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ABSTRACT
British Freemasons accommodated the revolutionary politics of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world until the 1790s, when the British waged war against revolutionary France and suppressed internal radicalism and associations they defined as seditious. British Grand Lodges reoriented to overt displays of loyalty, such as adopting royal patrons, and consolidating their authority over Freemasonry. This transformation from an elastic and cosmopolitan fraternity to a loyalist institution was highly embattled. This essay examines this shift within “Hiram Lodge No. 17” in Saint John, New Brunswick. Lodge members became embroiled in political conflicts in the colony’s first election in 1785. A decade later, members sparred with Masonic officialdom, after Nova Scotia’s provincial grand lodge adopted the anti-revolutionary turn of British Grand Lodges. It clamped down on fractious lodges, including Hiram Lodge, a case demonstrating the complex relationship between fraternal organizations and the dynamic political culture of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Atlantic world.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the participants of the workshop Atlantic Brotherhoods for their collegiality in welcoming a scholar new to the field. I also acknowledge the contributions of Elizabeth Mancke and the anonymous readers who pressed me to clarify my arguments, and the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, who granted me permission to access their amazing collection at the Nova Scotia Archives. The staff at the archives were helpful as always, especially now-retired Philip Hartling. And of course, I offer my sincere thanks to Michael Boudreau for his unflagging support in all things.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Bonnie Huskins teaches history at St. Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick, where she is also an Adjunct Professor and Loyalist Studies Coordinator. Current research projects include Loyalist sociability patterns, the imperial life and career of British military engineer William Booth, and Loyalist Freemasons in northeastern North America.
Notes
1. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 5, 99–100, 130–131.
2. Harland-Jacobs, “Worlds of Brothers,” 10.
3. Armitage, “Three Concepts of Atlantic History,” 21. ‘Cis’ is a Latin prefix which means “on this side [of]”: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/luschnig/EWO/24.htm.
4. Jansen, “In Search of Atlantic Sociability,” 98.
5. The phrase “prospects and potentials” is borrowed from Ibid., 76.
6. Harland-Jacobs, “‘Hands Across the Sea’,” 237.
7. Jansen, “In Search of Atlantic Sociability,” 80.
8. Eamon, Imprinting Britain, 113–138; Lane, “Evangelical Churches and Freemasonry,” 60–78.
9. Raible, “‘The threat of being Morganized’,” 3–25; Klages, “Freemasonic and Orange Order Membership,” 192–214.
10. Kenney, Brought to Light.
11. Hackett, The Religion in Which All Men Agree, 60.
12. Bullock, “‘A Pure and Sublime System’,” 359–373; Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood; Bullock, “The Revolutionary Transformation of American Freemasonry,” 347–369.
13. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 116.
14. York, “Freemasons and the American Revolution,” 231.
15. Study of Shelburne lodge: Huskins, “‘Ancient’ Tensions and Local Circumstances,” 47–72.
16. Bell, Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick, 151–152; Bell, “Sedition Among the Loyalists,” 163–178; Bell, Early Loyalist Saint John; Bell, “The Republican Craft and the Politics of Loyalist Saint John.”
17. Milbourne, “Loyalist Masons in the Maritimes,” 1955–1995; “History of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia,” chapters 1–2; MacDonald, History of Hiram Lodge No. 17, 1, Library and Museum of Freemasonry (hereafter cited as LMF).
18. Hackett, The Religion On Which All Men Agree, 29.
19. Jacob, The Origins of Freemasonry, 87, 99.
20. Hackett, The Religion In Which All Men Agree, 33.
21. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 66.
22. Jansen, “In Search of Atlantic Sociability,” 80.
23. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, 60–61; Tabbert, American Freemasons, 26–27.
24. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 31.
25. Ibid., 37.
26. Ibid., 112.
27. Bullock, “‘A Pure and Sublime System’,” 368–369; Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood, 9; Bullock, “According to their Rank,” 492; York, “Freemasons and the American Revolution,” 231.
28. Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood, 109–114; Bullock, “According to their Rank,” 490.
29. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 35.
30. “History of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia,” chapters 1–2.
31. Huskins, “‘Ancient’ Tensions and Local Circumstances,” 52.
32. MacDonald, History of Hiram Lodge No. 17, 7–8, LMF.
33. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 118.
34. MacDonald, History of Hiram Lodge No. 17, 7, LMF.
35. Bullock, “According to their Rank,” 494.
36. MacDonald, History of Hiram Lodge No. 17, 7, LMF; Milbourne, “Loyalist Masons,” estimates that there were 13 members of Hiram Lodge who had belonged to No. 210.
37. Ross, A Standard History of Freemasonry, chapter 5.
38. Bunting, History of the St. John’s Lodge, 10; Milbourne, “Loyalist Masons in the Maritimes,” 1957–1960.
39. Bunting, History of the St. John’s Lodge, 310–311.
40. Bell, Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick, 151.
41. Anderson’s Constitutions of 1723.
42. Charges and Regulations, 6, 12.
43. Anderson’s Constitutions of 1723.
44. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 99, 113.
45. Bell, Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick, 77, 166 n.4.
46. Ibid., 77.
47. Ibid., 74; Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles, 55–81.
48. For works on the Loyalist myth, see Marquis, “Commemorating the Loyalists in the Loyalist City,” 24–33; Barkley, “The Loyalist Tradition in New Brunswick,” 3–45; Richard et al., “Markers of Collective Identity.”
49. Huskins, “Shelburnian Manners,” 157.
50. Bell, “The Republican Craft,” 13–14.
51. Bunting, History of the St. John’s Lodge, 17.
52. Bell, Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick, 151.
53. Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles, 182–184.
54. Bell, Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick, 112–114.
55. Ibid., 151.
56. Bell, “The Republican Craft,” 6.
57. Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles, 187.
58. Richard Bonsall et al. to Joseph Peters, Saint John, 1 May 1786. Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax (hereafter cited as NSA), Grand Lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons of Nova Scotia fonds (hereafter cited as Halifax fonds), MG 20 Vol. 2001 #10.
59. Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles, 197.
60. Bell, Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick, 87.
61. Ibid.
62. Ibid., 122.
63. Bell, “A Republican Craft,” 6.
64. Tabbert, American Freemasons, 11–12, 29–30; Jacob, Origins of Freemasonry, 18, 70.
65. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 120–127.
66. Bell, Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick, 124, 141
67. Bunting, History of the St. John’s Lodge, 221.
68. Bell, Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick, 174; MacDonald, History of Hiram Lodge No. 17, 13.
69. Oliver Bourdett et al. to John Selby, Saint John, 1 August 1793. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2001, #10.
70. MacDonald, History of Hiram Lodge No. 17, 15.
71. GLNS, Minute Book, 20 November 1793, and 5 March 1794. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2133 #1, 218, 231.
72. GLNS, Minute Book, 8 August 1794. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2133 #1, 242.
73. James Hayt et. al. to John Selby, Saint John, 23 October 1794. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2001 #10 (emphasis in original).
74. GLNS, Minute Book, 4 March 1795. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2133 #1, 256–257; Bunting, History of the St. John’s Lodge, 14.
75. Richard Hayt et al. to John Selby. Saint John, 27 July 1795. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2001 #10.
76. GLNS, Minute Book, 2 September 1795. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2133 #1, 265.
77. Ibid. For South Carolina, see Brannon, From Revolution to Reunion, 73.
78. GLNS Minute Book, 7 September 1796. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2133 #2, 19–20.
79. John Sinnot to William Campbell, Saint. John, 10 April 1794. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2001, #10.
80. Charges and Regulations, 1.
81. Ibid., 10.
82. Bunting, History of the St. John’s Lodge, 15.
83. John Sinnot to Grand Master, Grand Wardens & Brethren of the GLNS. Saint. John, 15 August 1793. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2002, #10, 39.
84. Sinnot also insisted that several lawsuits had been brought against Hake in the past: Ibid; John Sinnot to William Campbell. Saint. John, 10 April 1794. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2001, #10.
85. Charges and Regulations, 11.
86. Jacob, Origins of Freemasonry, 20.
87. Charges and Regulations, 10, 42.
88. John Sinnot to William Campbell et al. Saint John, 5 April 1794. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2001 #10, 46.
89. James Hayt et al. to Duncan Clark et al. Saint John, 8 February 1796. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2001 #10, 64.
90. Charges and Regulations, 9.
91. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, 46.
92. Ibid., 40.
93. John Sinnot to William Campbell et al. 5 April 1794. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2001 #10, 46.
94. Jacob, Origins of Freemasonry, 57; Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, 46.
95. Charges and Regulations, 43.
96. John Selby to Hiram Lodge #17. Halifax, 20 July 1795. NSA, GLNS fonds,, MG 20 Vol. 2001 #10, 61.
97. James Hayt et al. to John Selby. Saint John, 27 July 1795. NSA, GLNS fonds,, MG 20 Vol. 2001 #10.
98. I am indebted to Elizabeth Mancke for this phrase, although we are using it quite differently.
99. James Hayt et al. to Duncan Clark et. al., Saint John, 8 February 1796. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2001 #10, 64.
100. Anderson’s Constitutions of 1723.
101. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 137–38.
102. Ibid., 139.
103. On 20 May 1795 the Grand Stewards began their meeting by reading the circular from the Grand Lodge of England: GLNS, Minute Book, 20 May 1795. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2133 #1, 258–59. The fonds of the Nova Scotia Grand Lodge includes a file of circulars from the grand lodges in Britain; also see Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 30, 50, 143.
104. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 102.
105. GLNS, Minute Book, Halifax, 27 May 1794. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2133 #1, 237; Harland Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 160–161.
106. GLNS, Minute Book, 24 June 1803. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol 2133 #2, 164.
107. Shreve, Sermon, Preached at St. Paul’s Church, 15–16.
108. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 99.
109. Thomas Jennings: GLNS, Minute Book, 15 February 1797. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol 2133 #2, 34; John Tool & Robert Moir: 6 September 1797, 46, and 28 September 1797, 48 in Ibid; Oliver Bourdett & David Beveridge: 15 November 1797, 52 in Ibid.; William Jennison, Symons, Charles McPherson, George Matthews, Richard Bonsall, John Ryan, Claven Calverly, William Lorrain, Thomas Featherby, William Symonds, Samuel Wiggins, & Stephen Bourdett: 7 March 1798, 57 in Ibid.; Charles McPherson: 23 Aug 1815, 337 in Ibid..
110. Bunting, History of the St. John’s Lodge, 15–16.
111. GLNS, Minute Book, 28 September 1797. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2133 #2, 49.
112. Robert Laidley to GLNS. 27 February 1797, Annapolis Royal, in GLNS, Minute Book, 7 June 1797. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol 2133 #2, 40.
113. GLNS, Minute Book, 2 June 1802. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol 2133 #2, 139.
114. Harland Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 68, 124.
115. Ibid., 108–109.
116. Bunting, History of the St. John’s Lodge, 121
117. Ibid., 445, 149, 182, 188.
118. Province House: GLNS, Minute Book, 7 August 1811. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol 2133 #2, 274-75; College: 8 May 1820, 416 in Ibid.; Canal: GLNS, Minute Book, 25 July 1826. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2142 #4.
119. GLNS, Minute Book, 12 August 1811. NSA, GLNS fonds, MG 20 Vol. 2133 #2, 276 (emphasis added by author).
120. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 14, 56, 201.
121. Lane, “Evangelical Churches and Freemasonry,” 63–64.
122. Ibid., 75–78.
123. Bunting, History of the St. John’s Lodge, 133, 188.