The Cryptic rite - The Masonic Trowel

CHAPTER V.
An unpublished ms. op C(>mpanion Josiah H. Drummond—Some
facts about the eably hlstory of the rite and many disputed
j^
points settled.
>HE following is an extract from a history of these
degrees prepared by Brother Josiah H. Drummond
in 1875 (with some modifications since
made), but never published. He was led to the
preparation of it by the discovery of the original
records of Columbian Council in the city of New York,
and the original intention was to publish those records and
this history as an appendix to them
" In 1762, Stephen Morin was in Jama'*ca with a patent purporting
^o have been issued May 27, 1701, by the ' Supreme Council of Prince
Masons ' in Paris, with full power to confer the degrees of Perfect and
Sublime Masonry, establish bodies, and authorize others to do the
same, anywhere in the New World. The same year he appointed
Henry Andrew Francken with the same powers in North America.
Francken established a Logde of Perfection at Albany in 1707, and
conferred the higher degrees upon several brethren.
" It has been stated, and tradition has it, that he conferred these
degrees also. But ri^ht here I desire to say that in most of the discussiona
concerning these degrees, it has been assumed that, inasmuch
as they are Jtow; grouped together, they always were. In 1870 I made
the suggestion that they had not always been connected, and that
much of the confusion that had arisen about them was occasioned by
this erroneous assumption. The minutes of Columbian Council prove
the correctness of this suggestion.
*' To return to Francken. I h;vve seen a portion of the records of the
Lodge of Perfection at Albany, but I do not find any mention of either
of these degrees. Further investigation may find such record ; but the
want of it does not demonstrate that these degrees were not conferred,
for they did not belong to the regular series of degrees conferred by
him ; but if either was conferred, it was as a ' detached ' or ' side ' degree.
" Francken conferred his degrees upon Moses M. Hayes, of Massachusetts,
and invested him with powers similar to those possessed by
himself. It is also stated that Hayes conferred the now-called Cryptic
degrees in Massachusetts and Rtiode Island.
" Hayes appointed Isaac Da Costa as Deputy Inspector- General for
South Carolina, and he formed the Lodge of Perfection at Charleston,
in 1783. Da Costa died soon after, and Hayes appointed Joseph M.
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