‘Ancient’ Tensions and Local Circumstances
Loyalist Freemasons in Shelburne Nova Scotia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v5i1.22786Keywords:
Freemasons, Ancients, Loyalists, American Revolution, Shelburne, Nova ScotiaAbstract
Many American Revolutionary War Loyalists who migrated to Shelburne Nova Scotia were Ancient freemasons, who attempted to transplant fraternal rituals and traditions in their new community. Unfortunately the civilian lodges that they established proved to be short-lived. This case study of Shelburne provides historians with an opportunity to analyse why masonic lodges sometimes fail. In Shelburne, this may attributed to local factors, most significantly a socio-economic decline which hit the settlement almost immediately upon arrival. But the fractiousness of one of the lodges, Solomon’s Lodge No. 5 Provincial, is also a reflection of a broader tension within Ancient freemasonry between universal brotherhood and self-interest. Only further research will corroborate whether this pattern also extended to other Loyalist lodges in Nova Scotia.
References
Primary Sources:
Nova Scotia Archives:
Solomon’s Lodge No. 5 records, Nova Scotia Grand Lodge Ancient Free and Accepted Masons fonds, MG 20, Vol. 2005.
Parr Lodge No. 3 records, Nova Scotia Grand Lodge Ancient Free and Accepted Masons fonds, MG 20, Vol. 2002.
Hiram Lodge No. 4 /Hiram Lodge No. 10 records, Nova Scotia Grand Lodge Ancient Free and Accepted Masons fonds, MG 20, Vol. 2001.
Shelburne County Archives & Genealogical Society:
Barclay-Lapointe, Elizabeth. ‘Loyalist Masons of Shelburne, Nova Scotia’, Typescript
Constitution and Rules of the Friendly Society Instituted at Shelburne AD 1790, As revised and amended AD 1795 (Shelburne: James Humphreys, 1795).
Port Roseway Gazetteer and the Shelburne Advertiser, 12 May 1785, Vol. 1, no. 28.
Rules and Orders of the Friendly Fire-Club Shelburne, August 1784 (Halifax: Petheric Press, 1982).
Smith, Eleanor R. ‘Notes on PANS Masonic Papers’, Typescript.
Harriet Irving Library, University of New Brunswick—The Loyalist Collection:
General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the District of Shelburne, 1784–1785.
Nova Scotia Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, Shelburne County Minutes, 1784–1800, Vol. 1.
Secondary Sources:
Bell, David G. Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick: a Defining Conflict for Canada’s Political Culture. Halifax: Formac, 2013.
Bell, David G. ‘The Republican Craft and the Politics of Loyalist Saint John’. Conference paper presented to the Atlantic Canada Studies Conference, University of New Brunswick at Saint John, 5 May, 2012.
Bullock, Stephen C. Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730–1840. Williamsburg: Omohundro, 1998.
Bullock, Stephen C. ‘The Revolutionary Transformation of American Freemasonry, 1752–1792’. William and Mary Quarterly 47.3 (July 1990): 347–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2938092
Bullock, Stephen C. ‘“A Pure and Sublime System”: The Appeal of Post-Revolutionary Freemasonry’. Journal of the Early Republic 9.3 (Autumn 1989): 359–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3123594
Eamon, Michael. Imprinting Britain: Newspapers, Sociability, and the Shaping of British North America. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015.
Edwards, J. Plimsoll. ‘The History of Freemasonry’. Transactions of the Nova Scotia Lodge of Research 1.2 (13 January 1916): 14–19.
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica. ‘Worlds of Brothers’. Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism 2.1 (2011): 10–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v2i1.10
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica. Builders of Empire: Freemasons and British Imperialism, 1717–1927. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica. ‘“Hands Across the Sea”: The Masonic Network, British Imperialism, and the North Atlantic World’. Geographical Review 89.2 (April 1999): 237–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/216089
Heinmiller, Gary L. Loyalist Freemasons from the State of New York. New York: Onondaga and Oswego Masonic Districts Historical Societies, August/September 2010. http://www.omdhs.syracusemasons.com/sites/default/files/history/Loyalist%20Freemasons.pdf
Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. New York: Knoff, 2011.
Klages, Gregory. ‘Freemasonic and Orange Order Membership in Rural Ontario during the Late 19th-Century’. Ontario History 103.2 (Autumn 2011): 192–214.
Lane, Hannah M. ‘Evangelical Churches and Freemasonry in Mid-nineteenth Century Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick’. Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism 2.1 (2001): 60–78.
Logan, Jackie. ‘The Sheet Harbour Loyalist Settlement of 1784 and Hiram’s Lodge No. 8’. Nova Scotia Historical Review 15.1 (1995): 118–26.
Longley, Ronald S. and Reginald V. Harris. A Short History of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia, 1738–1966, written for the Centennial of The Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia and available at http://www.grandlodgens.org/content/beginnings-0
McLeod, W. ‘Freemasonry, as a matter of fact’. Canadian Historical Review 69.1 (1988): 51–61.
Milbourne, A.J.B. ‘Loyalist Masons in the Maritimes’. Canadian Masonic Research Association 112 (September 1974): 1955–95.
Nash, Howard P. ‘Origins of the Grand Lodge of New York’. Transactions [of ]The American Lodge of Research Free and Accepted Masons 3.2 (4 December 1939–31 October 1940); Transactions 4.3 (30 April 1946–29 October 1947); ‘Origins of the Grand Lodge of New York’, Transactions 3.2 (4 December 1939–31 October 1940); Transactions 3.3 (30 January 1941–30 April 1942); Transactions 4.1 (29 October 1942–27 April 1944); Transactions 4.2 (20 October 1944–18 December 1945); Transactions 4.3 (30 April 1946–29 October 1947).
Nash, Howard P. ‘William Walter’s Associate Officers in Grand Lodge’. Transactions [of] The American Lodge of Research Free and Accepted Masons 2.2 (January 6, 1939–May 28, 1936).
Nash, Howard P. ‘William Walter, First Grand Master of the Masons in New York’. Transactions [of ]The American Lodge of Research Free and Accepted Masons 2.1 (27 February 1934–30 September 1935).
Nash, Howard P. ‘Miscellania’. Transactions [of ]The American Lodge of Research Free and Accepted Masons 2.1 (27 February 1934–30 September 1935).
Robertson, Marion. ‘The Port Royal Associates’. Nova Scotia Historical Review 3.1 (1983): 21–50.
Robertson, Marion. King’s Bounty: A History of Early Shelburne Nova Scotia. Halifax: Nova Scotia Museum, 1983.
Ross, Peter. A Standard History of Freemasonry in the State of New York. New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1899.
York, Neil L. ‘Freemasons and the American Revolution’. Historian 55.3 (Winter 1993): 315–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6563.1993.tb00899.x
Nova Scotia Archives:
Solomon’s Lodge No. 5 records, Nova Scotia Grand Lodge Ancient Free and Accepted Masons fonds, MG 20, Vol. 2005.
Parr Lodge No. 3 records, Nova Scotia Grand Lodge Ancient Free and Accepted Masons fonds, MG 20, Vol. 2002.
Hiram Lodge No. 4 /Hiram Lodge No. 10 records, Nova Scotia Grand Lodge Ancient Free and Accepted Masons fonds, MG 20, Vol. 2001.
Shelburne County Archives & Genealogical Society:
Barclay-Lapointe, Elizabeth. ‘Loyalist Masons of Shelburne, Nova Scotia’, Typescript
Constitution and Rules of the Friendly Society Instituted at Shelburne AD 1790, As revised and amended AD 1795 (Shelburne: James Humphreys, 1795).
Port Roseway Gazetteer and the Shelburne Advertiser, 12 May 1785, Vol. 1, no. 28.
Rules and Orders of the Friendly Fire-Club Shelburne, August 1784 (Halifax: Petheric Press, 1982).
Smith, Eleanor R. ‘Notes on PANS Masonic Papers’, Typescript.
Harriet Irving Library, University of New Brunswick—The Loyalist Collection:
General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the District of Shelburne, 1784–1785.
Nova Scotia Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, Shelburne County Minutes, 1784–1800, Vol. 1.
Secondary Sources:
Bell, David G. Loyalist Rebellion in New Brunswick: a Defining Conflict for Canada’s Political Culture. Halifax: Formac, 2013.
Bell, David G. ‘The Republican Craft and the Politics of Loyalist Saint John’. Conference paper presented to the Atlantic Canada Studies Conference, University of New Brunswick at Saint John, 5 May, 2012.
Bullock, Stephen C. Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730–1840. Williamsburg: Omohundro, 1998.
Bullock, Stephen C. ‘The Revolutionary Transformation of American Freemasonry, 1752–1792’. William and Mary Quarterly 47.3 (July 1990): 347–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2938092
Bullock, Stephen C. ‘“A Pure and Sublime System”: The Appeal of Post-Revolutionary Freemasonry’. Journal of the Early Republic 9.3 (Autumn 1989): 359–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3123594
Eamon, Michael. Imprinting Britain: Newspapers, Sociability, and the Shaping of British North America. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015.
Edwards, J. Plimsoll. ‘The History of Freemasonry’. Transactions of the Nova Scotia Lodge of Research 1.2 (13 January 1916): 14–19.
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica. ‘Worlds of Brothers’. Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism 2.1 (2011): 10–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v2i1.10
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica. Builders of Empire: Freemasons and British Imperialism, 1717–1927. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
Harland-Jacobs, Jessica. ‘“Hands Across the Sea”: The Masonic Network, British Imperialism, and the North Atlantic World’. Geographical Review 89.2 (April 1999): 237–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/216089
Heinmiller, Gary L. Loyalist Freemasons from the State of New York. New York: Onondaga and Oswego Masonic Districts Historical Societies, August/September 2010. http://www.omdhs.syracusemasons.com/sites/default/files/history/Loyalist%20Freemasons.pdf
Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. New York: Knoff, 2011.
Klages, Gregory. ‘Freemasonic and Orange Order Membership in Rural Ontario during the Late 19th-Century’. Ontario History 103.2 (Autumn 2011): 192–214.
Lane, Hannah M. ‘Evangelical Churches and Freemasonry in Mid-nineteenth Century Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick’. Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism 2.1 (2001): 60–78.
Logan, Jackie. ‘The Sheet Harbour Loyalist Settlement of 1784 and Hiram’s Lodge No. 8’. Nova Scotia Historical Review 15.1 (1995): 118–26.
Longley, Ronald S. and Reginald V. Harris. A Short History of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia, 1738–1966, written for the Centennial of The Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia and available at http://www.grandlodgens.org/content/beginnings-0
McLeod, W. ‘Freemasonry, as a matter of fact’. Canadian Historical Review 69.1 (1988): 51–61.
Milbourne, A.J.B. ‘Loyalist Masons in the Maritimes’. Canadian Masonic Research Association 112 (September 1974): 1955–95.
Nash, Howard P. ‘Origins of the Grand Lodge of New York’. Transactions [of ]The American Lodge of Research Free and Accepted Masons 3.2 (4 December 1939–31 October 1940); Transactions 4.3 (30 April 1946–29 October 1947); ‘Origins of the Grand Lodge of New York’, Transactions 3.2 (4 December 1939–31 October 1940); Transactions 3.3 (30 January 1941–30 April 1942); Transactions 4.1 (29 October 1942–27 April 1944); Transactions 4.2 (20 October 1944–18 December 1945); Transactions 4.3 (30 April 1946–29 October 1947).
Nash, Howard P. ‘William Walter’s Associate Officers in Grand Lodge’. Transactions [of] The American Lodge of Research Free and Accepted Masons 2.2 (January 6, 1939–May 28, 1936).
Nash, Howard P. ‘William Walter, First Grand Master of the Masons in New York’. Transactions [of ]The American Lodge of Research Free and Accepted Masons 2.1 (27 February 1934–30 September 1935).
Nash, Howard P. ‘Miscellania’. Transactions [of ]The American Lodge of Research Free and Accepted Masons 2.1 (27 February 1934–30 September 1935).
Robertson, Marion. ‘The Port Royal Associates’. Nova Scotia Historical Review 3.1 (1983): 21–50.
Robertson, Marion. King’s Bounty: A History of Early Shelburne Nova Scotia. Halifax: Nova Scotia Museum, 1983.
Ross, Peter. A Standard History of Freemasonry in the State of New York. New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1899.
York, Neil L. ‘Freemasons and the American Revolution’. Historian 55.3 (Winter 1993): 315–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6563.1993.tb00899.x
Published
2015-12-29
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Huskins, B. L. (2015). ‘Ancient’ Tensions and Local Circumstances: Loyalist Freemasons in Shelburne Nova Scotia. Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, 5(1), 47-72. https://doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v5i1.22786
