the heavens, U.S. Freemasonry is known as “Blue Lodge.” A meeting place of Masonry named “York Rite” is a “temple.” Origins of the fraternity are debated by Masons themselves. Some accounts trace it back to the murder of the architect of King Solomon’s Temple, Hiram Abiff, who was killed by three apprentices who resented not being granted the title grand master, earlier accounts to Greece and Egypt, and to the men of the Middle Ages who built Gothic cathedrals. The style was intended to lift the devotion of the masses by using soaring lines and ascending curves in a graceful design to glorify God. In Britain, these men were categorized by those who handled hard stone (“hard hewers” or “rough masons”) and more highly skilled cutters of softer, chalky rock (known as “free stone”). Because these artisans were free to travel and set their own wage scale, they were called “free stonemasons.” This was eventually shortened to “freemasons.” By 1292, English masons called a hut near their worksite where they stored tools and had meals a “lodge.”
What is certain about modern Freemasonry is that in Britain in 1717 several small lodges formed the United Grand Lodge of England as a governing body. As the British Empire extended to America, Freemasonry followed, initially in military lodges. Many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons. Masonic historians contend that it was at the heart of the American struggle for independence and became the cornerstone of the structure of the U.S. government.
In exploring these aspects as the primary purpose of this book, invaluable sources were found in the work of Masonic scholars and “research” lodges, which have shared their findings with brother Masons and the public in articles and on many lodge home page Web sites. Without their diligent work, completing this book would have been made considerably more challenging. Where possible, their work is noted in the text, and it is gratefully acknowledged here. Enlightening data was also found in numerous books listed in the Further Reading section.
Summaries of material covered in my previous look at Freemasonry’s general history and its rites and rituals are provided where needed to furnish background and a broad context to explain Freemasonry’s evolution in the United States. This book necessarily duplicates some material covered in Freemasons on the role of the Masonic brotherhood in helping to foment the Revolutionary War and other conflicts, the writing of fundamental national documents, and the role and significance of Freemasonry throughout the political and social history of the United States. The overall story and characteristics of the brotherhood in Britian and Europe are covered in my previous book and by other writers. At the end of this volume are answers to frequently asked questions about Freemasonry. Rites, rituals, and degrees of Freemasonry are provided in the text only to the extent required to illuminate Masonry’s controversial and very colorful participation in many aspects of American history.
Because this book deals with questions of credibility in the history of Freemasonry, I note for the record that I am not and never have been a Mason.
Chapter 1
Godfather: Lord Jeffrey Amherst and American Military Masonry
Lord Jeffrey Amherst was a soldier of the king
And he came from across the sea;
To the Frenchmen and the Indians he didn’t do a thing
In the wilds of this wild country,
But for his Royal Majesty he fought with all his might
For he was a soldier brave and true;
He conquered all his enemies whenever they came in sight
And he looked around for more when he was through.
WHEN STUDENTS AND FACULTY OF AMHERST COLLEGE IN MASSACHUSETTS join in their school’s song, it is a tribute to its namesake, a British army officer who arrived in America to command soldiers in a world war with France. Born in Riverhead, Sevenoaks, England, he was the son of another Jeffery Amherst, a prosperous lawyer whose family had lived in Kent for centuries. At the age of twelve, young Jeffery became a page in the house of Lionel Cranfield Sackville, the First Duke of Dorset. Circumstances of his early military career are obscure. It has been noted that he entered the First Foot Guards as an ensign. A list of officers in the regimental history shows him doing so in November 1735. Made a lieutenant in Sir John Ligonier’s Regiment of Horse, which was based in Ireland, he became a protégé of Ligonier, who called him his “dear pupil.”
Amherst saw his first active service as Ligonier’s aide-de-camp in Germany during the War of the Austrian Succession and was present at the battles of Dettingen in Germany in 1743 and Fontenoy (Belgium) in 1745. The First Foot Guards’ records show that in December 1745 he was appointed captain in that regiment, a commission carrying with it the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army at large. In 1747, the Duke of Cumberland, as commander in chief of the allied forces in Europe, made him one of his aides-de-camp. He served during the Battle of Laffeldt (Belgium).
In a period of peace following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), he was in England. His first responsibility in the Seven Years’ War with France was as “commissary” in charge of the administration of 8,000 Hessian troops taken into British pay at the beginning of 1756. He went to Germany in February to undertake a duty that seems to have been largely financial. He returned to England in May with part of the Hessian force to guard against a possible invasion by the French. Soon after his return, he was appointed colonel of the Fifteenth Foot. This commission did not involve active command of the regiment, so he returned to Germany with the Hessian detachment in March 1757. He was at the victorious battle of Hastenbeck on July 26, 1757. In October, Ligonier succeeded as commander in chief with command of the army in Great Britain and direction over all British troops serving in North America.
After deciding on an assault on Louisbourg Île Royale (Cape Breton Island), in French Canada in 1757, Ligonier placed Amherst in command. This was remarkable, not merely because Amherst was very junior in the army, but because he had never commanded troops in action. With a royal sanction for the grant of the local rank of “Major General in America,” Amherst sailed for America on March 16, 1758, with detailed orders for the expedition against Louisbourg. When the British fleet of warships and transports met Amherst just outside the harbor at Gabarus Bay, west of Louisbourg, Amherst studied the shoreline with two brigadiers. He chose to attack from the east. After his force landed, he made a systematic European-style siege operation against the town. The French surrendered.
Leaving a garrison at Louisbourg, Amherst sailed for Boston. When its grateful citizens attempted to get his men drunk, he withdrew his five battalions and marched north to Albany. Because of an earlier British defeat in that region, he discovered that the Louisbourg victory had made him commander in chief in America. He went to New York, where he spent the winter making plans and logistic arrangements for the campaign of 1759, which included another attack on Canada based on orders from London stating that it was “the great and essential object.” He was told that “according as you shall, from your knowledge of the Countries, thro’ which the War is to be carried, and from emergent circumstances not to be known here, judge the same to be most expedient.” He discerned that the French defenders of Montreal were vulnerable because the Canadian militia had largely deserted and the defenders had shrunk to little more than 2,000 men. The British forces amounted to 17,000. Rather than surrender their colors, the French battalions burned them. Montreal, and with it Canada, was surrendered to him on September 8, 1760. Although the fighting with France in North America was virtually over, the war was not.
As commander in chief, Amherst was concerned with organizing expeditions against Dominica and Martinique in 1761. In 1762, he sent a contingent to take part in an attack on the city of Havana, Cuba. In August 1762, he dispatched his younger brother, William, with a hastily assembled force to take St. John’s, Newfoundland. In 1763, when word of peace in Europe arrived, Amherst received reports from the west of Indian attacks. They were the opening shots of an uprising by Indians under Chief Pontiac, aided by the French, that was soon named the French and Indian War. Amherst wrote to Sir William Johnson in London, “When Men of What race soever, behave ill they must be punished.”
Wherever the British army went, Freemasonry accompanied it in the form of regimental