St. John's Lodge, Philadelphia., Of 1731, And Its Antiquity.

ST . JOHN'S LODGE , PHILADELPHIA ., OF 1731 , AND ITS ANTIQUITY .

To the Editor of the K EYSTONE . London , 19 th Sept . 1887 . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —In an interesting pamphlet published in 1884 , you mention St . John's Lodge , Philadelphia , and state " it is evident that this Lodge was constituted at the close of tho year

1730 , or beginning of the year 1731 , WITH TIUUTEEN . MEMBEUS , tor thirteen of the members first mentioned in this Ledger aro each charged on June 24 , 1731 , with five months previous Lodge dnes . " The Ledger in question was the famous " Liber B ., " discovered by yourself , and of which yon say : " it is evidently not the first Lodge

Book , for that would be ' Liber A ., ' which was probably a previous Ledger , or the Minute Book . " Now the point I wish to snbmifc for your consideration is the following one : Is it not at least as reasonable a conjecture that St . John ' s Lodge had existed for some time before February 1731

( tho date to which five months dues from June in that year would carry it ) , aa that it was originally formed uo earlier than is positively attested by actual entries in Liber B . ? First of all , is there evidence aliunde , of the existence of ALisonic Lodges in Philadelphia before 1731 ? There is . Iu the Pennsylvania

Gazette , No . 108 , December 8 , 1730 , printed by Benjamin Franklin , is the following notice : "As there are several Lodges [ italics mine ] of FREEMASONS erected in this Province , and people have lately been much amused with conjectures concerning them , we think the following account of

Freemasonry , from London , will not be unacceptable to our readers . Here , then , the fact of there being , in 1730 , not ono only , but several Lodges at work in the Province , is satisfactorily established . At this stage , of course , we must fall back upon conjecture , as there is no earlier evidence to guide ns , but the existence of a plurality of

Lodges in 1730 , will , at least in my judgment , fairly warrant the assumption that the first erection of a Lodge in Philadelphia must have ocourred some years previously . To return to Liber B . What can this be bnt the continuation of an older record ?

Next , do the earliest entries in Liber B . date , as it were , from June 24 , 1731 , or from a previous period ? Or , in other words , was William Allen elected " Grand Master" on St . John ' s Day ( in Harvest ) , 1733 , or earlier ? The existing records , I apprehend , speak from Jnno 24 , 1731 , and

if so , there is no certainty whether Alien was elected to the chair on that or at a previous date . " William Button , late Master , " is charged ( in Liber B . ) "To fonr Lodge days , at 6 d . per diem , due before yon sail'd to Newfoundland . "

This appears under the date of June 24 , 1731 . So that , assuming Button ' s liabilities to havo commenced like the rest , in February of that year , his demission must have occurred after tho May meeting . If , moreover , Button was the actual " Master " ( or Grand Alaster ) in Alay 1731 , Allen must have taken his place on the St . John ' s Day

next ensuing . This would tend to fix the date of Button ' s election ( or last election ) to the chair at June 24 , 1730 ; though if Allen was already " Grand Alaster" in February 1731 , the selection of the latter to preside over them by tho members of the Lodge ( unless the actual

entries in Liber B . aro held to operate as an entoppel upon our backward search ) must in snch case be also carriod back to midsummer 1730 , thereby dislodging , as it were , the previous assumption . Button ' s tenure of office , if we accept or entertain the latter of these suppositions , would then be pushed back , and extend from

June 1729 to June 1730 ? Bat as Alasters were eligible for re-election , it is quite as likely as not that Button may have served more than one term of office ; also ,

it is especially within the limits of probability , that even before tho period of Lodge activity , of which the missing Liber A . contains the record , there may havo been a long series of meetings conducted on no other basis than that of oral communication .

If , indeed , St . John's Lodgo , 1731 , was a new creation of that year , it would seem to me a little difficult to acconnt for the total disappearance of the several Lodges , known to be in existence in 1730 , but of which we hear absolutely nothing at any later date , for " the false and rebel Brethren , being foreigners , " to whom Franklin

alludes in his well-known letter to Price , were only " about to set up a Lodge " in November 1734 . Surely , the most reasonable assumption i 3 that St . John's Lodge , 1 / 31 , formed one of tho several Lodges mentioned by Franklin in the previous year ?

Ihe Coxe deputation , the Bell letter , and the Pocket Companion , 1 / 35 , have all been misleading , as tending to tho development of what has been happily styled by , I think , Professor Tyndal " scientific imagination , " which has led most of us in our respective turns far astray .

Putting aside , therefore , what might havo happened under tho Patent of Daniel Coxe ; the positive statement in the Bell letter ( as being inadmissible in evidence ) ; and the entry in the Pocket Companion ( as reposing upon a series of conjectures ) , let us consider tho actual facts , about which there is no conflict of opinions .

We find , then , the existence of St . John ' s Lodge in February 1731 , attested by its own records , of which , however , so far as any conclusion 18 ^ permissible , only the second volume has come down to us . What Liber A . may or did contain we cannot tell , but that it lengthened tho pedigree of the Lodge , to some extent at least , is an inference

that we shall be justified iu drawing . This will carry ns back to 1 / 30 , when we join hand 3 , so to speak , with Benjamin Frankliu , before his admission into the Society , aud wo learn from him that there were then several Lodges iu the Province . Th . ua tho existence of St . John ' s Lodge , in 1730 , is shown to be fairly within tho limits of probabilit y , by evidence from two dtetbcfc quavfcoi'S . Whore the

St. John's Lodge, Philadelphia., Of 1731, And Its Antiquity.

" several" Lodges at work in that year were respectively located ia unknown , and it must be left to local antiquaries to estimate the probability , or the reverse , of all the said Lodges being holden at Philadelphia , the capital . We only learn from Franklin that they existed in the Proviuce , aud but a single one—let ns say

" St . John ' s" itself—may have been erected at Philadelphia . " St . John's Lodges , " as they were called , or Lodges meeting by inherent right , were not uncommon in those days , and it seems tome quite as likely that tho Alasonsof Philadelphia should have assembled in this way , as the Allisons of Gibraltar , who undoubtedly did in 1721 ( cf . my History of Freemasonry , ii . 384 ) . Yours fraternally , E . F . GOULD .

" GOOD OLD AIADEIRA . "—There is a prevalent belief amongst connoisseurs that—save , perhaps , in the sacred and innermost recesses of the oellurs of some of our ancient City Companiesscarcely a bottle of " good old Madeira " cau be obtained , for love or money , Probably thero may be some grouud for this apprehension ,

though it is prompted rather by lack of information on the subject than by hard dry fact . It is beyond question that some of our ancient Guilds took care , in years gone by , to lay in a store of this goodly luxury , samples of which are placed proudly before their guesti on great civic or other public occasions . But it is by no

means to bo conceded that they enjoy the monopoly they ouce possessed in this respect . We have recently had tlie pleasure of visiting the stores of Alessrs . Cossart , Gordon and Co ., of Madeira , who are admittedly the oldest and by far the largest shippers of Madeira wines , and we gather from the combined opinions of many

competent judges that the specialities now being submitted by this firm are fully equal , if not superior , to any that have hitherto been introduced to wine drinker * in this country . The wineu are of a singularly choice character with highly-developed bouquet and exquisite flavour . By the experience of over a century of vine culture in the

most favoured district of the Island , Alessrs . Cossart , Gordon and Co . have developed wines of most rare and delicate growth , which are eagerly sought after all over the world , and which have made their name famous as shippers of Madeira . If proof of this were needed , it is sufficient to note that in 1885 this firm shipped nearly one-half

of the total exports of wine from the Island , and that although the total exports have increased by only 68 per cent , in seven years , the demand for their brands has increased by 200 per cent . We have heard it stated that quite recently Alessrs . W . and A . Gilbey ordered

from this firm a consignment of 8 , 000 pipes of AIadeira , representing a total bulk of 80 , 000 gallons . We recommend our readers to procure such quantities as they may desire through their respective wine merchants .

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