Preserving Legacy on Paper: An 1847 Scottish Rite Meeting Summons

Pictured 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 the Supreme Council in 1844 and 1845, during which time they admitted the seven new members to the Supreme Council.

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, 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...”

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.

by Jeffrey Croteau, Director of the Van Gorden-Williams Library and Archives The Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives is located in Lexington, Massachusetts, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, and is open to the public.

As the events surrounding this summons demonstrate, Gourgas and Yates had to work hard to bring together the robust Supreme Council that eventually emerged from their work. At various times, obstacles such as geography, means of travel, and illness all played roles in making it difficult for Supreme Council members to convene in the 1840s and even into the 1850s. And yet, just two decades after Gourgas issued this summons, when two formerly competing Supreme Councils in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction joined forces in the “Union of 1867,” the Supreme Council had expanded to include 67 members. Along with the growing leadership, membership blossomed in Valleys throughout the jurisdiction.

Handwritten summons from Sovereign Grand Commander John James Joseph Gourgas to Edward A. Raymond, 1847. Gift of the Supreme Council of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite, A2019/178/0001. Are you interested in reading more primary sources related to the history of the Scottish Rite? Be sure to check out the growing collection on our Digital Collections website.

View the 1847 summons: https://digitalvgw.omeka.net/items/show/1168 View the 1848 Archibald Bull letter: https://digitalvgw.omeka.net/items/show/1177 View the Scottish Rite Documents collection: https://digitalvgw.omeka.net/ collections/show/7 ? Have a question or need more info? Drop us a line at library@srmml.org or give us a call at 781-457-4109.