MassachusettsHamiltonHistoryCh2

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CHAPTER 2: THE AUTHORITIES

The authority for the account of the organization of the Provincial Grand Lodge and of the First Lodge in Boston is found in two manuscripts, both in the possession of the Grand Lodge. One is the Beteilhe MS. and the other the Pelham MS.

The Beteilhe MS, is bound with a very fine copy of Franklin's 1734 reprint of Anderson's Constitutions. It was long said to be the handwriting of Franklin himself and was so entered in the sale catalogue of George Brinley, at which sale it was bought by General Samuel C. Lawrence In 1880. On General Lawrence's death it passed to the Grand Lodge. A comparison of the handwriting with that of Francis Beteilhe, much of which is extant, shows conclusively that Beteilhe wrote it. Where the MS. had been In the meantime and how it came to be united with the Franklin book nobody knows. The MS. contains:

  1. The petition for the warrant for the First Lodge in Boston.
  2. An account of the formation of the Provincial Grand Lodge and the constitution of the First Lodge.
  3. The By-Laws of the First Lodge, adopted October 24, 1733.
  4. A list of the officers of the Grand Lodge and the Lodge and of the members of the Lodge as of August 23, 1737.
  5. Votes relating to the By-Laws, the last being dated Feb.9, 1737.
  6. Lord Loudoun's Commission to Robert Tomlinson as Provincial Grand Master, dated December 7, 1736.
  7. Copies of letters from Glasgow and Edinburgh early in 1737.


The question arises as to what authority may be attributed to this MS. Beteilhe was made in the First Lodge July 24, 1734. At that time he had been Clerk of Christ Church since January 15, 1733. He was a friend of Henry Price and his business partner for five years beginning in 1736. While the formaI meeting-to-meeting records of the First Lodge do not begin until December 1738 and those of the Grand Lodge not until 1750, Beteilhe signs as Lodge Secretary June 23, 1736, and he was appointed or reappointed Grand Secretary by Tomlinson June 24, 1737. While the evidence is scanty we are reasonably safe in assuming that he was immediately after being made appointed Secretary of both the Grand Lodge and the Lodge and served until some time in 1739 when failing health obliged him to give up the Christ Church clerkship and the secretarial posts, as we find Ebenezer Swan Secretary of the Lodge December 27, 1728 and Peter Pelham appointed or reappointed Grand Secretary December 29, 1740.

As we shall presently see more in detail, the records previous to the opening of the books were kept in memoranda form and those of the Lodge and the Grand Lodge are hardly distinguishable. The Beteilhe MS. would appear to be the Lodge record. The important point is that in the second half of 1737 when the MS was written, or at least finished, Beteilhe was Secretary of the Lodge and of the Grand Lodge, and his MS. has all the force and authority of an official record.

The Pelham MS. occupies the first pages of the first record book of the Provincial Grand Lodge. It is immediately followed by the record of the quarterly Communication of April 13, 1750. From that time the record is continuous and in the same handwriting as the preliminary summary. The hand is that of Charles Pelham. Pelham was Grand Secretary December 27, 1749, The early records do not give the precise dates of appointment of the Grand Secretaries. From the evidence we have It appears that Francis Beteihle was Grand Secretary from 1734 to 1739 or 40. He was succeeded by Peter Pelham, who served until he was succeeded by Charles Pelham. Charles Pelham v/as probably appointed December 27, 1749, as the Grand Lodge appointments were generally made at the Feast of St. John.

The record of July 13, 1750 contains a record: " Voted. That the T. and S. do provide a Book or Books as they shall think necessary for their Lodge to be paid out of the Stock."

The "book or books" is an interesting sidelight on the day of small things. The First Lodge and the Masters Lodge used only a single book; the Secretary using one side of the leaf and the Treasurer the other. It would appear that up to this time there had been no books of records of accounts. The matters of record appear to have been kept in memoranda form. This is not surprising when we remember that the Grand Lodge had very little business to transact. Matters were practically in the hands of the Grand Master. The Grand Lodge elected no officers: the Grand Master appointed them all. The Grand Lodge had nothing to do with warranting Lodges. That was done by the Grand Master and he was under no obligation to report his warrants to Grand Lodge; very often he did not do so. Pelham, however, was a tradesman, a tobacconist, and naturally thought it time to end this hit-or-miss method of procedure. So he made an orderly record of his first meeting of the new year, got the Grand Lodge to authorize the purchase of a record book, assembled the more important matters of record of the preceding years, and started the new year on a new basis. The Grand Lodge met quarterly in January, April, July, and October. New Year's Day then and until 1752 was March 1, not January 1, so that the April meeting was the first in the year.

The Pelham MS. contains:

  1. Henry Price's Commission.
  2. A record of the meeting of July 30, 1733 at which the Provincial Grand Lodge was organized.
  3. The petition for the First Lodge in Boston.
  4. A record of the constitution of the first Lodge, and the election 
and installation of its officers.
  5. A brief account in entries under each year to 1750 of important events including successive elections of Masters of the First Lodge.
  6. Robert Tomlinson's Commission as Provincial Grand Master for New England issued by the Earl of Loudoun December 7, 1736.
  7. Thomas Oxnard's Commission as Provincial Grand Master for North America, issued by Lord Ward September 83, 1743.

The entry next to the last preceding the meeting of April 13, 1750 reads "N.B. The several Intervening Festivals of St. John the Evangelist and also those of St. John the Baptist not before mention'd have all been Celebrated in Grand Lodge, in due manner and Form; tho' not proper Records kept thereof." This would appear to imply that what Pelham had written was not derived from tradition or hearing, but compiled from records in his possession. So far as his material coincides with Beteilhe's it agrees in substance, but not in verbal form. The conclusion would appear to be that both the Beteilhe and Pelham manuscripts are to be taken as official records.

A study of both the Beteilhe and Pelham manuscripts would appear to make it clear that some, perhaps all, of the Brethren who petitioned Henry Price for a Warrant on July 30, 1733, had been meeting as a Lodge previously for an undetermined time. They had, of course, been meeting "by immemorial right" and without any external authority. Freemasonry had been known in Massachusetts for some years. The Boston News Letter for January 5, 1719, under its shipping news reports "Outward bound, Jacob William Ship Charles and Free Mason for Jamaica." There are several other notices of this ship in maritime news of the period.

In January 1827 Charles W. Moore, then editor of the Masonic Mirror, published a statement, which he afterward several times repeated, that he had seen a document which proved that a Masonic Lodge met in King's Chapel about 1720, under a Dispensation from the Grand Lodge of England, but was soon discontinued. This document was shown to Bro. Moore by Rev. Bro Montague, an Episcopalian clergyman who was long settled in England. Bro. Montague was a member of a committee appointed to investigate the title of King's Chapel to certain property rights and it appeared that he had come upon this document while pursuing his investigations in England. Unfortunately Bro. Moore did not give the document in full nor did he state where, exactly, it came from. The statement, therefore, rests upon the unsupported word of these two eminently respectable witnesses, and must be taken for what it is worth, There is no trace of such a Lodge in the records of the Grand Lodge of England nor need it be expected to appear. The Grand Masters warranted Lodges at pleasure and did not report them. There is no record of it in the official records of King's Chapel, nor, again, should it be expected to appear, as it was not a parish matter. If such a record exists, it is somewhere in England, where Bro. Montague said he found it, but we do not know where to look.

In 1751 Charles Pelham drew Up "A General List of the Brethren made in the First Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in Boston, N. England. Also those Accepted Members in it, with the time when made or Admitted, from the first foundation A. M. 5733. Those marked with this mark (*) were made here." Under date of July 30, 1733 Pelham lists the eighteen signers of the petition. Eight of these are starred. Only one of these, James Gordon, appointed Junior Warden of the new Lodge, was appointed to office in either the Grand Lodge or the First Lodge. Unfortunately Pelham's statement is not free from ambiguity. Does "made here" mean made in Boston, or made in this Lodge? The point is not very important, but it is interesting in the attempt to reconstruct the happenings of that historical July evening. The present writer is convinced that the Lodge met as it was accustomed to do, but with knowledge of what was to take place, and made the eight whose names are starred and then, after Price had read his Commission and organized his Grand Lodge, presented the petition signed by the entire eighteen. Then followed the warranting and constitution of the Lodge as a regular body and the choice and installation of officers.

After this meeting Pelham's list is perfectly clear. The star meant made in this Lodge. Of those not starred we know little. Henry Hope appears to have been made in London, at "The Ship behind the Royal Exchange." Andrew Belcher, son of Gov. Jonathan Belcher, was not starred, but was almost certainly made in Boston. Hope and Price are the only ones whose names appear in English lists. John Quann, whose name is variously spelled Quan and Q,uane, was in 1733, doing business at the sign of the Six Sugar-loaves in Union Street. He was probably a grocer, or perhaps an importer of West Indian goods and would have been likely to have been made in Boston. He, too, is not starred.

The Pelham list opens with the officers of the Grand Lodge and the First Lodge. One of these, as already noted, is starred. With this single exception the two groups are sharply differential, the unstarred first, followed by the starred. These are some of the reasons for concluding the by "made here" Pelham meant made in this Lodge.


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