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Article TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1 of 1 Article REVIEW OF G. M. GARDNER'S ADDRESS ON HENRY PRICE. Page 1 of 3 Article REVIEW OF G. M. GARDNER'S ADDRESS ON HENRY PRICE. Page 1 of 3 Article REVIEW OF G. M. GARDNER'S ADDRESS ON HENRY PRICE. Page 1 of 3 →
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Table Of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Review of G . M . Gardner ' s Address on Henry Price ... 495 Freemasonry in Greece 497 Consecration of a Royal Arch Chapter at Tret ' egar ... 497 C ORRESPONDENCE : — The Ballot for "W . M 499
Knight Templary v . Good Templary 499 American Royal Arch Statistics 499 Masonic Tidings 499 1 he Progress of Freemasonry and its Consequences 500 CHAFT MASONRY : —
Provincial 500 Rov A 1 . Ancn : — Metropolitan 502 ANCIENT AND A CCEPTED R ITE : —
Provincial 502 The Orders of the Temple and Hospital 502 Grand Rose Croix Chapter of Ireland 505 Masonic Meetings for ncxt week 506 Advertisements 493 , 494 , 507 , 508
Review Of G. M. Gardner's Address On Henry Price.
REVIEW OF G . M . GARDNER'S ADDRESS ON HENRY PRICE .
BY BRO . J ACOB NORTON * , OF BOSTON , U . S . fCniltinucd from page . 484 J The next argument to support Bro . Gardner ' s "how was it possible" theory is Governor Belcher .
Belcher was a native of Massachusetts ; he claimed to have been initiated in England in 1704 . In 1730 , he became Governor of New England . The only Masonic act recorded of
Belcher , was , that in 17 . 36 , he dined with the Masons in Boston on St . John ' s day- he however neither belonged to the Lodge , nor the Master Mason ' s Lodge . In 1741 he was succeeded as
Governor by Shirley , and in 174 , 3 , he once more went to England office seeking ; previous to his departure , the members of Lodge presented him with a " Buncombe " letter of recommendation
thanking him for the many favours ' and protection to the Craft , etc . In 1744 he visited the G . L . of England , probably in order t-9 become acquainted with the nobility that belonged to it , and
from an extract from the Record , sent to me by the R . W . Bro . Hervey it appears , that after the cloth was removed , and the brethren had become jolly with drinking healths , Bro Belcher seized
the opportunity to exhibit his letter , and at the same time presented a guinea ( probabl y out of his own pocket ) in behalf of the Boston Lodge ,
when Bro . Belcher ' s health " was drunk with ceremony " . This is all the information Bro . Gardner knows about Governor Belcher ' s Mason ^
ry , and all the rest he gives us is mere imagination This may suffice for the G . L . of "Massachusetts , but no -one outside of that G . L . will take imagination as evidence .
The next argument of Bro . Gardner which deserves notice is , that the Earl of Loudoun , ' who was Grand Master of England in 1 7 56 , when
lomluisoii received his Deputation , that the said Earl was in Boston in January , 1757 , and dined with the Masons . There we have the same
imaginings repeated , as 111 the case of Tomlinson thus , the Earl must haVe been introduced to Price at the banquet , and must have been told
that he was appointed by Viscount Montague , uul on the Earl ' s return to England he must have told the G . L . all about Price and the
Boston G . L . etc . Now the plain matter offac was this . Thc Earl of Loudoun was a Scotch nobleman , hc had no seat in the House of Lords
and consequently did not visit London , except "when he was a !* tt * r th-.- Ministry for an appointment lo sonic office , in 17 -fi th » Earl was
Review Of G. M. Gardner's Address On Henry Price.
appointed Commander-in-chief of the American Provincial Army , and Governor of Virginia . In a recent publication issued by the Common Council of the City of New York , the Earl is
described as having been very unpopular . In January , 1757 , he was iu Boston on political business , when G . M . Gridley got up a dinner for him , at which dinner , Price , dressed in his wig »
queue , straight buttoned coat , etc , was no doubt introduced to the Earl , as having been appointed by Viscount Montague in 173 , 3 . Now what could the Scotch Earl have known what
Montague did , or did not , in 1733 ? The Earl doubtless never heard of Price , nor of his appointment by Montague , and hence when Bro . Gridley introduced Bro . Price , as a P . G . M ., the Earl took it
as a matter of course . Price undoubtedly did not express himself in the best King ' s English , but what of it ; did he not wear a wig with queue , and a fine straight buttoned coat , and
the Earl undoubtedly must have seen more than one rich nabob in his day , whose English was paltry , there was therefore nothing in Price ' s appearance to excite the Earl ' s suspicion , and
consequently he asked no question . Furthermore , there is no proof whatever , that after the Earl ' s return to England , that he ever again visited the G . L . or had ever seen any of
the Grand Oflicers , or that he was ever again in London at all . In answer to Bro Gardner ' s question , "how was it possible that the G . L . of England , had never heard of Price , because about a dozen Masons had returned from Boston to
England between s 733 and 1 - jOS , I would ask Bro . Gardner how was it possible for the Grand Lodge of England to have been acquainted with the misdoings of the Boston Grand Masters , without
publicl y having called them to account . An upright man will perform his obligations , not because he must , but because he regards it his duty to do so . Now every one installed into the oflice of G . M . obligated himself to fulfil
the duties enjoined in the "Warrant under which he acted . Among the duties of a Provincial G . M . was to render annually an account to the G . L . of the lodges constituted by him ,
and to remit foi each new lotlge two guineas to the charity fund . Whether the G . L . of England received " anything for the first Lodge , I know not . It is evident , however , from Bro .
Hervey ' s letter to me , that when the Lodge was printed in the Calendar in 1737 , that the G . S . or whoever else suprintendetl the printing ofthe said work , did not know when the Boston
Lodge was constituted . The probability is , that wheiiTonilinson ' s petition for a Deputation was received a letter may have informed the authorities that there was a Lodge in Boston . Such a thing
was not uncommon in the ear !* , ' days of G . L . history , for instance , in 173 a , there was alread y a Lodge in Philadelphia , and in 1734 , Franklin called himself a G . M . I have no doubt , that
had Franklin then petitioned the G . L . of England i ' or a Charter , or for a Deputation , and stated at the same time that there was already
a Lodge established in Philadel phia , that thc G . L . of England would not . have troubled itself to ascertain when , and by whom the Lodge was established , and would have granted the prayer of ( In * peliiion , pro \ i'lin ;*; , i >! " com * v , dial the petitioner could give respectable references .
Review Of G. M. Gardner's Address On Henry Price.
Then again , about 1751 or 52 , a clandestine Lodge was established in Boston , who initiated persons into Masonry without the least authority from any G . L ., and in 17 _ 6 , the G . L . of Scotland
granted these very clandestine Masons a charter . Now , as already said , with Tomlinson ' s petition information may also have been conveyed of the existence of a Masonic society in
Boston , without letting the G . L . know when or by whom it was established , and in next issue of the Calendar , the lodge of Boston , was mentioned without any date of its ori gin . Subsequently some
one informed a G . S . that the lodge was organised in 17 , 33 , so he took his pen and wrote into thc Calendar the above date . ' But be this as it may ; between 1733 and 1768 , Price and Co . have
constituted no less than forty lodges , and all which time the G . L . of England was cognizant of the existence of one solitary lodge onljv viz ., that of 1733 . Now , was this honest , or otherwise ?
Again , owing I suppose , to the visit of the Earl of Loudoun , in 1757 , the Boston G . L . took & spasmodic fit , and issued circulars to all its lodges , demanding three guineas from each
lodge , for the purpose of sending the money to England to have the lodges enrolled on the English register . How many lodges complied , I do not know . In 17 C 0 , or 61 , similar circulars
were again issued , when a lodge in Providence , sent back a receipt for three guineas , which it had paid in 1757 , and expressed surprise that the money had not already been sent to England ,
but it was not until 1768 that Price remitted the money for that very lodge , and then p leaded in his letter that " accident had prevented sending the money before . "
But that is not all . To the lodges here , it was represented that the G . L . of England demanded three guineas from each lodge , while in reality , there was but ei ght guineas paid in 176 S
for the constitution of four lodges . Was that honest ? Again , in 1772 , a new lodge was organized in Boston , when the G . L . voted to send three guineas to England , which , of course (
the new lodge must have paid before it was constituted , but that money was never sent to England . Now if tho Grand Masters of England had known anything about the characteristics of
the Boston leaders , Messrs . Price and Co . would have been rebuked as a pack of unprincipled dodgers . The very fact that every time a Boston G . M . died , the Grand Masters of England , sent
new Deputations , is the best proof of the total ignorance of thc English authorities about the characters of the Boston Masons , and of the state of Masonry in this country .
Nor can I see why Bro . Gardner should deem Price ' s imposition as impossible . A very similar ease , Bro . Gardner knows , has occurred ill Charleston , S . C , in 1768 . A party of Masons
headed by Frederic Dalcho , pretended that Fredrick the Great added to the twenty-live decrees then practised in France , eight additional degrees and they further pretended having ieceived a
patent , signed by Frederick the Great , creating Messrs . Dalcho and Co , Sovereign Grand Commanders , etc . In 1802 , thc Charleston worthies
issued a pompous document to that effect , and in 180 . 1 ., the Grand Orient of Franco was * ci 111-(•i-lled in ad . - ipt , 'he ei . dil .-i .-ldilional degic . *' - * , with ihe Frederick the Great story , into its svslvni .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Table Of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Review of G . M . Gardner ' s Address on Henry Price ... 495 Freemasonry in Greece 497 Consecration of a Royal Arch Chapter at Tret ' egar ... 497 C ORRESPONDENCE : — The Ballot for "W . M 499
Knight Templary v . Good Templary 499 American Royal Arch Statistics 499 Masonic Tidings 499 1 he Progress of Freemasonry and its Consequences 500 CHAFT MASONRY : —
Provincial 500 Rov A 1 . Ancn : — Metropolitan 502 ANCIENT AND A CCEPTED R ITE : —
Provincial 502 The Orders of the Temple and Hospital 502 Grand Rose Croix Chapter of Ireland 505 Masonic Meetings for ncxt week 506 Advertisements 493 , 494 , 507 , 508
Review Of G. M. Gardner's Address On Henry Price.
REVIEW OF G . M . GARDNER'S ADDRESS ON HENRY PRICE .
BY BRO . J ACOB NORTON * , OF BOSTON , U . S . fCniltinucd from page . 484 J The next argument to support Bro . Gardner ' s "how was it possible" theory is Governor Belcher .
Belcher was a native of Massachusetts ; he claimed to have been initiated in England in 1704 . In 1730 , he became Governor of New England . The only Masonic act recorded of
Belcher , was , that in 17 . 36 , he dined with the Masons in Boston on St . John ' s day- he however neither belonged to the Lodge , nor the Master Mason ' s Lodge . In 1741 he was succeeded as
Governor by Shirley , and in 174 , 3 , he once more went to England office seeking ; previous to his departure , the members of Lodge presented him with a " Buncombe " letter of recommendation
thanking him for the many favours ' and protection to the Craft , etc . In 1744 he visited the G . L . of England , probably in order t-9 become acquainted with the nobility that belonged to it , and
from an extract from the Record , sent to me by the R . W . Bro . Hervey it appears , that after the cloth was removed , and the brethren had become jolly with drinking healths , Bro Belcher seized
the opportunity to exhibit his letter , and at the same time presented a guinea ( probabl y out of his own pocket ) in behalf of the Boston Lodge ,
when Bro . Belcher ' s health " was drunk with ceremony " . This is all the information Bro . Gardner knows about Governor Belcher ' s Mason ^
ry , and all the rest he gives us is mere imagination This may suffice for the G . L . of "Massachusetts , but no -one outside of that G . L . will take imagination as evidence .
The next argument of Bro . Gardner which deserves notice is , that the Earl of Loudoun , ' who was Grand Master of England in 1 7 56 , when
lomluisoii received his Deputation , that the said Earl was in Boston in January , 1757 , and dined with the Masons . There we have the same
imaginings repeated , as 111 the case of Tomlinson thus , the Earl must haVe been introduced to Price at the banquet , and must have been told
that he was appointed by Viscount Montague , uul on the Earl ' s return to England he must have told the G . L . all about Price and the
Boston G . L . etc . Now the plain matter offac was this . Thc Earl of Loudoun was a Scotch nobleman , hc had no seat in the House of Lords
and consequently did not visit London , except "when he was a !* tt * r th-.- Ministry for an appointment lo sonic office , in 17 -fi th » Earl was
Review Of G. M. Gardner's Address On Henry Price.
appointed Commander-in-chief of the American Provincial Army , and Governor of Virginia . In a recent publication issued by the Common Council of the City of New York , the Earl is
described as having been very unpopular . In January , 1757 , he was iu Boston on political business , when G . M . Gridley got up a dinner for him , at which dinner , Price , dressed in his wig »
queue , straight buttoned coat , etc , was no doubt introduced to the Earl , as having been appointed by Viscount Montague in 173 , 3 . Now what could the Scotch Earl have known what
Montague did , or did not , in 1733 ? The Earl doubtless never heard of Price , nor of his appointment by Montague , and hence when Bro . Gridley introduced Bro . Price , as a P . G . M ., the Earl took it
as a matter of course . Price undoubtedly did not express himself in the best King ' s English , but what of it ; did he not wear a wig with queue , and a fine straight buttoned coat , and
the Earl undoubtedly must have seen more than one rich nabob in his day , whose English was paltry , there was therefore nothing in Price ' s appearance to excite the Earl ' s suspicion , and
consequently he asked no question . Furthermore , there is no proof whatever , that after the Earl ' s return to England , that he ever again visited the G . L . or had ever seen any of
the Grand Oflicers , or that he was ever again in London at all . In answer to Bro Gardner ' s question , "how was it possible that the G . L . of England , had never heard of Price , because about a dozen Masons had returned from Boston to
England between s 733 and 1 - jOS , I would ask Bro . Gardner how was it possible for the Grand Lodge of England to have been acquainted with the misdoings of the Boston Grand Masters , without
publicl y having called them to account . An upright man will perform his obligations , not because he must , but because he regards it his duty to do so . Now every one installed into the oflice of G . M . obligated himself to fulfil
the duties enjoined in the "Warrant under which he acted . Among the duties of a Provincial G . M . was to render annually an account to the G . L . of the lodges constituted by him ,
and to remit foi each new lotlge two guineas to the charity fund . Whether the G . L . of England received " anything for the first Lodge , I know not . It is evident , however , from Bro .
Hervey ' s letter to me , that when the Lodge was printed in the Calendar in 1737 , that the G . S . or whoever else suprintendetl the printing ofthe said work , did not know when the Boston
Lodge was constituted . The probability is , that wheiiTonilinson ' s petition for a Deputation was received a letter may have informed the authorities that there was a Lodge in Boston . Such a thing
was not uncommon in the ear !* , ' days of G . L . history , for instance , in 173 a , there was alread y a Lodge in Philadelphia , and in 1734 , Franklin called himself a G . M . I have no doubt , that
had Franklin then petitioned the G . L . of England i ' or a Charter , or for a Deputation , and stated at the same time that there was already
a Lodge established in Philadel phia , that thc G . L . of England would not . have troubled itself to ascertain when , and by whom the Lodge was established , and would have granted the prayer of ( In * peliiion , pro \ i'lin ;*; , i >! " com * v , dial the petitioner could give respectable references .
Review Of G. M. Gardner's Address On Henry Price.
Then again , about 1751 or 52 , a clandestine Lodge was established in Boston , who initiated persons into Masonry without the least authority from any G . L ., and in 17 _ 6 , the G . L . of Scotland
granted these very clandestine Masons a charter . Now , as already said , with Tomlinson ' s petition information may also have been conveyed of the existence of a Masonic society in
Boston , without letting the G . L . know when or by whom it was established , and in next issue of the Calendar , the lodge of Boston , was mentioned without any date of its ori gin . Subsequently some
one informed a G . S . that the lodge was organised in 17 , 33 , so he took his pen and wrote into thc Calendar the above date . ' But be this as it may ; between 1733 and 1768 , Price and Co . have
constituted no less than forty lodges , and all which time the G . L . of England was cognizant of the existence of one solitary lodge onljv viz ., that of 1733 . Now , was this honest , or otherwise ?
Again , owing I suppose , to the visit of the Earl of Loudoun , in 1757 , the Boston G . L . took & spasmodic fit , and issued circulars to all its lodges , demanding three guineas from each
lodge , for the purpose of sending the money to England to have the lodges enrolled on the English register . How many lodges complied , I do not know . In 17 C 0 , or 61 , similar circulars
were again issued , when a lodge in Providence , sent back a receipt for three guineas , which it had paid in 1757 , and expressed surprise that the money had not already been sent to England ,
but it was not until 1768 that Price remitted the money for that very lodge , and then p leaded in his letter that " accident had prevented sending the money before . "
But that is not all . To the lodges here , it was represented that the G . L . of England demanded three guineas from each lodge , while in reality , there was but ei ght guineas paid in 176 S
for the constitution of four lodges . Was that honest ? Again , in 1772 , a new lodge was organized in Boston , when the G . L . voted to send three guineas to England , which , of course (
the new lodge must have paid before it was constituted , but that money was never sent to England . Now if tho Grand Masters of England had known anything about the characteristics of
the Boston leaders , Messrs . Price and Co . would have been rebuked as a pack of unprincipled dodgers . The very fact that every time a Boston G . M . died , the Grand Masters of England , sent
new Deputations , is the best proof of the total ignorance of thc English authorities about the characters of the Boston Masons , and of the state of Masonry in this country .
Nor can I see why Bro . Gardner should deem Price ' s imposition as impossible . A very similar ease , Bro . Gardner knows , has occurred ill Charleston , S . C , in 1768 . A party of Masons
headed by Frederic Dalcho , pretended that Fredrick the Great added to the twenty-live decrees then practised in France , eight additional degrees and they further pretended having ieceived a
patent , signed by Frederick the Great , creating Messrs . Dalcho and Co , Sovereign Grand Commanders , etc . In 1802 , thc Charleston worthies
issued a pompous document to that effect , and in 180 . 1 ., the Grand Orient of Franco was * ci 111-(•i-lled in ad . - ipt , 'he ei . dil .-i .-ldilional degic . *' - * , with ihe Frederick the Great story , into its svslvni .