a stir in his small town of
Batavia, New York. Neither Morgan, nor his potential readers, nor the local
Lodge seemed aware that ritual exposés had been available in the United States
since at least 1730 when Benjamin Franklin republished The Mystery of
Freemasonry. Masons tried to purchase the manuscript from Morgan’s
publisher, David Miller, a former Entered Apprentice Mason. When this failed,
Miller’s printing company was set on fire twice, presumably by Masons, but
others claim it was a publicity stunt by Miller. Morgan, a ne’er-do-well in frequent debt, was jailed in
Canandaigua, New York, for a debt of $2.00 assigned to Nicholas G. Chesbro,
Master of the Lodge at Canandaigua. On the next day, 12 September 1826, Chesbro
appeared at the jail with several other Masons and discharged his claim against
Morgan. They escorted Morgan outside and into a waiting carriage. Before
entering the carriage, Morgan was heard crying during a scuffle, “Help!
Murder!” He was driven north to Niagara County and held in the old Powder
Magazine at Ft. Niagara until 19 September. Morgan was never seen thereafter.
(22) Morgan’s abduction, disappearance, and presumed murder set off a social and political crisis in the United States. Many came to believe that Freemasonry was a secretive power behind the government, thwarting the will of the people and murdering those who dared cross it. Religious leaders denounced the fraternity as anti-Christian. Soon the fear of Masonry manifested itself in the creation of the first major “third part” in American politics: the Anti-Masonic Party. The party attracted reformers, abolitionists, and idealists, but its primary purpose was the destruction of Freemasonry and other “secret societies.” From about 1826 to 1840 the anti-Masonic movement swept across the country, destructive in some places, barely noticed in others. In 1826 New York had 480 Lodges and by 1835 it only 75 remained. The Grand Lodge of Vermont dwindled to the point that only the Grand Master, the Grand Secretary, and the Grand Treasurer attended Grand Lodge, and the Supreme Councils of the Scottish Rite were dormant. The northeastern states, where the Craft was most prosperous, endured the worst destruction, but few parts of the country was spared. By the time the Anti-Masonic Party collapsed as a political force in 1840, Freemasonry began to reemerge, but as a more conservative and religiously oriented organization.
1998
Blue Friar Lecture BIBLIOGRAPHY Allyn, Avery. A
Ritual of Freemasonry. Boston: John Marsh and Co., 1831. Baynard, Samuel
H., Jr. History of the Supreme Council, 33°. 2 vols. Boston: Supreme
Council, 33°, N.M.J., 1938. Bernard, David. Light
on Masonry. Utica, N.Y.: William Williams, 1829. Bullock, Steven
C. Revolutionary Brotherhood. Chapel Hill and London: University of
North Carolina Press, 1996. Coil, Henry W.
et al. Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia. New York: Macoy Masonic
Publishing and Supply Co., Inc., 1961. Crockett, David.
First American Born. Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 1992. Folger, Robert
Benjamin, S. Brent Morris, ed. Recollections of a Masonic Veteran.
Bloomington, Ill.: Masonic Book Club, 1995. Johnson, Melvin
M. The Beginnings of Freemasonry in America. Kingsport, Tenn.: Southern
Publishers, Inc., 1924. Morgan, William.
Illustrations of Masonry. Batavia,
N.Y.: David Miller, 1826. Morris, S.
Brent. Cornerstones of Freedom. Washington: Supreme Council, 33°,
S.J., 1993. ———. The
Folger Manuscript. Bloomington, Ill.: Masonic Book Club, 1993. Voorhis, Harold
van Buren. The Story of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. New York:
Press of Henry Emmerson, 1965. Walgren, Kent.
“An Historical Sketch of Pre-1851 Louisiana Scottish Rite Masonry,” Heredom,
vol. 4, 1995, pp. 189–206. Walkes, Joseph
A. Black Square and Compass. 3rd printing. Ft. Leavenworth,
Kans.: Walkes Book Co., 1980. Webb, Thomas
Smith. The Freemason’s Monitor or Illustrations of Masonry. New and
improved ed. Salem, Mass.: John D. Cushing, 1821. Wesley, Charles
H. Prince Hall: Life and Legacy, 2nd ed. Washington: United Supreme
Council, 33°, S.J., P.H.A., 1983. NOTES 1. Steven C.
Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood (Chapel Hill and London: University
of North Carolina Press, 1996), p. 275. 2. William
Morgan, Illustrations of Masonry (Batavia, N.Y.: David Miller, 1826). 3. David
Crockett, First American Born (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 1992). 4. Henry W. Coil
et al., Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia (New York: Macoy Masonic
Publishing and Supply Co., Inc., 1961), s.v. “Coxe, Daniel.” 5. Coil, s.v.
“America, Introduction of Freemasonry into.” 6. Melvin M.
Johnson, The Beginnings of Freemasonry in America (Kingsport, Tenn.:
Southern Publishers, Inc., 1924). 7. It is worth
noting that Massachusetts, Virginia, and some other states have traditions of
Masonic meetings earlier than Pennsylvania. To declare dogmatically that
Pennsylvania is the source and origin of American Freemasonry is to run the risk
of friendly but intense disagreement from other Grand Lodges. 8. Charles H.
Wesley, Prince Hall: Life and Legacy, 2nd ed. (Washington: United
Supreme Council, 33°, S.J., P.H.A., 1983), pp. 34–35; Joseph A. Walkes, Black
Square and Compass, 3rd printing (Ft. Leavenworth, Kans.: Walkes
Book Co., 1980), pp. 21 9. Charles H.
Wesley, pp. 99–100. 10. Charles H.
Wesley, p. 91. 11. Thomas Smith
Webb, The Freemason’s Monitor or Illustrations of Masonry, new and
improved ed. (Salem, Mass.: John D. Cushing, 1821), p. 1. 12. S. Brent
Morris, Cornerstones of Freedom (Washington: Supreme Council, 33°,
S.J., 1993), p. 140. 13. Coil, s.v.
“Royal Arch Masonry.” 14. Coil, s.v.
“Rites, Masonic, II, Cryptic Rite.” 15. Coil, s.v.
“Knights Templar (Masonic).” 16. Harold van
Buren Voorhis, The Story of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (New York:
Press of Henry Emmerson, 1965), p. 15. 17. Kent
Walgren, “An Historical Sketch of Pre-1851 Louisiana Scottish Rite Masonry,”
Heredom, vol. 4, 1995, pp. 190; Samuel H. Baynard, Jr., History
of the Supreme Council, 33°, 2 vols. (Boston: Supreme Council, 33°,
N.M.J., 1938), pp. 97–100. 18. Baynard, p.
152. 19. Baynard, pp.
155–156; Joseph Cerneau, Patent of Authority, 15 July 1806, Baracoa, Cuba,
Manuscript in the hand of Mathieu Dupotet(?), Archives, Supreme Council, 33°,
S.J., Washington, D.C. 20. Walgren, p.
98. 21. S. Brent
Morris, The Folger Manuscript (Bloomington, Ill.: Masonic Book Club,
1993), pp. 4, 26, 27, 31. 22. Coil, s.v. “Morgan
Affair.” |