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Preserving Legacy on Paper: An 1847 Scottish Rite Meeting Summons
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ictured here is a recently digitized handwritten summons from the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction’s Sovereign Grand Commander John James Joseph Gourgas (1777-1865) to future Sovereign Grand Commander Edward A. Raymond (1791-1864), dated November 22, 1847. It is among a number of nineteenth-century Scottish Rite documents that we have added to the Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives Digital Collections website. By taking a closer look at the events surrounding the creation of this summons, we can gain insight into the difficult, but ultimately successful, reorganization of the Scottish Rite that took place in the 1840s. In 1847, the Supreme Council, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction membership was small and geographically dispersed. Seven of its nine members had only joined the Supreme Council within the past two years. The Council was still rebuilding itself. The anti-Masonic movement had brought most Masonic activity in the Northeast to a halt in the late 1820s and through the 1830s. The Council’s members were located in two states, with four living in the Boston area and five living in New York State. At the time, J.J.J. Gourgas and his Lieutenant Grand Commander, Giles Fonda Yates (1798-1859) headed the Council. Gourgas, who lived in New York City, and Yates, who lived in Schenectady, had kept the Supreme Council’s records together during the dormant years of the anti-Masonic period. They were responsible for the reorganization of
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the Supreme Council in 1844 and 1845, during which time they admitted the seven new members to the Supreme Council.
and Baker provided official excuses for non-attendance which were accepted. Expressing his frustration with members who did not attend Supreme Council meetings, Gourgas mentions that two members—John Christie (1804-1890) and Archibald Bull (1788-1865)—had not made an appearance at any meetings since they had been admitted. In strong language, he declared them “useless members, unless they come forward with admissible excuses...”
John James Joseph Gourgas, 1849-1853. Francis D’Avignon, New York, NY. Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, GL2004.0475. Photograph by David Bohl.
This 1847 summons gives us a glimpse into this period of rebirth. Written in Gourgas’ unmistakable handwriting and addressed to Edward A. Raymond in Boston, the summons directs Bostonbased Supreme Council members Raymond, Charles W. Moore (18011873), and Reuel Baker (1792-1848) to attend the “Stated Constitutional Meeting of the Grand and Supreme Council” to be held on December 7, 1847. The record of that meeting, later published in the Supreme Council’s Proceedings, shows how difficult it was for Gourgas to rebuild the Council. Only three people attended the December 7, 1847 gathering: Gourgas, Yates, and Killian H. Van Rensselaer (18011881). In the published Proceedings, Gourgas notes that Raymond, Moore,
Edward Asa Raymond, ca. 1900. Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, GL2004.4831.
In a letter, dated January 20, 1848, written in response to Gourgas’ wish to hear from Bull and Christie, Bull explains to Gourgas that his absences occurred because of his poor health. (This letter from Bull to Gourgas is also digitized and available on our Digital Collections website.) Both Christie and Bull would go on to attend future Supreme Council meetings along with new Supreme Council members who were admitted in 1851.
The Northern Light
