The Mother City Of American Masonry.

tinct Lodge , in opposition to tho old and truo Brethren here , pretending to mako Masons for a bowl of punch . " Tho two documents wero aliko signed " B . Franklin G . M ., " and Prico granted the required Deputation to Franklin accordingly . Remarks . —Had Franklin ' s Grand Lodgo derived its authority in tho first place from Cox ' s Deputation , and had Franklin obeyed the

injunction to keop up an annual communication with tho Grand Master of England , he would not havo needed the sanction 0 / some authority from home , or from Mr . Price , to prove the legality of his Grand Lodge . Nor did Franklin in theso documents refer to Cox , or givo tho least hint about Cox . But , on tho contrary , the whole tenour of the above petition implies a consciousness on tho part of Franklin

that his Grand Lodgo had novor received any kind of " sanction from home . " And , on the other hand , Henry Trico claimed that ho sont a Charter for tho first Lodgo at Philadelphia , and that "it was tho beginning of Masonry there , " which certainly show 3 that , up to 1734 , the Philadelphia organisation was bogus . Had wo , however , beeu sure of Price ' s claim of an extension of his

authority in 1734 , and of his sending a Chartor to Philadelphia , & c ., legal Masonry would then havo dated in Philadelphia from 1734 , but , unfortunately , no Grand Lodgo was held in London in August 1734 j Prico never received such an oxtonsion of power , and ho novor sent a Deputation to Philadelphia ; tho Henry Price theory is therefore untenable .

5 th . Bro . MacCalla , of tho Keystone , furmshod tho names of nine Grand Masters of Pennsylvania , who succeeded each other between 1732 and 1741 . Remarks . —For three of the nine Grand Masters , Bro . MacCalla proved , from newspaper extracts , that they were so designated , but for tho remaining six he furnished no proof whatever . But , supposing

it was so , the question still remains : Were they legal Grand Masters ? Furthermore , Cox was appointed for two years , from 24 th June 1730 , and his deputation ordained that his successors " are hereby empowered every other year , on tho Feast of tho Baptist , to elect a Provincial G . M . " Now , what does " every other year " in tho above quotation mean ? Without letting oat any reason why or wherefore ,

I questioned the Eev . Bro . Titus , G . Secretary of Massachusetts , about its meaning , and he replied "it means biennial elections . " Cox was to hold the office for two years , and his successors wero commanded to hold their election " every other year , " meaning every alternate year , if this is the truo definition , which 1 think it is , tho Philadelphians who electod their Grand Masters , from 1732 annually , could

not havo derived their authority from Cox ' s Deputation . 6 th . —From a letter dated 17 th November 1754 , from Henry Boll , said to be still in existence , the following quotation was produced : — " As you know , I was ono of the originators of the 1 st Blasonic Lodgo of Philadelphia . A party of us used to meet at the Sun Tavern , in Water-street , and sometimes opened a Lodgo thero . Once ,

in tho fall of 1730 , wo formed a design of obtaining a charter for a regular Lodge , and made application to tho Grand Lodgo of England for one , but before wo received it , wo heard that Daniel Cox , of New Jersey , had been appointed by that Grand Lodgo as Provincial G . M . for New York , Now Jersey , and Pennsylvania ; wo therefore mado application to him , and our request was granted . "

Remarks . —Who was Henry Bell ? when was tho charter granted ? how did that lotter come to light ? and whero is it ? The only authority for tho oxistenco of that letter is , that an orator said so . But tho time has passed for Masons to give credence to American Masonic orators , editors , encyclopaedists , and book makers . No one

in Boston believes in the existence of such a letter , and even the well known Bro . Leon Hyneman , formerly editor of tho Mirror and Keystone at Philadelphia , disbelieves in its genuineness ; and , until that letter is produced , this kind of evidence cannot _ be taken into consideration .

7 th . —Bro . Hughan , unearthed , in 18 y 5 , a Dublin Pocket Companion of 1735 , which contains a mixed-up list of Irish and English Lod"os and to what should havo been numbered in the English list as 79 is annexed—that it met at the Hoop in Philadelphia } therefore , say the Philadolphians , that Lodge , No . 79 , must have been chartered by the Grand Lodge of England .

Remarks . —In the Pocket Companion , printed in London in 1735 and in 1736 , No . 79 , in both editions , was left blank , implying that the Lodge was extinct . Bro . Hughan thinks that tho London publication of 1735 was a reprint of the Dublin one of the same year . I think , that most likely ib was the roverse . But bo that as it may the discovery must only add to the confusion of statements thus : —

Franklin s Grand Lodge , in 1732 , met at tho Sun Tavern , Water , street j Bell has it that his Lodge met iu 1730 , at the Tun Tavernwhile our Dublin authority has it neither Sun nor Tun , but Hoop in Water-street . Now whether the printer confounded Sun with Tun is immaterial , but what has the Hoop to do with it ? I shall soon exhibit two Lodge lists , viz ., of 1733 and 1734 , in which

lists No . / 9 , and 79 only , is blank . Now , whether the Dublin copy of 1735 was a reprint from the London edition , or whether the Dublin editor copied his English Lodge list from soma other source , I have good reason to assumo that the English list from which he copied had its No . 79 blank , the same as tho above named lists wero . It is therefore probable that some recent returned Dublin Pennsylvanian

perhaps a sea Captain , informed tho Dublin editor that ho had visited a Lodge at tho Hoop in Philadelphia , but knew nothing about its Number . Then a lucky thought must have struck our Hibernian brother , and I cau almost imagiue heaving him exclaim — " Aha ! sure enough ! There is a Lodgo without a number , and here is a No . 79

without a Lodgo . Shnre ! hero must bo there , and there must be here ; " and so he put this and that together , and made it read that " 79 , the Hoop , in Water-stroot , in Philadelphia , 1 st Monday , " while in reality tho Hoop Lodgo may havo been the very Lodge that set itself up in opposition to tho older Lodge , and " made Masons for a bowl of punch . " Suppose , however , that tho London Pocket Companion was a reprint of tho Dublin one , it would simply imply that tho London

The Mother City Of American Masonry.

editor saw the blunder annexed to No . 79 in tho Irish edition , and consequently omitted it from his own list . Tho Lodgo lists unearthed by Bro . Hughan aro , 1 st Pine ' s List of 1734 , containing 12 S Lodges , with dates of constitution , days and places of meeting attached to most of them . The last Lodge on tho list i 3 thus given , " 128 , Duko of Marlborough , Poticoate-lane ,

White Chapell , Third Fry d . Novem . yo 5 th 1734 . " Between the last-named date , and tho previous December 27 th , six Lodges aro inserted without dates of their Charters . No . 126 is assigned to " Boston , New England . " Tho discovery of the Boston Lodgo on a 1731 list confirmed an opinion I had formerly entertained , viz ., that Price brought with him a Charter for a Lodge in 1733 to Boston ,

but it was not to bo registered until tho Grand Secretary in London received tho news that tho Lodgo was actually constituted ; the news must havo reached London in July , or early in August 1734 , and the Grand Secretary must have acknowledged the receipt of the Boston letter in the month of August , and I think it highly probablo that the story magnified by Prico in the Boston prints of

having received an extension of his powers from a Grand Lodgo held there ( in London ) in August lasb , was simply suggested by tho receipt of the said letter . The 2 nd list I found in tho Freemasons' Magazine , London 1855 , p . 84 ; the finding of this list set me to work anew in investigating tho subject . I , however , soon found out that Bro . Hughan wa 3

cognizant of the existence of that list . The said list was compiled by Dr . Eawlinson , LL . D . and F . E . S ., in 1733 . Tho MS . is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford . This list enumerates 116 Lodges , with places whero each held its meeting , but with no dates when constituted . But as Pine's list gives the date of No . 116 between March and July 1733 , it must have been compiled in 1733 , and it is

a curious fact that in both of the above described lists No . 79 is blank . Hero then I have shown lists of 1733 , 1734 , 1735 , and 1736 , and all bear testimony that No . 79 was a dead Lodge during that period . And furthermore , in no English list whatever can a Philadelphia Lodge be found . And if Philadelphia did not havo a charter from England up to 1736 , where did it get one from ?

In conclusion , I must confess that the Colonial Boston Provincial Grand Masters were faithless to the Grand Lodge of England , and were otherwise unreliable in their statements and proceedings . In tho record they boast of having chartered about forty Lodges during the Colonial period : but up to 1768 no other Lodge was known iu London but the Boston 1733 Lodge ; in that year , 1768 , they paid in

England for four more Lodges , but for the rest they never paid a shilling . Now the truth is , they did not constitute more than about thirty to thirty-five Lodges ; soabout fifty guineas aro yot due from the Boston Masons to the Grand Lodgo of England . Nor do I bolieve in Bro . Price ' s Grand Mastership and some other things . But it cannot be denied that No . 126 was tho first logally constituted Lodgo in

America . Whilo , therefore , in a limited sense , on account of the Lodges that existed in Philadelphia in 1730 and 1731 , Philadelphia may claim American Masonic Mothership , yet , as thero is not a particlo of proof that thoso Lodges wero legitimato and regular , and as there is now no doubt that the 1733 Boston Lodgo was legitimate , from a legal standpoint , therefore , Boston is entitled to call itself " the Mother of American Masonry . "

Boston , U . S ., 13 fch July 1877 .

Opening Of A New Masonic Hall At Bournemouth.

OPENING OF A NEW MASONIC HALL AT BOURNEMOUTH .

AN interesting ceremony in connection with the Hengist Lodge , No . 195 , took place at Bournemouth on Friday , 20 th inst ., when the handsome new Hall lately erected in St . Michael ' s Eise , was dedicated according to the ancient custom of the Craft . The Prov . Grand Master Bro . W . W . B . Beach M . P . had consented to perform the ceremony , and he was accompanied by the following Provincial

Officers : —Bros . Captain Best P . P . G . W . as Deputy Prov . Grand Master , H . Abraham S . G . W ., F . Pineo J . G . W ., M . E . Frost Prov . G . Treas ., J . E . Le Feuvio Prov . G . Sec , E . G . Holbrook Prov . G . B , eg ., J . Puntis Prov . G . D . C ., S . S . Pearce Prov . G . S . D ., J . B . Atkinson Prov . G . J . D ., C . A . Dyer P . G . S . B ., G . F . Sherman and Newbery P . G . Stewards , and the following Past Provincial Officers : —Bros . G . S .

Lancaster P . P . G . W ., J . B . Thomas P . P . G . D ., & c . There was a numerous attendance of members of the Lodge and Visitors , ineluding Bros . John Hervey Grand Secretary of England , Eev . T . Pearselato D . P . G . M . of Dorset , C . W . Wyndham P . P . S . G . W . Dorset , Sir H . Drummond Wolff M . P ., H . D . Cartwright ( Grand Lodge of India ) , W . B . Sogers , E . W . Eebbeck , J . B . Goddard , J . McWilliam ,

D . Sydenham , P . Tuck , and A . Briant , P . M . 's of the Hengist Lodge , and the following Officors of the Lodge : —Bros . J . Druitt jun . W . M ., W . Merson S . W ., W . J . Worth J . W ., J . N . Frye S . D ., A . H . Jolliffe Sec , Eowland Hill Chaplain . The Hengist Lodge , which is one of tho oldest in tho Province , was formerly held at Christchurch , and has seen many vicissitudes ;

but of lato years has made very rapid progress , and it was determined by the members to have a building of their own in which to hold their meetings . Accordingly a site was selected , and in the early part of the year the foundation stono of tho now Lodgo was laid by the Prov . Grand Master , Bro . Beach , who now attended to complete tho work . The new building contains on the ground floor a hall 45 ft .

by 21 ft . 6 in ., which will afford accommodation for moro than 100 brethren . On this floor aro also a retiring-room and other conveniences . In the basement are a refreshment-room and kitchen . Tho front of tho building is faced with whito brick and Bero freestone , and is after tho Tuscan order of architecture . The contract for tho building , amounting to £ 896 , was carried out by Mr . J . Mo William . Tho architect is Mr , T . Stevens , of Bournemouth , who , haying rogard ,