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

In 1793, Thomas L. Witbeck wrote the Patroon regarding elections and appointments in Rensselaer County. Around that time, he
was identified as Van Rensselaer's lawyer and the friend of John E. Van Allen. Their relationship seems to have focused on
Rensselaer County real estate. In 1794, he became holder of a lease on a Manor farm. In 1794, he owed 11 shillings to the estate of
Albany resident William Shepherd. In 1796, he is said to have erected a flour mill on the Wynantskill.
In 1797 or 98, Aaron Burr's legal papers extensively discussed Witbeck's involvement and credit situation regarding acreage at
"Presque Isle." Burr was involved in other real estate dealings with "Thomas L. Witbeck" as well.
After the late 1790s, the name of Thomas L. Witbeck seems to have dropped from the public record. This individual was a one-time
city resident who later became more closely identified with activities and holdings on the eastern side of the Hudson River. He also
was involved with lands located in western New York and beyond.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vermont/RutlandCountyHistorypage29.html
Enoch WOODBRIDGE was a prominent citizen of Vermont, a judge of the Supreme Court in 1798, '99 and 1800, and the
grandfather of our honored brother, Hon. Frederick E. WOODBRIDGE, of Vergennes.
John CHIPMAN, the grand senior warden, was a native of Connecticut, and afterward the honored grand master of Vermont for
eighteen years. In 1766 he left Salisbury, Conn., with fifteen other young men and became a pioneer settler of the Lake Champlain
valley, at Salisbury. He was an aid to the first Governor CHITTENDEN, sheriff of Addison county for twelve years, was in the battle
of Lexington, shouldered his musket and was with Ethan ALLEN at Ticonderoga, accompanied Seth WARNER's regiment to
Canada, and participated in the capture of St. Johns and Montreal. He was at the battles of Hubbardton, Bennington and Saratoga,
and commanded at Fort Edward and Fort George. He was made a Mason at Albany, NY, in 1779, and was a charter member of
Dorchester Lodge, No. 1, at Vergennes. He died at Middlebury full of honors and years and received a Masonic burial.
Mount Vernon Lodge No. 3, Albany, New York
CHARTERS: Original warrant, October 26, 1737; No. 74, Grand Lodge of Ireland in the First Regiment Foot, Second Battalion.
In 1758 and 1750 there was stationed at Albany, NY, the second battalion of the 1st Royals (now Royal Scots), which had left Great
Britain for Nova Scotia in 1757. "Its officers," says "The Albany Hand Book," "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, of the volumes are now in the library of the Albany Female Academy." In the regiment was a Lodge of Freemasons, No. 74 on
the roll of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and as the soldiers and citizens were on the best of terms, it would seem that many of the
latter were received into the Lodge and duly initiated into its mysteries. When the command was ordered to a new field of duty, they
carried their Irish warrant with them, but in accordance with a custom which was then permitted they caused an exact copy of it to
be made, which they endorsed as follows:
"We, the Master, Wardens 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, « 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. WILLIAM 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 1759.
ANIAS SUTHERLAND, Master.
CHARLES CALDER. Senior Warden.
THOS. PARKER. Junior Warden.
JOHN STEADMAN, Secretary, No. 74 of Ireland.
The regiment, or battalion rather, never returned to the good old Dutch city, and it does not seem likely that the " indorsed "
brethren ever applied to Ireland for a warrant, or that their army friends thought any more about them; rather they recalled them with
kindly memories and nothing more, for the business of a soldier in those days often thwarted good intentions and interrupted the
smooth flow of the amenities of life. However all this may be, there is no doubt that the brethren left in Albany kept up their form of
organization as a Lodge.
February 21, 1765: Above duplicate said to have been confirmed by, and new warrant issued by, Provincial Grand Master
HARRISON as Union Lodge, July 30, 1773; reconfirmed by Sir JOHN JOHNSON, Provincial Grand Master. I have same doubt about the
correctness of the word "confirmed" as used above. No. 74 was an Irish Lodge, and it seems strange that a Modern Provincial
Grand Master would confirm such a document.
December 3. 1806: Warrant issued by Grand Lodge of the State of New York to Mount Vernon.
Minutes of Grand Lodge, December 3, 1806: "A petition from the officers of Mount Vernon Lodge in the City of Albany at present
working under a dispensation from the Most Worshipful Past Grand Master, stating that they had surrendered the colonial warrant
under which they had previously worked' under a promise . . . that a new warrant should be granted to them free of expense, was
read and granted."
The 1806 warrant was destroyed by fire in 1824, and in 1825 Grand Master VAN RENSSELAER issued the warrant now in use.
NUMBER: No. 1 (Union Lodge), until 1802, when Grand Lodge gave it the number 3.
1802, No. 3, Union Lodge under dispensation.
1806, No. 4, Mount Vernon Lodge; 1827, No. 3, Mount Vernon Lodge.
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