Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Credibility Of Early American Masonic History.
CREDIBILITY OF EARLY AMERICAN MASONIC HISTORY .
Continued from page 82 . BEFORE proceeding to discnss the further points raised by Bro . Norton in the letter from him which appeared in these columns on the 28 th ult ., we will mention a case of laxity on the part of certain Provincial Grand or Grand authorities which recently came under notice , and
was referred to at some length in one of our leading articles . The case we allude to occurred in connection with our Lodge Orion in the West , No . 415 , held at Poonah in the Province of Bombay . "We were laying before our readers the principal incidents in connection with this
Lodge , and in the second part of our sketch reference was made to the following singular facts . This Lodge dates in our Grand Lodge Calendar from 1833 , but in that year it had already enjoyed an irregular and unrecognised existence—unrecognised , that is to say , by the Grand Lodge
England—for close on ten years . It happened in this wise . Early in 1823 application was made to the Provincial Grand Lodge of the Coast of Coromandel for a Warrant of Constitution for a Lodge Orion in the West , No . 15 on the Provincial Roll , and in due time a letter was written by
the Provincial Grand Secretary to the effect that the " application had been granted , and the Warrant duly installed , " on 15 th November of the same year in the mess-room of the Second Troop of the Bombay Horse Artillery . The Lodge went on more or less prosperously for several years ,
W . M . succeeding W . M . in regular order of election , till the latter half of the year 1830 , during which time the dues had been regularly transmitted to the Prov . G . L ., but no Warrant or Certificates bad been received by the Lodge .
In August 1830 a Bro . Grafton went to England with a commission from the Lodge , and ou consulting the Grand Secretary was amazed to learn that no notification of the existence of Orion in the West had reached them in
England , nor any registry or fees received . Bro . Grafton further ascertained that in granting the Warrant of Constitution to Orion in the West , the Provincial Grand Master of the Coast of Coromandel had acted ultra vires , and nothing remained but for the Lodge to begin again , cle novo . This
news , which reached Poonah in August 1831 , caused great consternation among the members . However , a memorial was drawn up and signed by seven P . M . ' s and sixty-six members , and was despatched with the necessary fees , while a letter , detailing the circumstances , was addressed
to the P . G . M . of Coromandel , and demanded restitution of all sums paid by Orion in the West . Whether repayment was made or not , is not recorded , but the D . P . G . M . Coromandel admitted the fact of payments having been so made , and that in 1825 a certain amount had been remitted
to England for the registration of Warrants , including that of " Orion in the West , " working under the Prov . G . L . in question . However , a new warrant was issued by the Duke of Sussex , bearing date the 19 th July 1833 , and this is the authority under which Orion in the West now works .
Here , then , we have a Lodge in full working order ten years before it received its legal Warrant of Constitution . Its fees had been duly forwarded to the P . G . L ., and are affirmed to have been transmitted to England , and yet the
Lodge was irregularly constituted . Now , if all this could have happened only forty or fifty years since , when infinitely greater care in keeping proper records was being taken , it is clear that one hundred and forty or fifty years
Credibility Of Early American Masonic History.
ago there would be even greater laxity still . When , therefore , we come across occasional pieces of evidence bearing upon the subject of Freemasonry , we must not too hastily reject them , especially when they , more or less directly , bear out the testimony of known existing records . When ,
in 1861 , the late Dr . Oliver prepared and published a new ( the seventeenth ) edition of Preston ' s Illustrations , it \ A clear he knew but little of the Coxe Deputation . Ho mentions " the establishment , " by the Duke of Norfolk , " by deputation " of " a Provincial Grand Lodgo at New
Jersey , in America , but a few pages further on , with reference to the events of the Grand Mastership of Yiscount Montagu , he quotes , in a foot note , a passage from Webb ' s Monitor , to the effect that " Freemasons' Lodges , in
America , date their origin from this period , and that a deputation' was granted to Henry Price , dated 30 th April 1733 , " & o ., & c , etc . But , by the labours of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , and the researches of Hughau , much new matter has been brono-ht to life . The Coxe
Deputation , granted by the Duke of Norfolk , still exists among the English archives . The excerpts from Franklin ' s Pennsylvania Gazette have been brought under notice , nor
must we overlook a statement made by Bro . MacCalla , that Coxe was at the banquet held after Grand Lodge , on 29 th January 1731 , and that his health was drunk as " Provincial Grand Master of North America . "
We will now continue our comments on Bro . Norton s first letter , and , as regards the latter portion , as well as in his second letter , which appeared last week , we readily acknowledge that he lays down his various propositions far less dogmatically .
5 . Bro . MacCalla ' s list of nine Grand Masters between 1732 and 1741 : as regards three of whom , says Bro . Norton , " Bro . MacCalla proved , from newspaper extracts , that they were so designated , but for the remaining six he furnished no proof whatever , " and then he asks , even if they
were so , " were they legal Grand Masters ? " We confess that , in the absence of direct evidence , it is difficult , nay , it may be , impossible to answer this question . We think : it by no means unlikely that Bro . MacCalla may have been betrayed into a very common error among writers of
Masonic history , ancl endeavoured to give his case more circumstantiality than it is entitled to . We should like , therefore , before framing any reply in connection with the difficulty which Bro . Norton has propounded , to hear the grounds on which Bro . MacCalla has constructed this
succession of Grand Masters . We attach little importance to the election having been annual instead of biennial , on which Bro . Norton seems to lay some stress . We mentioned , last week , that fresh deputations , appointing fresh brethren to preside over Provinces already erected , were
constantly being issued . Preston mentions , among others , one issued by the Earl of Loudon , G . M . 1536-7 , for New England , one by the Earl of Darnley , G . M , 1737-8 , for New York , one by Lord Carysfort , G . M . 1752-4 , for New York , ancl one by the Marquis of Carnarvon , G . M . 1754-7 , "for all
North America , where no former Provincial Grand Master was appointed . " Considering the frequency with which these deputations were issued , not only for American Provinces , but for elsewhere , it is very certain there were no formal regulations for the government of new Provinces ,
and that the strict letter of a deputation was not carried out as scrupulously in the days we are referring to as thoy would be now . It is not , then , a fair deduction to make , that because Bro . MacCalla ' s list of Grand Masters were elected annuall y from 1732 instead of biennially , as they should have been , by the terms of the Coxe Deputation ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Credibility Of Early American Masonic History.
CREDIBILITY OF EARLY AMERICAN MASONIC HISTORY .
Continued from page 82 . BEFORE proceeding to discnss the further points raised by Bro . Norton in the letter from him which appeared in these columns on the 28 th ult ., we will mention a case of laxity on the part of certain Provincial Grand or Grand authorities which recently came under notice , and
was referred to at some length in one of our leading articles . The case we allude to occurred in connection with our Lodge Orion in the West , No . 415 , held at Poonah in the Province of Bombay . "We were laying before our readers the principal incidents in connection with this
Lodge , and in the second part of our sketch reference was made to the following singular facts . This Lodge dates in our Grand Lodge Calendar from 1833 , but in that year it had already enjoyed an irregular and unrecognised existence—unrecognised , that is to say , by the Grand Lodge
England—for close on ten years . It happened in this wise . Early in 1823 application was made to the Provincial Grand Lodge of the Coast of Coromandel for a Warrant of Constitution for a Lodge Orion in the West , No . 15 on the Provincial Roll , and in due time a letter was written by
the Provincial Grand Secretary to the effect that the " application had been granted , and the Warrant duly installed , " on 15 th November of the same year in the mess-room of the Second Troop of the Bombay Horse Artillery . The Lodge went on more or less prosperously for several years ,
W . M . succeeding W . M . in regular order of election , till the latter half of the year 1830 , during which time the dues had been regularly transmitted to the Prov . G . L ., but no Warrant or Certificates bad been received by the Lodge .
In August 1830 a Bro . Grafton went to England with a commission from the Lodge , and ou consulting the Grand Secretary was amazed to learn that no notification of the existence of Orion in the West had reached them in
England , nor any registry or fees received . Bro . Grafton further ascertained that in granting the Warrant of Constitution to Orion in the West , the Provincial Grand Master of the Coast of Coromandel had acted ultra vires , and nothing remained but for the Lodge to begin again , cle novo . This
news , which reached Poonah in August 1831 , caused great consternation among the members . However , a memorial was drawn up and signed by seven P . M . ' s and sixty-six members , and was despatched with the necessary fees , while a letter , detailing the circumstances , was addressed
to the P . G . M . of Coromandel , and demanded restitution of all sums paid by Orion in the West . Whether repayment was made or not , is not recorded , but the D . P . G . M . Coromandel admitted the fact of payments having been so made , and that in 1825 a certain amount had been remitted
to England for the registration of Warrants , including that of " Orion in the West , " working under the Prov . G . L . in question . However , a new warrant was issued by the Duke of Sussex , bearing date the 19 th July 1833 , and this is the authority under which Orion in the West now works .
Here , then , we have a Lodge in full working order ten years before it received its legal Warrant of Constitution . Its fees had been duly forwarded to the P . G . L ., and are affirmed to have been transmitted to England , and yet the
Lodge was irregularly constituted . Now , if all this could have happened only forty or fifty years since , when infinitely greater care in keeping proper records was being taken , it is clear that one hundred and forty or fifty years
Credibility Of Early American Masonic History.
ago there would be even greater laxity still . When , therefore , we come across occasional pieces of evidence bearing upon the subject of Freemasonry , we must not too hastily reject them , especially when they , more or less directly , bear out the testimony of known existing records . When ,
in 1861 , the late Dr . Oliver prepared and published a new ( the seventeenth ) edition of Preston ' s Illustrations , it \ A clear he knew but little of the Coxe Deputation . Ho mentions " the establishment , " by the Duke of Norfolk , " by deputation " of " a Provincial Grand Lodgo at New
Jersey , in America , but a few pages further on , with reference to the events of the Grand Mastership of Yiscount Montagu , he quotes , in a foot note , a passage from Webb ' s Monitor , to the effect that " Freemasons' Lodges , in
America , date their origin from this period , and that a deputation' was granted to Henry Price , dated 30 th April 1733 , " & o ., & c , etc . But , by the labours of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , and the researches of Hughau , much new matter has been brono-ht to life . The Coxe
Deputation , granted by the Duke of Norfolk , still exists among the English archives . The excerpts from Franklin ' s Pennsylvania Gazette have been brought under notice , nor
must we overlook a statement made by Bro . MacCalla , that Coxe was at the banquet held after Grand Lodge , on 29 th January 1731 , and that his health was drunk as " Provincial Grand Master of North America . "
We will now continue our comments on Bro . Norton s first letter , and , as regards the latter portion , as well as in his second letter , which appeared last week , we readily acknowledge that he lays down his various propositions far less dogmatically .
5 . Bro . MacCalla ' s list of nine Grand Masters between 1732 and 1741 : as regards three of whom , says Bro . Norton , " Bro . MacCalla proved , from newspaper extracts , that they were so designated , but for the remaining six he furnished no proof whatever , " and then he asks , even if they
were so , " were they legal Grand Masters ? " We confess that , in the absence of direct evidence , it is difficult , nay , it may be , impossible to answer this question . We think : it by no means unlikely that Bro . MacCalla may have been betrayed into a very common error among writers of
Masonic history , ancl endeavoured to give his case more circumstantiality than it is entitled to . We should like , therefore , before framing any reply in connection with the difficulty which Bro . Norton has propounded , to hear the grounds on which Bro . MacCalla has constructed this
succession of Grand Masters . We attach little importance to the election having been annual instead of biennial , on which Bro . Norton seems to lay some stress . We mentioned , last week , that fresh deputations , appointing fresh brethren to preside over Provinces already erected , were
constantly being issued . Preston mentions , among others , one issued by the Earl of Loudon , G . M . 1536-7 , for New England , one by the Earl of Darnley , G . M , 1737-8 , for New York , one by Lord Carysfort , G . M . 1752-4 , for New York , ancl one by the Marquis of Carnarvon , G . M . 1754-7 , "for all
North America , where no former Provincial Grand Master was appointed . " Considering the frequency with which these deputations were issued , not only for American Provinces , but for elsewhere , it is very certain there were no formal regulations for the government of new Provinces ,
and that the strict letter of a deputation was not carried out as scrupulously in the days we are referring to as thoy would be now . It is not , then , a fair deduction to make , that because Bro . MacCalla ' s list of Grand Masters were elected annuall y from 1732 instead of biennially , as they should have been , by the terms of the Coxe Deputation ,