Joseph Warren

Grand Historian Walter H. Hunt Commemorates The Battle Of Bunker Hill June 17, 1775

June 17, 2014 by Fred Milliken

On June 17, 1775 some 2000+ British troops commanded by General Thomas Gage stormed Breed’s Hill where the rebels were encamped.

Among subsequent charges up the hill that day Dr. Joseph Warren, Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and a Major General was slain. This was a great loss for the Grand Lodge, for Massachusetts and for the Patriots who sought separation from British rule.

Today, Tuesday, June 17, 2014 a commemorative gathering took place at the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown, Massachusetts and the keynote speaker was RW Walter H. Hunt, Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts AF & AM.

You might remember an article on the Beehive not too long ago about Brother Hunt:

Walter Hunt, Freemason’s Information Age Pioneer

Today we have his speech in its entirety on video. May it become a historical landmark that future generations may look back upon.

Turn The Other Cheek Freemasons

February 6, 2013 by Fred Milliken

A Brother E-Mailed me a response to Greg Stewart’s article on the Mercedes-Benz Super Bowl Ad which I had sent him.

“So we go online and speak out against this atrocity and in doing so we link ourselves to the myth. How many years had masonry survived with this type of public outcry? Unless we begin to teach masons to live the lives taught by our fraternity and stop trying to be a social icon, Masonry will continue to be ridiculed. It is only when you can show that the myth is in fact a myth and that we prove it every day by the way we live our lives, that Freemasonry will regain it honored reputation. The more we bend to clamor in public, the more the critics come after us. If we disregarded the critics they have no one to argue with, thus the argument dies for want of a debate. Sadly you and others do not understand this. But I urge you to really reflect on it. A well spent life is mightier than the sword or any media response.”

I guess I just don’t get it. At least he thinks I just don’t get it. But I would say that he doesn’t get it.

This is the attitude of Freemasons of 50 and 100 years ago – never talk about the fraternity, never mention to anyone that you are even a Freemason. Everything about Freemasonry is secret. Not one word about the Craft should escape a Mason’s lips.

This is one of the reasons Freemasonry missed many good candidates back then. A guy 50 years old would finally say to his buddy, “I have been waiting 20 years for you to invite me to join Freemasonry. How come you never asked me?”

Old time Masons never asked another to join. Those who desired to join Freemasonry had to ask a Mason. Some Masons would demand that they ask three times before they would consider recommending them.

Anti Masons that spread lies about Freemasonry are not to be answered. Leo Taxil’s Masonic hoax, even after he recanted and admitted he made the whole thing up, was still believed by many people because Freemasons never would refute it.

“Turn The Other Cheek Freemasons” do not believe that disputing or refuting lies about the Craft are a productive use of Masonic resources. They do not believe that Masons should stoop to the level of their detractors. Masons are above all that, they say. What Masons need to do is lead by example and all these crazy charges will just die the death of untruth all by themselves.

And problems within the Fraternity, well we don’t talk about them either. The refusal of some Masons to allow African Americans in their Lodges, their constant black balling of any applicant who isn’t Christian, Grand Masters expelling Master Masons without a Masonic Trial, Grand Masters closing Lodges and pulling charters without reason or recourse, are all problems that Brethren must solve without discussing these problems in public. “Airing dirty laundry” is definitely a no-no with “Turn The Other Cheek Freemasons.”

And if these problems emanate from other jurisdictions, well sticking one’s Masonic nose into other people’s business is a double no-no. That’s their business, that’s their problem.

And so stand “The Turn The Other Cheek Freemasons.” Withdraw from society, have nothing to do with it, let people do what they may but Freemasonry will live on, no matter what.

But it won’t. The younger generation will never join an organization that refuses admittance to non Whites and non Christians. It just ain’t going to happen. And who would join an organization that is in league with the Devil? And someday soon Malecraft Freemasonry will have to change its policy on women. The fact is Mainstream Masonry is dying a slow, agonizing death.

THE MERCEDES-BENZ HOAX IS A 21^st CENTURY REMAKE OF THE LEO TAXIL HOAX.

Freemasonry was never designed to be a Monastic Brotherhood or a Cloistered Sect. Paul Revere is rolling over in his grave right about now. So is Joseph Warren who died at the battle of Bunker Hill fighting for liberty in America. As a Grand Master he used Freemasons to transmit anti British communications among the Patriots.

Not answering your critics is naïve and very detrimental to your cause. The big lie repeated over and over again without refutation will gradually stick. No one knew this better than Goebbels, Hitler’s Propagandist Minister.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”- Goebbels

The fact is turning the other cheek doesn’t work. This is the real world where the truth doesn’t always become self evident. Sometimes we must help the truth be known. Failure to do so only empowers our enemies. And the big lie is believed because it must be true if no one will stand up for the truth and dispute it. People interpret silence as acceptance of guilt. If you were unjustly charged with sexually molesting a child, would you remain silent in hopes the truth will win out or would you deny the charges and do everything you could to refute them?

“Turn The Other Cheek Freemasons” are hurting this beloved fraternity and are hastening the demise of the Craft.

GM Joseph Warren Offered A Masonic Warrant To Prince Hall

July 31, 2012 by Fred Milliken

A recent story in the Scottish Rite Research bulletin newsletter, “The Plumbline,” titled “A Scottish Lodge in the Grand Jurisdiction of Massachusetts” intrigued me. Written by old friend Michael Kaulback and Richard Van Doren it chronicles the early growth of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts with a heavy concentration on Saint Andrews Lodge. Saint Andrews Lodge became the first Lodge of the “antients” working in the colonies, as the authors tell us, chartered by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. There already was a Provincial Grand Lodge of “moderns,” most often referred to as St. John’s Grand Lodge, operating in Massachusetts Bay Colony since 1733. Soon after Saint Andrews partnered with three military antient Lodges attached to the British Army, No 58 English stationed with the 14^th regiment, No 106 Scottish stationed with the 64^th regiment and No 322 Irish stationed with the 29^th regiment, to form a Grand Lodge.

In 1768 Saint Andrews petitioned the Grand Lodge of Scotland to have Joseph Warren as their Grand Master. He was so appointed and served until he was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775. The battle between the antients and the moderns was more than just about ritual and the regularity of practice. It was just as much about the makeup of the two Grand Lodges. St. Johns Grand Lodge was made up largely of wealthy merchants, traders and landed gentry. Saint Andrews Grand Lodge was made up of what we would today call “blue collar” working men, men who worked with their hands. Kaulback and Van Doren give us an example of some of the Saint Andrews members.

George Bray – Baker
William Burbeck – Carver
James Graham – Chair maker
Samuel Peck – Glazier
Thomas Milliken – Bricklayer
John Jenkins – Baker
Moses Deshon – Auctioneer
Joseph Webb, Jr. – Ship Chandler
Samuel Barrett – Sail maker
Paul Revere – Silversmith
Joseph Warren – Doctor

Two very interesting stories come from this article. The first is that on August 28, 1769 William Davis was made the first Knight Templar in the United States at Saint Andrews Lodge. Paul Revere followed on December 11, 1769 and Joseph Warren on May 14, 1770. Davis and Warren distinguished themselves at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Warren not surviving the ordeal. This means that before the United States became an independent nation we had Knights Templar on our soil. That is an important development in the history of Freemasonry because at that time the degrees were so new. But the conferring of the degrees Excellent, Super Excellent, Royal Arch and Knight Templar laid the foundation for what would become the “American Rite.”

Paul Revere became the second Grand Master of the union of antients and moderns into the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts that occurred in 1792. Saint Andrews Lodge held out until 1807 when they reached a final agreement with the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Kaulback told me personally when I spoke to him by phone that the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts is much more reflective of the antients because the antients won. The union with the moderns was on their terms and the practice of Freemasonry in Massachusetts henceforth was really a practice of antient Freemasonry.

The other interesting story to come from this article is that Grand Master Joseph Warren met with Prince Hall who wanted to form a Masonic Lodge and he agreed to give Hall a warrant to open his Lodge. Before he could execute that decision Warren was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill. This decision is recorded in the minutes of Saint Andrew’s Grand Lodge minutes. MONUMENTAL! What a game changer that would have been. Of course Prince Hall found another avenue to obtain his warrant.

Perhaps Hall went quickly to another source because Warren told him that while he wanted to give him a warrant the majority of his members would never approve it. Perhaps Hall chose a British antient military Lodge because Saint Andrews had formed itself into a Grand Lodge by association with the same and he was told that. THAT’S ALL SPECULATION. But one has to wonder if Prince Hall had waited and bided his time to approach Warren’s successor, what American Freemasonry would have looked like over the next 200 years.

What we can say is fact that is that Massachusetts was the leader of the nation in the abolitionist movement, that in the 1750s and 1760s Massachusetts had a number of freed Blacks, more than any other state, and that according to the minutes of Saint Andrews Lodge it had 7 Black members in the 1780s and 1790s.

People change and times change and an opportunity lost is sometimes lost forever and sometimes lost for just a long, long time. Sometimes the opportunity lost changes the course of history. GM Joseph Warren was killed in battle so he did not get to give Prince Hall his warrant. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and a bitter and acrimonious post Civil War Reconstruction followed that never would have happened under him. JFK was also gunned down and Lyndon Johnson hurtled us headlong into the Vietnam War, a move JFK would never have made. Men who rise to the occasion sometimes get shot down and we are all the poorer for it.

But dream with me a minute. Let’s change the clock of history and go back, back, back to 1775. GM Warren doesn’t die in the Battle of Bunker Hill and he does right away grant Prince Hall his warrant to form a Masonic Lodge. That would have set a precedent for every other Grand Lodge in the United States. You have got to think that New York and Pennsylvania and other northern states would have followed suit. Oh, maybe the South wouldn’t have gone along. But then again post Civil War they too might have admitted Black men into their Lodges. Freemasonry could have changed the whole history of this nation and maybe, just maybe the 60s wouldn’t have been the bloody 60s of Civil Rights battles. And maybe Martin Luther King, another assassination that changed history, would still be with us.

Dreaming is fun but it’s not reality. Yet I have to believe that Freemasonry still has a major role to play in the world because it changes the hearts of men. The current world conflict between Muslims, Jews and Christians could be ameliorated by Freemasonry and peace could be made by a Freemason who rose to the occasion. If one does let’s take protective measures to assure that he does not die before his mission has been completed.

I Kidd You Not

February 12, 2012 by Fred Milliken

“I Kid You Not” was the trademark of Jack Paar and the title of a book he wrote. There is much in the style of presenting one’s self in Karen Kidd that reminds me of Jack Paar, an infinite appreciation for what is worthy and noble in life with the emotion and the chutzpah to let the rest of us know what we are missing.

So it was with great joy that I reached into my mailbox to find the latest issue of Heredom, the Scottish Rite Research Society’s annual publication and within those pages see an article by Karen Kidd that immediately caught my eye – Hannah Mather Crocker: Patriot, Founding Mother, Freemason.

Hannah Mather Crocker is one of the most interesting historical figures of her day. And being a woman Brother Crocker is often overlooked. Perhaps she also has not come to the attention of many historians because she wasn’t an in your face firebrand, rather a mild mannered woman with a top notch education and a pleasing manner.

Hannah’s father was one of a long line of well known and prominent Puritan Preachers. Her mother was sister to Massachusetts colonial Governor Thomas Hutchinson. It wasn’t until her late twenties that she married to the Reverend Joseph Crocker. Before that marriage she had accomplished much.

At age twenty two she was carrying secret revolutionary dispatches to Joseph Warren, not only a Freemason and Grand Master but also a leading figure in the revolution. Perhaps that is why there was no hue and cry when she became a Freemason. Clearly some kind of dispensation was granted to her to form, with other ladies of her class, a Female only Masonic Lodge, St. Ann’s, shortly before outbreak of hostilities with the British. Crocker served for many years as Worshipful Master and Kidd tells us that she later wrote:

“I had the honour some years ago to preside as Mistress of a similar institution, consisting of females only; we held a regular Lodge, founded on the original principles of true ancient Masonry, so far as was consistent for the female character. We recognized the BROTHERHOOD as preeminent, as may be seen from several addresses and songs printed in the Centienel, and other papers.”

“One or two of them (male Masons) gave umbrage to a few would-be-thought Masons; but by the most respectable part of them we were treated like SISTERS. The prime inducement for forming the lodge was a desire for cultivating the mind in the most useful branches of science and cherishing a love of literature; for at that period, female education was at a very low ebb. If women could even read and badly write their name it was thought enough for them who by some were esteemed only ‘mere domestick animals.’”

“But the aspiring female mind could no longer bear a cramp to genius. They rose to thought, and clearly saw they were given by the wise author of nature, as not only help-meets. But associates and friends, not slaves to man. I have reason to think this institution gave the first rise to female education in this town, and our sex a relish for improving the mind…Our sole aim was friendship, and improving the mind; that by Strength and Wisdom, we might beautifully adorn the female character, and shew to the Brethren that we had obtained the grand secret, of securing the affections of our best friends by performing every domestick duty with ease and harmony. We had our tokens, signs and word; and within due Square we marked our lives by the parallel line of integrity.”

As we can see, Crocker was not just interested in Freemasonry nor did she use it to throw her attainment in the face of her male counterparts. She was a tireless worker for freedom from the British, for female education and for women’s rights.

But isn’t the reader about this time asking who made Crocker and the ladies of St. Ann’s Lodge Freemasons and who allowed them to exist along side of traditional male-craft Masonry without rancor or discrimination?

Kidd thinks it none other than the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, Dr. Joseph Warren. She cites Crocker’s dedication of her literary work titled Series.

“To the protection and patronage of the M.W. Past Grand Master, the Past Grand Chaplain, and the present Officers and Members of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, this little work is now humbly dedicated, by the author, with the most ardent wish of benevolence, that every worthy member may square his conduct by the line of integrity.”

Clearly Crocker knew these people and travelled in their circle.

In 1780 Hannah Mather married another Freemason the Rev. Joseph Crocker of Taunton. In the 17 years of marriage before Joseph passed away they had ten children. Clearly he also knew of her Masonic exploits. And although her surmised benefactor, Dr. Joseph Warren, was long gone she still continued to travel in Masonic circles and to write about those experiences. Sometimes, however, she wrote under the pseudonyms of “A Lady of Boston” and “P Americana.” But to her list of credits we can also add the distinction of author.

While to all accounts Crocker was a mild mannered, genteel lady of exquisite manners, still she must have been some kind of woman for Kidd tells us about the “North Square Creed” that apparently husbands of St Ann’s members were asked to sign and which goes something like this:

“I believe woman is the ostensible source of man’s true happiness. I believe it was not good for man to be alone, and God in infinite mercy provided him a help meet. I believe a prudent wife is the greatest blessing man can attain in this world. I believe every man that has a prudent wife ought to harkent to the voice of Sarah his wife. I firmly believe it is proper and best for every man to believe in every thing as his prudent wife wishes him to believe. Therefor I do believe in every thing my good wife and the other ladies of this happy circle wish me to unite in believing.

In token of our approbation we here affix our names…

In the written records that Crocker left behind she left us only the initials of the men who signed the North Square Creed. One of those initials was P.R. Can anybody say Paul Revere? – Kidd brings to our attention. And even more telling she points out that the Mathers had many friends who were members of St. Andrews Lodge. Who were two of the biggest names who were members of St. Andrew’s? Why Dr. Joseph Warren and Paul Revere of course. So at what Lodge were Hannah Mather and her ladies friends raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason? You can answer that one.

Remember that Hannah Mather carried secret dispatches for the Colonial insurgents for which she could have been shot as a spy. The Southern California Research Lodge ties this altogether for us.

The building had been purchased by the St. Andrews Lodge in 1764. There was a square and compass over the front door and a copper Dragon that had turned green through the weather. It was a community center. Downstairs was the Tavern. Upstairs was the St. Andrews Lodge and the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts (Ancients). It was the largest place for meetings in the north east end of Boston. Historians have called it “headquarters of the American Revolution.”

Here the Boston Committee of Correspondence was formed after a few initial meetings at Brother Joseph Warren’s house a few doors away. Here the Sons of Liberty held secret sessions. They wore a jewel around their necks and were known to have a separate language for recognition. The jewel had a picture of the Liberty Tree on it.

CAN ANYONE SAY BOSTON TEA PARTY?

In her waning years Crocker formed the School of Industry in 1813 for poor girls of the northern district of Boston, thereby once again reaffirming her commitment to women’s education as she had done at St. Ann’s Lodge.

Hannah Mather Crocker faded away in oblivion and so did St. Ann’s Lodge. Future Feminists and malecraft Masons were to ignore her contributions as a Patriot, as an early leader of women’s education and women’s rights and as a Freemason. Kidd laments the fact that that history has so ignored such a great woman. But to her credit, Kidd, has taken up the task of not letting this wonderful woman be forgotten.

Come ladies rare May we have strength

Within due square, To join at length

Let each renew her vow, The heavenly lodge above.

No timid maid Brothers to meet

Need be afraid Tho’ none here greet

Hew sacred knee to bow Them join in mutual love.

Sure Sheba’s queen The secret plan

The first was seen Held here by man

To gain this wondrous art. So far beyond our reach

She made the vow Shall to each fair

That we do now Within due square

And gained the wise king’s heart. Their love and duty teach.

Let none disclose In sacred love

To sacred foes We’ll join above

Our token works or signs. With widow, son and mother.

May beauty grace With one accord

Each lovly face We’ll join the word

And wisdom guide our minds To hail each sacred brother.

Hannah Mather Crocker