Gould's History of Freemasonry Around the World - Lodge Prudentia

OF CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND 29them will be successful . I may be disappointed either in obtaining the documentsor in their authenticity, so I hesitate to say more ." Bro . Laurie hadpreviously made a similar statement when addressing the Grand Lodge ofMassachusetts in 1883 . At that time he stated that " certain antiquarians "had " recently discovered what they were inclined to believe were the vestigesof a Masonic Lodge which had existed in Nova Scotia very early in the eighteenthcentury ."In any case, any Masonic activity in Nova Scotia prior to 1731 must havebeen either at Annapolis Royal, then the capital, or at Canso, a good-sizedsettlement, especially during the fishing season when as many as woo NewEnglanders made it the base of operations . Since the population of Canso wasnot permanent, however, the social life there was meager in comparison withthat of Annapolis Royal . Furthermore, since the military detachment at Cansowas a detail from Philipps' Regiment, which was quartered at AnnapolisRoyal, we strongly incline to the belief that any Lodge which may have existedin Nova Scotia prior to 1731 was located at Annapolis Royal and not at Canso .From its capture in 1710, until 1750 and afterwards, the closest sort ofintercourse, military, civil, commercial, and social, existed between AnnapolisRoyal and Boston . The Council of the Province of Nova Scotia was composedalmost entirely of Boston men, and it is a curious fact that all those men fromBoston were closely identified with King's Chapel, where tradition says aLodge was held about 1720 or 1721 . With all these facts in mind, and aftermaking exhaustive investigation, the writer believes that there was a MasonicLodge, or at least Masonic activity, at Annapolis Royal between 172o and1726, and that this activity ceased some time between 1726 and 1738 . In thelatter year a Lodge was established there by Major Erasmus James Philipps,who was one of the soldiers of Philipp's Regiment .This regiment, known later as the 4oth Foot of the British Army, wasorganised at Annapolis Royal in 1717 with the governor, Colonel RichardPhilipps, as its commanding officer . Major Erasmus James Philipps, a nephewof Governor Richard Philipps, was made a Mason in Boston, Massachusetts,while he, together with William Sheriff, Dr . William Skene, and Colonel OthoHamilton, was in Boston to serve as one of the Commissioners chosen to establishthe boundaries of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island . The Records of" The First Lodge of Boston " show that the date of Bro . Philipps' Initiationwas November 14, 1737 . At that time Bro . William Sheriff also affiliated withthe Boston Lodge . Since Sheriff had been a resident of Annapolis Royal continuouslyfrom 1716 until 1737, it is evident that he must have been made aMason in that place .In The Boston Gazette of March 13, 1738, a notice states that Henry Price,of the Boston Lodge, had appointed Major Philipps to be Provincial GrandMaster of Nova Scotia . On the occasion of his next visit to Boston, in April1739, Philipps' name is accompanied by that title in the Minutes of St . John'sLodge there . On returning to Annapolis in June 1738, Philipps took with him