Lodge History

A committee of senior members appointed by Williamsburg Lodge in 1773 applied to the Grand Lodge of England (Moderns) to obtain a "new" charter, which it subsequently received and was read in the lodge with appropriate ceremonial fanfare on March 1, 1774. This charter (#457), dated in London on November 6, 1773, and signed by the Deputy Grand Master and Grand Secretary, is the oldest surviving English Masonic charter in Virginia.

There is no other information that has survived to indicate what ever became of the "old" charter inferred by the old lodge minutes; the grand lodge body from which it was originally obtained; nor why the lodge felt it needed to be replaced. This document has apparently long been lost. The original charter was probably granted by the Grand Lodge of England sometime before it split in 1758 over a dispute over the ritual into two separate factions, the "Moderns" and the "Antients". Regarding the probable reason for the second charter application, however, the United Grand Lodge of England's surviving records today cannot shed any further light on this subject ( note: it is interesting to note that the Masonic ritual work as handed down and still used in Virginia lodges today contains many elements of both the old "Modern" and "Antient" English rituals.

With the beginning of the Revolutionary War, however, interest in being tied to English Freemasonry waned quickly in the wake of the increasing patriotic fervor for political and economic independence. Even so, the members of Williamsburg Lodge found themselves divided in their loyalties. Yet, the surviving lodge records are silent as to what effect (if any) this difference of opinion might have had upon the brethren and their Masonic relationships. However, it is most probable (if long-standing Masonic tradition and practice was followed) that each man left his personal opinions and views at the door when he came to the lodge hall, where there is still never any discussion of either organized religion or politics in a Masonic lodge. Still, all was apparently not well.

In honor of the approaching St. John the Evangelist's Day, on December 3, 1776, the lodge, as usual, had voted to "...dine and Sup and have a Ball for the entertainment of the Ladies at house of Mrs. Campbells as usual here to fore." The times were serious enough, however, to cause the lodge just two weeks later (on December 17th) to cancel the ball that they had been planning. Since a war had begun only months before, no doubt they felt, upon further reflection, that such celebrations were too frivolous for the tenor of the times.

However, at that same December 3, 1776 meeting, the lodge empowered the Worshipful Master to write to all the regular lodges in Virginia to request that they send representatives to a convention to be held the following spring in Williamsburg. The stated purpose and intent of this convention, which was held on May 6, 1777, was to discuss the need to elect a Grand Master for Virginia. The reasons cited for this proposal was that with the Virginia lodges all holding charters from the various Grand Lodges of England, Ireland, and Scotland, there was no central authority to which the lodges could appeal to settle disputes. Nor was there any standardization in the ritual work they were each using, so the Craft could never meet in a general Annual Communication to share in the bonds of common fellowship. Thus, there was general agreement within most (but not all) of the lodges that they needed to consider electing a Grand Master in Virginia.

After holding several meetings later in 1777 to further discuss this proposition, the group met once again in Williamsburg on June 23, 1778. Before that meeting, the position of Grand Master had first been offered to George Washington, and then to Right Worshipful Warner Lewis, Past Master of Botetourt Lodge in Gloucester, both of whom declined. Therefore, on June 23, 1778, representatives of all the Virginia Masonic lodges duly elected John Blair, Jr., Past Master of Williamsburg Lodge #6, as the first Grand Master of Masons in Virginia. Blair was formally installed as Grand Master in the Williamsburg Lodge Hall at a meeting of the assembled lodges held on October 13, 1778. Over fifty brethren were present for the occasion. The Grand Lodge of Virginia was also thusly created that day, which was the first Grand Lodge constituted in North America.

Despite these significant Masonic events, the years of the American Revolution were very hard on Williamsburg. The town was occupied at various times by British, American, and French troops, who typically camped around the city and who also quartered some troops in private houses, as well. The British were especially harsh on the town's citizens, enforcing martial law for a time. Over a hundred members of the lodge had left the city to serve in the American military forces, and a very small number of them gave their lives during the struggle for independence. Despite the absence of so many members, Williamsburg Lodge and the Grand Lodge of Virginia managed to continue to meet sporadically both in the lodge hall and at the Raleigh Tavern, throughout those turbulent years. Even with those few remaining members to look after things, some of the lodge's oldest written records and its regalia were apparently stolen or were somehow lost during this period.

However, rather than the absence of the men and lodge members, it was the removal of the capital of the new state of Virginia to Richmond which dealt the town and the lodge its cruelest blow. Williamsburg thus began a slow, but inexorable, decline. On October 28, 1786, the Grand Lodge of Virginia issued numbers to all of its subordinate lodges. Williamsburg was awarded the number "6," and is still so designated, despite the fact that the lodge was forced to suspend operations at least three times after that date, for varying lengths of time. Many people also moved to Richmond when the state capital moved in 1780. As a result, business and commerce in Williamsburg quickly declined. Those few Masons who were left in Williamsburg apparently found it very difficult to sustain the lodge for an extended period with so few members left, and with reduced chances of getting any new members to join.

With this difficult state of affairs to contend with, the lodge in Williamsburg went dark sometime in the early 1790s. It was briefly revived for a few years, then went inactive once again from about 1802 to 1811. After being revived thereafter one more time, Williamsburg Lodge #6 was forced to cease operating sometime in 1827-8. It would remain dark for twelve long years. This latter interruption was probably brought about, in part, both by a quarrel within the lodge, as well as the so-called "William Morgan Affair" of 1826.

The assumed kidnapping and murder of William Morgan (supposedly by his fellow Masonic brothers but never proven) for his threatening to reveal Masonic secrets by printing an expose book, caused widespread public outcry and rising anti-Masonic feelings among the general population for about eight years. This single event almost destroyed the Craft in the U.S. The Morgan Affair also led to the creation of the nation's first political third party, the "Anti-Masonic Party." The party only lasted long enough to support one candidate to run in the 1832 presidential election, but the man (who was actually a friend of Masonry!) was later defeated for the office by Andrew Jackson, who also happened to be a Mason.

It wasn't until 1848 that Williamsburg Lodge #6 could, once again, be revived. The lodge started to work again under a dispensation granted by The Grand Lodge of Virginia, dated April 21, 1848. It received a new Charter from The Grand Lodge of Virginia, which is dated December 13, 1848, keeping its old number 6, and under which it has continued to work uninterrupted now for over one hundred and fifty years, a remarkable achievement. The lodge continued to pay rent to the landowner where the lodge hall stood on Francis Street from 1849, assessing each brother for a proportionate share of the total rent due each year. They paid this rent annually, but were not financially able to finally purchase the land on which the hall stood until the late 1890s.

The lodge continued to meet (albeit very sporadically after 1862, during the War Between the States from 1861 to 1865. From May 1862, however, the town was occupied during the remainder of the war by Federal troops, some of who also broke into the lodge hall and carried off some of the lodge's regalia and at least two bound minute books for the years 1775 and 1773-1779. These two volumes, in particular, eventually found their way somehow into the Library of Congress by the early twentieth century, and it took two separate acts of the U.S. Congress (one in 1916 and another in 1939) for Williamsburg Lodge #6 to be able to finally retrieve them.

By late 1891, we can only assume that the lodge had either physically outgrown its small, old meeting hall, OR that the by-then one hundred and seventeen year old building was in poor repair and was deemed unsuitable for the lodge's meeting needs. Regardless of the actual reason(s), in November of that year Williamsburg Lodge #6 began meeting at Mahone's Store, which was located on the southeast corner of Duke of Gloucester and Botetourt Streets (where Tarpley's Store is located today). In January 1895, the lodge again moved its meeting place to Spencer's Store, which was located in what is today Market Square on the southwest corner of Duke of Gloucester and a now-removed section of South England Street, which was formerly there before the Williamsburg Restoration. After the lodge met at this location for about four years, they moved, once again, in January 1899 to the Peninsula Bank Building which formerly stood just a few doors to the west of Spencer's Store.

It was during this period around the turn of the twentieth century and in the years immediately thereafter that Williamsburg Lodge desired to purchase the old Mason's Hall with a view to restoring it. By this period, it had been subjected for over a decade to a variety of uses and many tenants, including a stint serving as a schoolhouse, but it was in very poor shape and much in need of repair. After finally buying the land, for five years or so, the lodge tried diligently to create interest and to raise funds to restore the building, including hiring an architect, S.R. Remington. In 1907, Remington took detailed measurements of the old building, and from them drew a series of floor plans and elevations, which also thankfully survive today. His drawings tell us all that we now know about the ancient lodge hall's floor plans and it's architectural design.