Craft Masonry in Albany County, New York - Onondaga and Oswego ...

In 1776, when he was initiated in Albany, and at different times when he was in Albany over the next four decades, Morgan Lewis
connected with his Masonic brothers.
During the Revolution, Major General John Stark and other officers in the
American army called on their Masonic connections at the Albany lodge.
Henry Andrew Francken
Thomas Smith Webb is said to have received a copy of a seminal Masonic
treatise from fellow Englishman John Hammer following Hammer's arrival in
Albany in 1793 and to have adapted them to American use.
In March 1895, the New York Times printed an article describing the new
"stately and solid "masonic structure to be built in Albany and summarizing the
history of the Albany lodge. At that time, the notice offered that Albany had
eleven separate lodges with a total membership of close to 2,500. They all
would be able to use the new lodge building that subsequently was erected on
the northwestern corner of Lodge Street and Maiden Lane (Erastus Corning
Way) today. The new building was expected to cost a hundred thousand dollars
and would be "used exclusively for Masonic purposes."
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A Lodge History, similar to the one shown above, appears in History of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and ...,
Volume 1, by Charles Thompson McClenachan, pages 151-188.
http://books.google.com/books?id=g5wwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA149&dq=%22Stephen+Van+Rensselaer%22+%22masters+lodge%22
&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q=%22Stephen%20Van%20Rensselaer%22%20%22masters%20lodge%22&f=false
NO. 1.LODGE NO. 74, IRISH REGISTER, SUBSEQUENTLY UNION LODGE, NO. 1, PROVINCIAL REGISTER. .
1737-1807.
In the same year, 1737, that the Deputation as Provincial Grand Master was granted to Captain Richard Riggs, a Warrant was
issued October 26, by the Grand Lodge of Ireland, giving authority to James Nelson, Master; Thomas Brew, Senior Warden; Thos.
Swingler, Junior Warden, for holding a Lodge in the First Infantry, British Army; No. 74, Irish Register. This was in the Second
Battalion Royal (see Gould’s Hist., vol. vi., p. 401). Brother Gould in a footnote remarks, doubtingly as to the date of the above, that
“the year 1783 appears in the G. L. Record—and the Pocket Companion, Dublin, shows only thirty-seven Irish Lodges as existing in
1735.” It would seem apparent that the year 1783 is necessarily incorrect.
It is a fact to be remarked, that of the Field Lodges, and as well Stationary Lodges, which existed in this Province, those on the Irish
Register predominated, and the misfortune is mentioned by Brother Gould, p. 412, vol. vi. of his History, that, “owing to the loss of a
great part of its records by the Grand Lodge of Ireland, the number of Stationary Lodges [and the Field Lodges should be included,
Hist.] warranted in America from that jurisdiction must remain a matter of uncertainty. Lodge No. 74, in the 1st Foot, gave an exact
copy of its Warrant to a body of Brethren at Albany (N. Y.) in 1759, and it is unreasonable to believe that it was a solitary instance of
the kind.”
Brother Gould in this particular was certainly correct, for it was Lodge No. 74, I. R., which gave birth to Union Lodge, No. 1, Albany,
N. Y., in 1759, claimed by some authors to have been in 1758, of which Richard Cartwright was Master; Henry Bostwick, Senior
Warden; and William Furguson, Junior Warden. There is every evidence that the Officers of the Second Battalion Royal belonging to
the Lodge were of a literary taste. The “Albany Hand Book,” p. 87, says: “They were scholars and gentlemen, as they brought with
them and kept up a large and valuable library of rare books, which they left here when the battalion was ordered away. Many, if not
all the volumes are now in the library of the Albany Female Academy.”
In consequence of the long domicile of the Regiment in Albany, the Lodge had accepted into its membership by initiation or
otherwise a large number of influential citizens, with whom the ties of friendship and brotherly love had become very strong,
insomuch that, when orders were received for the regiment to remove in 1759, the Military brethren caused an exact copy of their
Warrant to be made, and indorsed the same as follows:
“We, the Master, Warden, and Brethren of a Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, No. 74, Registry of Ireland, held in the Second
Battalion Royal, adorned with all the honors, and assembled in due form, Do hereby declare, certify and attest, that whereas, our
body is very numerous by the addition of many new members, merchants and inhabitants of the City of Albany, they having
earnestly requested and besought us to enable them to hold a Lodge during our absence from them, and we knowing them to be
men of undoubted reputations and men of skill and ability in Masonry, and desirous to promote the welfare of the Craft. We have,
therefore, by unanimous consent and agreement, given them an exact and true COPY of our Warrant as above, and have properly
installed Mr. Richard Cartwright, Mr. Henry Bostwick and Mr. Wm. Furguson, as Assistant Master and Wardens of our body,
allowing them to sit and act during our absence, or until they, by our assistance, can procure a separate WARRANT for themselves
from the GRAND LODGE IN IRELAND.
“GIVEN under our hands and seal of our Lodge in the CITY of ALBANY, the eleventh day of April, in the year of MASONRY 5759, and
in the year of our LORD GOD 1759.
John Steadman,
Secretary.
No. 74, of Ireland.
Signed
Anias Sutherland, Master.
Charles Calder, Senior Warden.
Thos. Parker, Junior Warden.”
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