GMRevere

From MasonicGenealogy
Revision as of 14:41, 15 February 2011 by Hotc1733 (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Revere2.jpg

PAUL REVERE 1734-1818

TERM

1795 1796 1797

BIOGRAPHY

We have few Grand Masters whose renown is great beyond the bounds of the Craft, but Paul Revere is a man whose name is known to every schoolchild. We have Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to thank for that -

Listen, my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive / Who remembers that famous day and year.

Revere's part in that famous event has been exaggerated, but he was a hero of the Revolution and a prominent public figure in Massachusetts before, during and after that momentous period. Born in 1734 in Boston to an emigrant Huguenot father and a native Bostonian, he was the second of twelve children, and was apprenticed as a silversmith, in which profession he became well-known. He was initiated in St. Andrew's Lodge in September 1760 at age 25, at which time he was already married and the primary support of his family; as a member of St. Andrew's and later Rising States Lodge, he was an active Blue Lodge Freemason, serving nine terms as Master.

The capstone of his Masonic career was his election as Grand Master in December 1794. His time in office was marked by a rapid expansion of the number of chartered lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge. The following lodges received charters while he was Grand Master: Republican (Greenfield), Evening Star (Lenox), Middlesex (Framingham), Cincinnatus (New Marlborough, later Great Barrington), King Hiram's (Truro, later Provincetown), Kennebec (Hallowell, Maine), Fayette (Charlton), Washington (Roxbury), Columbian (Boston), Union (Dorchester), Harmony (Northfield), Thomas (Monson), St. Paul's (Groton), Jerusalem (South Hadley), Adams (Wellfleet), Tuscan (Columbia, Maine), Bristol (Norton), Fellowship (Bridgewater), Corinthian (Concord), Meridian Sun (Brookfield), Olive Branch (Oxford), Montgomery (Franklin), and Meridian (Watertown). Of these twenty-three lodges, nearly all are still in existence (and are justifiably proud of their "Revere Charters"). He also granted new charters to St. Peter's Lodge, Newburyport; Portland Lodge in Portland, Maine; and endorsed the charters of American Union Lodge (then meeting in Marietta in Ohio Territory), Philanthropic Lodge, Marblehead, and Union Lodge in Nantucket. He was also willing to dispense Masonic justice, and under his authority and the vote of the Grand Lodge, Harmonic Lodge of Boston had its charter vacated.

As in the term of Most Wor. Bro. Cutler, Grand Master Revere was responsible for a number of edicts and decisions regarding the functioning of Grand Lodge. Considerable correspondence with other Grand Lodges near and far took place, as well as other exchanges of letters, most notably with Brother (and former President) George Washington. He was also active in the public sphere, notably in the laying of corner stones for public buildings, including the Massachusetts State House in 1795. (When Most Wor. Winslow Lewis was invited to perform the same ceremony in September 1855, he was surprised to find the remains of that stone and the memorabilia placed therein.) Paul Revere was a remarkable man, and a memorable Mason.

From 1916 Proceedings:

Most Worshipful Brother Paul Revere was an active and zealous Mason. He was initiated in St. Andrew's Lodge, September 4, 1760, and raised January 27, 1761; was elected Senior Warden in November, 1764, and Master, November 30, 1770. In the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, in 1777, 1778, and 1779, he was Junior Grand Warden; in 1780, 1781, 1782, and 1783, Senior Grand Warden; and in 1784, 1790, and 1791, he was Deputy Grand Master. He was the second Grand Master after the union and served in that office from December 12, 1794 to December 27, 1797. An interesting and ably written short biography of Brother Revere may be found in Volume III of the New England, Magazine, edited by Brother Joseph T. Buckingham. An abridgment of that biography presents the following facts:

"Paul Revere, or Rivoire, as his ancestors wrote the name, was born in Boston, in December, 1734, O. S. (January 1, 1735), and died there in May, 1818, aged 84. His grandfather emigrated from St. Foy, in France, to the Island of Guernsey; and his father, at the age of thirteen, was sent by his friends from that island to Boston, to learn the trade of a goldsmith, where he afterwards married, and had several children, of whom Paul was the eldest. Young Revere was brought up by his father to the business of a goldsmith and made himself very serviceable in the use of a graver. Having a natural taste for drawing he made it his peculiar business to design and execute all engravings on the various kinds of silver plate then manufactured. In 1756, he received the appointment of Lieutenant of Artillery and was stationed at Fort Edward, on Lake George, the greater part of that year. After his return to Boston he married and commenced business as a goldsmith which, with engraving and other mechanical and manufacturing arts, were objects of industry from time to time during a long and. active life. He was one of a club of young men, chiefly mechanics, who associated for the purpose of watching the movements of the British troops in Boston and acted an important part in the events which occurred. about the 19th of April, 1775. He says, in a letter he wrote to the Corresponding Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society, We held our meetings at the Green Dragon tavern. We were so careful that our meetings should be kept secret; that every time we met, every person swore upon the Bible, that they would not discover any of our transactions, but to Messrs. Hancock, Adams, Doctors Warren, Church, and one or two more."

After the British evacuatecl Boston a regiment of artillery was raised for the defense of the State. In this regiment he was appointed a Major, and afterwards a Lieutenant Colonel, and remained in the service until the peace. When the British left Boston they broke the trunnions of the cannon at Castle William (Fort Independence) and Washington called on Revere to render them useful - in which he succeeded by means of a newly contrived carriage. After the peace he resumed his business as a goldsmith. Subsequently he erected an air-furnace in which he cast church bells and brass cannon. The manufacture of copper sheathing also engaged his attention and he was successful in this undertaking. Colonel Revere was the first President of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association, instituted in 1795. At the time of his death he was connected with many other philanthropic associations, in all of which he was a munificent and useful member.

The life of Col Paul Revere by E.H. Goss (1891).
Centennial Memorial of the Lodge of St. Andrew (1870).
Heard's History of Columbian Lodge, Pages 351-353 'i: 15 M.F.M. l69.
1909 Mass. 25.

NOTES

CHARTERS GRANTED



Grand Masters

Columbian Lodge's history page.

York Rite history page.