Sublime Lodge of Perfection

In Pennsylvania Jewish Masons were quite active, particularly in the Scottish Rite.

In that State we have the full record of the early proceedings of the Sublime Lodge of Perfection in Philadelphia, which marks the beginning of the Scottish Rite there. It was first printed in Hyneman's Mirror and Keystone, at Philadelphia, in 1854, Vol. III, pp. 139, 196, 205, 212, 221. It was reprinted in 1878 as the first part of a small volume entitled "By Laws of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Orient of Philadelphia". The title page of the proceedings reads: "Minute Book for the Lodge of Grand Elect, Perfect and Sublime Masons, in the City of Philadelphia, 25th June, 1781." The minutes, however, run to 1789.

This lodge played a most important part in the early history of Masonry in America, and is referred to in all accounts of the Scottish Rite there. Its Jewish membership and control are particularly noted.

A list of members of the Sublime Lodge of Perfection in Philadelphia in 1781, prefacing the minutes of that lodge, as printed in the volume above referred to, shows 56 names, among which the following Jewish ones occur:

Solomon Bush, Isaac Da Costa, Simon Nathan, Samuel Myers, Barnard M. Spitzer, Benjamin Seixas, Moses Cohen, Myer M. Cohen, Benjamin Nones, Isaiah Bush, Solomon Etting, Lazarus Levy, and Isaac Franks. In addition the minutes show in the same year Joseph M. Myers, and in 1782 Solomon M. Cohen, and in 1784 Solomon M. Myers and Michael Gratz. Etting and Levy, however, are first noted in the minutes in 1785 and Franks in 1786.

All of these except Levy were members of the Mikve Israel Congregation of Philadelphia at its organization in 1782. [108]

The record shows the following details relating to Jews:

Solomon Bush, who was the Deputy Inspector General of Masonry for Pennsylvania, having been appointed by Moses M. Hays (who had also appointed the other inspectors below named) under the authority vested in him, as already stated, ordered a chapter to be held on the 25th of June, 1781. On that day a meeting of the Sublime Lodge of Perfection was held in Philadelphia, at which, among others, are noted as present the following Jewish members:

Solomon Bush, Deputy Grand Inspector General for Pennsylvania, in the chair.
Isaac Da Costa, Grand Warden, Grand Inspector General for the West Indies and North America.
Simon Nathan, Deputy Grand Inspector General for North Carolina.
Samuel Myers, Deputy Grand Inspector for the Leeward Islands.
Barnard M. Spitzer, Deputy Grand Inspector for Georgia.
Benjamin Seixas, Prince of Jerusalem.
Moses Cohen, Knight of the Sun.
Myer M. Cohen, Knight of the Sun.
Joseph M. Myers is noted as Grand Secretary pro tem., Inspector for Maryland.

At the next meeting held October 23, 1782, the same Jewish members were present except Samuel Myers. Isaac Da Costa was in the chair and Solomon Bush was Grand Warden Inspector. Benjamin Seixas was appointed Treasurer. Motions relating to organization were made by Joseph M. Myers, Myer M. Cohen, Seixas, and Nathan.

At the next meetings, held October 30 and 31, 1782, Bush appears as Chairman, Da Costa as Grand Warden, Seixas as Treasurer. As members Simon Nathan, Joseph M. Myers, B. M. Spitzer, and Solomon M. Cohen are noted.

No further meeting appears to have been held before October 23, 1784. Between October 23, 1784, and October 6, 1785, Benjamin Nones and Isaiah Bush received various degrees in the Lodge of Perfection of the Scottish Rite from the 4th to the 14th. Solomon Bush, at these different meetings, delivered lectures on the duties connected with these degrees. At one of these meetings, November 11, 1784, Simon Nathan presented a petition on behalf of Michael Gratz, described as an Ancient Master Mason, praying to be admitted in the Sublime Degree of Masonry, which, being seconded by Benjamin Nones, was approved of.

At the meetings of May 4 and 11, 1785, Myer M. Cohen presented at cost 21 plates or representations in his possession for the benefit of the lodge. He stated that he was about to leave the city.

On May 19, 1785, the lodge met at Benjamin Nones' house in Market Street by special order. Moses Cohen acted as Sublime Grand Secretary pro tem.

On June 24, 1785, Benjamin Nones was elected Steward, but declined in favor of Moses Cohen, who was elected to that office. At that meeting he presented to the lodge a copperplate for the embellishment of certificates of membership. In August he was elected Master of Ceremonies, and on December 25, 1785, and also in 1786 was elected Steward.

On July 6, 1785, Moses Cohen presented 2000 bricks to be applied to the use of the lodge room in Black Horse Alley, which had been rented of Joseph Morris.

On July 13, 1785, Solomon Etting, an Ancient Master Mason, was passed to the chair, and thereafter received the degrees of Secret Master and Perfect Master, and on October 5, 1785, that of Intimate Secretary.

Lazarus Levy, between September 25 and October 5, 1785, received the degrees of Secret Master and Perfect Master.

Isaac Franks, on December 5, 1786, received the degree of Secret Master, and on February 21, 1788, was elected Steward. He resigned that office April 2, 1788. On October 1, 1788, he appears as Junior Warden.

Solomon M. Myers appears as a member in 1784 and again on April 7, 1788, when he submitted a request, which was granted, to be discontinued as such.

Solomon Bush, on November 2, 1785, was appointed one of a committee of four to prepare a letter to the Grand Council at Berlin and Paris, of which the King of Prussia was the head, informing them of the establishment of the Sublime Lodge in Philadelphia, and of the names of the several members who composed the same and their several degrees. [109]

Solomon Bush, at the elections in 1787 and 1788, was elected Grand Master of the Sublime Lodge of Perfection. On April 2, 1788, he is reported as much indisposed. On November 5, 1788, he informed the lodge that he was shortly about to leave for Europe. He then retired as Grand Master, and an address of thanks was ordered to be prepared on November 7, 1788, and presented to him. No Jews are noted as present at that meeting except Bush, and none thereafter are recorded in the minute book which ends February 21, 1789.

Bush is noted as connected with the Sublime Lodge in 1796. His name then appears as Deputy Grand Secretary. [110]

Abraham Forst, of Philadelphia, was Deputy Inspector General for Virginia in 1781. A copy of his patent, issued by Moses M. Hays, as Deputy Grand Inspector General over the two Hemispheres, attested by S. Bush as Deputy Grand Secretary, dated April 4, 1781, is given in a recent work with a facsimile endorsement of authenticity June 25, 1781, showing the signatures of Solomon Bush, Isaac Da Costa, Samuel Myers, Simon Nathan, and Bd. Mos. Spitzer as Deputy Grand Inspectors General. Forst is therein described as a merchant of Philadelphia, late of London. The document is said to be the most ancient of the kind known, and is in the library of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. [111] He still held that office in 1788, when he went to Charleston to assist in the establishment of a Council of Princes of Jerusalem. [112] He is noted as being in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1790, on Masonic business. [113] He was the son-in-law of Rev. Jacob R. Cohen, minister of the Congregation Mikve Israel of Philadelphia from 1784-1811, and was connected with it in a ritual capacity. [114]

Other Lodges

Lodge No. 2, A. Y. M., of Philadelphia, from the proceedings recently printed, the following appears:

A Brother Solomon is noted as a visitor May 12, 1767, and Isaac Sollomon, of Lancaster, October 17, 1768. [115]

Abraham Franks is noted as a visitor January 12, 1772. [116] Ezekiel Levy was proposed by Solomon Bush in 1781, balloted for and accepted as a member, but his initiation delayed until receipt of orders from the Grand Lodge. [117] This would indicate that Solomon Bush was a member, though he is not recorded as such, being noted only as a visitor.

The following became members: Isaiah Bush and Benjamin Nones in 1783, [118] and Moses Cohen, Haym Salomon, and Solomon Etting in 1784. [119] Isaiah Bush in 1784 was elected Senior Deacon, and also Secretary, and in 1785 Senior Warden. [120] Moses Cohen, in 1784, was Steward, and in 1786, Senior Warden, and also Secretary pro tem. [121] Benjamin Nones was Senior Warden in 1784. [122] At various dates between 1782 and 1785 Solomon Bush, Simon Nathan, Lazarus Levy, and Isaac Da Costa are noted as visitors. George Bush appears as a visitor in 1785, as also an M. Cohen, of Lodge No. 19, in 1787, when Moses Cohen was still a member of Lodge No. 2. [123]

Isaiah Bush ceased being a member in 1785 when he stated he intended to go to Charleston, S. C. A specimen of his handwriting as secretary is lithographically reproduced in the historical account of the lodge. [124]

Joseph Miranda appears to have been Secretary of Lodge No. 4, of the Moderns, on June 24, 1759, [125] and of Lodge No. 1, of the Ancients, in the same month, and Deputy Master of Lodge No. 2 on February 12, 1760. [126] The name is Jewish, but whether he was a Jew or of Jewish descent the writer has not been able to ascertain positively.

Solomon Bush became instrumental in 1788 in bringing about fraternal relations between the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge and the two rival Grand Lodges of England, Ancients and Moderns. The Pennsylvania Grand Lodge had established itself as independent, and announced that it would no longer consider itself a Provincial Grand Lodge, owing to the result of the War of the Revolution. Bush, who acted as the representative of the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge, of which he apparently was a prominent member, delivered in London in 1788 its letter, announcing the change, to the English Moderns with which Pennsylvania was not in affiliation, instead of to the Ancients with which it was. Through this error, communication was opened up and continued with two rival bodies, a condition of affairs said to be exceptional in Masonry, and to have been the precursor of the ultimate union of the two English Grand Lodges in 1813. [127]

Solomon Bush is well known to students of Jewish history as having served in the American Revolution, and as a prominent man in the Jewish community. [128] He is described by Solomon Etting, who was quoted by Col. J. W. Worthington in his address before the House of Delegates, Maryland, in 1824. [129]

Solomon Etting's name is also well known. In addition to the accounts by Markens, p. 93, and Morais, pp. 270, 393, he is described in another work, [130] as follows:

"Solomon Etting was born in York, Penn. He married a daughter of the celebrated Indian trader, Joseph Simon, of Lancaster. He then removed to Lancaster and entered into partnership with his father-in-law, under the firm name of Simon & Etting. They conducted a general merchandise business in a store room on the southeast corner of East King and Centre Square. He afterwards removed to Philadelphia, and finally to Baltimore, where he died at a great age, leaving a large family. He was a man of sterling integrity, of great wit and drollery, and was beloved and respected by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. He was distinguished for his considerable and indiscriminate charities, and was in his old age affectionately hailed by all as "Father Etting." He was one of the founders of Lodge No. 43, and being a Master was deputized by R. W. Grand Master William Adcock to constitute the lodge and install the officers. He was the first Treasurer of the lodge, serving as such until 1786. ... He was elected Junior Warden in 1788, serving as such until June, 1790, when he was elected Worshipful Master, filling the office for one year, when he withdrew from the lodge and removed to Philadelphia."

Lodge No. 43, of Lancaster, Pa., was organized September 25, 1785, with Etting as one of the founders.

Other Jewish members of the lodge were Myer Solomon, admitted March 12, 1790; Abraham Henry, June 19, 1790; Simon Gratz, February 10, 1796, and Samuel Jacobs, March 1, 1798. Abraham Henry is described as a gun-maker, and as one of the first to engage in that business in Lancaster. He was elected Senior Warden in December, 1797, and served as such until June, 1799, when he became Master, filling that office for one term of six months. [131]

Myer Solomon is mentioned as a Lancaster subscriber in 1777 for £1 10s. to a fund to pay for intelligence to and from Washington's army. [132]

Samuel Hays, as noted under New Jersey, was a member of St. John's Lodge of Philadelphia. He was a son-in-law of Michael Gratz. [133]

Simon Nathan was a brother-in-law of Benjamin Seixas [134] and was President of the Mikve Israel Congregation of Philadelphia from 1783 to 1784. He was also prominent in New York. [135]

Benjamin Nones was President of the Congregation from 1791 to 1799. [136] He was a soldier in the American Revolution, with the rank of Major. [137] He was aide-de-camp on the staffs [138] of Washington, Lafayette, DeKalb, and Pulaski. [139] These two statements of rank, however, appear to lack official confirmation, though there is no douht he served in the war.

Nones had a son, Solomon B. Nones, also a Mason, whose life was saved through his connection with the Order. In the earliest years of this Government he was our Consul-General to Portugal. It is related of him that, while on his way to his post of duty, the vessel on which he sailed was captured on the Mediterranean Sea by Corsairs; that all his fellow passengers were killed, and that he was saved by giving a Masonic sign. [140]

Isaac Franks [141] is said to have been an aide-de-camp to General Washington. [142] He appears to have been in Savannah, Georgia, in 1801 and 1802, and was an active Mason there.

Benjamin Seixas, mentioned as possessing the degree of Prince of Jerusalem, was Treasurer of the Philadelphia Congregation Mikve Israel in 1782, [143] and one of the founders of the New York Stock Exchange in 1792. [144] He is referred to in The Jewish Encyclopedia by Max J. Kohler, Vol. IX, p. 269, as serving early in the Revolutionary War.

Moses Cohen was a broker and shopkeeper in Philadelphia in 1785. [145] He seems to have been in Jamaica, W. I., in 1790. [146]

Myer M. Cohen appears to have removed to Richmond, and to have been an active Mason in that city between 1794 and 1799. He died in the latter year. He will be referred to in treating of Virginia.

Samuel Myers was a native of New York, and in 1781, when he is mentioned as present at the Lodge of Perfection in Philadelphia, was about 22 years old. In 1802 he was an honorary member of the Charleston Sublime Lodge of Perfection, being then a merchant in Virginia. He was at the time 43 years old. [147] He will be referred to under Virginia.

Isaac Da Costa, previous to 1782, when he was in Philadelphia, had been in Charleston, and was also there afterwards, until the latter part of 1783, when he died. He will be referred to under South Carolina.

Benjamin Nones, Isaiah Bush, and Moses Cohen are mentioned in 1785 as among the members of Lodge No. 2, of Philadelphia, subscribing to a fund to purchase a house called the Lodge, in Lodge Alley. Nones subscribed £3, Bush £1 2s. 6d., and Cohen £1 15s. [148]

Joseph Capella is also mentioned [149] as among the signers of an agreement to establish a Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania which should be independent of Great Britain. A Joseph Carpelles seems to have been a member of the Philadelphia Congregation Mikve Israel in 1782, and may have been identical with Capella. [150]

Haym Salomon, of Lodge No. 2, was the patriot-banker who was of great assistance to the American cause during the Revolution. His very large loans to the government were never repaid. He was the friend, in need, of Madison, Jefferson, Robert Morris, and other of our early public men, and was in other ways famous. [150a] (see note [E1])

Concordia Lodge, No. 67, of Philadelphia: Members, with dates of admission, were Abraham Cohen, 1800; Jacob David, 1806; Adam Franks (?), 1795; Jacob Horn (?), 1801; Henry Ries (?), 1786, and Michael Winterberger ( ?), 1810. [151] Simon Gratz appears as Senior Warden of this lodge. Adam Franks, in 1797, is noted as Junior Warden. [152]

Columbia Lodge, No. 91: Abraham Cohen was admitted in December, 1801, as a member; was its Secretary December, 1805, to June, 1806, and Treasurer from December, 1806, to November, 1807. Isaac Lyon was another member in December, 1803, and Simon Rovira September 25, 1809. [152a]

Abraham Cohen was a member of the Grand Royal Holy Arch of Pennsylvania in 1807, [153] and A. H. Cohen, probably the same person, is noted as its Grand Scribe in 1809 and 1810. A. H. Cohen is probably identical with Rev. Abraham

H. Cohen, Reader in Mikve Israel Congregation of Philadelphia in 1815, [154] and afterwards Reader in the Richmond Congregation Beth Shalome before 1830. [155]

Jonas Phillips, who has been mentioned as a Mason in New York in 1760, is noted as having been connected with the Order in Philadelphia in 1785, [156] being then described as a merchant. He was a prominent member of the Mikve Israel Congregation of Philadelphia in 1782-1783, being then its President, [157] and, with Isaac Moses, Jacob Mordecai, and Barnard Gratz, laid the corner-stones of their new synagogue in that year.

Isaac Moses was the New Yorker of that name already noted as a Mason there. He was a prominent merchant during the Revolution and a co-worker with Robert Morris in rendering financial assistance to the government. [158] Jacob Mordecai will be noted as a Mason in North Carolina, and was probably then one in Philadelphia. Barnard Gratz was an uncle of Simon Gratz mentioned as a Mason in Lancaster and Philadelphia, and also no doubt a Mason. [159] An Isaac Moses also laid one of the corner-stones for the Charleston Beth Elohim Synagogue in 1793. An Isaac Moses, Jr., of Charleston, has already been mentioned as a Mason in New York in 1806.

Hyman Marks was a member of [Montgomery] Lodge, No. 19, in 1804. [160] He was a resident of Philadelphia in 1815, being then President of the Mikve Israel Congregation. [161] Later he was in Virginia. [162] He will be again referred to in treating of that State.