Washington Lodge

Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (AF&AM)

Brief History of the Lodge

In 1733 Henry Price received a commission in London from the Grand Master of England, Viscount Montague. Upon returning to Boston he organized his Provincial Grand Lodge on July 30, 1733. It was known as the St. John's Grand Lodge. The First Lodge of that organization was constituted on August 31, 1733. In the early 1750s a group of brethren met at the Green Dragon Tavern and formed a Lodge later known as St. Andrew's Lodge. In 1754 they petitioned the Grand Lodge of Scotland for a Charter and received it on September 4, 1760. A petition was granted by the Grand Lodge of Scotland on May 30, 1769, to appoint the Most Worshipful Joseph Warren, Esquire, to be Grand Master of Masons in Boston, New England and within one hundred miles of the same.

After many meetings and discussions, the two Grand Lodges united on March 5, 1792, forming the "Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts". Prior to this time the Massachusetts Grand Lodge had chartered 30 Lodges and the St. John's Grand Lodge, 44 Lodges, each was allowed to retain its original Charter and to take precedence according to seniority. Only eighteen of these Lodges remained or elected to become part of the united Grand Lodge with two-thirds of them having been associated with the Massachusetts Grand Lodge and one-third with St. John's Grand Lodge. St. Andrew's Lodge did not join the union and worked independently under its Scottish Charter until 1809 at which time it too joined. By December 1795 the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts had constituted twelve Lodges and at their March 1796 Quarterly Communication three more petitioned and were voted upon. The first of these was Washington Lodge making it the thirteenth Lodge constituted under the present Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

The reason for the creation of Washington Lodge may have resulted from the fact that there was no Lodge within a 20 mile distance from Roxbury and travel in those days was not very easy. It is recorded that eight brethren met at Bro. Moses Harriman's house in Roxbury on March 13, 1796, to consider the subject of forming a regular Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. They agreed to petition the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for a Warrant of Constitution under the name of Washington Lodge and to hold their regular communication the first Monday of each month; they also selected their senior level officers with Bro. Ebenezer Seaver as Worshipful Master. That petition represented the first of the three Charters granted that day; the Grand Master at the time was M.W. Paul Revere.

How Washington Lodge was formed...