Archive for January, 2013
The Beginnings of the Order of Freemasonry
Recommend. This is an article written by Mike Fox, Owner Fox Jewelry, and the leading marketer of Masonic Rings. I have often been asked to elaborate a bit about the beginnings of Freemasonry.
The order is believed to have arisen from the English and Scottish fraternities of practicing stonemasons and cathedral builders back in the early Middle Ages. Traces of the society have also been discovered as far back the 14th century. Because some documents of the order outline the sciences of masonry and geometry from Egypt, Babylon, and Palestine to England and France, some historians of Masonry claim that the group has roots in ancient times.
The formation of the English Grand Lodge in London (1717) was the start of the widespread distribution of speculative Freemasonry, the present-day fraternal order, that is not exclusively for practicing stonemasons. The six lodges in England in 1700 grew to about thirty by 1723. There exists a parallel formation in Scotland and Ireland; however some lodges remained unaffiliated and open just too practicing masons. By the end of the 18th century, there were Masonic lodges in most European nations as well as in lots of other parts of the world as well.
The first Masonic Hall or lodge in the United States was established in 1755 in Philadelphia; Benjamin Franklin was actually a member. Many of the leaders of the American Revolution, including John Hancock and Paul Revere, were members of St. Andrew’s Lodge in Boston. George Washington became a Mason in 1752. Brother Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Montier, more commonly known as the Marquis de Lafayette presented George Washington with the apron that he wore while laying the Cornerstone of the National Capitol in 1898. The apron is now in the Collection of the Grand Lodge, on deposit with the Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania.
During the time of the Revolution most of the American lodges broke from the their English and Scottish antecedents. Freemasonry has remained to be essentially significant in politics; 13 Presidents have been Masons, and at the same time quite a large number of the members of Congress have belonged to Masonic lodges.
I hope that you have found the information above to be useful and informative. Please feel free to make comments of make suggestions. I hope that when you are in the market for a quality Masonic ring , a Past Master ring or any other Fraternal ring such as a Knights of Columbus Ring or Eastern Star Ring, you keep www.foxjewelry.net in mind when making your selection. If you have additional questions, please feel free to email me at: [email protected] or call me at 712-239-6155.
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Article written by: Mike Fox, Owner of Fox Jewelry, located in Sioux City, IA
Th
e oldest Masonic Hall in the United States is the Richmond Randolph Lodge #19 located in none other than the capitol of the confederacy; Richmond Virginia. The cornerstone was laid in 1785 and the Lodge was chartered in 1787. The lodge is noted as the oldest continuously operating Masonic facility in the Western Hemisphere.
The building itself is a perfect cube and the lot on which it stands is a perfect square or cube itself, a symbol that all Mason’s will understand. Though fully intended to be a two story facility; when first built, the building was only one-story as funds from the lottery money used to build the structure became exhausted. Worked stopped after the first story built of brick was finished. Several years later; the second story made of wood was completed. In those days it was the custom to resort to lotteries for the purpose of raising funds for such facilities. In 1785, the Legislature of Virginia passed an act authorizing “the Society of Free Masons of the City of Richmond” to raise, under the direction of the common hall of Richmond, a sum of money not exceeding 1,500 pounds, for the purpose of erecting and completing a Free Masons’ hall.
There is probably no other Masonic building in the United States which has been visited by as many influential men throughout history. The late King Edward of England, then the Prince of Wale, was among the visitors, as was also General George Washington, General Lafayette and his son, George Washington Lafayette, all of whom were formally elected to honorary membership in Richmond-Randolph Lodge.
I hope that you have found the above article interesting. Please feel free to offer your comments. When you are in the market for a quality Masonic ring or other Fraternal rings, please keep Fox Jewelry in mind when making your selection. If you have additional questions, please feel free to email me at: [email protected] or call me at 712-239-6155.
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Follow us on Twitter: @MasonicRings