MAStJohnPortsmouthNH
Contents
ST. JOHN'S LODGE, PORTSMOUTH, N.H.
Location: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Chartered By: Henry Price
Charter Date: 06/24/1736 I-5
Precedence Date: 06/24/1736
Current Status: Now St. John's #1, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire
NOTES
From the Lodge web site:
St. John’s Lodge, No.1, Free and Accepted Masons, Portsmouth, New Hampshire is one of the oldest Masonic Lodges in the United States. Only Philadelphia, PA; Boston, MA; Savannah, GA; and Charleston, South Carolina can claim to have had a Masonic Lodge earlier than the date of the present charter of St. John’s, No.1, Portsmouth. The charter is the documentary evidence of the authority under which a Masonic Lodge is permitted to work. The present one issued to St. John’s Lodge, No.1, Portsmouth, was executed April 28, 1790 by the Grand Lodge of Masons for New Hampshire. It contains a preamble which sets forth that the Right Honorable, the Earl of Loundon, Grand Master of Masons in England, did, in the year of our Lord 1736, erect and constitute a regular lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, by the name of St. John’s Lodge. Further, it states that the Lodge has continued from that time in regular succession to the present day.
Masons were in Portsmouth prior to 1736, for there is an old letter signed by six Masons, dated Portsmouth, February 5, 1735, addressed to Henry Price, Grand Master of Masons at Boston which has been preserved and now is in the possession of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in Boston. Among the early names on the roster of St. John’s Lodge, No.1 is one who had lived in Portsmouth since his birth in 1674.
The minute books are its most treasured possession. There are over twenty-two volumes containing over 16,000 pages. The first minute is dated October 31, 1739. No other Masonic Lodge in the United States is known to have records from such an early date to the present time. The first three volumes contain four sets of by-laws, signatures of members, and attendance of members at various meetings, as well as the votes which were recorded. These volumes are in an excellent state of preservation and are carefully guarded by the officers of this lodge as they have been by others who have preceded them.
In the early years the meetings were held in homes of members. The first one noted is that of Henry Sherburne (1674-1757), Treasurer of the Province of New Hampshire. His home was located on the banks of the Piscataqua River at the foot of what is now State Street, but the building was destroyed in the great fire of 1813. A boulder in Prescott Park with a bronze plaque on it marks the approximate location of the site. Two exceptions are noted in 1749 when on October 26 and December 11 the secretary recorded that the meetings were held on board the America. This 44-gun frigate was then being built in the Meserve Shipyard for the Royal Navy of England. This shipyard was located on the North Millpond.
From 1751 to 1755, most meetings were held in Stoodley’s Tavern, then located on the site of the present Federal Building on Daniel Street. On October 16, 1755, the lodge voted to move to the Earl of Halifax Tavern on Queen Street. This tavern was operated by John Stavers on the northerly side of what is now State Street. There is a vacant lot where it once stood. Stavers erected a new tavern in 1766 at the corner of Atkinson and Court Streets. He built a lodge room and two anterooms on the third floor for exclusive use of St. John’s Lodge. It was called Mason’s Hall and was used by the lodge from 1768 to 1776 when it was voted to move to the home of Nathaniel Folsom, Jr. at the corner of Congress and Fleet Streets. This change was brought about by the war for a mob had destroyed much of the tavern, and John Stavers had fled to Stratham. He was persuaded to return and open his tavern. When the war concluded, the Masons again returned to the lodge room known as Mason’s Hall and remained there until 1792 when they rented the Senate Chamber of the State House in Market Square. Here they remained until 1805 when they rented the upper floors of the New Hampshire Marine and Fire Insurance Company. This is now the Portsmouth Athenaeum. A new lodge room was built in Franklin Block in 1820 by Langley Boardman. This building was located on the northwesterly corner of Congress and Fleet Streets. Other Masonic organizations had now been established which shared use of the lodge room with St. John’s Lodge, No.1.
REFERENCES IN GRAND LODGE PROCEEDINGS
APPEARANCES 1733-1792
QUARTERLY AND REGULAR COMMUNICATIONS
ANNIVERSARIES
XXXXXXXXXX* 1909 (50th Anniversary)
VISITS BY GRAND MASTER
XXXXXXXXXX* 1860 (Lewis; Constitution of Lodge and installation)
BY-LAW CHANGES
XXXXXXXXXX1870
HISTORY
XXXXXXX* 1934 (75th Anniversary History, 1934-169)
OTHER
XXXXXXXXXX* 1883 (Granting of a replacement charter for one destroyed by fire)
OTHER BROTHERS
- John Sullivan, Biography
