‘Grand Lodge announces new historians’

    

I won’t try to recap all the news from the summer I neglected, except I have to congratulate two deserving brethren on their appointments to grand rank. In July, R.W. Bro. Pierre F. de Ravel d’Esclapon was named Grand Historian, and R.W. Bro. Lee Justo is now our Deputy Grand Historian.

BBC

Among other things, Bro. Pierre is a Past Master and currently Historian of France La Clémente Amitié Cosmopolite Lodge 410 in the Tenth Manhattan District. Of course, he also is a Past Master (2009-10) of The American Lodge of Research, and he was elected a Fellow of The ALR on the strength of his inaugural paper as Master, “The History of French Lodges in New York City, 1760 to 1800.”

Bro. Lee is Master and Historian of Huguenot Lodge 46 in Mount Kisco; is Co-Chairman of Grand Lodge’s 250th Committee; is the face of Huguenot Lodge’s YouTube channel; and probably more that I don’t know about.

A solid team. I look forward to reading their research for many years to come.

Let me “shout ‘Bravo!’ at an annoyingly loud volume.”

BBC

     

‘Masons in the American Revolution’

    

In New Jersey, Bergen250, Bergen County’s commemoration of the semiquincentennial anniversary of America’s Founding, will present Bro. Lee Justo next Wednesday in its Revolutionary War Roundtable program. Lee, who is at labor in Huguenot Lodge 46 in Westchester, will present “Masonic Brothers in the American Revolution.”

This will take place at 7 p.m. at 1 Bergen County Plaza (fourth floor) in Hackensack.

The county’s Speaker Series for 2025 thus far looks like it focuses on military aspects of the American Revolution, which makes sense because New Jersey was the site of the most battles in the war.

If you don’t know Lee, he is, among other things, the Grand Lodge of New York’s coordinator of our Lafayette bicentenary events.

     

‘Secret History of Huguenot Lodge’

    

The Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction maintains a monthly podcast titled The Tyler’s Place, and the episode posted this morning concerns historic Huguenot Lodge 46 in Westchester County. Host Maynard Edwards welcomes Lee Justo, who became the lodge’s historian by virtue of delving into long neglected Huguenot records and discovering an amazing past involving a number of giants of New York history, from the Delancey family to Samuel Seabury and more.

Click here to enjoy the twenty minutes of conversation.

This episode was prompted by Edwards’ viewing of Huguenot’s YouTube channel, where the brethren gradually reveal what they learn about their past as they discover it. Click here to see that.

The lodge will meet tomorrow night, with Deputy Grand Master Steven A. Rubin in attendance, to present the story of Freemasonry in Westchester during the Revolution.