User: The Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland
Date posted: Thu, 03 Mar 2016 16:46:52 GMT
15 MAY 1769 - BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
During a search of the membership records by a member of the GLoS Facebook Team he stumbled across the following:
Lodge Saint Andrew, Boston, Mass.
...[Office-bearers]
Joseph Warren MR [Master]
William Palfrey SM [Substitute Master]
Jonathan Smelling Esq JW [Junior Warden]
Samuel Birrell Treas [Treasurer]
Paul Revere, Sec [Secretary]
John Symmes SD [Senior Deacon]
Edward Burbeck JD [Junior Deacon]
William Hill [Steward]
Samuel Allan [Steward]
Nathaniel Cudworth [Steward]
We hardly need to explain to our Brethren in Massachusetts or indeed the USA of the significance and importance of the names recorded here. The part they played in the War of Independence and the shaping of a new nation need not be repeated here as information is readily available on various internet sites.
For information on Brother Joseph Warren see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Warren
For information on Brother Paul Revere see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere
Brother William Palfrey gets a brief mention on Wikipedia. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Palfrey
Information on other listed above is less readily available. For some slight details on Brother Edward Burbeck see: http://historyofmassachusetts.org/participants-of-the-bost…/
This was a tight knit 'Band of Brothers' (in many senses of the term). One fact alone is sufficient to demonstrate this. Brother Joseph Warren preferred to serve as a private soldier at the Battle of Bunker Hill (17 June 1776) and that is where he was killed instantly by a musket ball in the head. So died a Past Master of a Scottish Lodge.
His body was exhumed ten months after his death by his Brothers. Paul Revere, identified Brother Warren's remains by the artificial tooth he had placed in the jaw of his Brother.
The important fact to be emphasised in this post is that all these Brothers were SCOTTISH Freemasons. There were English Lodges in Boston at the same time but they chose to join a Scottish Lodge - we can guess why - can you?
[More research need on this most interesting subject - Ed.]