‘Possible Bunker Hill project’

    

The October trestleboard of The American Lodge of Research is out, and in its pages is a pitch to the lodge to assume as a side project the resurrection of New York City’s defunct chapter of The Grand Order of the Sword of Bunker Hill.

The Grand Order was founded in Illinois in 1912 “to perpetuate the principles of American liberty, and to indelibly impress upon the minds of each generation the sacrifices made by our Masonic forefathers in forming and establishing the United States of America,” says its website. The founder was Bro. Frank G. Taylor, superintendent of schools in Oregon, Illinois. It confers the Order of the Sword (an order, not a degree), which refers to the sword of Gen. Joseph Warren, Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts, who was killed in action during the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The Grand Order’s local chapters are known as Orders, and New York City’s former Order was named for Robert Livingston. That was founded in 1951, by Taylor’s son, Frank, Jr.

So The ALR proposes to its members the task of reviving Robert Livingston Order to give the lodge one ritual activity, and one that carries some historical meaning too. It also is possible to create a new Order, but the website says reviving a dormant Order is feasible.

There is a ritual online, unofficially, but I don’t know if it’s a current version. If it is, it’s not difficult work.

Our next meeting will be October 29, and maybe the brethren will express some interest in the idea.

Also mentioned in this trestleboard is a proposal to reorganize Knickerbocker Chapter of the Philalethes Society, which I wrote about here.

     

‘Massachusetts Masons commemoration’

    

The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts will have a big anniversary to celebrate next Monday. From the publicity:

249th Commemoration

of the Battle of Bunker Hill

Monday, June 17

Join the Grand Master and a group of state and local dignitaries to pay tribute to the selfless acts of heroism during the early days of the Revolutionary War that paved the way for our liberty from the Crown. Her Excellency, Governor Maura Healey, and Most Worshipful Brother Hamilton will be among the speakers.

1:30 p.m.—Ecumenical Service at St. Francis de Sales Church, 303 Bunker Hill Street, Charlestown.

Procession to Bunker Hill Monument.

3 p.m.—Battle of Bunker Hill Commemorative Exercises.

Dress: Dark jacket, tie, and apron (aprons will not be provided). Don’t forget your top hat (requested, not required).

If your lodge is named for Joseph Warren or otherwise has a touchable connection to the American Revolution, this would make an ideal weekday happening. Maybe top it off with a historic pub crawl? Or, at least, walk the Freedom Trail!

Yesterday was the 283rd anniversary of Warren’s birth. He was killed in action against the British at Breed’s Hill, site of the monument shown above, in Charlestown. Monday will be the 249th anniversary of the fighting. Next year will be the bicentenary of the start of the monument’s construction.

The National Park Service, with partners, has a more than week-long celebration underway already. Click here.

I cannot attend this one, but next year’s—the 250th—is on my calendar. Maybe see you there.

     

‘Founding Martyr author to speak’

    

Christian Di Spigna, author of Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero, will speak at Wyoming Lodge in Melrose, Massachusetts tomorrow night, as you can see above. From the book’s publicity:

A rich and illuminating biography of America’s forgotten Founding Father, the patriot physician and major general who fomented rebellion and died heroically at the battle of Bunker Hill on the brink of revolution.

Little has been known of one of the most important figures in early American history, Dr. Joseph Warren, an architect of the colonial rebellion, and a man who might have led the country as Washington or Jefferson did had he not been martyred at Bunker Hill in 1775. Warren was involved in almost every major insurrectionary act in the Boston area for a decade, from the Stamp Act protests to the Boston Massacre to the Boston Tea Party, and his incendiary writings included the famous Suffolk Resolves, which helped unite the colonies against Britain and inspired the Declaration of Independence. Yet after his death, his life and legend faded, leaving his contemporaries to rise to fame in his place and obscuring his essential role in bringing America to independence.

Christian Di Spigna’s definitive new biography of Warren is a loving work of historical excavation, the product of two decades of research and scores of newly unearthed primary-source documents that have given us this forgotten Founding Father anew. Following Warren, from his farming childhood and years at Harvard through his professional success and political radicalization to his role in sparking the rebellion, Di Spigna’s thoughtful, judicious retelling not only restores Warren to his rightful place in the pantheon of Revolutionary greats, it deepens our understanding of the nation’s dramatic beginnings.

The author is based in both New York City and in Williamsburg, Virginia, and is no stranger to Masonic audiences, in case a lodge somewhere might want to host him. Follow him on X.

     

‘A look inside the Masonic Building in Boston’

    

Magpie coverage of the Boston Tea Party anniversary celebration last weekend continues belatedly with a quick tour of the Masonic Building, headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in Boston. The following photos were shot both during a formal guided tour and while I was exploring on my own. Some items are permanently displayed; others were exhibited for the special weekend. Descriptions are mostly the official histories, but some also have my editorializing, which you’ll be able to discern. Enjoy.

The seal of the Grand Lodge greets you upon entering the side door. Not a typical mosaic, but each tile is a stone shaft of (I think) two inches bored into the floor by artisans from Italy who labored several years throughout the building in the early twentieth century. A shame everyone trods across, but evidently it can take it. You might recognize ‘Follow Reason,’ which also is the motto of St. John’s Lodge 1 in New York. A tour guide was unsure where the motto originates, but it may come from the coat of arms of the Duke of Montague, sixth Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England. Those are beavers flanking the shield; a nineteenth century study by Grand Lodge said they were lizards! (Don’t tell David Icke.) The tour guide didn’t know what to make of the left side, saying the castles may have something to do with Henry Knox, but of course that comes from the arms of the first Grand Lodge of England, and is still used on the UGLE’s arms.

I was told this portrait of Bro. George Washington was painted by Gilbert Stuart, which is not impossible, I suppose, considering the artist’s Athenaeum Portrait is displayed in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. The brother also mentioned it had undergone very extensive restoration in recent years.

The Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, (1767-1842) first Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

Christmastime is a good time to visit Boston.

The immortal Warren!
That such men lived is miraculous.

A sample of the Boston Tea Party tea! Said to have come out of the boots of one of the participants, and donated to the Grand Lodge by W. Bro. Paul F. Dudley of Milton Lodge.

Read the description below.

Click to enlarge.

A copy of the very rare first edition of Ahiman Rezon, Pennsylvania’s Masonic constitutions, dedicated to George Washington.

Joseph Warren’s King James Bible, printed 1614.

Until modern scholarship, which I’ll get to in the next edition of The Magpie Mason, this eyewitness account of the Boston Tea Party by George Hewes is the most reliable source. (I was told on Faceypage last week that the Tea Party was a revolt against the Stamp Act. ‘Tea tax,’ I reminded the brother. He told me to read the lodge secretary’s minutes. Ooh boy.)

Certificate of Rising States Lodge, Boston, signed by Paul Revere, September 3, 1800.

You know St. Andrew’s Lodge was the Scottish lodge that met in the Green Dragon Tavern, but you might not have known that the tavern got its name on account of the oxidized copper dragon employed as signage above the door. It turned green over time. And this is it! The actual green dragon!

Note the dragon above the entrance.

Detail.

Henry Price. The reason Massachusetts claims to have the first grand lodge in the Western Hemisphere is because Provincial Grand Master Henry Price constituted the original grand lodge there. Knowledge of the original Grand Lodge of England’s way of doing things is needed, I think, because while we today might assume provincial grand lodges were akin to our current Masonic districts, the truth is the Premier Grand Lodge considered provincial grand lodges to be local sovereign authorities.

Henry Price’s headstone. At some point, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts obtained permission from Price’s family to take possession of this headstone and move it to the Masonic Building to prevent damage caused by time and weather. It now is installed in a wall upstairs. In exchange, the brethren commissioned a massive monument for their founder.

MW John T. Heard, Grand Master 1856-58, was said to have weighed more than 400 pounds...

…consequently, this eight-legged chair was made for him.

Click to enlarge to read the card.

Franklin + Pallas Athena = Wisdom. Corinthian Hall.

And finally, a portrait of Ned Flanders. No inscription accompanies his portrait because he was not a grand master, but his picture hangs in respect for (I think) a massive donation he made to the Grand Lodge. Remind me to tell Tabbert there’s a Ned Flanders!

I shot many more photos, but these are the most interesting. Thanks for looking.

     

’Dubbing Joseph Warren a Tea Party Architect'

    

The brethren in Massachusetts have more commemoration of the Boston Tea Party’s 250th anniversary planned. Primarily there will be this next month, but on November 22 (easy to remember: the date both Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis died in 1963) there will be a dual graveside observance of relevant historical personages. From the publicity:

The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, Revolution 250, and the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in Massachusetts are partnering with Forest Hills Cemetery to place commemorative markers at the graves of Boston Tea Party participant Joseph Lovering and Boston Tea Party organizer Dr. Joseph Warren.

The ceremony will take place at Forest Hills Cemetery (95 Forest Hills Avenue in Jamaica Plain) on Wednesday, November 22 at 11 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Joseph Warren will receive the first of three special markers, indicating him as an “Architect” of the Boston Tea Party. The ceremony will begin promptly at 11 at the grave of Joseph Lovering, and will proceed to the grave and memorial to Dr. Joseph Warren.

Guests may park along the roads inside the main entrance along Forest Hills Avenue. From there, it will be a 12-minute walk to the grave of Joseph Lovering by following Mulberry Avenue, taking a right onto Red Oak Avenue, and then a right onto White Oak Avenue. Lovering’s grave is in the section on the left. After we place the marker, we will proceed to the grave of Dr. Warren, which will be a 10-minute walk.

In the event of rain, the speaking program will be moved to Forsyth Chapel, just inside the main entrance to Forest Hills, and guests have the option to walk to place markers afterward.

Speakers:

• George Milley, President, Forest Hills Cemetery: Welcome, Opening Remarks on behalf of Forest Hills Cemetery.
• Evan O’Brien, Creative Manager, Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum: Remarks on Joseph Lovering, involvement in the Boston Tea Party, and 250th initiatives.
• George F. Hamilton, Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts: Remarks on Dr. Joseph Warren, Freemasonry in the Boston Tea Party.
• Jonathan Lane, Executive Director, Revolution 250: Remarks on Community Involvement in the Early Revolution, Revolution 250.

After the speaking program at each grave site, a ceremonial marker will be placed by a costumed interpreter at the grave of Joseph Lovering, and by Grand Master George F. Hamilton at the grave of Dr. Joseph Warren, followed by Amazing Grace, played by a Masonic Piper.

There will be time for photos, questions, and interviews following the placement of the marker and the piping at Warren’s grave. We are pleased to be joined by a descendant of Dr. Joseph Warren, his sixth great-granddaughter, Sarah Hamilton; and the Henry Knox Guard, which will present colors at both graves.