Early History Of Freemasonry In America.

America . " Now , I know , that Price established a G . L . in Boston , in 1733 , and in 1768 , he wrote to the authorities of the G . L . of England that he was the founder of Masonry in America . There is a newspaper still in existence

in Philadelphia of the year 1732 showing that there was a Masonic Lodge there at the time it was printed , consequently , Boston cannot be called the mother of Masonry in America , nor was Price the founder .

2 nd . "Exactly at what date the earliest Lodge was established there ( in Boston ) is not known , just as it is not positively known when the first Lodge was established in Philadelphia . The earliest records are all lost beyond

recovery , so that Ave have to rest satisfied to take up the chain of evidence as near its commencement as Ave can find it . " .

AYill Bro . MacCalla inform us whence he derived the information that a Lodge existed in Boston previous to the year 1733 , and that its records are all lost beyond recovery ? He may not know when the first Lodge in Philadelphia

was established , Tout I never heard of a pre-1733 Lodge , or of its lost records . Brother MacCalla ' s beginning the history of Massachusetts Masonry with a pre-1733 Lodge , etc ., reminds me of a Hibernian acquaintance AVIIO showed

me an extract in a paper from an old book , giving an account of the first settlers in Ireland before the deluge , who were all destroyed by the flood ; and when he asked for my opinion , I told him , " that that may all be true , hit I did not believe it . "

3 rd . " We know , however , that a Provincial Grand Lodge was established in Massachusetts in the year 1733 , by virtue of a charter granted April 30 th , of the same year , hy Anthony , Lord Viscount Montague , Grand Master of

England . " The petition of the members of "the first Lodge , " addressed to Henry Price , in 1733 , shows clearly that Price ' s commission , whatever it was , was dated

April 13 th , 1732 . Viscount Montague was not installed until April 19 th of that year , so that the deputation was really dated six days before Montague was elected and installed . This blunder Avas evidently discovered by Price

ere the deputation was recorded , and so when recording the MS ., the word " thirteenth " Avas changed into " thirtieth . " This theory I advanced in my review of Bro . AY . S . Gardners ' s address , ( see FreemasonAugust 101872 page

, , , 483 . ) Now , when a discrepancy was discovered in the Massachusetts record by the late C . AV . Moore—no matter whether it Avas in the spelling of a name , or some puzzling date—Bro . Moore was very apt to jump just at

the wrong conclusion- and when he once jumped , there Avas no moving him afterwards . Such was the case Avith his naming the English G . M . of 1733 as Viscount Montacute instead of Montague ; and such also Avas the case iu his persisting to print the date of Price ' s deputation April 30 th instead of 13 th .

Our Bro . MacCalla was evidently a firm believer in Bro . Moore ' s dictum , and has therefore fallen into the error with regard to the above-named date . 4 th . " The warrant appointing Henry Price G . M . of North Americawith

, power to constitute Provincial Grand Lodges in Massachusetts and elsewhere upon the Continent of America . " Not so Bro . MacCalla . The Montague deputation , if even it was genuine

, confined the jurisdiction of Price to New England and its territories only . 5 fch . " St . John ' s G . L . Avas established in Masachusetts July 30 , 1733 , and from this G . L . the earliest Lodges in

Pennsylvania , Virginia , Maryland , New Jersey , North Carolina , South Carolina , Ehode Island , New Hampshire , and Connecticut OAved their origin . " The Massachusetts record contains a letter addressedin 1754 to the G . M .

, , of England , praying for the appointment of Gridley as G . M . of that Province , to Avhich is appended the following list of x 2