‘Podcast hosts Masonic myth buster’

    

The Masonic Shelf podcast published its latest episode last night, and I really hope all of you will watch. The hosts welcome Pete Normand of Texas to present his paper describing how “The Holy Saints John” came to appear in Masonic word and symbol—and having heard this, I cannot find any reason to dispute his detective work.

The whole discussion spans about an hour, with half of it Pete’s presentation and the second half an interview. You might not believe a Byzantine patriarch of Alexandria, Jonathan Swift, Chevalier Ramsay, T.E. Lawrence, a patriarch of Jerusalem, and a London tavern could have much in common—and especially with our ritual—which is why you should watch this video.

The inimitable Pete Normand.

“I like taking the back off the radio to see how the radio works,” Normand says, explaining why he tracked down so many disparate facts to gain an understanding of Freemasonry’s “patron saints” and the Point Within a Circle. Enjoy.

     

‘Heredom update’

    

Scottish Rite Research Society

Not part only, but the whole of life is a school. There never comes a time, even amidst the decays of age, when it is fit to lay aside the eagerness of acquisition, or the cheerfulness of endeavor.

 

Albert Pike

Morals and Dogma

Sublime Elect of the Twelve

Yes, we have an update from Editor Adam Kendall on the production schedule of the Scottish Rite Research Society’s upcoming books. To wit:

Heredom Vol. 32 is at the printer, to be sent to all members starting October.

Bonus Item: Chronology of the Supreme Council is at the printer.

2025 Bonus Item: Funerals of the AASR (including Rose Croix) is in layout and we hope to get that out by end of year.

2026 Bonus Item: 11 Gentlemen from Charleston is in layout and will be sent to the printer after Funerals.

We aim to provide you with the very best in thought provoking and informative material. Thank you very much for your patience and support!

Scottish Rite Research Society

Contents of Heredom 32.

     

‘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

     

‘Next month at Quinta Essentia 500’

    

I keep bumping into Bro. Jonathan, Worshipful Master of Quinta Essentia Lodge 500, at the MRF weekends, and that’s how I learned of this terrific event next month—and I’m goin’! From the publicity:

Quinta Essentia Lodge will hold a Stated Communication with a Festive Board featuring a discussion led by Bro. Chris Murphy, from the Grand Lodge of Vermont.

Saturday, November 15 5:30 p.m.

The Elm City Club

New Haven, Connecticut

Black Tie/$125

Join for the degree, followed with good food and drink, conversation and fellowship. $125 (not including drinks from the bar) per brother. RSVP to Junior Warden Brewer here.

Discussion, led by Bro. Murphy: “The Traditional History: Freemasonry’s Foundational Mythos,” to wit:

The entirety of the Craft hangs upon the superstructure of the Masonic legend of the building of King Solomon’s Temple. Despite being drawn from a Biblical context, including figures and places from the VSL, it is not a Biblical recitation; it is a distinctly Masonic narrative.

Although it is largely undiscussed in contemporary Masonic practice, within the classical era of Masonic development, that story of the three Grand Masters, was merely one “chapter” of a far larger mythos. The overarching story related that the Craft was conceived by God and placed, by creation, in the heart of Adam. That knowledge was passed through Adam’s son Seth, unto Enoch, Noah, and the builders at Babel. The likes of Pythagoras, Hermes Trismegistus, and Zoroaster were then linked in as Masonic brethren. From them, the Ars Mason was passed to the world’s greatest artisans and architects, to the monarchs of Europe, and ultimately to the Grand Lodges and unto each of us. The totality of this story—this narrative symbol—represents an unbroken chain of sacred, secret knowledge; and is widely referred to as the “traditional history.

Freemasonry is ultimately syncretic in its design, and calls upon its votaries to plumb the depths of its symbolic lexicon. As such, this traditional history represents everything speculative about our Craft. A discussion of this central myth (its distinct elements, its general contours, its traditional role in propagating Masonic self-concept, and its deeply esoteric nature) will make for a rousing and inspiring conversation among the Brethren and guests of Quinta Essentia Lodge.

Bro. Murphy, is a past District Deputy and past Grand Historian for the Grand Lodge of Vermont. He is the editor and contributing author of Exploring Early Grand Lodge Freemasonry (2017) and The Secret’s Kept Sacred: The Orations, Sermons, and Songs of Early Vermont Freemasonry (2025). In 2022, he was elected as a Fellow of the Philalethes Society, and is a frequent contributor to Philalethes: A Journal of Masonic Research and Letters. He has been a guest lecturer at Masonic lodges and events across the country, and makes a particular study of the esoteric underpinnings of 17th and 18th century Freemasonry.

     

‘Tracing board garners more than $37K at auction’

    

Antiques and the Arts Weekly

Speaking of auctions (see post below), Antiques and the Arts Weekly reports the sale last month of a nineteenth century tracing board that once hung inside a lodge way up in Hamilton, a village at the center of the triangle formed by Albany, Binghamton, and Syracuse. Known to New England Auctions as “Hamilton D,” the oil on canvas was painted by Ezra Ames (1768-1836), a major eighteenth and nineteenth-century portrait artist, and Freemason, based in Albany. This 57½ by 40¼-inch instructional guide to Masonic symbolism, framed in mahogany, was expected to garner between $4,000 and $8,000 but, at the sound of the gavel, it won $37,800.

If your lodge must vacate its building, don’t throw nothin’ away.

Antiques and the Arts Weekly

Also auctioned was this Chinese-made punch bowl, c.1800, going for $2,772.

The Connecticut-based periodical says:

An early Masonic tracing board painted by Ezra Ames led the day. Depicting various emblems and symbols of the Freemasons, including a skull and crossbones, keys, a sun, quills and, of course, the square and compass, the work, identified as “Hamilton D,” was bid past its $4/8,000 estimate to achieve $37,800. This oil on canvas painting was housed in a later nineteenth century mahogany frame, and the work was featured in J. Godwin and C. Goodwillie’s Symbols in the Wilderness: Early Masonic Survivals in Upstate New York (2016), a copy of which was included with the lot. As described in that text: “This tracing board, more than most examples, shows the hand of a trained painter. Several things about it are unique, beginning with the three hanging objects at bottom left, inscribed in neither Latin, Greek, nor Masonic code. The death symbols of the third degree are at ground level…. No other tracing board gives such prominence to the skull and crossbones.”

 

Three other tracing boards from the Hamilton lodge, also featured in Symbols in the Wilderness, included those identified as “Hamilton A,” “B” and “C.” All were appraised by White & White in Skaneateles, N.Y., and the other three were not attributed to any known artist. These others, each with the same $4/8,000 estimate, sold for prices ranging from $5,040 to $10,710.

‘For the bibliophile who has everything’

    

eBay

Here’s a gift idea for the Masonic bibliophile who has everything. An auction on eBay claims to offer a first edition of The Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Or, as we commonly call it, Anderson’s Constitutions from 1723.

How much, you reasonably ask? It was listed at a paltry £10,000—that’s nearly $13,500 to us. (I’m no book dealer or appraiser, but this item is worth no such thing. There is no Make Offer option, so I don’t expect this to sell in its current listing.) This auction will end October 14.

How much money might it be worth? I’d estimate half of that asking price—if it is a 1723 first edition. No photos of the spine are shown, and the pages that are displayed are stained significantly (whether that’s foxing, I don’t know). But these do not appear on the market often, so maybe a buyer would venture higher, but I’d be surprised.

And, not to be a wise guy, but I’m not convinced this is from 1723. There are other editions from the eighteenth century, and the cover of this one doesn’t look like the cover of this one (in red, at right).

Another confusion may be the bookplate, which says Darcy Lever Esquire, who the seller identifies as “Sir Darcy Lever of Alkrington, LL.D. (c. 1705–1743).” Was he a Freemason? I don’t know, but a quick query to Google’s AI yields a negative answer. Of course the UGLE and, specifically, the Museum of Freemasonry would be the places to ask. I know from experience they won’t answer me, but maybe a Magpie reader has a connection there. Anyway, here is the description of this item:

A Cornerstone of Modern Society

and Esoteric History

The Constitutions

of the Free-Masons (1723) 

Containing the History, Charges, Regulations, &c. of that Most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity

Authored by the Rev. James Anderson, D.D.

An Exceptional Copy

with Distinguished Provenance

I am immensely proud to offer a first edition of one of the most significant documents in the history of civil society: Anderson’s 1723 Constitutions. This rare and revolutionary text is presented in good to fine condition, complete with all blanks, a testament to its preservation over three centuries.

Of particular note is its distinguished provenance, bearing the original bookplate of: 

Sir Darcy Lever of Alkrington, LL.D.

(c. 1705-1743)

A member of the wealthy Lever family, who acquired the Alkrington Hall estate in Lancashire, Sir Darcy Lever was a prominent figure of the era. He served as High Sheriff of Lancashire (1736) and was a major landowner and builder, commissioning the new Alkrington Hall from the celebrated architect Giacomo Leoni. A man of high standing in the county and a builder of note, his possession of the Constitutions underscores the text’s immediate importance among the elite of Georgian England. This connection to a man of substance and a builder in the Roman/Palladian style only enhances the book’s historical value.

The bookplate is likely contemporary with the 1723 publishing date as it does not reflect his later knighthood.

History and Significance:

The Enlightenment’s Rulebook

Published in London in 1723, this book is not merely a set of rules; it is the philosophical foundation and “rulebook” of modern Freemasonry worldwide. Commissioned by the newly formed Premier Grand Lodge of England (1717), the work by James Anderson transformed the ancient, fragmented guilds of “operative” stonemasons into a modern, unified, and speculative “Gentleman’s Club” that quickly became the most influential fraternal society of its day.

Its historical importance transcends Freemasonry, as the 1723 Constitutions served as a direct vehicle for spreading key Enlightenment principles:

● Religious Tolerance: The document famously replaced the rigid religious requirements of the medieval guilds with an obligation to “that Religion in which all Men agree,” effectively establishing the first charter for a non-sectarian society. This radical idea of religious toleration was wholly groundbreaking in an age of religious conflict and profoundly influenced later political thought.

● Meritocracy and Equality: By shifting the focus from birthright and wealth to “merit,” “aspiration,” and “intellect,” the Constitutions provided a framework for a more egalitarian society. Historians note it helped tilt the Lodges towards becoming “schools for government,” which inculcated principles that influenced later republican politics, most notably in America.

● Constitutional Governance: The text provided a working model for self-governance, featuring written constitutions, the election of officers subject to democratic accountability (one member, one vote), and majority rule. This organizational structure was widely emulated by other secular clubs and societies.

Key Elements of the Text

Anderson’s work is divided into three main sections:

1. The History of Masonry: A grand, though largely legendary, history tracing the “Royal Art of Architecture” back to Adam, Noah, Moses, King Solomon (and Hiram Abiff), and Euclid, culminating in the establishment of the Grand Lodge in 1717. This history served to legitimize the new organisation by linking it to a tradition of ancient wisdom and continuity.

2. The Charges of a Free-Mason: Unarguably the most significant section, setting out the moral and social duties of a Mason, including the ground-breaking religious clause (Charge I) and the duty to be a peaceable subject and to uphold the laws of the country (Charge II).

3. The General Regulations: Outlining the specific rules for the governance of the Grand Lodge and its constituent private Lodges, including how officers are to be elected and the federal structure of the Fraternity.

An exceptional rare to find foundational text in the history of social organization and the Western Enlightenment, this first edition is a mandatory acquisition for any serious collector of Masonic history, early Americana or civil liberties.

I say, on this one especially, buyer beware. Still a nifty piece. Just have an expert look it over before bidding.

UPDATE: OCTOBER 14–Someone purchased it! This auction ended successfully a few hours ago, and one eBay user bid thrice (Masons do things in threes) to add this to a library. I’m impressed.

     

‘When Lafayette was knighted a Templar’

    

The American Lodge of Research will meet four weeks from tonight for a special Lafayette night.

The ALR

Wednesday, October 29

7 p.m.

Masonic Hall, Renaissance Room

For more than a year, New York Freemasonry has been celebrating the bicentenary of the Marquis de Lafayette’s farewell visit to the United States of 1824-25, and The ALR will close out the commemoration with a look at perhaps an underreported aspect of that history: the day the Hero of Two Worlds was made a Masonic Knight Templar.

Our keynote speaker will be M.E. David Dixon Goodwin, Past Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States. We will display artifacts of that fraternally historic day, and a fantastic feast will follow the presentation.

Click here to RSVP for dinner.

Masonic Hall is located at 71 W. 23rd Street in Manhattan. Photo ID is required to enter the premises. Master Masons are welcome. Attire: suit & tie with apron.

     

‘Another year of Magpie Masonry’

    

Macoy Masonic Supply

Thank you for reading The Magpie Mason.

Seventeen years ago, late on a Monday night, and at this very minute evidently, I posted the very first edition of this blog. My intention for today, until recently, had been to take this opportunity to say goodbye and announce the blog will remain up through the end of the year before being deleted but, ah, things have changed.

It was revealed to me more than a week ago, during the research lodges conference in Kentucky, that The Magpie Mason will continue after all! I think I masked my surprise well, but surprised I was and, so, here we are. (No, this had nothing to do with protecting certain podcasts’ show prep.) I guess I’ll give it another year.

But how was your summer? I’ve been having a marvelous time! The Masonic Restoration Foundation Symposium in Ontario, August 15-17; followed by the John Skene Masonic Conference in New Jersey the week after; followed two weeks later by the Masonic Library and Museum Association’s annual meeting in Trenton & Philly; and then New Jersey’s research lodge the next Saturday, with a tour of Princeton Battlefield with Shelby the day after; and, most recently, that conference in Kentucky, properly titled “Exploring the Role of Masonic Research Lodges and Societies in the 21st Century,” hosted in Lexington by William O. Ware Lodge of Research and the Rubicon Masonic Society.

“Did you ever get the feeling that the world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?”

    

George Gobel

It’s hard to take in, but Magpie coverage is forthcoming. I should have shot more photos.

I’ll be busy in the coming weeks too, with the next meeting of Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 down in Richmond; The American Lodge of Research—finally, a home game!—on October 29 for a Lafayette night; and then the Observant lodge in New Haven to hear Chris Murphy speak in November; CWLR1865 again in December for our 30th anniversary; and the 250th anniversary of American Union in Ohio come February! And I’ll be sure to tell you all about those events too. I’ll take photos.

By the way, all the above comprise what is meant by Magpie Masonry: attraction to shiny things.

But this is just an update and a program note. (Poor Bonkos has been going nutzoid with his obsessive-compulsive clicking on this website—thousands of times daily for months! Settle down, Bonkos. Take a cigarette break.)

America’s third favorite blog about Freemasonry is back, baby! <sigh>

     

‘A new year at The ALR’

    

The American Lodge of Research’s 2025-26 officer team, installation team, members, visitors, and other well wishers last night in the French Doric Room. (The seersucker outfits in lodge are explained by the intense heat felt in New York City in recent weeks.)

Last night was the occasion of the annual meeting of The American Lodge of Research, which spelled the end of my time in the East and the beginning of the 2025-26 term. Congratulations to RW Bro. Yves Etienne on his election and installation as our Worshipful Master!

Yves assembled a full complement of officers that, we hope, will lead our lodge into the middle of the century. (Starting tomorrow, we’ll be closer to the year 2050 than to 2000. Drink up!) For the first time in all the years I’ve been hanging around, we have Masters of Ceremonies, Stewards, a Marshal, and a Chaplain. We don’t even have proper officer aprons for them!

Special thanks to MW Bill Sardone for presiding over our elections and for leading the installation ceremony and for keeping things organized. And thank you to each of our guests, some of whom traveled from far away places. Boston. Romania!

Now that my tenure is finished, I’m a little sad for being no longer needed in that way, but it’s okay because I’m still involved, serving now as Tiler. Plus, I’ll continue publishing the trestleboard and contributing in other ways, like publicity & social media. And editing the book of transactions. Maybe the Annual Report to Grand Lodge too. I will find that Holy Grail of plastic storage boxes if it costs my soul.

The ALR’s next meeting will be Wednesday, October 29. Hope to see you there.

     

‘Central Virginia Masonic Con’

    

I guess September isn’t that far away anymore. Near the end of that month, a Masonic Con is planned for Virginia. From the publicity:

Central Virginia Masonic Con

Saturday, September 27

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Historic Masons’ Hall

1807 East Franklin Street, Richmond

Click here

Join us for an event open to both Masons and those curious about Freemasonry. This will be a day full of Masonic education on history, our civic connections, and esoteric aspects.

$40 (plus PayPal fee) per person.

Event Speakers

Shaun Bradshaw: Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of North Carolina, 33°, KYGCH, OPC. A “proud Masonic esotericist” because he believes in the transformational power of the Craft’s rituals. He understands the value of Freemasonry as both a fraternity and a Western Mystery Tradition. A passionate promoter of Masonic education in the areas of lodge leadership, administration, and Masonic philosophy.

Akram R. Elias: Past (2008) Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia. He has 35 years of professional experience in the fields of Public Diplomacy and Cultural Intelligence. MW Elias is a global speaker on the subject of America: The Great Experiment.

Matt Parker: Founder of the North Carolina Masonic Research Society; Chair of the Grand Lodge Committee on Public Relations; member of the Grand Lodge Library Committee; and 32° Scottish Right Mason, SJ, and member of the York Rite as well as other invitational bodies and esoteric orders.

Jon T. Ruark: Past Master of The Patriot Lodge 1957 in Fairfax. His love of technology and gadgets led him to start The Masonic Roundtable as an online dialogue platform. He is an engineer for the federal government by trade, with Masonic interests leaning toward the esoteric and philosophical aspects of the fraternity.

Your ticket price includes breakfast and lunch, which will be provided. After purchasing a ticket through PayPal, you will be added to the list of ticketed attendees.

All proceeds go to Richmond Randolph Lodge 19 and are intended to cover costs. In the event excess money is collected, it will be donated to Masons’ Hall Historic Preservation efforts.

     

‘Third Annual St. John Baptist Luncheon’

    

In the retail area at the Cranbury Inn.

The 2025 St. John Baptist Luncheon is in the books and a great time was had by all!

Probably would’ve been better if more of our party had arrived, but health concerns, domestic tranquility priorities, and other unexpected obstacles kept most from getting to the Cranbury Inn, located in historic Cranbury, (est. 1697!) New Jersey.

Ben, Erich, and I toasted the Baptist, talked Masonic history, ate heartily, reminisced on old friends no longer animately existent, and drank—shamelessly, in this age of equity—more than our fair share of beer, ale, and jynnan tonnyx. We wrapped it up before things got sloppy.

I’m sure I’ll remember more after some sleep.

     

‘A valediction at The ALR’

    

And speaking of newsletters (see post below), the June issue of The ALR Today, the trestleboard of The American Lodge of Research, was disseminated this week. Amid the coverage of the previous meeting, a preview of the next meeting, and publicity for new books and podcasts and Grand Lodge’s Masonic University and more is the outgoing Worshipful Master’s message. Excerpted:

“Don’t let me in the East of any more Masonic groups. I barely know what I’m doing!”

In a more analytical disposition, he advances a few ideas to reform the lodge’s operations.

➤ Regarding the annual book of transactions, he points out The ALR hasn’t gone to press in a decade and a half for want of material to publish. The presentations in lodge mostly are PowerPoints, which are useless in book publishing. The Master suggests switching to a digital magazine format, be it annual, semi-annual, or quarterly.

➤ For membership, he proposes discontinuing the trigradal form (Corresponding Membership, Active Membership, and Fellowship), and offering plain Membership, with election to Fellow reserved to the few “who have made a difference in Masonry.” The logic is, without books to mail to Corresponding Members, what exactly is the correspondence? I don’t think this anarchist realizes how difficult, legally, that one will be to achieve because of Grand Lodge law.

➤ On the slightly less perilous side, the Worshipful Master pitches a revamp of the lodge’s meeting schedule. The current (and maybe original since the launch in 1931) scheme has three Stated Communications and other occasional events on weeknights throughout the year. By switching to Saturdays (like many—maybe most?—research lodges in the country), the brethren can enjoy more time together. Or maybe make a combination of Saturdays and weeknights. This might be a hard sell too. Everyone is accustomed to coming to Masonic Hall on weeknights for all their meetings, and it’s hard to assess a group willingness to be cleaved from family, religious custom, and recreation for another Masonic meeting, but, as noted, it works elsewhere.

➤ Perhaps more easily achieved could be his idea to lengthen each term from one year to two, and to open four meetings each year instead of the three. He reasons:

“We reorganize the officer line every year—that is, after every three Stated Communications. This is difficult because, naturally, we need a reliable stream of industrious future officers which we do not have. My idea is to embrace the schedule many research lodges across the country keep: the two-year term, with four meetings per year... Instead of having to find a new officer or two after three meetings, we’d have eight meetings. There are more opportunities for more brethren to get involved.”

➤ More ambitiously, he pitches an idea gleaned from a research lodge in another state that travels and devises weekend getaways around its meetings. That lodge visits historic sites, enjoys meals together, and does other things before and after its Saturday morning tiled/tyled meetings. The ALR has legal permission to travel about the State of New York already. It’s merely a question of logistics to plan the occasional weekend trip to someplace, combining the lodge meeting with a thematic visit to a relevant locale.

The Master also offers a list of frustrating tasks he’ll keep working at, one of which is the not-so-simple procurement of a box. The lodge needs a durable container for the paraphernalia used during the meetings. It needs to be both large enough to hold the stuff, and small enough—that’s the rub—to fit into our storage locker. So, something 17 inches wide and 17 inches deep is being sought, but is maddeningly elusive. “In this search, I am become Ahab,” he confesses. I share this detail to enlist your help. Please leave a comment below if you have any leads.

The ALR’s Annual Meeting will take place on Monday the 30th at 7 p.m. in Masonic Hall. RW Bro. Yves Etienne will be installed in the Solomonic Chair, so come out and cheer him on. The all-star installation team—the Harlem Globetrotters, the 1927 Yankees, the ’94 Rangers of installation teams—will be MW Bill Sardone, RW Paul Huck, and RW James Gregg.

     

‘The Plumbline gauges libraries and museums’

    

The Plumbline for Summer 2025.

I hope you enjoyed a fitting St. John’s Day celebration with your lodge (or other Masonic group), and made some memories. Yesterday also saw the publication of the summer issue of The Plumbline, the quarterly newsletter of the Scottish Rite Research Society.

In the skilled hands of Editor Chris Ruli, this periodical now begins measuring the libraries and museums that serve the Masonic fraternity, visiting the Grand Lodge of Iowa’s massive repository of books and artifacts on its first stop. Assistant Grand Librarian and Curator Julia Wells is profiled. She is known to some of us via the Masonic Library and Museum Association, but did you know she comes from a Masonic family going back generations?

The library itself is a renowned institution. I’m assuming that, because it’s not in a congested coastal city, it has the most square footage of any of the major research libraries serving the Masonic world. I hope to visit one day.

Elsewhere in the pages of the now digital newsletter, Ruli defines for us the Archive Maturity Matrix. This is a trestleboard archivists may employ to quantify the sufficiencies and deficiencies of their facilities, and to chart improvements where needed.

I’ll see if I may bootleg this for the MLMA’s newsletter.

Been wondering what will be this year’s bonus book? Look for Chronology of the Supreme Council, 1801-1859 soon.

To join the SRRS, click here.

     

‘Manchester Masonic memories’

    

My favorite Masonic temple in all New Hampshire will be celebrated on its hundredth anniversary next Sunday with a cornerstone re-dedication. Wish I could be there.

I hope they’ll put that time capsule on social media.

I bet they had a good day on Wednesday, June 24, 1925 for laying the cornerstone of this building. There was a procession involving several lodges, plus a commandery and DeMolay. Music was provided by a band (marching band, I assume) and the Orpheus Quartet. (Dartmouth had a music club named Orpheus, a choir of about fifty voices, and I wonder if this was a foursome from that group.)

And 1925 was a good year for Masonic temples in the Granite State (and practically everywhere else in the country), with cornerstone ceremonies and/or dedications also at Keene, Derry, Concord, Canaan, Farmington, maybe others.

Have fun, brethren!

     

‘TSW Chapter on Saturday’

    

Thomas Smith Webb Chapter of Research will open its Summer Convocation Saturday morning in Utica, and has a few speakers scheduled to take to the lectern. This will be part of the annual St. John’s Weekend festivities. (I’ve never attended a Weekend, so I don’t know exactly what they’re about, but they are major events on the New York Masonic calendar.)

Contrary to what you might have heard about an afternoon meeting, the chapter will open at 9 a.m. in the temple. On the agenda:

Utica Masonic Temple.

 - “Webb-Related Documents from Albany,” presented by Comp. Jeffrey

 - “The Esoteric Aspects of Our Altars,” by Comp. Gregory

Attire: Suit or Red Jacket. Open to Mark Master and Royal Arch Masons.

EHP Ken Stuczynski also reports a book of transactions is in an embryonic stage; the website soon will accommodate dues payments; and the schedule of meetings will be:

TSW/Western New York

Lodge of Research

September 13 at 10 a.m.

Valley of Buffalo/Virtual

TSW/The American

Lodge of Research

January (date & time TBA)

Masonic Hall, NYC/Virtual

Grand Chapter

(details to come)

     

‘Rebuilding Jerusalem and retracing Jones’

    

Bro. Tom discusses John Paul Jones during the research lodge’s meeting yesterday.

Great meeting yesterday for New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786.

Getting into the building turned out to be a little tricky, but everything went smoothly from then. Attendance was terrific—not huge numbers, but several faces we haven’t seen in a while, and some in a really long while. Bro. Matt, erstwhile Secretary, who still keeps a hand in things by publishing our quarterly trestleboard, was there to the delight of those of us who’d been around long enough to know him. And Bro. Sal Corelli (they traveled together) was a sight for red eyes. Plus, Bro. Paul and Bro. Jay, who don’t get to our communications often enough.

We benefitted in profit and pleasure from three presentations.

Secretary Erich Huhn reviewed the Allen Roberts book Freemasonry in American History, which is the current selection of the book club jointly run by the research lodge and Jerusalem Lodge 26. (I admit to getting a chuckle out of their announcement of this title being the club’s first choice of reading material.)

His many books have value, but Roberts was a writer of popular history, not academic research works. Huhn, who is completing a doctoral dissertation on Freemasonry in nineteenth century America, explained that for a Masonic researcher, having sources that include citations is fundamental and essential. We simply need to know where the facts originate, and maybe sometimes we need to see the sources ourselves.

Amazon

Roberts, to his credit (as far as I know), did not traffic in Templar nonsense. Among his many Masonic roles, he once was president of the Philalethes Society; was inaugural Master of Civil War Lodge of Research 1865; was a big wheel generally in Virginia; and is the namesake of that Grand Lodge’s library today. I mean, if the choices are having Masons read nothing about their fraternity, or having them read Allen Roberts, then definitely go with reading Roberts, but don’t accept all of it as verifiable truth.

Next, Treasurer David Palladino, of Jerusalem 26, explained the process of saving that 208-year-old lodge and its 1920s temple from self-inflicted ruination. Laboring in (pardon the term) five-year plans, the goals of saving both the building and the body of Masons inside it requires Heracles’ strength and Job’s perseverance. Big money from the state for historic preservation is going into the temple, and a pointed vetting process for making Masons are just the groundwork of the rebuilding. “I have not yet begun to fight!” could be a motto there, I suppose.

Success in the meantime is seen in the lodge’s activities. Outside of its meeting nights, Jerusalem hosts its Academy of the Humanities. Informed by the education encouraged by the Second Degree of Freemasonry, this project gives good and wholesome instruction in areas varying from how to organize the mind to dining etiquette to philosophy and poetry and music and more. David mentioned Observing the Craft is an inspiration.

It sounds like the lodge I’ve always wanted so, naturally, my work schedule prevents me from ever getting there.

We had one research presentation on the agenda. Bro. Tom Thurber, not a member of the research lodge, but a Past Master of Audubon-Parkside 218, visited to tell us about “John Paul Jones’ Masonic Journey.”

There wasn’t much I knew about Jones other than he famously said “I have not yet begun to fight!” and he’s an ancestor of the Led Zeppelin bassist—and it turns out neither is true! Thurber unpacked an amazing and detailed story of where Jones’ maritime career intersected with Masonic lodges and their members. I can’t imagine there could be conclusive evidence of Jones and his Brother Masons colluding in his professional advancement, but our speaker connected dots that show Jones visiting lodges up and down the American colonies and walking away with employment arrangements. It seems to me that Jones, son of a gardener, probably would not have achieved great heights without some help.

For example, he arrives at the lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia one day in December 1774, presenting himself as a Brother in distress. He meets Bro. John Read and Bro. Robert Smith. Smith is the younger brother of the Mason who sponsored Jones’ petition at the lodge where he was made a Mason in Scotland three years earlier. What are the odds? Read, a nephew of Benjamin Franklin—and Franklin appears repeatedly in this story—gave Jones his commission in the Continental Navy when the shooting started in the American Revolution.

Jones became the first lieutenant in that navy—not a 1st Lieutenant, but the first to be ranked lieutenant in that service.

In other travels, he arrives in North Carolina where he meets Bro. Joseph Hewes (great name for a Mason!), signer of the Declaration and owner of a shipping company, who hires Jones. Incidentally, Hewes was born and died nearby in Princeton.

Copy of the bust
owned by The Met.

The Lodge of Nine Sisters in Paris, when Franklin was its Venerable Master in 1780, commissioned lodge Brother Jean-Antoine Houdon to sculpt a bust of Jones, a work that would prove useful in identifying our hero’s remains when the United States repatriated the same for final interment in 1905 at Annapolis. (A Masonic service there was not conducted until 2016.)

Did you know Jones’ frigate, Bonhomme Richard, was named for “Poor Richard,” Franklin’s pen name for authoring the beloved almanac at mid eighteenth century?

Thurber does not claim to be the first to chart Jones’ career, but to point out how the Masonic connectivity is an overlooked aspect of that history.

In other news, our research lodge will be busy in this two-year term. In September, the lovely and talented Shelby Chandler, himself of Fredericksburg Lodge in Virginia, will visit for discussion of things American Revolution. In October, we’ll visit a lodge way up in north Jersey to give talks and introduce the brethren there to what research lodges do. And a conference is being planned to delve into the history of Masons who were on the losing side of the Revolution, and who skedaddled to Canada for all the obvious reasons.

A new website is being developed, and other helpful improvements are coming together.

Next meeting: Saturday, September 13 at Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick.

     

‘1759 and all that’

    

PGL of Cheshire

I think that churchwarden should be a clay.

And speaking of the Entered Apprentice Degree (see post below), congratulations to Stanlow Lodge 6257, under the United Grand Lodge of England, upon initiating two candidates the other day at Freemasons’ Hall in London, employing—get this—a ritual “in the style of 1759!”

I know that from a social media announcement, but what I don’t know is the source material for that ritual, but I’m a sucker for anything eighteenth century Masonic. Stick a 17 on it, and I’m there.

Stanlow 6257 is not based in London. The lodge is part of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Cheshire, which celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2025. Anyway, this edition of The Magpie Mason isn’t about anything directly Masonic, but concerns an alcoholic beverage beloved by America’s most famous Freemason.

Mention of the drink named Cherry Bounce also popped up on social media this week:

I’m not much for sweet drinks, but this sounds pretty good on account of the quantity of either whiskey or brandy one adds to the mix. The Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant has this to say:

Among the few recipes known to have been used by the Washington family is this one for Cherry Bounce, a brandy-based drink popular in the eighteenth century. It seems to have been such a favorite of General Washington’s that he packed a “canteen” of it, along with Madeira and port, for a trip west across the Allegheny Mountains in September 1784.

This fruity, spiced cordial requires a bit of work and time, but the result is well worth the effort. After pitting, halving, and mashing the cherries, be prepared to set aside the sweetened brandied juice for twenty-four hours and then again for about two weeks after infusing it with spices.

Enjoy small glasses of Cherry Bounce at room temperature and keep the remainder on hand in the refrigerator. This recipe is a modern adaptation of the 18th-century original. It was created by culinary historian Nancy Carter Crump for the book Dining with the Washingtons.

There are other recipes that look easier and are for smaller batches that sound more feasible for people like me. Seek out your favorite source of Colonial concoctions instructions.

Farmer’s Almanac

This beverage sounds like a really good palliative, or something to serve at a table lodge or festive board, especially if you’re marking a Washington-related anniversary—or recreating a 1759 ritual. Vivat!