A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry

By Mark A. Tabbert

Like several of America’s founding fathers, George Washington was a Freemason. Yet Washington’s ties to the fraternity and the role it played in his life have never been widely researched or understood. In A Deserving Brother, Mark Tabbert presents a complete story of Washington’s known association with Freemasonry.

Much more than a conventional history, this book has curated an exhibition of artifacts and episodes to fully contextualize our first president’s Masonic life and experiences. Consulting the Library of Congress, Mount Vernon, the Boston Athenaeum, and numerous private Masonic lodges, libraries, and museums, Tabbert chronicles all known instances of Washington’s association with Freemasons, confirming some existing knowledge, adding new insights, and debunking unsubstantiated myths. The record of Washington’s Masonic ties is presented through contextualizing descriptions and color illustrations, ranging from lodge minute books recording Washington’s attendance, to his Washington’s Masonic aprons, from the tools used at the U.S. Capitol cornerstone ceremony to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts’s gold urn, made by Paul Revere, containing a lock of Washington’s hair.

A Deserving Brother documents the significance of Freemasonry in Washington’s life and career in a way that separates fact from fiction and will satisfy both historians and general readers, including today’s Freemasons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Release date: Feb 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9780813947228

Book preview

Cover Page for A Deserving Brother

A Deserving Brother

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Individuals and organizations have provided funding for this publication. Without their timely and generous support, this book would not have been possible. At the core of this philanthropic endeavor, the benevolent nature of Freemasonry proved itself a living principle of this project’s success.

Charitable Foundation of the Grand Lodge of Maine

California Masonic Foundation

Nebraska Masonic Foundation

The Grand Lodge of Indiana, Free and Accepted Masons

The Masonic Foundation of Utah

Grand Lodge of Louisiana, Free and Accepted Masons

Alexandria Lodge No. 389, Alexandria, Louisiana

The Kansas Masonic Foundation

Masonic Charities of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania

Valley of Washington, Orient of the District of Columbia, Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

George D. and Louise G. Seghers

Karl V. Hopkins

Clifford and Cindy Stamm

William G. L. and Patricia L. Turner

J. F. Jeff and Anita Webb

The National Sojourners

Michael D. Brumback

Ridgely H. Gilmour

Donald G. Hicks Jr.

Russell E. Reno

Tyler E. Vanice

Lawrence E. Bethune

Shawn E. Eyer

Michael Aycock

James Laird

Jeffery P. VanCuren

Eugene Abbacticchio

Philip G. Buchholz

Stephen A. Campbell

Deas Dempsey

University of Virginia Press

Charlottesville and London

In collaboration with the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association

Published with support from the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association

University of Virginia Press

© 2022 by the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

First published 2022

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Tabbert, Mark A., author.

Title: A deserving brother : George Washington and freemasonry / Mark A. Tabbert.

Description: Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, [2022] | In collaboration with the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association—Title page. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021029643 (print) | LCCN 2021029644 (ebook) | ISBN 9780813947211 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780813947228 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Washington, George, 1732–1799. | Freemasons—United States—Biography. | Founding Fathers of the United States—Biography. | Presidents—United States—Biography.

Classification: LCC HS511.W3 A2 2022 (print) | LCC HS511.W3 (ebook) | DDC 366/.10973—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021029643

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021029644

Cover art: George Washington, Worshipful Master, William Williams (1759–1823), pastel, 32 × 28 inches. (Courtesy of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Alexandria, Virginia; photograph by Arthur W. Pierson)

Dedicated to

George Douglas Seghers

Conservator of Washington’s Temple

Contents

Foreword

J. F. Webb

Preface

Introduction

Edward G. Lengel

1. British Subject: 1732–1775

November 4, 1752: Washington’s Masonic Initiation

March 3, 1753: Washington Passed to the Degree of Fellow Craft

August 4, 1753: Washington Raised a Master Mason

September 1, 1753: Washington Attends the Lodge at Fredericksburg, Virginia

June 28, 1754: Letter from Daniel Campbell, Falmouth, Virginia

January 4, 1755: Washington Attends the Lodge at Fredericksburg, Virginia

The Search for Washington at Masonic Meetings, 1755–1775

2. General and Commander in Chief: 1775–1783

December 28, 1778: Washington Attends the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania’s Service, Philadelphia

June 24, 1779: Washington Attends American Union Lodge in West Point, New York

December 27, 1779: Washington Attends American Union Lodge in Morristown, New Jersey

March 15, 1780: Washington Nominated to Become the General Grand Master of the United States

March 27, 1781: Washington Receives Masonic Sermons from Rev. Samuel Magaw, Philadelphia

June 22, 1781: Invitation to Lodge No. 10, New York

August 10, 1782: Washington Receives a Masonic Apron from Elkanah Watson and Francois Corentin-Cossoul

December 27, 1782: Washington Attends Solomon Lodge No. 1, Poughkeepsie, New York

February 12, 1783: Washington Receives a Masonic Oration from James M. Varnum, Rhode Island

1779–1783: Washington Receives Masonic Orations from Joseph Webb, Boston

3. Private Citizen: 1783–1789

December 5, 1783: Invitation from Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4, Virginia

December 26, 1783: Invitation from Alexandria Lodge No. 39, Virginia

1784: Masonic Address from Peter W. Yates, Albany, New York

Spring 1784: Washington Receives a Masonic Apron

June 24, 1784: Washington Attends Alexandria Lodge No. 39, Virginia

January 21, 1785: Letter from Samuel Brenton, Newport, Rhode Island

February 12, 1785: Washington Attends William Ramsay’s Funeral, Alexandria, Virginia

September 20, 1785: Letter with Two Addresses from Rev. Uzal Ogden, Morristown, New Jersey

June 18, 1787: Washington Receives the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania’s Grand Constitutions

April 28, 1788: Alexandria Lodge No. 22 Chartered with Washington as Its Master

December 20, 1787: Washington Re-Elected as Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22

March 7, 1789: Letter and Membership Certificate from Holland Lodge No. 8, New York

4. President of the United States: 1789–1797

April 30, 1789: Washington Is Inaugurated President of the United States, New York

August 17, 1790: Welcome Address from King David’s Lodge No. 1, Newport, Rhode Island

August 23, 1790: Masonic Letter from Samuel G. Dorr, New York

April 13, 1791: Letter and a Masonic Manuscript from John K. Read, Richmond, Virginia

April 20, 1791: Welcome Address from St. John’s Lodge No. 2, New Bern, North Carolina

April 22, 1791: Welcome Address from King Solomon’s Lodge No. 18, Trenton, North Carolina

April 30, 1791: Address from Prince George Lodge No. 16, Georgetown, South Carolina

May 4, 1791: Welcome Address from the Grand Lodge of South Carolina, Charleston

May 14, 1791: Washington Receives a Welcome Address from the Grand Lodge of Georgia, Savannah

July 14, 1791: Letter from John Brett Kenna, Virginia

December 26, 1791: Note from Harmony Lodge No. 52, Philadelphia

January 3, 1792: Letter from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

March 13, 1792: Letter from Joseph Wanton Rhodes, Walpole, Massachusetts

December 27, 1792: Letter and Book from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, Boston

March 13, 1793: Letter from Samuel Brooks, Philadelphia

August 29, 1793: Washington Sits for Masonic Portrait by William Williams

September 18, 1793: Washington Participates in the Masonic Cornerstone Ceremony of the US Capitol

October 16, 1793: Letter from Abraham Forst, Georgetown, District of Columbia

December 27, 1793: The Washingtons Contribute to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania Relief Fund, Philadelphia

1793: Josiah Bartlett’s A Discourse on the Origins and Design of Free Masonry

Spring or Summer 1795: Letter and Five Volumes of Sentimental and Masonic Magazine from John Jones, Dublin, Ireland

July 1795: Letter and Sermon from Rev. Samuel Miller, New York

December 27, 1796: Address from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

January 23, 1797: Letter from Thomas Farrington, Roxbury, Massachusetts

5. Retirement and Death: 1797–1800

March 28, 1797: Invitation from Alexandria Lodge No. 22, Alexandria, Virginia

April 1797: Letter from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, Boston

September 30, 1797: Masonic Form Flyer from James Asperne, London

December 22, 1797: Invitation from Alexandria Lodge No. 22, Virginia

March 14, 1798: Letter from William Scales, Sutton Town, New Hampshire

August, September, and October 1798: Letters and a Book from the Rev. G.W. Snyder, Frederickstown, Maryland

November 7, 1798: Letter and Grand Constitutions from the Grand Lodge of Maryland, Baltimore

December 18, 1799: The Masonic Ceremony at Washington’s Funeral, Mount Vernon

January 11, 1800: Martha Washington Receives a Letter from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, Boston

Epilogue: Washington’s Posthumous Masonic Life

Appendixes

1. Masonic Events and Items Attributed to Washington

2. Masonic Lodges in North America, 1750–1800

Notes

Index

Foreword

American Freemasons’ admiration for George Washington began during his lifetime and grew as Freemasonry spread around the world. In 1799 members of Alexandria Lodge No. 22 in Virginia conducted the Masonic funeral service of their charter master, president, general, and brother, George Washington. Within fifteen years of his death, they established the first museum for his artifacts and letters. Throughout the nineteenth century, members of the lodge loyally assembled at Washington’s Mount Vernon tomb to observe both his birth and his death. In 1899 more than two hundred Freemasons from every state in the Union made a solemn pilgrimage from Alexandria’s Masonic lodge room to the tomb. There, joined by U.S. president and brother Freemason William McKinley, they reverentially reenacted Washington’s Masonic funeral service and renewed their Masonic obligations of fraternity, charity, and truth.

In 1910, through the support of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, Charles Callahan, the presiding master of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, called a convention of American Masonic leaders. Meeting on Washington’s birthday, amid the lodge’s displays of Washington artifacts, these men formed a voluntary association and selected the motto In memoriam perpetuam. They soon set to work building a great memorial temple to George Washington.

In 1923, the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association had gained support from every U.S. Masonic grand lodge, raised more than $1 million, purchased more than twenty acres of land atop Alexandria’s Shuter’s Hill, and was prepared to set the cornerstone. The ceremony began with a parade of more than fifteen thousand American Freemasons through the streets of Alexandria. President Calvin Coolidge and Chief Justice William Taft were among the participating dignitaries.

Rev. F. T. McFadden, grand chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, offered the invocation, which affirmed the Association founders’ vision:

It has come into the hearts of men to erect this temple, this memorial, and as succeeding generations shall see it, may they understand and live up to the principles for which he [Washington] stood, and to the life he lived, the life of consecration, the life he rendered to his country. And may it be instilled into their hearts until the end of the world, and be the foundation upon which shall stand, in the years to come, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

The Memorial Temple was completed in 1932, the bicentennial of Washington’s birth. For the next five decades, successive generations of Americans and Freemasons were inspired by its grandeur and beauty. Alexandria-Washington Lodge’s precious artifacts were proudly displayed among many other exhibits. Two large lodge rooms, an auditorium, and other public areas provided ample room for all to enjoy. Angled elevators took millions of visitors to the observation deck for breathtaking views of the nation’s capital and the Potomac River Valley.

Beginning in the 1990s, new forms of information technology and mass media enabled the Memorial Association and Freemasonry to meet the expectations of ongoing generations. In 2006 the Association adopted a new mission statement and undertook extensive renovations within and without the Memorial Temple.

As we prepare to celebrate the centennial of the Memorial’s cornerstone in 2023, and look further ahead to the tercentenary of Washington’s birth in 2032, Reverend McFadden’s invocation remains timely.

This book is a crucial step in fulfilling the mission of the Memorial Association. It is the intent of the author, and the Association, that it serve as a gift to brother Freemasons who continue to revere George Washington and labor to preserve his Masonic legacy. It is a clear guide and reassurance of Washington’s membership in and lifelong affection for the Craft. The well-researched information presented here by Masonic and Washington scholar Mark Tabbert provides a detailed chronological understanding of Washington’s Masonic activities and of his fraternal affections for many of his friends, neighbors, and associates.

I recommend this book to the general public as well as to scholars—academic, professional, and amateur—and to Freemasons worldwide. It is a catalog of all the items, letters, books, and necessary evidence of Washington the Freemason. It is for all who wish to undertake deeper research and gain greater knowledge of Washington.

The book’s straightforward narrative and presentation of historic documents dispels many false rumors and foolish stories of sinister conspiracies that, like so many American tall tales, have distorted the view of Washington and Freemasonry. It reveals the important role that early American Freemasonry played in disseminating the ideas of liberty, justice, equality, and charity. Washington’s Masonic membership only enhances the greatness that grew through his brotherly love and lifelong pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.

More than a century ago American Freemasons prayed that the George Washington Masonic National Memorial would be a beacon of light guiding citizens toward higher ideals and a greater love of country. Over time, those prayers were almost forgotten. Rather than aspiring to higher intellectual and spiritual precepts, the Association focused on maintaining a great temple. With this book, the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association achieves its vision:

To inspire humanity through education to emulate and promote the virtues, character and vision of George Washington, the Man, the Mason and Father of our Country.

Jules F. Jeff Webb, President

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association

Alexandria, Virginia

Preface

In late January 1800, Tobias Lear, George and Martha Washington’s private secretary, opened a letter from the Freemasons of Massachusetts addressed to the widow Washington. In it, John Warren, Paul Revere, and Josiah Bartlett informed Mrs. Washington of their resolve to commission a gold urn that would hold a lock of General Washington’s hair that it be preserved with the jewels of the society. Responding for the widow, Lear did indeed enclose a lock of Washington’s hair and wrote, Mrs Washington begs me to assure you that she views with gratitude, the tributes of respect and affection paid to the memory of her dear deceased husband.¹

The lock of hair arrived in Massachusetts before February 11, 1800, on which date it was carried within a large marble urn in solemn procession through the streets of Boston. Like Freemasons throughout the nation, the Massachusetts brethren held a special meeting to render funeral honors for their departed brother. Within the next two years Paul Revere cast a solid gold urn for the hair. As promised, it remains with the jewels of the society to this day.²

The culmination of that Masonic commemoration was a memorial service held at Boston’s Old South Meeting House, with a eulogy given by Timothy Bigelow (1767–1821), former speaker of the Massachusetts legislature. Bigelow served as grand master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts from 1806 to 1808 and again from 1811 to 1813.

Of the several published Masonic eulogies to Washington, Bigelow’s is the most important and best known. It also includes transcriptions of letters exchanged between the Massachusetts Grand Lodge and President Washington in 1792 and 1797 as well as the aforementioned letters to, and on behalf of, Mrs. Washington.³

Most important, Bigelow’s eulogy established the foundational narrative of Washington’s relationship with Freemasonry. Among his assertions, he depicted young Washington joining his local Masonic lodge in 1752 and cherishing Freemasonry’s principles throughout his life. General Washington supported the creation of traveling lodges within the Continental Army, and while far too busy to serve as a master of a lodge, he did attend meetings to stand on the level with the Brethren. Bigelow originated, or perpetuated in print, a story of Washington returning captured British military Masonic regalia under a flag of truce. After the war, Bigelow stated, the Alexandria Lodge in Virginia elected Washington as its master, and he asserted his constant and punctual attendance at meetings. According to Bigelow, Washington had remained an active supporter of the fraternity until his death.⁴

What Bigelow proclaimed came as no surprise to his listeners or to those who read the eulogy in the years thereafter. During Washington’s life his Masonic membership was common knowledge—as well known as his love of dancing and fox hunting, his great wealth, and his ownership of enslaved men, women, and children.

Indeed, Masonic membership was expected of a man of Washington’s age, place, and stature in society. Becoming a Freemason in 1799 was no different than a college student of today joining an exclusive Greek-letter fraternity or sorority, a business executive joining an expensive athletic club, or a musician joining an elite orchestra. In the colonial society of Washington’s youth, Freemasonry was a novel means to affirm a man’s respectable reputation by associating with those of higher status and greater experience.

Freemasonry, also called the Craft, was in Washington’s day essentially a voluntary self-improvement association. It had originated among Scottish stonemasons’ guilds in the 1600s when noncraftsmen were accepted as members. In time, these nonoperative or speculative masons adapted stonemasons’ ceremonies, tools, and symbols into a social organization for a growing class of merchants, professionals, and gentlemen. The three grades of craftsman—apprentice, fellow, and master—became the three initiation ceremonies, or degrees, of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. Stonemasons’ tools such as the plumb, level, and square took up the symbolic meanings of rectitude, equality, and truth. Stonemasons’ claim of ancient lineage tracing back to the craftsmen who built King Solomon’s Holy Temple in Jerusalem became the setting for Freemasonry’s rituals and symbols. Through an allegorical construction of the Holy Temple, Freemasons labored as a brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God.⁵

By the time Washington was born in 1732, Masonic lodges had appeared in most of Europe’s major cities and throughout the British Empire. London Freemasons formed the first grand lodge and installed a grand master to govern and grow the Craft. Soon after, in 1723, Rev. James Anderson published the grand lodge’s The Constitutions of the Free-Masons. It not only established Freemasonry’s principles, but included a mythological history of the Craft that traced its origins to the Garden of Eden. Local lodges of Freemasons also established grand lodges in Ireland in 1732 and Scotland in 1736.⁶

America’s first lodges in Boston and Philadelphia were established in the 1730s. In 1734, a young Benjamin Franklin, while serving as grand master of the recently established Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, reprinted Anderson’s The Constitutions of the Free-Masons. He sold at least 127 copies, of which 70 were sent to Boston and 25 to Carolina.⁷

Beginning in the 1750s, when Washington joined, an up-and-coming commercial and artisan class transformed British Freemasonry. Members of this generation called themselves the Ancients to usurp legitimacy from the elder generations, whom they labeled as decadent Moderns. Exhibiting the usual youthful zeal, the Ancient Grand Lodge of England quickly surpassed the Moderns in membership and numbers of lodges chartered. It also brought greater administrative control over its subordinate lodges and promulgated an additional degree ceremony beyond that of Master Mason, called the Royal Arch.⁸

Between the 1750s and the 1780s, both the Ancient and the Modern Grand Lodges of England, along with the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland, liberally chartered lodges throughout the North American colonies. Historians have just begun to map this Masonic landscape of provincial grand masters’ claims to overlapping geographical areas. Further complicating the map, men often freely joined lodges under different authorities, while in other locations a strict separation, even hostility, existed between competing lodges. Even more confusion followed as men—and a few women—casually and without any authority formed lodges and initiated members with the help of published ritual exposés and improvised secret passwords and handshakes. These clandestine and irregular lodges often quickly disbanded but left their self-identifying Freemasons to sow confusion.⁹

George Washington’s Masonic membership reflects this evolution. Theoretically, at twenty, he was too young to join Freemasonry. The lodge he joined in Fredericksburg was also strictly speaking clandestine, as it lacked a charter and did not obtain one from Scotland until 1758. Washington remained a member of this lodge his entire life; he became a Virginia Freemason only in 1778.¹⁰ That year, members of his lodge attended a Williamsburg convention with representatives from other lodges in Virginia, chartered from Scotland, England, or by Joseph Montfort, English provincial grand master of North Carolina. These delegates, without any authorization or official notice, formed an independent grand lodge. Washington’s lodge was renamed and numbered Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 on the Grand Lodge of Virginia’s rolls.¹¹

In 1784, after the War for Independence, Washington was elected an honorary member of the newly formed Lodge No. 39. Although the lodge met in Alexandria, Virginia, it was the thirty-ninth lodge chartered by the Ancient Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. This made Washington a Freemason in two lodges under two grand lodges. However, four years later, the Alexandria Lodge, encouraged by the newly independent Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, transferred its allegiance to the Grand Lodge of Virginia, where it was rechartered as Alexandria Lodge No. 22. Washington agreed to be its charter master.¹²

In 1789, just before Washington left Mount Vernon for New York to be inaugurated as the first president of the United States, the brothers of New York’s Holland Lodge No. 8 elected him an honorary member. As the name suggests, the lodge’s membership was primarily of Dutch heritage, but one of the leading members was Revolutionary War general Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian.¹³ During the year President Washington resided in New York, there is no evidence that he attended any Masonic meetings.¹⁴

For a man who, so far as is known, never initiated any Masonic activity or a letter after 1755, Washington had a complicated Masonic life. He was a Freemason from 1752 until his death in 1799—some forty-seven years. He first joined a clandestine lodge, then was healed by the Scottish 1758 charter, then became a Virginia Freemason in 1778, then a dual member of Pennsylvania Lodge No. 39 in Alexandria, then a dual member of two Virginia lodges, and lastly an honorary member of a New York lodge. He was twice elected master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22, but he was never officially installed or presided over a meeting. When he died, the Grand Lodge of Virginia’s necrology for 1800 listed him as a brother of his mother lodge, Fredericksburg No. 4.¹⁵

Despite such confusion, Freemasonry in America during Washington’s lifetime was neither hidden nor otherwise secret. Unlike the American Sons of Liberty or other groups that plotted sedition against the British Crown, English Freemasonry was a growing path toward gaining aristocratic patronage and royal favor. American Freemasons were both patriots and loyalists during the War for Independence. In 1782, while American rebel Freemasons could celebrate General Washington as a lodge brother, loyal American Freemasons celebrated King George III’s brother, the Duke of Cumberland, as the new grand master of the Grand Lodge of England.¹⁶

Except for the anti-Masonic period between roughly 1828 and 1845, when Freemasons were forced to meet in private, Freemasonry has always been a highly visible organization in the United States. There was never any reason for Washington to conceal his membership. The documents and artifacts in this book provide evidence to verify that he did indeed join Freemasonry in 1752 and was a member in good standing when he died in 1799. When Thomas Bigelow gave his famous Masonic eulogy in 1800, Washington’s membership in Freemasonry was as well known as that of any other leading citizen of the day.

This book’s purpose therefore is to present all known physical evidence of George Washington’s membership in, and lifelong support of, Freemasonry. At its foundation are two books: Julius F. Sachse’s Washington’s Masonic Correspondence as Found Among the Washington Papers in the Library of Congress (1915) and J. Hugo Tatsch’s The Facts About George Washington as a Freemason (1932). Whereas Sachse failed to find, or declined to publish, several of Washington’s Masonic letters, this book contains all known correspondence—the good and the bad, the great and the obscure. And whereas Tatsch simply reported the facts as he knew them, without a narrative context or scholarly citation, this book provides both. Its introduction, annotated transcriptions, and captions are the first full-length scholarly interpretation of what Freemasonry meant to George Washington.

Although this is not strictly an academic book, the evidence it presents should spur more extensive scholarship into an unexplored aspect of Washington’s life. Such exploration may reveal greater depth to his personal relationships with the many men of the Craft who shaped his character.¹⁷ Conversely, letters to Washington, such as one from the Masons of Massachusetts in 1792, provide insight into how former British subjects crafted an etiquette for the new egalitarian republic—especially when eager to affirm a fraternal bond: "Taught by the precepts of our Society, that all its Members stand upon a level, we venture to assume this station, and to approach you with that Freedom which diminishes our Diffidence without lessening our Respect."¹⁸

This book includes only the documents and artifacts that provide a record of Washington’s Freemasonry. It does not include the many undocumented Masonic stories—however believable, or sentimental, or oft repeated. While there are many unsubstantiated accounts of Washington frequently attending lodge meetings, owning additional Masonic artifacts, or performing some form of Masonic favor, they are not investigated here. But it is hoped this book will cause all those stories, and more, to be thoroughly explored. (See appendix 1).

The book is divided chronologically according to the important phases in Washington’s life: British subject, general and commander in chief, private citizen, president of the United States, and retirement and death. Detailed descriptions are provided for the three major Masonic events in his life: his 1752 Masonic initiation, the 1793 U.S. Capitol cornerstone Masonic ceremony, and the Masonic service at his 1799 funeral. Every piece of evidence presented includes a caption and, if a document, also a transcription. This thorough, if not redundant, method presents all the evidence with equal rigor.

More than two hundred years after Washington’s death—and countless eulogies, biographies, and Masonic adorations later—three common explanations of Washington’s lifelong membership in and support of Freemasonry remain: the Masonic, the spiritual, and the political.

In the Masonic interpretation, Washington was a proud Freemason, always eager to support the Craft, and always happy to greet brothers on the level—a great man who, when not on center stage, preferred to be at ease among his brethren. This point of view was expressed as early as 1800 in Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris’s eulogy given in Charlestown, Massachusetts. According to Harris, Washington sought the peace and tranquility of the Masonic lodge as a refuge from his burdens.¹⁹

Twentieth-century Masonic writers expanded the duality of Washington’s personality. When in command of the Continental Army or as president of the United States, he placed greater trust in and had greater affection for his brother Freemasons. When not directing his life and America’s destiny according to some great Masonic vision, he enjoyed some hearty fraternal fun among the brethren. Nowhere is this better depicted than in the 1923 painting by Edward Griessler for the cover of Masonic News. (See the epilogue for image.) It shows General Washington at a Continental Army lodge meeting, sitting on the ground cross-legged. With the standard Gilbert Stewart expression, he appears among the brethren as the master who conducts the work of the evening.²⁰

Masonic writers blame the scarcity of Washington’s reported lodge visits on the haphazard nature of early American Freemasonry, or on the records being lost. But other Masons suggest the lack of documentation was protective Masonic secrecy. Because the lodge was Washington’s safe space from the cares of the world, Freemasons kept his attendance secret. If word got out, the reasoning went, too many brothers and too much formality might ruin his fun.²¹

The modern Masonic interpretation of Washington also downplays the initiation ceremonies and obligations, positing that like a jovial Shriner, Washington viewed the rituals with good-humored patience in anticipation of the fun to follow. The lodge meeting was a necessary chore, making the evening’s freewheeling banquet all the more enjoyable.

But this depiction forgets that Masonic formality reflects the respectable society of Washington’s life. Indeed, at the heart of early Freemasonry’s mission was to provide a structure and purpose to gentlemen’s socializing. Other men in the 1700s might be at taverns—drinking, gambling, and wenching—but Freemasons were discouraged from such immorality. As a young man, Washington did his share of drinking, gambling, and perhaps even wenching, but he did stop. His traumatic military service, his marriage, his family duties, and his commercial responsibilities matured him. While he always enjoyed casual private time with a few close friends, he was never jovial among strangers and never acted the fool.²²

As for the spiritual dimension, in her book In the Hands of a Good Providence: Religion in the Life of George Washington, Mary Thompson calls for a greater exploration of some teachings in Freemasonry that might have influenced Washington’s faith, as well as that of the other Founding Fathers. Like other scholars, Thompson suggests that Freemasonry had a separate and distinct theology from Christianity and that Freemasons, at the least, affirmed a different creed than the Nicene.²³

It is incorrect to use Freemasons who were probably deists, such as Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire or other European philosophers or politicians, to suggest that American Freemasonry, as an institution, promoted deism or any form of natural religion. Eighteenth-century British and American Freemasonry utterly rejected the notion of a passive creator to whom praying is futile. The first book published on the fraternity, The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1723), was written by a Presbyterian minister, James Anderson. As recent scholarship shows, Anderson was a strict Trinitarian Christian.²⁴

During Washington’s life, he received several Masonic sermons preached by ordained ministers. A survey of these sermons and numerous others published before 1799 reveals how preachers applied Holy Scripture and the life of Christ to inspire Freemasons to greater charity. At the end of his presidency in 1796, Washington received a deputation of Freemasons of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. In their address to him, composed and delivered by Rev. William Smith, they invoke God to bless Washington with a long life on earth and an eternal one in heaven. Washington’s reply conveys a similar prayer to his brethren.

Peter Lillback’s George Washington’s Sacred Fire comes closest to an accurate understanding of Freemasonry’s religious element within Washington’s life: While it is a legitimate question to ask just how Christian the Masonic Order is today, for Washington in his day and in his understanding, Christianity and membership in the Masonic Order were compatible. In other words, to Washington, Freemasonry was simply another means of encouraging greater Christian piety.²⁵

Another popular interpretation of Washington’s Masonic membership is that he used it for political or personal ends. In this view, during his youth Washington viewed Freemasonry as the means to climb to the top of Virginia, or even of British, society. During the War for Independence he used the Craft to either sift out the unwanted or to build greater loyalty to him and the cause. During his presidency, Freemasonry was one more way to achieve his political agenda and generate greater nationalism among the people. Like many misconceptions, for every piece of evidence that might prove such assertions, there is far more evidence that disproves them.²⁶

In Washington’s Virginia planter society, Freemasonry was insignificant compared to many other means to achieve affluence and honor. Fame and wealth came through owning land and slaves, growing quality tobacco, marrying into a higher class, performing military service, and being elected to the House of Burgesses.²⁷ Other than his relationship with his brother-in-law, Fielding Lewis, there is no evidence or even a hint as to why Washington asked to join the Lodge at Fredericksburg. It is quite possible that he was recruited, as the lodge was new and needed members. While it is certainly possible an immature Washington joined Freemasonry for mercenary motive, he achieved far greater acclaim and status through his successful military mission to western Pennsylvania just four months after receiving the third degree of Masonry.²⁸

During the War for Independence, Washington did not have the luxury of Masonic preferences. Real talent among the officer corps was rare, and Washington chose not to entrust his men’s lives to incompetent leaders, regardless of their Masonic status. Victory required a brutality far beyond Freemasonry’s sentimental brotherly love. Even Washington’s dear Masonic brother, the high-born French aristocrat Lafayette, had to prove his worth before he was given an independent command.

While thirty-three of seventy-eight Continental Army general officers may have been Freemasons, some, like Richard Montgomery and Hugh Mercer, were killed early in the conflict. The prewar membership of others, such as James Clinton and Henry Knox, is uncertain. And of course, one prominent general who was a Freemason, Benedict Arnold, was a traitor. Lastly, Washington’s response to the 1783 Newburgh Conspiracy, where a group of Continental Army officers attempted to organize against civilian authority, proves his personal integrity and subordination to the law.²⁹

It is true that Washington endorsed the creation of Masonic lodges within his army. Of the ten known to be chartered, Washington is documented to have visited only one twice: American Union Lodge. His first visit was in June 1779, and the second was in December of that year. There is no evidence of Masonic meetings during the winter at Valley Forge or during the siege of Yorktown. Military lodges did encourage greater camaraderie and devotion to duty, but they did so without Washington’s attendance. The importance of these military lodges is a topic in need of good scholarship.

Washington’s preference to be at Mount Vernon with his family, rather than hold office, reflects a strong resistance to political guile and cynicism, or a will to power. Since his first term in the Virginia House of Burgesses at age twenty-six, he had learned how difficult politics could be. Highly extroverted politicians rarely joined small, private Masonic lodges, preferring rather to circulate among larger cabals, factions, clubs, and parties. Freemasonry’s constitutions and hierarchy purposely constrain individual members from disrupting the harmony of the lodge with divisive discussions.

Indeed,