Pompano Beach Lodge 409 - PHA
Prince Hall is recognized as the Father of Black Masonry
in the United States. He made it possible for us to also be
recognized and enjoy all privileges of Free and Accepted
Masonry.
Many rumors of the birth of Prince Hall have
arisen. Few records and papers have been found of him either
in Barbados where it was rumored that he was born, but no
record of birth, by church or state, has been found there,
and none in Boston. All 11 countries of the day were
searched and churches with baptismal records were examined
without a find of the name of Prince Hall. 1
One
widely circulated rumor states that "Prince Hall was free
born in British West Indies. His father, Thomas Prince Hall,
was an Englishman and his mother a free colored woman of
French extraction. In 1765 he worked his passage on a ship
to Boston, where he worked as a leather worker, a trade
learned from his father. Eight years later he had acquired
real estate and was qualified to vote. Religiously inclined,
he later became a minister in the African Methodist
Episcopal Church with a charge in Cambridge." This account,
paraphrased from the generally discredited Grimshaw book of
1903, is suspect in many areas.2
Black Freemasonry
began when Prince Hall and fourteen other free black men
were initiated into Lodge No. 441, Irish Constitution,
attached to the 38th Regiment of Foot, British Army
Garrisoned at Castle William (now Fort Independence) Boston
Harbor on March 6, 1775. The Master of the Lodge was
Sergeant John Batt. Along with Prince Hall, the other newly
made masons were Cyrus Johnson, Bueston Slinger, Prince
Rees, John Canton, Peter Freeman, Benjamin Tiler, Duff
Ruform, Thomas Santerson, Prince Rayden, Cato Speain, Boston
Smith, Peter Best, Forten Howard and Richard Titley.
When the British Army left Boston in 1776, this Lodge, No
441, granted Prince Hall and his brethren authority to meet
as African Lodge #1 (Under Dispensation), to go in
procession on St. John's Day, and as a Lodge to bury their
dead; but they could not confer degrees nor perform any
other Masonic "work". For nine years these brethren,
together with others who had received their degrees
elsewhere, assembled and enjoyed their limited privileges as
Masons. Thirty-three masons were listed on the rolls of
African Lodge #1 on January 14th, 1779. Finally on March 2,
1784, Prince Hall petitioned the Grand Lodge of England,
through a Worshipful Master of a subordinate Lodge in London
(William Moody of Brotherly Love Lodge No. 55) for a warrant
or charter.
The Warrant to African Lodge No. 459 of
Boston is the most significant and highly prized document
known to the Prince Hall Mason Fraternity. Through it our
legitimacy is traced, and on it more than any other factor,
our case rests. It was granted on September 29, 1784,
delivered in Boston on April 29, 1787 by Captain James
Scott, brother-in-law of John Hancock and master of the
Neptune, under its authority African Lodge No. 459 was
organized one week later, May 6, 1787.
Prince Hall
was appointed a Provincial Grand Master in 1791 by H.R.H.,
the Prince of Wales. The question of extending Masonry arose
when Absalom Jones of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania appeared in
Boston. He was an ordained Episcopal priest and a mason who
was interested in establishing a Masonic lodge in
Philadelphia. Under the authority of the charter of African
Lodge #459, Prince Hall established African Lodge #459 of
Philadelphia on March 22, 1797 and Hiram Lodge #3 in
Providence, Rhode Island on June 25, 1797. African Lodge of
Boston became the "Mother Lodge" of the Prince Hall Family.
It was typical for new lodges to be established in this
manner in those days. The African Grand Lodge was not
organized until 1808 when representatives of African Lodge
#459 of Boston, African Lodge #459 of Philadelphia and Hiram
Lodge #3 of Providence met in New York City.
Upon
Prince Hall's death on December 4, 1807, Nero Prince became
Master. When Nero Prince sailed to Russia in 1808, George
Middleton succeeded him. After Middleton, Petrert Lew,
Samuel H. Moody and then, John T. Hilton became Grand
Master. In 1827, Hilton recommended a Declaration of
Independence from the English Grand Lodge.
In 1869 a
fire destroyed Massachusetts' Grand Lodge headquarters and a
number of its priceless records. The charter in its metal
tube was in the Grand Lodge chest. The tube saved the
charter from the flames, but the intense heat charred the
paper. It was at this time that Grand Master S.T. Kendall
crawled into the burning building and in peril of his life,
saved the charter from complete destruction. Thus a Grand
Master's devotion and heroism further consecrated this
parchment to us, and added a further detail to its already
interesting history. The original Charter No. 459 has long
since been made secure between heavy plate glass and is kept
in a fire-proof vault in a downtown Boston bank.
Today, the Prince Hall fraternity has over 4,500 lodges
worldwide, forming 45 independent jurisdictions with a
membership of over 300,000 masons.
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REFERENCES
1 Prince Hall Masonic
Directory, 4th Edition 1992. Conference of Grand Masters,
Prince Hall Masons.
2 Black Square and Compass - 200
years of Prince Hall Freemasonry. Page 8. Joseph A. Walkes,
Jr. 1979. Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co. Richmond,
Virginia.