Who is Prince Hall?
c.1735 - December 4, 1807
Abolitionist, civic leader, caterer, leather-dresser, and founder of what would become the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, little is known of the life of Prince Hall. He is claimed by Grimshaw to have been born in Barbados, B. W. I. on September 12, 1748, although no record of this has ever been found. He is also claimed to have arrived in Boston from Africa in 1765 and sold to one William Hall who freed him in 1770. There were a number of Prince Halls in Boston at this period and the Certificate of Manumission deposited in the Boston Athenaeum Library, dated 9 April I770, cannot be positively identified as referring to Prince Hall.
In 1787, as a property owner and registered voter, he campaigned for the establishment of schools for Negro children in Boston, opened a school in his own home, and successfully petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to protect free Negroes from kidnapping and being sold into slavery. During the Revolutionary War he served in the Continental Army and is believed to have fought at Bunker Hill. In his last published speech, his charge to African Lodge in June 1797, Hall spoke of mob violence against blacks, counselling patience.
Although Grimshaw claims that Hall was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church there is no record of this, while a deposition, which is recorded in the Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Register of Deeds, made by Prince Hall in August 1807, states that he was a leather-dresser by trade; that he was 'about seventy'; and that in November 1762 he had been received into the full communion of the Congregational Church. The alleged patent appointing Prince Hall as Provincial Grand Master for North America appears to have been another of Grimshaw’s inventions.
Initiated into Lodge No 441 with fourteen others, the lodge granted Prince Hall and his brethren the authority to meet as African Lodge No. 1 (Under Dispensation). Hall petitioned the Premier Grand Lodge of England for a warrant which was granted on September 20, 1784 and delivered in Boston on April 29, 1787. African Lodge No. 459 was organized one week later, May 6, 1787.
Out of this lodge the African Grand Lodge of North America was formed on June 24, 1791 in Boston. The year following Prince Hall’s death, as a memorial to him, and by an act of the General Assembly of the Craft, the name was changed to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. The original Charter No. 459 has long since been made secure between heavy plate glass and is kept in a fire-proof vault in a downtown Boston bank.
His obituary in the Boston Gazette for Monday, 7 December 1807 notes his age as 72 which would infer a birth date of about the year 1735. His gravestone mistakenly notes the date of the published notice rather than his actual death the previous Friday.
Initiated, Passed and Raised: March 6, 1775 Lodge No. 441, Irish Constitution, attached to the 38th Regiment of Foot, British Army Garrisoned at Castle William (now Fort Independence) Boston Harbor Founder: African Lodge No. 459, Massachusetts: 1787 Grand Master: 1791-1807
Source: Prince Hall Freemasonry,George Draffen of Newington. Scotland : The Phylaxis Society, 13 May 1976; Prince Hall Lodges History - Legitimacy - Quest for recognition, Joseph E. Moniot.Proceedings, Walter F. Meir Lodge of Research. No. 281. vol. vi, no. 5; Prince Hall, the Pioneer of Negro Masonry. Proofs of the Legitimacy of Prince Hall Masonry, Bruce John Edward (1856-1924), 12 p. New York, June 5, 1921; Black Square and Compass - 200 years of Prince Hall Freemasonry. Page 8. W. Bro. Joseph A. Walkes, Jr... Richmond, Virginia : Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., 1979;Official History of Free Masonry Among the Coloured People in North America, William H. Grimshaw, (Past Grand Master, 1907 of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Washington, District of Columbia), 1903; Prince Hall: Life and Legacy, Dr. Charles H. Wesley. 1977;Prince Hall Masonic Directory, 4th Edition 1992. Conference of Grand Masters, Prince Hall Masons (reprint of Wesley)
Prince Hall, our founder, was one of our great Americans, a worthy Grand Master associated with our first Grand Lodge and its expansion. His name is carried by our masonic organizations in the United States, and by thousands of freemasons who regard themselves as descendants from the Grand Lodge of England, from which he received his authority more than two centuries ago. We in America celebrated in 1976 the two hundredth anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. This is also the two hundred and first (201st) anniversary of the founding of Prince Hall Masonry. It is a monument to Prince Hall’s life, career and leadership.
It was a significant event in Freemasonry on March 6, 1775, when Prince Hall and fourteen other men were initiated into Freemasonry through Warrant No. 459, which is still in our possession. John Batt, who was of the 38th Foot Regiment of the British Army, having enlisted in 1759 and learning of the American cause, re-enlisted in its army. The enlistees were Prince Hall, Cyrus Johnston, Bueston Slinger, Prince Rees, John Canton, Peter Freeman, Benjamin Tiler, Duff Ruform, Thomas Santerson, Prince Rayden, Cato Speain, Boston Smith, Peter Best, Forten Horward, and Richard Titley. The writer has this record. A permit was issued for these freemasons to meet as African Lodge No. 1, and they became the first Black freemasons in the United States. Prince Hall enlisted and served as a soldier in the 2nd and 6th Regiments of Massachusetts. In this connection, George W. Williams, historian, wrote in 1884, "that he saw hard service we know by the record of the two regiments he served in, always distinguished for steadiness and valor. Prince Hall was not only a good soldier, he was a statesman.
"The Revolutionary War being over in 1783, Prince Hall decided to approach England again. On March 2, 1784, he wrote a letter to William Moody, Worshipful Master of Brotherly Love Lodge No. 55 in London, England, stating that African Lodge had been in operation for eight years and they had only "a Permit to walk on St. John’s Day and to bury their dead in manner and form" and he thought it "best to send to the Fountains from whence he received the Light for a Warrant." This warrant or charter was prepared but was not sent. Three years passed yet the payment for it had not been received in London. It seems that Prince Hall had sent it but it had not been delivered. Finally, he was careful in selecting his messengers and asked Captain James Scott, brother-in-law of Governor John Hancock of Massachusetts, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Captain Scott delivered the letter and the money, and received a Charter. Prince Hall acknowledged this receipt and added in this letter to England, "By the grace of God, I shall endeavor to fulfill all that is required of me in the Charter and I shall make the Constitution my guide.' He added, "I hope we can adorn our profession as Masons." This Charter, under lock and key, is in the possession of African Lodge of Massachusetts. Some of us have seen it and treasure it.
It is believed to be the only original charter issued from the Grand Lodge of England which is now in the possession of any lodge in the United States. It is worth noting that recognition of this fact was adopted in a unanimous report of a committee of the historic Northern Jurisdiction in 1946 but it was delayed by another committee’s action.
Some white freemasons say the Blacks were not denied admission to white lodge and they point to the very few members, and the presence of others by invitation, as proof. We believe otherwise, for a contemporary, D. Bentley, wrote in his diary, "The thrust is they are ashamed of being on equality with blacks. Even the fraternities of France, given to merit without distinction of color do not influence Massachusetts Masons to give an embrace less emphatically or tender affectionate to their Black Brethren .. It is evident that a preeminence is claimed by whites.
"The questions of extending Freemasonry arose when Absalom Jones of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania appeared in Boston in 1791. He was an ordained Episcopal priest and a freemason who was interested in establishing a masonic lodge in Philadelphia. In 1792 Black men come from Providence, Rhode Island to Boston to inquire about Freemasonry. They attended to hear the charge by Prince Hall who, speaking of the presence of these men, said, "My dear brethren of Providence, who are at a distance from and cannot attend this lodge but seldom.
"Freemasons in both places, made in England, the West Indies or elsewhere, came to Boston to see Prince Hall and suggested their cities as places for lodges. At a subsequent assembly the African Grand Lodge was formed in 1791 by delegations from Philadelphia, Providence and New York in a Grand Lodge assembly. Prince Hall was elected Grand Master and remained in this office until his death. African Lodge in Philadelphia, and Hiram Lodge in Providence, came under his aegis in 1797. With growth and expansion the movement went west and south.
Prince Hall died on December 4, 1807. His successor was Nero Prince who sailed to Russia in the year 1808, George Middleton succeeded him for 1809-1810, then Peter Lew, Samuel H. Moody and the well known John T. Hilton. It was Hilton who recommended adopting a Declaration of Independence from the English Grand Lodge in 1827—as the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts had done in 1772—thereby assuming the power and prerogatives of an independent Grand Lodge.
On November 7, 1828 Freedoms Journal, the first Black newspaper, praised Prince Hall as "the Founder of African Lodge of Boston, and for his "work for the Grand Masonic Lodge." The heritage which Prince Hall left us has authentic and factual goodness to us as Masons, and we go forward distributed in 44 Grand Lodges, Easter Star, two Supreme Councils, Golden Circles, Shriners, Daughters of Isis, Brother and Sisters in the United States, the West Indies, Canada, Liberia and West African, all doing a great work and spreading a good cause in Masonry To all these and those who read this, we say as Prince Hall said in 1797:
"Blessed be God, the Scene is Changed! They now confess that God has no respect of persons, and therefore receive them as friends and treat them as brothers. Thus doth Ethiopia stretch forth her hand from slavery to freedom and equality."
