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SAMUEL DUNN 1747-1815

Deputy Grand Master, 1797-1799
Grand Master, 1800-1802

TERM

1800 1801 1802

BIOGRAPHY

Captain Samuel Dunn, a leading citizen of Boston, was installed in the office of Grand Master on the 17th of December, 1799, the fourth man to hold that high office since the union of the two constituent Grand Lodges. Like his father-in-law, Grand Master Cutler, Most Wor. Brother Dunn had been an active and prominent Mason; he was Master of St. John's Lodge before he was forty years old, had served on the seven-man committee on the union, and held the office of Junior Grand Warden, resigning his position on the momentous day in March l'192 when the union was finally achieved.

Bro. Dunn was bom in 1743 and was a shipwright by profession, as his father and namesake had been before him. He was a native Bostonian; his fine house, located on Wiltshire Street (on what is now the Cambridge Street side of Beacon Hill), overlooked the ropewalks and the Mill Pond, which separated Boston's North End from its growing West End. He retired from the sea around 1785, becoming more and more active in the affairs of the Craft. In 1787, when Grand Master John Rowe died, the funeral procession by the Grand Lodge assembled at his house; at the time of the union he was once again in the Oriental chair of St. John's Lodge, where he would serve untll 1794.

Only a few months before his election as Grand Master, Bro. Dunn married Sarah Cutler, daughter of John Cutler, a long time friend and fellow past master of St. John's. In the half-dozen years between the end of his father-in-law's term as Grand Master and the start of his own, Captain Dunn's world exhibited remarkable change. The early 1790s in Boston was a time of recovery. The ratification of the Constitution was a momentous event that brought the Revolutionary era to a close, placing the control of the city in the hands of (in the words of Harold and James Kirker, authors of Bulfinch's Boston) "the new Federalist merchants," the heirs of those who had wrested America from British rule. One of those men, John Adams, who would be the new country's second President, called this ruling group the "Essex Junto." One of the most prominent members of the group, Perez Morton, was extremely active and prominent in the affairs of the new united Grand Lodge.

We know little of Grand Master Dunn's politics, or whether he was a Federalist or a Republican: we do know that he was an ardent admirer of George Washington. who died within a week of his installation. At his direction, the Grand Lodge conducted "funeral obsequies" independent from the memorial procession organized by the town of Boston, featuring a golden urn containing a lock of the late President's hair - which he had personally requested from Mrs. Washington on behalf of the Grand Lodge. The acquisition of this artifact, still one of the most treasured possessions of the Grand Lodge, is one of the most notable achievements of Grand Master Dunn's term; he arranged for Past Grand Master Revere to fashion the urn to hold it.

Just as the outside world was being transformed, the Masonic world was evolving. Grand Master Revere had chartered nearly two dozen lodges, a number large enough that a resolution was adopted during the term of his successor, Josiah Bartlett, effectively establishing a moratorium on new charters.

During Grand Master Dunn's first year in office, he granted only one petition - to Mount Zion Lodge in Hardwick; but in his second year he signed fourteen charters, including two in the District of Maine and one in the West Indies (St. John's, Starbrock), many of which derived from petitions that had been made years earlier. He signed four more charters during his third year in office, two in Maine and two in Massachusetts proper, bringing the count of lodges in the jurisdiction to more than seventy.

His other significant accomplishment was the creation of the District Deputy Grand Master system, in which men were empowered as personal representatives of the Grand Master to inspect lodges, receive moneys, and adjudicate disputes. Other jurisdictions questioned the propriety of such an arrangement, but the ever-increasing number of lodges and the attendant burdens of collecting quarterages and determining conformity with established landmarks made this innovation a necessity, and the idea spread so that it is almost universally employed today. As originally conceived, Massachusetts was divided into twelve districts, including three in Maine (Districts 9, 10, and 11). Individuals appointed to these posts had numerous duties, and in years to come would be burdened with yet more as the Craft spread further afield.

After his term, Bro. Dunn continued in the active affairs of his town and the Grand Lodge. He was frequently chosen to serve on committees by his successors, playing a prominent part in the private and public activities of Grand Lodge. He was a town assessor for several years, and represented Boston in the General Court from 1811-1813; he was also a prominent member of the Trinity Church congregation. He died in November 1815, and the Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge, the always eloquent http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=MAGLTHarris Thaddeus Mason Harris], composed a memorial that was delivered to his widow.

Unlike many of his predecessors, there was no extensive procession nor public mourning: Masons' Hall was decorated with crepe for a month, as was the custom, and the Grand Lodge went on with its business.

The ongoing history of our great fraternity was built step by step by men such as Bros. Cutler and Dunn. As with many other Masons who have laid down their working tools after productive work, their voices and their deeds reach across two centuries to remind us from whence we have come.

CHARTERS GRANTED

• 03/11/1800 Mount Zion, Hardwick
• 03/10/1801 Amity, Camden (Me.)
• 06/08/1801 Mount Lebanon, Boston
• 06/08/1801 Fore Fathers' Rock, Plymouth
• 06/08/1801 Fraternal, Barnstable
• 06/08/1801 Pacific, Sunderland
• 06/08/1801 Aurora, Leominster
• 06/08/1801 Eastern, Eastport (Me.)
• 06/08/1801 St. John's, Starbrock, Demarara
• 06/08/1801 Rural, Rehoboth
• 09/14/1801 Sincerity, Partridgefield
• 09/15/1801 Sumner, Dennis
• 12/14/1801 United, Topsham (Me.)
• 12/14/1801 Corner Stone, Duxbury
• 12/15/1801 Constellation, Dedham
• 06/14/1802 Harris, Athol
• 06/14/1802 Saco, Saco (Me.)
• 06/15/1802 Merrimack, Haverhill
• 09/13/1802 Rising Virtue, Hampden (Me.)

Grand Masters