O understand fully the trend of events in connection with the formation of the Athol Provincial Grand Lodge we must revert briefly to the political conditions which then prevailed in New York, bearing in mind also the fact that there then existed in the city and State another Provincial Grand Lodge, hailing directly from the Grand Lodge of England, of which Sir John Johnson was Grand Master and Dr. Middleton his Deputy.

On Sept. 12, 1776, after the disastrous defeat of Gen. Putnam on Long Island, Gen. Washington retired from New York, and from that time until the day of the evacuation at the close of hostilities, Nov. 25, 1783, the city was practically under the domination of martial law. The interests of the military situation overruled everything else, and the Lodges which belonged to the various regiments came to the front in Masonic matters. In other words the older Lodges were on the side of the Continentals and either succumbed beneath the noise of war altogether, or suspended their meetings, with the possible solitary exception of St. John's, No. 2 (now No. 1), while the Ancients, mainly, directly or indirectly, Army Lodges, seemed to prosper amid the clang of battle and the excitement of the conflict.

The Lodges existing in New York in 1782 and working under the deputation of Sir John Johnson (Moderns) were:

Trinity, No. 1.

St. John's, No. 2 (English Registry, 272).
Independent Royal Arch (?).
Temple.

Union.

St. John's Lodge, No. 4, apparently composed of the members of No. 2 who remained loyal to Great Britain.

St. John's Regimental, No. 1.

Military Union, warranted 1776.

Neither of the two last named were in New York City in 1781.

On the side of the Ancients there were:
Lodge No. 52, Ancient.
Lodge No. 133, Scotland.
Lodge No. 169, Ancient.
Lodge No. 210, Ancient.
Lodge No. 212 (Solomon's) Ancient.
Lodge No. 213, Ancient.
Lodge No. 215, Ancient.
Lodge No, 441, Irish.

Sion, or Zion, Lodge, under dispensation.
We confine this list to New York City be-
cause the movement for the Athol Grand
Lodge was mainly confined to it.
The county Lodges were:
Union, No. 1, Albany.

St. Patrick's, No. 8, Johnstown.
Masters, No. 2, Albany.
Solomon's, No. 1, Poughkeepsie.
St. George's Lodge, Schenectady.
All above were Moderns.

Between the "Moderns" and the "Ancients" there was of course no Masonic intercourse, and although in point of number of Lodges the "Moderns" were far ahead of their rivals, it must be remembered that their forces were scattered, the fortunes of the war had rendered them dispirited or had driven the consideration of all else but patriotism out of their thoughts; and also that the Grand Master, Johnson, was absent from the scene of his Masonic bailiwick, probably with whatever plans he may have formed for the advancement of Masonry laid indefinitely aside, if not, as is more likely, altogether forgotten.

Feeling themselves strong and united while the "Moderns" were scattered and dispirited, the Ancients conceived the idea of forming a Grand Lodge under their own Grand body for New York. In 1780 and 1781 the British had no reason to presage that the war was to end so disastrously for them, and the troops in New York believed they or their successors were there to stay, so that everything looked opportune for a Grand Lodge warranted by the Ancients being established on an enduring footing to the complete discomfiture of the "Moderns." When the first steps to this end were taken is not known, but probably as soon as five Lodges could be gathered together they held a joint meeting as a Grand Lodge in embryo. The preliminaries for the establishment of a Provincial Grand Lodge were fully discussed and doubtless formed the theme for the business of several informal gatherings. At length on Jan. 23, 1781, a meeting was held in the rooms of Lodge No. 169, at which decisive action was taken. The meeting opened as a Grand Lodge in ample form, and there were present twenty-nine Masters and Past Masters from the following Lodges: Nos. 133,

169, 210, 212 and 441 (Registry of Ireland). Bro. James McCuen presided as acting Grand Master, and the following officers were elected:

Grand Master, Rev. William Walter, No. 169.

Senior Grand Warden, John S. Browning, No. 441.

Junior Grand Warden, Rev. John Beardsley, No. 210.

The only other business transacted at this meeting was the presentation and consideration of a petition for a dispensation from the brethren in the 4th Battalion of Royal Artillery (see page 70), but the disposition of this matter was laid over until another meeting.

The officials named above were formally notified of their election by a duly appointed committee and each responded by a letter of acceptance. These letters have, fortunately, been preserved, and read as follows:

New York, February 8, 1781.

I take in kind part, my respected brothers, this ccmpliment of congratulation from my parent Lodge, and beg you to assure them that I have all the sense which I conceive they would wish me to have of the honor done me in the late free and unanimous designation of me to the principal office among the Lodges of this province. I only wish that my power to serve them was equal to my inclination. Such as it is, however, I pray them to be assured that it shall be exerted to the full for the advancement of the interest and dignity of our truly ancient and Honorable institution. WALTER. To the Very Respectful Committee, J. McCuen, Chairman.

New York, February 13, 1781. Sir: Give me leave to retain my sincerest thanks for the honor you and the other brethren of the Lodge, 169, have conferred on me by electing me Senior Warden of a Grand Lodge to be established in this county. The pleasure I must feel on so flattering a mark of distinction is much abated by a sense of my inability to discharge so important a trust. But permit me to assure you I shall always use every endeavor in my power to promote the good of the craft and to acquit myself of the unmerited

appointment bestowed on me to the utmost of my knowledge.

I have the honor to be, with respect, sir, your most obedient and very humble servant and brother. J. S. BROWNING.

W... M.. and Brethren: I beg leave to return you my most sincere thanks for your very polite address, by the hands of Bro. Warden and for the honor its contents confer upon me and I request by your advocate, to present my thanks to the members of that respected body, from which you are a committee, with my best wishes for their health and happiness. I will (with the advice and assistance of my brethren) do all in my power to establish and promote the interest, honor and happiness of the Ancient Craft in this part of the world.

I have the honor to be, (Worshipful Master and Brethren) your most obedient and most affectionate brother JOHN BEARDSLEY, R... W... G. J. W. elect, A. Y. M.

From the tenor of these letters we would infer that Lodge 169 nominated these officers, or that the notification committee was composed altogether of members of that Lodge. At all events it is easy to see that the brethren thus honored held that their elections were only temporary and provisional and subject to the disposition made in London, where, doubtless, an application was soon after sent for a charter as a Provincial Grand Lodge.

For some reason that charter was not immediately forthcoming, but its issuance was kept under consideration. This could not have been from any idea of the unfitness of the brethren for the high offices to which they were called, for Laurence Dermott, at that time the leading spirit, in an executive sense, among the Ancients, does not seem to have had much scruples on that score, but probably arose in connection with financial details on which he was more particular and pronounced. From an extract from the minutes of the Ancient Grand Lodge in England, unearthed by John W. Vrooman, Grand Master of New York in 1889 and 1890, when on a visit to the British capital in the former year, it would seem that the officials named

were authorized to open a meeting of the Ancient Grand Lodge itself. The London body had desired to constitute a Lodge in the regiment known as the Brandenburgh Auspach, and for that purpose it authorized the opening of the Grand Lodge in New York for three hours only. The full minutes bearing on this meeting, an official copy of which is now in the office of the Grand Secretary, New York, are as follows:

Grand Lodge opened at 4 o'clock in the City of New York, N. America, on February 21, An. Do. 1782, An. Lap. 5782.

The R.. W.. and Rev. Bro. William Walter, P. G. M. Elect as D. G. Master.

The R. W. Bro. John S. Browning, Esq., S. G. W. Elect, as S. G. W.

The R. W. and Rev. Bro. John Barkley [Beardsley], J. G. W. Elect, as J. G. W.

The R. W. Bro. Isaac Collins, M. of 169 [? of Lodge 210], as Grand Secretary.

Present Bros. Cunningham, M. of No. 169.

N. B. The Rev. William Walter was empowered to act as Deputy Grand Master, for three hours only, by authority from Wm. Dickey, Esq., D. G. M.

From the fact that this meeting was held in February, 1782, and the officials were only named as temporary-for three hours in fact -while the warrant constituting the Provincial Grand was, according to its own authority, issued five months earlier, it seems probable that the date of the dispensation authorizing this meeting bore an earlier date than Sept. 5, 1781, and was probably sent soon after the meeting at which the officers named were first elected. Ocean travel was not then by any means as speedy or so regular as now.

This constitutes all we really know of the embryo Provincial Grand Lodge until the warrant establishing it was duly received and it fairly entered upon its career. Doubtless in the interim many informal meetings were held, at which laws were discussed and other necessary details considered, but the whole proceedings were deemed informal and unauthorized, and if any minutes of them were kept, which is doubtful, they have completely disappeared.

The present, therefore, may be an opportune place in which to place before the readers of this history some information, however imperfect, concerning the men whom the brethren in New York, in 1781, deemed worthy of being their leaders in Masonic work.

The Rev. William Walter was born at Roxbury, Mass., and was the son of Nehemiel Walter of that place. He graduated from Harvard in 1756, and was ordained by the bishop of London. His clerical career began with his appointment as assistant at Trinity Church, Boston, under the Rev. Mr. Hooper, and when in 1768 that gentleman died, Walter succeeded to the rectorship. In his British sympathies he was most pronounced, and one authority says "he preached many furious discourses against rebellion, and often warned his people of the dangers of the halter that awaited those who lifted their hands against 'the powers

that be.'" This is borne out by a reference in John Trumbull's doggerel poem of "McFingal," where he says:

Have ye not heard from Pastor Walter
Much dire presage of many a halter?

At all events Walter became so obnoxious to the Boston patriots, or they became so obnoxious to him, that when in 1776 that city was evacuated by the British troops he left his flock and accompanied the soldiers to New York. As at the time he appears on the scene in this city he was a member of Lodge 169,

REV. WILLIAM WALTER, D. D.

he may have been initiated into it before leaving the Hub, and in this point, could it be proved, would be found another straw in favor of the Massachusetts origin of that once famous New York Lodge. It has been said that before settling here he went to London, and might have been initiated there, but at all events he was back in New York before February, 1781, when he was chosen to be the head of the Provincial Grand Lodge. The authority for his proceeding to London is

contained in Holmes' Annals (Vol. 2, page 407), and there seems no reason to doubt its authenticity or to suppose that, being initiated in London the movement for the establishment here of an Ancient Provincial Grand Lodge really originated with Laurence Dermott, who saw in the loyal minister a fit personage to wield influence enough among his brethren to successfully institute such a body. While vehement in his denunciation of those whom he regarded as rebels, Mr. Walter was full of charity to all men, and however much we may differ with his principles, we must admit that he is entitled to be honored for his steadfastness in his sentiments, seeing that he honestly held them and that he really sacrificed his worldly prospects rather than abandon them. From all that we can gather he was a zealous minister of the Gospel, carried its teachings with him into everyday life, and, having cast his bread on the waters, trust-ed humbly to the Giver of All Good to make everything come right in the end. His future life showed that he was no bigot in religion or politics. As a clergyman of the Church of England he deemed it right to speak out openly in defense of its temporal head-the King -and did so without regard to consequences, He acted as chaplain to De Lancey's 3d Battalion, and when New York was evacuated, in 1783, went to Nova Scotia, where, in 1785, he became rector in charge of the Episcopal Church at Shelburne. In 1791, when the ecclesiastical as well as the political ties with the mother country had been some time severed, Mr. Walter returned to the States and a year later was appointed, or chosen, rector of Christ Church, Boston. He died, holding that office, in 1800.

Although an Ancient Mason, and probably as loyal to its professions as any man living, Mr. Walter was too much of a Christian to entertain for his "Modern" brethren the hatred and contempt with which they were regarded, or professed to be regarded, by those who worked "under the old constitutions." The

following letter, the original of which is now in possession of Bro. John G. Barker, Past Grand Librarian, New York, is in itself a beautiful tribute to his pure Christian character, to his sense of true Masonic charity, and to the sentiment of human brotherhood which filled his breast and made him the great Mason he undoubtedly was. The letter bears the endorsement: "Addressed to the Master and officers of Lodge No. 169, meeting at Bro. Barclay's to settle the quarterly accounts, from the Rev. Bro. Walter," and reads as follows: New York, June 22nd, 1781.

My Brothers:

A matter has occurred to me this day which I beg to submit to your consideration. A Gentleman of character and interest applied to me to know if he might be allowed to join us at Dinner, on Monday; at the same time showed me his Certificate which discovered him to be a Modern; but of a very genteel Lodge in this City. I thought, but was not certain, that the custom of our Lodge was not to admit Visitors of this Denomination to dine with us. I find it is the custom. But I beg to submit to your consideration, after your other business is over, whether this custom of ours is not a bad one and therefore to be set aside.

In the first place, we have nothing to do on Monday but to go to Church, and to dine together, is there anything in either of these transactions that forbids our communicating to any person of Credit and Reputation? Does not a refusal to admit them indicate a narrowness of sentiment and want of Lib

eralty? Shall we who are Christians admit Jews and Heathens to be of our fraternity provided they are moral good men, refuse to dine with a fellow Christian and a fellow Mason only because he is a Modern? In my opinion it is not to be justified by any sufficient reason and savors too much of Bigotry and Obstinancy which a Gentleman would be ashamed

of.

In the next place our wish and desire is to take away Modern Masonry and so introduce the Ancient in its room here. Do we not frustrate our own intentions by holding the Gentlemen of that class at a contemptious distance as if they were unworthy to participate with us in the commonest offices of Life? Shall we not more effectually serve our ends by meeting with openness and freedom, showing them how we live together as gentlemen and friends, and that we shall be ready and happy to receive them if they will return to the