DELAWARE.

In Delaware, David Bush became a member of Washington Lodge, No. 1, of Wilmington, on December 16, 1784. [163] The lodge was established in 1769 under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and a new warrant, also from the Pennsylvania Grand Lodge, was granted to it in 1789, with Bush as its first Senior Warden. He was its Treasurer in 1791, and again Senior Warden in 1795.

David Bush may have been related to Solomon Bush, already mentioned under Pennsylvania. [164]

David Bush, of Wilmington, Del., had four sons, one of whom, Major Lewis Bush, was fatally wounded at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777. [165] Bush appears as one of the signers in 1737 of a petition "to the Honrb. Thomas Penn, Esqr., one of the Proprietors of Pensilvania," for the "erecting of a Market House in Willing Town," as Wilmington was then called. [166] His name does not appear in any of the full lists of church members of Wilmington. [166a]

Another son of David Bush, who also fought in the Revolution, was Major George Bush who was for a long time Collector of the Port at Wilmington. [167] George Bush was Senior Warden of Washington Lodge, No. 1, in 1790, Master in 1791, Treasurer in 1792 and 1793.

John Bush, who was probably another son of David Bush, was Junior Warden in 1792.

Joseph Capelle was a member between 1769 and 1784, during which years the records are not complete. He was Treasurer from 1789 to 1791, Master in 1792, Junior Warden in 1795. [168]

MARYLAND.

In Maryland, Joseph Myers, or Joseph M. Myers as he is sometimes described, was the Deputy Inspector General of Masonry, having been appointed by Moses M. Hays. [169] He was present, as already stated in treating of Pennsylvania, at a meeting of Deputy Inspectors General in Philadelphia in 1781. Myers succeeded Isaac Da Costa as Inspector General of Masonry for South Carolina after Da Costa's death in November, 1783. [170]

Apparently nothing was done by him in Maryland with reference to the propagation of the Scottish Rite, as in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, though it is asserted that he probably conferred the degrees of the Rite on Henry Wilmans, who established a Lodge of Perfection in Baltimore, in a list of 76 members of which no Jewish names appear. [171]

Myers settled in Richmond, Va. Reference will be made to him in treating of Virginia.

Lists of members of many Maryland lodges at their formation contain but few Jewish names. Probably if a full list of the members of each lodge since its organization were obtained Jewish names would be found among the members previous to 1810.

Daniel Barnett, in 1765, was a member of Lodge No. 1, Joppa, Baltimore County, and a Master Mason. [172] In December, 1765, the lodge attended chnrch and Barnett was fined for non-attendance. In January, 1766, complaint was made against him for attending at the irregular passing of certain members in a clandestine lodge. In answer Barnett said he would "abstain from seeing any makings, passings, etc., in any lodge that hath not a warrant of dispensation in the future". Barnett was probably a Jew.

William Jacobs, Past Master, A. Phillips, Joseph Modinay, and William Hayes are noted as among the members of Baltimore Lodge, No. 15, organized in 1770, and afterwards known as Washington Lodge, No. 3. These names are given as probably Jewish. [173] William Jacobs is also mentioned as having been elected in 1787 a member of the Royal Chapter of Jerusalem. [174] In that year also he appears as Past Master at a Grand Lodge meeting. [175] In 1790 he was Master of Washington Lodge, of Baltimore, and in 1794 was elected Grand Treasurer of the Grand Lodge. [176] His name is sometimes given as Jacob and sometimes as Jacobs. He also appears as a member of Baltimore Lodge, No. 16, some time between 1773 and 1789. [177]

Jacob Hart was also a member of that lodge during the same period, having been initiated November 20, 1773. Hart was the father-in-law of Haym M. Salomon, son of the patriot Haym Salomon. He was one of the patriotic merchants of Baltimore who loaned money to Lafayette to relieve the sufferings of his soldiers. Lafayette mentioned the loan in a letter to Washington in 1781. [178]

William Hayes was at a Grand Lodge meeting in 1790. [179]

B. Wolfe, John Tobias, Sam White (?), Isaac Mordecai, S. Block, S. Mordecai, and M. Suberon (?) were among the members of Baltimore Lodge, No. 22, formed May 31, 1797, from a previous lodge in which they had been early members. [180] Benjamin Wolfe was reported by the Maryland Grand Lodge to the Virginia Grand Lodge as suspended in 1800.

John Tobias is mentioned [181] as a member of the Richmond Congregation Beth Shalome in 1791, of which Wolfe was also then a member. The Tobias family were among the first Jewish settlers in Charleston, S.C. [182]

Samuel Jacobs was elected Grand Warden and Hyman Samuel Grand Steward at the election of the Grand Lodge, June 23, 1798. [183] Jacobs, in 1797, was a member of Spiritual Lodge, No. 23, of Baltimore. [184] He is noted as Senior Grand Warden in 1799 and Deputy Grand Master pro tem., in 1800, 1801, and 1802; and Grand Treasurer in 1803. [185] In 1803 Davidson David and Abraham Larsh were also members of the Grand Lodge, David being noted as a member of Harmony Lodge, Elkton, Cecil County, in 1801. [186]

Hyman Samuel was again elected Grand Steward in 1799. In September, 1798, he is noted as making a complaint against a member of Baltimore Lodge, No. 22, for un-Masonic conduct. [187]

Benjamin Solomon is recorded as a member of Benevolent Lodge, No. 32, of Baltimore, in 1802. [188] He was reported as having been suspended from that lodge in 1803, and as having appealed to the Grand Lodge, which gave directions to receive him on certain conditions. [189]

Joseph Jacobs, Moses Jacobs, Hymen Lowenstein, and Jacob Lewis were members of Concordia Lodge, No. 13, Baltimore, prior to 1803. [190]

Solomon Etting has been described under Pennsylvania as having finally settled in Baltimore, and a short account of him has already been given. He was undoubtedly active as a Mason in Baltimore, but to what lodge he belonged in that city the writer has not been able to ascertain. He was a Masonic guest of the Grand Lodge at the laying of the corner-stone of Masonic Hall, on St. Paul Street, in 1814. [191] Etting was one of the directors of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company at the time it commenced the construction of its road in 1828. [192] He was the first Jew to be elected by the people to office in Maryland. This was in 1826, when he was elected a member of the City Council, of the first branch of which he was chosen President. [193]