Early History Of Freemasonry In America.

every number of that venerable journal from the year 1728 to 1733 . In size it is about ten by fifteen inches . The folloAving is the title , and conclusion , of the number to Avhich I IIOAV invite special attention : —

"No . 187 . " THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE . " Containing the Freshest Advices , Foreign and Domestic , from Monday , June 19 , to Monday , June 26 , 1732 . " " Philadelphia : Printed by B . Franklin

, at the new Printing Office , near the Market . Price 10 s . a-year . "Where Advertisements are taken in , and Bookbinding is done reasonable , in the best manner . " On the fourth , and last , page is this item of neAvs : —

" Philadelphia , June 26 . " Saturday last , being St . John ' s Bay , a Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Society of FREE and ACCEPTED MASONS , ivas held at the Sun Tavern , in Water Street , when ,

after a handsome entertainment , the Worshipful W . Allen , Esq ., was unanimously chosen Grand Master oj this Province , for the year ensuing ; who was pleased to appoint Mr . Wm . PringhDeputy Master . Wardens

, chosen for the ensuing year were Tli os . Bowde and , Benjamin Franklin . " I give IIOAV another quotation , from the same neAvspaper of two years' earlier date . "No . 108 .

"THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE . " From Thursday , December 3 , to Tuesday , December 8 , 1730 . " The first article on first page reads as follows : —• "As there are several Lodges of

Free Ma . sons erected- vn this Province , and people have lately been much amused with conjectures concerning them ; we think the following account of Free Masonry , from London , will not , be unacceptable to our readers . " Then MIOAVS a recital that , " By the death of a gentleman ivho Avas one of the Brotherhood of Freemasons , there

has lately happened a discovery of abundance of their secret signs and Avonders , with the mysterious manner of their admission into that Fraternity , contained in a manuscript found among his papers . " This , of course , Avas a

burlesque . Neither one of the above important extracts had , to my knoAvledge , before appeared at large in print , outside of the original gazettes from Avhich I coied them . They have been vaguely

p referred to by several Avriters , including Bros . Leon Hyneman and Thompson Westcott , but never reproduced or particularly cited . Here are two publicly published statements , contemporaneous with the

events themselves , made by Benjamin Franklin , in his own neAvspaper , he himself being a Mason , and neither of them ever questioned or contradicted in subsequent issues of the paper . One of these statements positively asserts the existence of several Lodges of

Freemasons in the ProA'ince of Pennsylvania on December 8 , 1730 , and the other still more positively and circumstantially asserts the existence of a Provincial Grand Lodge of Masons in Pennsylvania in 1732 , its meeting in

the city of Philadelphia on St . John ' s Day , June 24 th of that year , and the election of AV . Allen , Esq ., as Grand Master of the Province , William Pringle , Deputy Master , and Thomas Boude and Benjamin FranklinWardens .

, Both were public statements of prominent local facts , and neither , more especially the circumstantial account of the meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1732 , and election of all its officersincluding

, Benjamin Franklin as Warden , could have been made by him , and in his own neAvspaper , and remain uncontradicted in the succeeding numbers ( as it does ) Avithout being tlie literal truth . We believe that Benjamin Franklin Avas

like George Washington , and Avould not tell a lie . But there is corroborative testimony of the highest character , viz .: Frank-