Early History Of American Freemasonry, Once More.

this belief , that I even Avrote to the Freemason earl y in 1873 about it ; but am sorry to say , the communication Avas not printed . In that article I took occasion to confess an error I made in my review of the Price address , August 17 th ,

1872 . I suppose that the date of the Byelaws , October 24 th , 1733 , did not correspond with the regular lodge night of the lodge , while October 24 th , 1753 , does correspond with its regular night , and advanced this as a point in argument to SIIOAV that the date was altered . This , however , was only one of my reasons on that subject . Bro . Shurtleff ' s almanack shoAved that

both in 1733 and 1753 , October 26 th fell on Wednesday ; After the demise of the late Bro . C . W . Moore , the records of the first lodge of the Master Masons' Lodge , and of the second lodge Avere found in his safe . I Avas

right , then , that the record was not burnt . On the title page of the first lodge record is written , presented by "Thomas Walker , S . W ., 1738 . " Price ' s Deputation , including April thirtieth , is first on the record . Next are the Bye-Lawsdated as Bro . Moore said

, , 1733 . Here I Avas Avrong , and Bro . Moore was ri ght . In Avhose handwriting these entries were made 1 know not . The first recorded minutes of a lodge meeting , is not Jul y 30 th , 1733-5733 , but December 27 th , 1738 . Here Bro . Moore

and I Avere both Avrong . He for asserting that it began July 30 th , etc ., and I for believing him . The date July 30 th cannot even be found in the record . During the first year Eben Swan acted as secretary . The minutes are meagre . On the 26 th

December , 1733 , the name of P . or Peter Pelham appears as secretary . I folloAved up the record until September 12 th , IV 44 , P . Pelham still secretary . On that night , Charles Pelham , the writer of the G . L . record from 1733 was

, initiated ; corresponding with the date on the first lod ge list Avhich was also Avritten hy him . On the folloAving page , September -6 th , 17-14 , C . Pelham is already secretary , and so he continued till the close of the hook in 1754 .

I confess it puzzled me . It was not exactl y as I expected , but yet I was in the main a p right . Though Peter ' s name appears on the record as secretary , yet it is an undeniable fact , that from December 26 th , 1739 , to the close of the book , it is

all in Charles Pelham s handAvriting . The conclusion I therefore came to Avas this : Thomas Walker , AVIIO was S . W . in 1738 , presented the book to the lodge , not in 1738 , but about the year 1753 . He never held a hig her office in the lodge than S . W .

hence that title and the date he held that office is mentioned , ancl the list of tho members of that lodge Avas no doubt designed to be Avorked into the record . There is this difference between the G . L . and lodge record ; for the latter , Pelham

no doubt possessed some materials , such as money accounts and documents Avhich he found among his father's papers . But for the G . L . record , he possessed only the deputations of Price , Tomlinson , and Oxnardand also the petition for

con-, stituting the undersigned into a lodge . The rest he gave merely from hearsay . Tho G . L . record is nothing but a tissue of errors , anachronisms , and utterly untrustworthy as evidence . Of the four documents recorded in itthe only original copy

remain-, ing is the petition . But on comparing the orig inal MS . with the one recorded , it Avill be seen , that Pelham Avas unreliable even as a copyist . I send Avith this , the

two copies , p laced side by side , Avhich will SIIOAV at a glance , that the recorded one is altered ancl garbled . The G . L . record is so artlessly done , that in less than a quarter of an hour ' s examination I concluded that it Avas not authentic , and that it Avas not

Avritten before 1750-1 or 2 . But the lodge record Avas more carefully done . Pelham got the secretary of 1738 to write up his ' part . Had Peter Pelham been living , Peter would probably have written for those years that he served as secretary ;

but Peter Pelham died in December , 1751 , ancl the record Avas not Avritten before 1754 . And it may seem strange that from 1754 to 1784 , the same lodge Avas again Avithout a record , that is , there is no evidence nor tradition that it kept a record during those

thirty years . I suppose that there Avas no other P . S . W . to present the lodge Avith a book as Bro . Walker did . The Master Masons' record begins in 1738 . I did not notice the name of the secretary ; then several pages are left blank .

But in 1743 the record begins again , and from that date , until 1754 , Avith the exception of a very feAV pages , Avas all clone by the hand of Charles Pelham . The blank pages were probabl y designed for the V