Prince Hall Masons

A Short History Of Prince Hall Masonry

Prince Hall is recgonized as the Father of Black Masonry in the United States. He made it possible for us to also be recognized and enjoy all the priviliges of free and accepted masonry.

Many rumors of the birth of Prince Hall have arisen. Few records and papers have been found of him either in Barbados where it was rumored that he was born, but no record of birth, by church, or state has been found there, and none in Boston.

One widley circulated rumor states that "prince Hall Was free born in the British West Indies. His Father, Thomas Prince Hall was an englishman and his mother a free colored woman of French extraction. In 1765 he worked his passage on a ship to Boston , where he worked as a leather worker, a trade learned from from his father. Eight years later he became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church(AME) with a charge in Cambridge, "This account paraphased from the widely discredit Grimshaw book of 1903, is suspect in many areas.

Black Freemasonry began when Prince Hall and fourteen other free Black men were initiated into Lodge No. 441, Irish Constitution, attached to the 38th Regiment of Foot, British Army Garrisoned at Castle Williams(now Fort Independence) Boston Harbor on March 1775. The Master of the Lodge was Sergeant John Batt. Along with Prince Hall, the other newly made masons were Cyrus Johnson, Bueston Slinger, Prince Rees, John Canton, Peter Freeman, Benjamin Tiler, Duff Ruformm, Thomas Santerson, Prince Rayden, C ato Speain, Boston Smith, Peter Best, Forten Howard and Richard Titley.

When the British Army left Boston, this Lodge No. 441 granted Prince Hall and his bretheren authority to meet as a lodge, to go in procession on St. Johns Day, and as a Lodge to bury their dead; but they could not confer degrees nor preform any other Masonic "work". For nine years these bretheren enjoyed their limited privileges as Masons. Finally in March 1784 Prince Hall petitioned the Grand Lodge of England, through a Worshipful Master of a subordinate Lodge in London(William Moody of Brotherly Lov e Lodge No. 55) for a warrant or charter.

The Warrant to African Lodge No. 1 of Boston is the most significant and highly prize document known to the Prince Hall Masonic Fraternity. Through it our legitimacy is traced, and on it our case rests. It was granted on September 29, 1784 delivered, in Boston on April 29, 1787 By Captain James Scott, brother-in-law of John Hancock and mater of the NEptune, under its authority African Lodge No. 1 was organized one week later,May 6 1787.

The question of extending Masonry arose when Absalom Jones of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania appeared in 1791 in Boston. He was an ordained Episcopal priest and mason who was interested in establishing a masonic lodge in Philadelphia. Delegations also tra velled from Providence, Rhode Island and New York toestablish the African Grand Lodge that year. Prince Hall was appointed Grand Master, serving untill his death in 1807.

Upon his death, Nero Prince became Grand Master. When Nero Prince sailed to Russia in 1808 George Middleton succeeded him. After Middleton, Petret Lew, Samuuel H.Moody and then John T. Hilton became Grand Master in 1827. Hilton recomended a Declaratio n of Independence from the English Grand Lodge.

In 1869 a fire destroyed Massachusetts' Grand Lodge headquaters and a number of its priceless records. The charter in its metal tube was was in the Grand Lodge chest. The tube saved the charterfrom the flames, but the intense heat charred the paper. I t was at this time that Grand Master S.T. Kendall crawled into the burnign building and in peril of his life, saved the charter from complete destruction. Thus a Grand Master's devotion and heroism further consecrated this parchment to us, and added a fur ther detail to its already interesting history. The orginal Charter No. 459 has long since beenmade secure between heavy plate glass and is kept in a fire-proof vault in a downtown Boston Bank.

Today the Prince Hall Masonic Fraternity has over 4,500 lodges worldwide, forming 45 indepndent jurisdictions with a membership of over 300,000 Masons.

Portions of this taken from: Prince Hall Masonic Directory 4th ed 1992. Confernce of Grand Master, Prince Hall Masons and Black Square and compass- 200 of Prince Hall Freemasonry. Page 8, Joseph A. Walkes Jr. 1979. Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co. Richmond, VA.


Taken from www.ecnet.net/users/bstdj/

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