MAGLTLambert

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THOMAS RICKER LAMBERT 1809-1892

  • MM 1830, Libanus #49, Great Falls, NH
  • Affiliated 1858, Henry Price
  • Grand Chaplain 1850-1854, 1858

BIOGRAPHY

From Proceedings, Page 1873-361:

ThomasRLambert1873.jpg

REV. THOMAS RICKER LAMBERT, D.D., CHARLESTOWN, Episcopalian. 1850-1854, 1858.

He was born in Berwick, Me., then a district of Massachusetts, July 2, 1809; and the son of William Lambert, a graduate of Dartmouth College, a member of the legal profession, and also a Mason. He was initiated into the Masonic Fraternity in 1830, at the age of 21 years, in Libanus Lodge, Great Falls, N. H.; made a Royal Arch Mason in Belknap Chapter, Dover, N. H.; and received the Order of Knighthood, in DeWitt Commandery of Templars, in Portsmouth, N. H., the same year. During his residence in N. H., he held several offices in the different organizations of the Masonic bodies, one of which was Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of N. H.

In 1851 he cast in his lot with the DeMolay Commandery at the time of its organization, and accepted the office of Prelate. In 1852 he was chosen Generalissimo; and Grand Commander the three following years, 1853, 1854, 1855. During the same period he was Chaplain of Massachusetts Lodge, St. Paul's Chapter, and Chaplain of the Grand Lodge seven years. He was also for several years Prelate of the Grand Encampment of Kt. Templars of Mass. and R. I., and is at the present time Grand Prelate of the Grand Commandery of Templars of the United States. He received the Thirty-third Degree in 1869.

He fitted for college at the academy in his native place, and Phillips' Exeter Academy, N. H. He "was about entering upon his collegiate course at Dartmouth College, when he was offered an appointment as cadet at West Point, which he accepted, but was obliged to leave that institution before graduating, in consequence of ill health. He soon after entered the office of Hon. Levi Woodbury, in Portsmouth, N. H., as student at law, where he remained until Mr. Woodbury was called to the cabinet of President Jackson. He then went into the office of Hon. Ichabod Bartlett, and was admitted to the bar in 1832.

After practising law for a year, he turned his attention to theology, and was ordained in 1836. He was Chaplain in the Navy for a period of twenty years, the last of his service being at the Navy Yard in Charlestown, when he resigned and accepted the rectorship of St. John's Church, Charlestown, where he has been for eighteen years.

He commenced the practice of law in Great Falls, N. H., the same year that he was initiated into Masonry; and as there had been no public demonstration of the Masonic Fraternity since the Anti-Masonic furor had spread over the land, he was invited to give a public address, and it was with great difficulty that a place could be obtained for the purpose, and it was only by arguments most potent that the good old deacon opened the doors of the Orthodox Church.

In 1847, while at home on leave of absence, he was instrumental in reviving Strafford Lodge, in Dover, N.H., which for seventeen years had ceased to meet, the charter of which could not be found. He obtained a dispensation from the Grand Master, and the first work that was done was to Fellow Craft an Apprentice, who had been initiated seventeen years previous, taking up the work where it was left off. In New Bedford, where he was settled for four years (then a Chaplain in the Navy and on leave of absence), he assisted in a similar service, in 1843, acting as Chaplain on the first appearance of Star in the East Lodge in the face of much opposition. He has delivered several Masonic addresses, part of which have been published.

His debut at the Strafford bar was an argument in a breach of marriage contract, in 1833, in Dover, N. H., which he brought for a lady, and won his case. A contemporary says, "It was Mr. Lambert's first argument in a court of justice, and as such gave good assurance of his future eminence as a successful and eloquent advocate." The same year he delivered a 4th of July oration at Great Falls, N. H. The leading paper spoke of it thus : "Ordinarily we should pass such services with a slight notice, but it is impossible for us to express the full pleasure with which all received this address. It touched every chord of human sympathy, and every sentiment which, as a people, we are proud of feeling in reviewing the past. The style was unusually nervous, elegant, pure and dignified; it evinced an ardent patriotism and a love of the Union, to which the audience gave a sincere and cordial response. The orator concluded with a true and just encomium on the virtues of woman."

He delivered the annual address before the Seaman's Widow and Orphan Society, in Salem, in 1842; and before the New Bedford Port Society, in 1843, the great part being published. He was the orator of the Literary Societies of Brown University, at its annual commencement, in 1845. He has delivered several Lyceum lectures. His principal published discourses have been two on the rebellion, one on his decade as rector of St. John's Church, and one on the death of his Senior Warden, Peter Hubbell.

He received the degree of A.M. from Brown University, in 1845; Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., in 1852; and the degree of D.D., from Columbia College, N. Y., in 1843. He was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Brown University, in 1852.

Extract from a printed sermon, delivered by Dr. Lambert, at Charlestown, on the National Fast Day, Jan. 4, 1861: —

"Political strifes will soon be over, at least with the men of this generation; and they who have been engaged in them will meet before the bar of God. This is a subduing thought. I name it not to repress a righteous enthusiasm in the cause of our common country. No good citizen should shrink himself, or be prevented by others, from doing his duty fearlessly and conscientiously. Sad, indeed, will it be, if all our bright visions of our country's onward march in the glorious track of freedom, are to prove but mere visions; if our boastings of the successful experiment are yet to be thrown back upon us by those across the water.

Sad, indeed, if so much precious blood shall prove itself to have been spilt in vain for so short-lived a blessing; and so much wisdom, and devotion, and purity to have brought its offering to the altar of our revolution; our struggle only to be made the subject of future cavillings, as something honest, but fanatical. Sad, indeed, if over this goodly heritage, where sleep, in hallowed repose, the bones of so many dear martyrs, the oppressor and the sycophant are ere long to tread in unholy pride or cowardly submission, prostrating, as they go, the precious monuments of our republican glory, the one in haughty revenge, the other in sottish ignorance. And saddest of all, if our dear children, who are drinking our blood, and breathing in our spirit, whom we love almost better than ourselves, if they are to crouch beneath this coming oppression, and gaze tearfully upon the ruined wreck of their fathers, and lay themselves down in helplessness and shame. I exhort every man, then, to remember the sacredness of human government, and the great moral principles upon which it is to be established and administered; to adopt no principle of action which he cannot commend to God; to rise above the influence of prejudice and passion, and quietly, and firmly, and, above all, religiously, discharge his duty in cementing and holding together this glorious Union. However small may seem to be the work which such a man may accomplish in his little sphere of action and influence, it will be found at last that by such men God has saved the Commonwealth and the Nation."

Brother L. was elected an honorary member of an English lodge in Rio de Janeiro in 1847; and a banquet given him on his departure, with a piece of silver, as "a mark of respect and esteem by his Masonic Brethren of St. John's Lodge, No. 703, 26th of July, 1847."

MEMORIAL

FROM COUNCIL OF DELIBERATION, 1892

From Proceedings of the Massachusetts Council of Deliberation AASR NMJ 182, Page 55:

A monody over the death of one of our Masonic companions rarely bears testimony of more exalted worth and modest Christian virtues than were exemplified in the career of the kindly and loyal Brother whom we mourn. The fruits of a useful life, the love of friends, the pervading charity of heart, the gentleness of his gracious manners and the sympathy which he felt for all on whom the cares of life, or its vicissitudes, imposed a weight of trials or grief, endeared him to all who knew him, and wove a web of love around him that death does not destroy.

His career of life was notably marked by the bonds of friendship that connected him with the true and generous of the circles in which he moved. Refined in his tastes, generous in his disposition, cultivated by broad and careful study, bv intercourse with enlightened social spheres, and by long and observant travel, the choicest and most distinguished men in our land were equally penetrated with the charm of his simple manners and the soundness and scope of his observations. But social life never distracted him from the performance of the duties of his profession, and the ministering grace of the mission of peace and good-will which he had espoused.Upwards of sixty years ago, in 1830, he was made a Mason, and he walked with the craft thereafter continuously until his death, loving and beloved by the Fraternity. In 1879, on the death of the beloved Rev. Chas. H. Titus, Dr. Lambert, then an Honorary 33°, was made Grand Prior of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite for the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States, which position he held about six years. Previous to this – in 1869, June 19 — he was crowned a Sovereign Grand Inspector-General of the 33° and Last Degree of the A. A. S. R., N. M. J., United States of America.

Rev. Dr. Lambert’s Masonic career may be briefly sketched. At the age of twenty-one, in 1830, he was initiated in Libanus Lodge, Great Falls, N. H. In the same year he was made a Royal Arch Mason in Belknap Chapter, Dover, N. H. He received the orders of Knighthood in DeWitt Clinton Commandery, Knights Templars, Portsmouth, N. H. He held various offices in these organizations, and, in 1848, was Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire. Oct. 24, 1849, be became a Member of DeMolay Commandery, of Massachusetts, was its Prelate two years; in 1851 was elected its Generalissimo, and was its Commander in 1853, ’54, ’55. During the same period he was Chaplain of the Massachusetts Lodge, of St. Paul’s Chapter, and for six years—1850, '51, ’52, ’53, ’54, ’58 — was Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. He was also Prelate of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templars for Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and was Grand Prelate of the General Grand Encampment of the United States, 1868, ’71.

Thomas Ricker Lambert, the son of William and Abigail Lambert, was born in South Berwick, Me., July 2, 1809, and he died in Boston, Feb. 4, 1892. He was descended from Francis Lambert, of Rowley, Mass., who was made a Freeman of the Bay Corporation in 1640. Mr. Lambert pursued his studies at South Berwick and Exeter Academies, and receiving an appointment to West Point Academy, continued them there until ill health compelled him to resign, when he entered the law office of Hon. Levi Woodbury, at Portsmouth, N. H., and fitted for the bar. After practising law for a short time, he began the study of theology, and was appointed in 1834, by Mr. Woodbury, then Secretary of the Navy, as a chaplain in the navy.He was ordained by Bishop Griswold, subsequently, in 1836. In this service Dr. Lambert saw a great deal of the world. Amongst other voyages, he cruised in the Brandywine, the Constitution, and the Columbia frigates, and visited the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. These scenes made a lasting impression on his intelligent mind, and gave the guiding clue of reality to his wide and judicious studies of the historical and theological events connected with them. He remained in the navy, serving on ship or ashore, as the exigencies of the service required, until 1855, when he resigned his chaplaincy, and became the Rector of St. John’s Church at Charlestown, Mass.

He had previously, during a long leave of absence, officiated as Rector of Grace Church, in New Bedford. He resigned his rectorship in Charlestown in 1884. Dr. Lambert married in 1845 Mrs. Jane Standish Colby, of New Bedford, daughter of Hon. John Avery Parker, and widow of Judge H. G. O. Colby. They had one son, William T. Dr. Lambert’s life in Charlestown is, of course, the nearest of his career to the Fraternity whom we address, though some among us, like one of your committee, remember him well when a law student, and trace from that time an unfaltering friendship until the grave closed his career. We knew him here in Freemasonry, tried and trusty, generous in his appreciation of the virtues of the Fraternity and its capacity to add to the happiness and righteousness of human life. The Scottish Rite, with its occult metaphysics, early attracted his attention, and he explored its ineffable and sublime degrees, step by step, till he stood, in 1869, in its utmost penetralia; then, venerable with the weight of years, we saw him clothed in the reverend robes of his vocation, — the Grand Prior of the Supreme Council, leading our devotions.

We also knew him as a member of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Massachusetts, true to the Church of his affections judicious and practical, as her advisor, cultivating both as a priest and a Mason the mission of charity and good will among men, with singleness of heart for truth’s sake.

We knew him a priest after the Order of Melchizedek, whose corn and wine were generously brought before the worn and weary.We knew him as a cheerful friend, kind in his family, tender of the feelings of others, leading by example as well as by precept in approved paths.

Ambition has led some into martyrdom. Even that Prince of the Church, Zerubbabel, declared himself “first among his peers.” But our friend had the devotion of a martyr without the crown, and was distinguished and respected among his peers.

The intellectual abilities of Dr. Lambert were of a high order, and his persuasive eloquence was reinforced by choice gleanings in the wide fields of observation that had been spread before him in his pilgrimage of life. It cannot be said that our deceased friend was ambitious of fame or power. His own family connections with statesmen distinguished in our annals during the past third of a century would have opened avenues had he wished to enter them, but he sought no other paths than those he trod, and formed no aspirations that would bend him from the choice his reason and his heart had made.

In Masonry we cherish men like him, not to display them as rich jewels for the admiration of a profane world, but for the sunshine they throw around our Fraternal gatherings, for our appreciation of their merit, and the reflected light we absorb from it.The fashion of their souls shows the ineffable use of the jewels of our Order, — the square, the level, and the plumb. Their memories linger in our hearts, not as the stern monitors, the rigid disciplinarians, or the fervent advocates of our Craft, but that their days of peace and well-doing imbued our Lodges with the odors of incense, and filled the hearts of the Brethren with a sweet savor.

Charles Levi Woodbury, 33°,
Lucius R. Paige, 33°,
Wyzeman Marshall, 33°,
Committee.


Distinguished Brothers