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AFRICAN LODGE NO. 459
The Warrant to African Lodge No. 459 of Boston is the most
interesting significant and highly prized document known to the Prince Hall Masons
Fraternity. Through it our legitimacy is traced, and on it more than any other factor, our
case rests. It was granted on September 29, 1784, delivered in Boston on April 29, 1787 by
Captain James Scott, brother-in-law of John Hancock and master of the Neptune, under its
authority African Lodge No. 459 was organized one week later, May 6, 1787.
In 1869 a fire destroyed Massachusetts’ Grand Lodge
headquarters and a number of its priceless records. The charter in its metal tube was in
the Grand Lodge chest. The tube saved the charter from the flames, but the intense heat
charred the paper. It was at this time that Grand Master S.T. Kendall crawled into the
burning building and in peril of his life, saved the charter from complete destruction.
Thus a Grand Master’s devotion and heroism further consecrated this parchment to us,
and added a further detail to its already interesting history.
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.
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