History Of A Crime.

HISTORY OF A CRIME .

BY BRO . J . FLETCHER BRENNAN . AFTER the publication , late in 1870 , of his book on Freemasonry in New Jersey , by Grand Secretary Joseph H . Hough , it became generally known to American Freemasons that in June 1730 , Daniel Coxe , then in London , had received the first Prov . G . M . Deputation ever granted

by the Grand Lodge of England for any part or Province of America . The text of that Deputation had been obtained some seven years previously by Bro . Hough from the then Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of England , and the

same was embodied by Past Grand Master Whitehead , of New Jersey , in his Introduction , of some thirty-two pages , to Bro . Hough ' s volume , of more than seven hundred pages ,

published under the title " Origin of Masonry in the State of New Jersey , and the entire Proceedings of the Grand Lodge , from its first organisation , A . L . 5786 . "

On the second page of this Introduction Bro . Whitehead stated that "Preston , in his ' Illustrated Masonry , ' says that in 1730 he ( the Duke of Norfolk ) established a Grand Lodge , by Deputation at New Jersey , in America . " Next ,

that " m the list of Prov . Grand Masters published by Caloott , in his ' Disquisitions , ' Daniel Coxe is mentioned for New Jersey in 1730 . " Next , that " in an old history of Freemasonry , published in 1754 , " the same fact is

mentioned . Next , that " Dr . Mitchell in his History of Masonry published in 1858 states that Anderson , in his History of Masonry , gives 1729 as the date of a warrant for a Provincial Grand Lodge in New Jersey in America . "

The foregoing being all that at the time it was written , the same being prior to his sight of the text of Daniel Coxe ' s Deputation , was known to Bro . Whitehead , he went on to say , regarding it as a whole , "It will be seen from the

above extracts that the information existing with reference to this subject was so shadowy and unsatisfactory as almost to amount to the vagueness of tradition . " And it remained for the Historical Committee of the Grand Lodgo of New

Jersey to clear up this vagueness in part by obtaining the copy mentioned of Daniel Coxe's Deputation , and which was done in 1863 , by correspondence between the Grand Secretaries of England and New Jersey Grand Lodges ,

initiated by the latter , and the same presented in full on pages vii and viii of Provincial Grand Master Whitehead ' s Introduction to the work of Bro . Hough , published , as stated , in 1870 .

Then for the first time publicly it was discovered that this Deputation was to remain in force two years from its date , and that it included with New Jersey the Provinces of New York and Pennsylvania , and thus it became known

that Coxe was empowered to charter Lodges of Freemasons in either of those three Provinces for two years , when his authority should pass by election in his Provincial Grand

Lodge to a member thereof , as his successor . * But notwithstanding the most earnest efforts by investigators , no evidence whatever was obtained , nor seemingly

obtain-* A curious similarity may be noticed between the provision here made for a successor , and that of L . Dermott ' s , or then Antrim Prov . Grand Lodge Warrant , as seen by the text of that granted to the brethren applying for the same in Halifax , Nora Scotia , in 1784 , the latter being found at p 392 et pass of the Standard History of

Freemasonry by Eebold and Brennan . As this was not the style of such document as issued by the ( Modern ) Grand Lodge of England ' s G . M . a very few years later than 1730 , the question is presented : Was not this independent style of Prov . Grand Lodge Warrant changed from this , the original style , as were several other matters , and nuiuu iur

Luaugca IUIUIOU me gruuuu worn vue DUUIBIU OUB OI WHICH grew tbe Antrim or Athol Grand Lodge of England , and secured it independent existence and much popularity for more than half a century ? As may be seen , on p 367 of the same book , from the very first Prov . Grand Lodge Warrants granted by the Dermott

Grand Lodge , as early as 1757 , when that body commenced , with the Earl of Blessington as its Grand Master , to grant these documents , their subsequent independence was by such provision established , the language there being that the Officers specified in the Warrant shonld " nominate , chuse , and instal their successors , whom they are to invest with their power and dignity , & c . ; and such

successors shall in like manner nominate , chuse , and instal their successors , & c , such installations to be npon or near St . John the Evangelist ' s day , during the continuance of this ( Provincial Grand ) Lodge for ever . Provided that ( the Officers so elected and installed ) such Officers shall and do pay all due respect to the R . W . G . L . of

Ancient Masons , by whom these presents are granted . " On p 424 of the same book is given , in a foot note , as written in 1787 by Dermott himself , what was meant by the above proviso , and that was not a money demand to be paid at any time , but simple recognition of the Ancients Grand Lodge as the body which created the Prov . Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia .

History Of A Crime.

able , that Coxe had used his Deputation to any extent . Nor could there be obtained any evidence that he was in America from the date of his Deputation , 5 th June 1730

until , almost exactly four years afterwards , he arrived and took up his residence in Burlington , New Jersey , as the Associate to the Chief Justice of that Province—an office which he filled until his death in April 1739 .

Thus it will be seen this information , obtained from the text of the Deputation , afforded nothing more satisfactory , and in 1873—for by that time all investigators had withdrawn from the field—left a fine opening for a bold and

unscrupulous person to manufacture some proof that Coxe had in some way chartered at least one Lod ge within his tri-provincial territory , and Philadelphia the city in which such Lodge must have been chartered .

It was well known that as early as 1731 Phila delphia had a Lodge , self-constituted , of Masons , of which William Allen was first W . M ., and who was succeeded in that office by Benjamin Franklin . The only mention of

this Lodge , however , was to be found contemporary in the latter ' s Pennsylvania Gazette . In 1734 Franklin was W . M . of it , and signed his name to letters he addressed in November of that year to Henry Price of Boston as

" B . Franklin G . M . of Pennsylvania . " The principal object of thoso letters was to request that Price do charter this his Lodge by virtue of the larger authority he ( Price ) had caused to be published in Boston newspapers as having

that year received , making him ( Price ) Prov . G . M . for North America , and thus give to his ( Franklin ' s ) Lodge that legitimacy , or , as Franklin expresses it , " that authority from home" ( England ) , such a charter would

confer upon it . But although the original records of Mass . G . L . state that Price had done so , subsequent events contradicted this record , and proved that he did not ; and those events further proved that no chartered Lodge was

extant in Philadelphia until the year 1749 , when in September of that year Benjamin Franklin , under authority of a Prov . Grand Master ' s Deputation , he in the

summer previous received from the English-appointed D . G . Master for North America , Thomas Oxnard , of Boston , chartered and had organised such Lodge .

The year 1870 was memorable for its private and public contributions to the general enlightenment regarding early Masonic legitimacy in America . To settle the question raised after the death of her corresponding Grand

Secretary , Charles W . Moore , Esq ., as to the actual appointment by the Grand Master of Grand Lodge of England in 1733 of Henry Price as Prov . Grand Master , the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts authorised a Committee to investigate

the subject , and the Chairman of that Committee , P . G . Master Heard , went to England , and there he obtained all the information possible , and which , however , failed to satisfactorily attest the affirmative of the subject of his

inquiry . In the same year Bro . Jacob Norton , of Boston , for the first time got access to the ori g inal Massachusetts Masonic Records , and discovered that that book was not written up

until the year 1751 , and which was about eighteen years after the first transactions recorded in it took place . This on the one hand ; while , on the other , nearly all the original memoranda used by the writers of this book in the time of

Henry Price , and doubtless under his direction , having been lost or destroyed , this book alone remained to be recognised as the original record . It may be here remarked that for many years this record book was kept concealed in the

possession of the late C . W . Moore , and who , as Grand Secretary for all the years from 1 844 , when he might be said to take command ofthe Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , nntil he was dethroned in 1867 , did , if one man could

be regarded as doing so , represent the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , and spoke for it ex cathedra through his monthly publication , his Freemasons' Magazine . The stupid mistakes * he in those years thus pu blished