‘Founding Brothers: Associations, Societies, and Clubs’

    

Historic Peachfield, once the home turf of John Skene, the first Freemason in the New World, hosts inviting programs that educate in early American culture. One of these events in the New Year will feature a Brother Mason well known about the apartments of the Temple.

Bro. Erich Huhn is Secretary of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, and Junior Deacon of The American Lodge of Research in New York City. Also, he is a Ph.D. candidate, specializing in nineteenth century American Freemasonry, at Drew University.

From the publicity:

February First Sunday

Founding Brothers:

Associations, Societies,

and Clubs

Sunday, February 2

2-4 p.m.

Presented by Erich Morgan Huhn, a presentation on how colonial and early republic society was made up of myriad associations, societies, and clubs that sought to bring order and to form an important foundation from which modern society was built.

Peachfield is a restored country plantation house originally built in 1725, with an addition erected on the west side on the home completed in 1732. The name “Peachfield” comes from the property’s first settler, John Skene, the first Freemason resident on record in the colonies, who purchased the 300-acre property in the late seventeenth century. Upon Skene’s death in 1695, Henry Burr purchased the property. 

Later, Henry built the east portion of the home in 1725. His son John Burr built the west portion in 1732. The home remained in the Burr family for 200 years. In 1931, Norman and Miriam Harker purchased Peachfield. The house had virtually been destroyed by fire two years earlier. They engaged the services of R. Brognard Okie, a well-known Philadelphia architect, to restore the home in the colonial revival style which became popular in the early 20th century.

Three years prior to her death in 1965, Mrs. Harker bequeathed Peachfield and its surrounding 120 acres of land to The National Society of The Colonial Dames in The State of New Jersey. Now used as the Society’s state headquarters, the Dames of New Jersey have honored Mrs. Harker’s wish to keep the property as it “ has always been,” and have maintained Peachfield as a house museum.

Surrounding farm lands adjacent to the house are still farmed as they have been for more than 300 years.

Located at 180 Burrs Road, Westampton, New Jersey.

The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in The State of New Jersey, founded in 1892, maintains two museum properties: Peachfield in Westampton, New Jersey and the Old Schoolhouse in Mount Holly, New Jersey. We invite you to visit and learn about New Jersey’s Quaker roots and heritage at both of these historic sites. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It’s not easy envisioning New Jersey as having Quaker roots, but I leave that to the historians.

Bro. Erich will appear at the lectern of The ALR the following month, on March 31, to give what I’ll surmise will be a related talk on Alexis de Tocqueville in a double bill with Bro. Chris Ruli, who will discuss Lafayette and Freemasonry, but more on that later.

     

‘It is done’

    

Or maybe I should say “Now I’ve done it!”

Last night, The American Lodge of Research convened its Annual Meeting for elections and installation of officers, plus other regular and constitutional business. In addition to officers moving up, we have new faces in the officer line. Bro. Erich, who happens to be the secretary of New Jersey’s research lodge, is our junior deacon. He also is a Ph.D. candidate, specializing in nineteenth century Freemasonry, at Drew, and is a Masonic book dealer. A good guy to have around. Bro. Ziad, who presented a fascinating paper last year on Princess Lamballe, is our “Master Mason without,” observing the approach of you-know-who. RW Michael Chaplin joins our trustees team because serving as DDGM of the First Manhattan isn’t that demanding after all. Who knew?

Yours truly is the new Worshipful Master.

How I’ll always remember it.

I joined the lodge’s officer line so long ago I actually was still Master of New Jersey’s research lodge. Sixteen years ago. Feels like about fifty. Since I had a captive audience, I harangued the brethren with my inaugural paper, “It’s Just Common Sense: Thomas Reid and the Fellow Craft Degree.” This is an explanation of how one of the most important philosophical writings of the Scottish Enlightenment, that concerning the Five Physical Senses, came to be incorporated into what we today call the Middle Chamber Lecture.

It’ll come across better in print—if I ever get the book finished—than in my oral presentation, but for example, here’s a whiff of New York’s Middle Chamber Lecture:

Smelling is that sense by which we distinguish odors, the various kinds of which convey different impressions to the mind. Animal and vegetable bodies, and indeed most other bodies, while exposed to air, continually send forth effluvia of vast subtlety, as well in a state of life and growth, as in the state of fermentation and putrefaction. These effluvia, being drawn into the nostrils along with the air, are the means by which all bodies are distinguished. Hence it is evident that there is a manifest appearance of design in the great Creator’s having planted the organ of smell inside of that canal, through which the air continually passes in respiration.

And here is a puff of Dr. Reid’s thoughts circa 1764:

University of Glasgow

Dr. Thomas Reid

Natural philosophy informs us, that all animal and vegetable bodies, and probably most other bodies, while exposed to the air, are continually sending forth effluvia of vast subtlety, not only in their state of life and growth, but in the states of fermentation and putrefaction. These volatile particles do probably repel each other, and so scatter themselves in the air, until they meet with other bodies to which they have some chemical affinity, and with which they unite, and form new concretes… But that all bodies are smelled by means of effluvia which they emit, and which are drawn into the nostrils along with the air, there is no reason to doubt. So that there is manifest appearance of design in placing the organ of smell in the inside of the canal through which the air is continually passing in inspiration and expiration.

Reid was not a Freemason, as far as I can determine.

Looking ahead, The American Lodge of Research will shift gears for this 2024-25 term. For our Stated Communications, we’ll have meetings organized around themes.

Tuesday, October 29

That’s a fifth Tuesday

“Masonic Hall Monitors” will be our theme. Our keynote speaker, RW Ben Hoff, Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, will present his new paper on the origins, evolution, and diversity of Masonic ritual ciphers, monitors, and exposures. Also, RW Samuel Lloyd Kinsey, Chairman of the Custodians of the Work, will visit to discuss the research that went into Grand Lodge’s latest ritual book and the upcoming monitor (the first monitor since the 1980s). RW Michael LaRocco, Executive Director of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, will exhibit choice samples of such books—the antique, the rare, the odd.

Macoy Masonic Supply Co.

The new Macoy Monitor reprint with bookmark.

And the Worshipful Master will conclude the evening with a very brief explanation of the newly published reprint of the Macoy Monitor of 1867.

Monday, March 31, 2025

That’s a fifth Monday

“A Night for the Marquis and the Count” will be the theme. RW Chris Ruli of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, and author of the upcoming book Brother Lafayette, will discuss the Masonic aspects of the Marquis de Lafayette’s farewell tour of the United States in 1824-25. Bro. Huhn, Junior Deacon, will discuss Alexis de Toqueville’s thoughts on Freemasonry, as gleaned from his tour of America in 1831-32.

This meeting will be a small part of New York Freemasonry’s commemoration of Lafayette’s tour.

Monday, June 30, 2025

A fifth Monday

Annual Meeting. RW Yves Etienne to become our next Worshipful Master!

In addition, we will hold a meeting on the road, possibly at New Rochelle. Also, a series of Zoom sessions, bringing together our members wherever dispersed about the face of the earth, is conceived. Plus, there’s always time for a Festive Board! (Bro. Chris planted a most intriguing idea in my head last night for the Festive Board.)

My thanks to MW Bill Sardone, who took charge as Installing Officer; to W. Michael, who invested us with our jewels as Installing Marshal; and to W. Conor, who guided us spiritually as Installing Chaplain.

Congratulations to W. Bro. Michael on completing his year in the East. He made sure we revived our tradition of hosting a Festive Board, and he continued our practice of co-hosting an event with another Masonic group. A good year.

And best of luck to my brother officers. We are in for good times.

     

‘Don’t be the guy who misses this’

    

It’s almost here!

A dedicated cadre of New Jersey brethren have planned a well rounded celebration of Scottish Masonic history for Saturday the 19th. All the details are contained in the graphics. Click to enlarge.

See you there.

     

'Remembering John Skene from Aberdeen'

      

Bob Howard photo

The Masonic Kitties of New Jersey were well represented at this memorial. The Kilties is a degree team that confers the Second Section of Master Mason Degree, upon request, and does so in Scottish regalia and with bagpipes. A memorable experience, I can tell you.

I have to catch up on my reporting of a few terrific events here and there recently. The following is a recap of a celebration of Masonic history that took place in New Jersey on August 27.

Brethren from around New Jersey and beyond converged on the Peachfield historic site in Westampton on the afternoon of August 27 to honor the memory of the first Speculative Mason to arrive in North America.

Bro. Robert Howard

The elaborate ceremonies were arranged by RW Bro. Bob Howard, Past Grand Historian and Past Master of the research lodge, acting on behalf of Eclipse Lodge 67 in Rutherford; Beverly-Riverside Lodge 107 in Riverside; and the Masonic Kilties of New Jersey. John Skene was made a Mason in his native Aberdeen, Scotland, a fact recorded in the lodge’s archives one of the very few things known of his life—and he emigrated to West Jersey in 1682. What we know today as New Jersey was at that time two English colonies, West Jersey and East Jersey. Burlington was the capital of West Jersey, and it was there where Skene settled. The reasons for his leaving Scotland are not recorded, although he was a Quaker who left religiously inhospitable Scotland and made a home in an area inhabited by many Quaker families, very near the sect’s stronghold in Pennsylvania.

“Coming of age when religious turmoil was the norm, John Skene’s membership in the Society of Friends provided him anything but the peaceful and pacifist existence that we associate with Quakerism today,” said Bro. Erich Huhn, of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 and a candidate for a doctorate in history at Drew University. “The Friends were persecuted throughout his childhood, and, as Skene reached adulthood, he held true to his convictions. As a Quaker, he was persecuted and imprisoned throughout his life in Scotland. In the typical ebbs and flows of seventeenth century religious turmoil, he faced various periods of imprisonment, freedom, house arrest, and discrimination.”

A wreath was sent by Skene’s lodge, still at labor in Aberdeen.

Yet, the seventeenth century also was the age of the Accepted Mason, when lodges of operative builders began welcoming men who had no connection either to the art of architecture or to the trade of stone construction. Robert Moray in 1641 and Elias Ashmole in 1646 probably are the best known, but lodge minutes from 1590s Scotland also record the making of Speculative Masons. Skene was initiated into the lodge at Aberdeen approximately in 1670 possibly on account of his being a merchant and a citizen prominent enough to be made a burgess there. His being a Quaker raises the question of his taking a Masonic oath, but again history is silent on details.

Bro. Bob Cooper

Among the distinguished visitors to New Jersey that day was Bro. Robert L.D. Cooper, recently retired as curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland’s museum and one who has been frequenting New Jersey lodges this year delivering talks on early Scottish Freemasonry. Cooper said he is aware of correspondence being exchanged between West Jerseyan Skene and his family in Aberdeenshire, likely urging emigration to the colony, but availability of any letters cannot be ascertained. Skene’s lodge isn’t as mysterious, however. Cooper described it as a “mixed lodge” consisting of “stone masons and dukes and porridge-makers.” As for life in West Jersey, Cooper said that Skene, as a businessman, partnered with the second Mason to reach North America, Bro. John Coburn, a stonemason, in a construction enterprise that might even be credited with some of the oldest buildings on Staten Island.

Arriving in West Jersey, Skene purchased 500 acres from Governor Edward Byllynge and founded his plantation, which he named Peachfield. Not long thereafter, Byllynge appointed Skene the Deputy Governor. Seventeenth century colonial records being what they are, it is not known how Skene earned the appointment, but the land acquisition preceding it could not have been meaningless. Another quirk of history emerges when Byllynge was succeeded as Governor by Dr. Daniel Coxe, the father of Provincial Grand Master Daniel Coxe, who was appointed by the Grand Lodge of England in 1730 to govern Masonic affairs in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Dedicated in 1984 by the grand lodge, this stone stands on the land John Skene owned, Peachfield. A different calendar was in use during the seventeenth century, so to commemorate Skene's death, you have to play along.

After Skene’s death circa 1690 (accounts of the year vary), his widow gradually sold off tracts of the Peachfield plantation. All that remains today is a stone house built 1725-32, which was damaged by fire in 1929 and restored in the early 1930s, situated on 120 acres. The property is only three miles from the Masonic Village at Burlington. In 1984, the local grand lodge dedicated a headstone memorializing this historic Brother Mason. The exact location of his burial place is unknown, but August 27, 1690 is the date of death engraved in the stone.

Bro. Mark and Bro. Glenn.
Look for them on YouTube.

The event on August 27 featured many participants. Assisting emcee Bob Howard was W. Bro. Christian Stebbins. Leading prayers were RW Glenn Visscher and RW Eugene Margroff, with RW Mark Megee reading from Scripture. Bro. David Palladino-Sinclair of the Kilties serenaded the group with his bagpipes, performing “Flower of Scotland,” “Scotland the Brave,” and “Amazing Grace.” A wreath was placed at the gravestone by Cooper and the Worshipful Masters of both Eclipse and Beverly-Riverside, Patrick Glover and Frederick T. Ocansey, respectively. In his closing remarks, RW Bro. David Tucker, Deputy Grand Master, told the assemblage that looking to the past for role models helps take our focus off ourselves, and that it is fitting to salute John Skene for being the earliest Freemason who deserves credit for helping establish the fraternity in New Jersey.

Bro. David Palladino-Sinclair

Also traveling some distance was Mark Tabbert of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Virginia, who told us of the Scottish Freemasons in America conference there in November.

The celebration of Skene was not over yet. The group caravanned to Mt. Holly Lodge 14 for a catered dinner replete with Masonic toasts following a tour of the historic building.

Peachfield is owned and operated by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of New Jersey, which makes the site its headquarters. Tours, including for groups, can be arranged by phoning 609.267.6996.

     

‘My Masonic research speech’

     

I had a great day last Saturday: attended the research lodge in the morning and AMD at night, with an intermission at a cigar store that happens to be popular with the brethren. At both Masonic meetings, which fortunately took place in the same room, I dusted off my stock speech on the direction Masonic research lodges should take, with an emphasis on places to find information, whether online or in a building somewhere.

I’ve written and talked about it here and there for many years. Thanks to Mark Tabbert, I gave it more focus at some point. He and I were in a hospitality suite at a Masonic Week long ago chatting about the plight of research lodges when he pointed out how their labors could be simplified by zeroing in on local subject matter. For example, New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 would explore history and biography of the fraternity in that state. It sounds simple and obvious, but somehow that’s not what typically happens in research lodges. Too often, the few who endeavor to write papers are drawn to subjects that either are too broad (e.g., the medieval Knights Templar), are irrelevant (Templars again), or otherwise are beyond the writers’ abilities.

So write about local Masonic history. It’s in your backyard. Grand lodge archives, lodge records, historical societies, libraries, church records, the occasional graveyard, museums, and other local resources exist for you.

To illustrate the point, I pitched numerous names of lodges and Masons from the embryonic period of New Jersey Freemasonry of the last four decades of the eighteenth century that would be ideal for storytelling. I figure a man who was a Freemason during this period most likely had to be “a somebody” in society—a real pezzonovante in government or commerce or religion, etc.

Take the Ogden family. The secretary of St. John’s Lodge in Newark during the 1760s was Lewis Ogden. The brother who made possible George Washington’s St. John’s Day festivities at Morristown in 1779 by getting the lodge’s paraphernalia from Newark to the military lodge there was Moses Ogden.

Ogden is a very prominent name in the state’s history, practically right up to the present day. The first New Jersey Ogdens, the Puritans who settled there in the 1600s, were stone masons. There’s a great story there!

The other speaker at the research lodge that morning was Bro. Erich, a candidate for a doctorate in history who also is our QCCC local secretary. He discussed similar aspects of Masonic learning; because he went first, I had to trim a lot of what I usually would have said.

Between the two meetings, Bro. Byron brought me to a favorite smoke shop. Mane Street Cigars in Woodbridge is a great place to socialize and smoke, and apparently it’s very popular with Masons. We could have opened a lodge! Even without so many of us being on the Square, it is an extremely friendly place. Everyone who enters receives greetings from all, and they themselves make a point of saying hello to everyone. Very cool.

Because man cannot live by pipes alone, I chose a La Gloria Serie R Maduro—my first cigar in a really long time—and it was heavenly. One of those smokes you savor all the way up to the head. This was a No. 5, about a Toro shape.

I’ll wrap up this unusually long edition of The Magpie Mason with a reminder that I will present this Masonic research talk again on October 28 at The American Lodge of Research in Manhattan. This time, I’ll have a list of suitable New York Masonic topics to suggest for research. Seven o’clock in the French Doric Room.

     

‘New QCCC Local Secretary’

      

Over in New Jersey, one of the research lodge’s very own has been tapped to serve Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle. Congratulations Bro. Erich! He’s the new Local Secretary.

QCCC is the corporate arm of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076, and it serves to unite Freemasons wherever dispersed around the world in a membership that receives Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the annual book of transactions published by the lodge.

The official announcement:

Welcome to Erich Huhn,

new Local Secretary

in New Jersey

Erich Morgan Huhn is a PhD student in History & Culture at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. His research focuses on the historical role of membership as a ‘placing marker’ within society, with a particular interest in the history of Freemasonry in the English-speaking world.

Erich’s upcoming capstone paper will examine the role music has played in Masonic culture. Erich has presented on various Masonic topics, collects rare Masonic texts, and in 2019 published New Jersey’s Masonic Lodges, which provides a photo guide analysis of the development of Masonic architecture from the Colonial period to the present. Erich was raised as a Master Mason in November 2013 and is active within New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education, No. 1786. He has also participated in QC’s North American Conferences, most recently in Alexandria.

Erich can be contacted here.

     

‘New Jersey’s Masonic lodges’

      

Lots of great news coming out of the weekend.

Research lodge’s

festive board

First, mark your calendars for Saturday, November 30 for New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786’s Festive Board at Cranbury Inn. That’s the Feast Day of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scottish Freemasonry. Details are still being worked out, but 65 guests are welcome at $40 each, payable in advance. I’ll have more info soon and will post it on the Magpie.

A brother’s book

to be published

A relatively new Master Mason, Bro. Erich Huhn, will have a book published next month. New Jersey’s Masonic Lodges is due out October 28 from Arcadia Publishing. This is one of those 128-page paperbacks filled entirely with archival photographs that Arcadia prints. $21.99, available for preorder. From the publicity:

Across New Jersey, thousands of men have entered through the doors of Masonic Lodge buildings, also known as “temples,” over the fraternity’s more than 250-year history in the Garden State. These buildings, from humble meeting spaces to elaborate single-purpose centers, stand tribute to the memory and influence of one of the oldest fraternities in the world, founded on the tenets of faith, hope, and charity. From governors and U.S. Supreme Court justices, to carpenters and stonemasons, Freemasonry has welcomed men from all walks of life, and the temples they built have played important roles in the civic, social, and charitable life of many towns. Although some lodges have been lost, many still remain and are presented here for the first time through photographs and images collected from various historical societies, museums, libraries, and Masonic organizations. This book attempts not to serve as an encyclopedic source but rather to catalog and organize the development of the Masonic temples in New Jersey.

Erich Morgan Huhn is a historian of Freemasonry and fraternalism and a member of Cincinnati Lodge 3 in Morristown. He has degrees from Rider University and Seton Hall University. His work focuses on demographics and social history, with a concentration on the Freemasons and fraternities of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Adam, Ryan,

and Yasser to speak

I haven’t seen any of these outstanding Masons in years, especially Adam, and it’ll be good to shake their hands again.

Admission is free. This flier says it all. See you there.

Click to enlarge.

     

‘Freemasons in the Transatlantic World’

     
I learned a new term today! “Atlantic History.” If I understand it correctly, it is the study of how Europe, Africa, and the Americas interacted in the creation of social systems, cultures, etc., beginning about five centuries ago. I’d say Freemasonry can fit inside this subject quite easily.

Does anyone here study this? Is it a legitimate field of study? A politically skewed interpretation of history?

Masonic Light
March 19, 2009


It was just about nine years ago that I learned a term from the academic world—Atlantic History—and immediately asked the Masonic Light group if anyone had any experience with it. Freemasonry seemed like such a natural fit, but I didn’t hear anything more. Fast forward to 2018, and Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 is planning a conference around this topic for September at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. From the publicity:

Freemasons in the Transatlantic World

September 14 to 16

George Washington Masonic National Memorial

Alexandria, Virginia

The Program:

Day One

Friday, September 14

9-9:30 Registration
9:30-9:45 Welcome and Introduction
9:45-10:45 Paul Monod: The Conflicted Identity of Early 18th Century English Freemasonry

10:45-11 Coffee
11-12:30 First Panel: Freemasonry in the Caribbean
Neil Wynes Morse, Susan Snell, and Andreas Önnefors
12:30-1:15 Lunch
1:15-2:15: Second Panel: Scottish-American Freemasonry in the Eighteenth Century
Bob Cooper and Mark Wallace
2:15-3:15 Third Panel: Freemasonry in North America
John Laurence Busch and Jeffrey Croteau

3:15-3:30 Coffee
3:30-4:30 Fourth Panel: French Lodges and Connections in the Americas
Eric Saunier and Jeffrey Kaplan
4:30-5:30 Fifth Panel: Transatlantic and Back Again
Marsha Keith Schuchard and Hans Schwartz

5:45-7:30 in North Lodge Room
A Universal Lodge: some differences and commonalities between English and American rituals (tyled)
A Talk: Masonic symbolism in Washington, DC (open)
Followed by an evening in Alexandria. Mark Tabbert will conduct guided tours of the GWMNM on Friday evening and throughout the conference.

Day Two

Saturday, September 15

8:30-9:15 North Lodge Room
The Patriot Lodge: Tyled Meeting of the Convocation of Academic Lodges
9:15-9:30 Welcome
9:30-10:30 Jackie Ranston: The Multifaceted Freemasons of Jamaica

10:30-10:45 Coffee
10:45-12:15 Sixth Panel: Freemasonry in North America
Ric Berman, Erich Morgan Huhn, and Shawn Eyer

12:15-1 p.m. Lunch
1-2:30 Seventh Panel: Religion & Freemasonry
Lucio Artini, Roberto Pertocucci, Fenando, Gill Gonzalez and John Acaster
2:30-4 Fourth Panel: Material & Print Culture
Felipe Corte Real de Camargo, Hilary Anderson Stelling

4-4:30 Coffee
4:30-5:30 Larry Adamson, Past Grand Master, California: Bringing Masonry to the University
5 p.m. Conference Dinner, followed by an evening in Alexandria

Day Three

Sunday, September 16

9:15-9:30 Welcome: Arturo de Hoyos, Brent Morris
9:30-10:15 Oscar Alleyne: The role of men of color in the early period of Freemasonry
10:15-11:30 Ric Berman and Susan Mitchell Sommers: The First Grand Lodge: 1717 or 1721? A debate and discussion followed by Q&A
11:30 Conclusions
2 p.m. Guided Tour of Washington
Depart GWMNM

Please note that events, panels and speakers may be subject to change. Please see the detailed conference program here.

How to Book

Booking could not be easier: go to the QC website and click on the link to the in-house QC ticketing page under 2018 Conference. You can book using a credit card or PayPal here.

How much does it cost?
Conference Registration Fee
Whole Conference (3 days) $119 for QCCC members; $149 for non-members
Saturday only: $85 for QCCC members; $115 for non-members
Saturday/Sunday (2 days): $105 for QCCC members; $125 for non-members

Demonstration and Talk, GWMNM Friday Evening: $5 per person. The fee covers incidental costs specific to the event.

Conference Dinner Saturday Evening: $87 per person. Guests and wives are welcome to attend. Please book ASAP so that we can finalize numbers.

Guided Tour of Washington Sunday Afternoon: $25 per person.