The Grand Lodge of North Carolina, formally the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina, was formed on December 12, 1787. Previously, it was the Provincial Grand Lodge of North Carolina, being under jurisdiction of the Premier Grand Lodge of England since January 14, 1771. It is currently composed of 349 active lodges across the 100 counties of North Carolina. The Grand Lodge recognizes its Prince Hall counterpart, The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of North Carolina and its Jurisdictions, Inc., and maintains co-territorial jurisdiction and encourages visitation between the two entities.
Early Freemasonry in North Carolina There are several stories or ‘legends' about masonic lodges in coastal colonial towns like Brunswick Town (near the mouth of the Cape Fear River), or Masonborough (near Masonboro Inlet), but none of these have been substantiated with definitive evidence.
The oldest known lodge in the province was Saint John's Lodge, No, 213, in Wilmington. It was noted on the roster of the Premier Grand Lodge of England on 27 June 1754 as having paid for its constitution. Its minutes from this period do not survive. However, there are references to the lodge in wills and other documents.
According to the cover of a sermon delivered at Christ's Church in New Bern in 1755 for the "Master, Wardens and Brethren of the New Bern Lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons," a lodge had been established at that location.
Some time before 10 Dec 1764, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts (Styled then as Saint John's Grand Lodge of Massachusetts) chartered First Lodge in Pitt County, or Crown Point Lodge (the former is how it was listed on the Massachusetts roll, the latter is how it was styled locally). This lodge went extinct during the American Revolution.
Buffalo Lodge was chartered 23 Dec 1766 and was on Buffalo Creek near the now extinct Bute County Courthouse. It was chartered by Blandford Lodge in St. Petersburg, Virginia. This lodge fell dormant during the revolution but was revived in Warrenton and then styled "Blandford-Bute Lodge" in 1782. Nothing was known about this lodge until its minute book was accidentally stumbled upon in a dilapidated barn in Warren County in 1916.
Some time before 1784, Union Lodge was chartered in the area of Fayetteville. One year earlier, the towns of Cross Creek and Campbellton merged to create Fayetteville. Records of Union's existence during this time are scant. It is not known which of the two towns the lodge was in. Its parent affiliation is unknown, but suggested to be the Grand Lodge of Scotland, possibly due to density of Scottish immigrants who settled in the area throughout the 18th century.
The earliest mention of a lodge working in Salisbury was in a 1775 will of William Temple Coles, an Irishman who left a half acre lot in the town to the citizens for a burial ground, half of which was reserved for "the Society of Freemasons." By 1779, one of the town's thoroughfares was named "Freemason Street," indicative of the lodge's probable location. The lodge at Salisbury, later called Old Cone Lodge, remained the most frontier lodge in North Carolina until the mid-1790s.
Finally, the last known working lodge in this early time period was Royal White Hart Lodge in Elk Marsh, near Halifax, NC. This lodge was active when Joseph Montfort arrived in the area and started attending. Its parent affiliation is unknown.
Joseph Montfort and the Provincial Grand Lodge
Joseph Montfort was elected Master of the Royal White Hart Lodge in 1765. In 1767, he traveled to England, and amongst other business, procured an official Charter for Royal White Hart from Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort, numbered 403.
On January 14, 1771, the Premier Grand Lodge appointed Montfort "Grand Master of and for America." The certificate of appointment is in possession of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina and is written in ink and copper on parchment. The seal of the Premier Grand Lodge of England is in the upper left corner. Although his commission granted him jurisdiction over the English colonies, notes from the Premier Grand Lodge of England at the time noted his commission's jurisdiction was over the Province of North Carolina. Nonetheless, Montfort styled his signature "G.M.A.," meaning "Grand Master, America," and indeed chartered a lodge outside the Province of North Carolina.Lithograph of Original Charter in the archives of the Grand Lodge of Virginia in Freemasonry in Virginia, William M. Brown. 1936.
Other than Royal White Hart, Montfort chartered at least eight lodges in his jurisdiction, viz:
No. 2, Saint John's, New Bern, 11 Jan 1772Original Charter of Saint John's Lodge No. 2. Hanging in Lodge Hall in New Bern, N.C. Dated 1772.
No. 3, Saint John's, Kinston, 1772
No. 4, Royal Edwin, Windsor, 2 July 1772
No. 5, Dornoch, Bute County (Now Warren County), c. 1773
No. 6, Unknown Lodge, c. 1774
No. 7, Cabin Point Royal Arch Lodge, Claremont, Virginia, 13 April 1775
No. 8, Royal William, Winton, 1775
No. 9, Unanimity, Edenton, 8 Nov 1775
Lodge number six exists deductively as lodges five and seven are known from minute books and the charter of Cabin Point No. 7. Its current disposition is unknown.
The Royal White Hart Lodge building was constructed in 1821 and is still in use today by Royal White Hart Lodge.
Masonic Independence The consternation of the Revolution proved tumultuous for the lodges in North Carolina. Many of the lodges took a pause, while others, like Unanimity in Edenton, were having a regular meeting at Horniblow's in the King Arms Tavern in Edenton on July 4, 1776.
In fact, the Union Lodge in Fayetteville sent out a letter to all the lodges in the state dated January 1, 1787, asking for aid in"filling up that sublime office [of Provincial Grand Master] with some well tryed [sic] and Honorible [sic] Brother, to preserve that good order and government, which have always been the characteristics of the regular lodges of our Fraternity." The letter called that a convention of delegates be held in Fayetteville on 24 June, being the day of the Feast of Saint John the Baptist.
By the time this circular made its way to the lodges of the state, only a handful complied and sent delegates to Fayetteville. Since there was not enough to hold a quorum, the convention was forfeit.
A second attempt emanated from Saint John's Lodge in New Bern a few weeks later. This time, to convene in Tarborough concurrent with the meeting of the North Carolina General Assembly in December 1787. The letter is reproduced in their historic minutes and was sent to all the lodges previously mentioned, including one not yet discussed: a lodge in Rockingham. A lodge in that area near the banks of the Pee Dee River is certainly plausible, especially by 1787. It is also possible that the New Bern letter sent it to them because the Union lodge circular did previously. Nevertheless, the mysterious lodge in Rockingham was not present at Tarborough, and thus passed out of existence.
Rechartering of the Grand Lodge All other working North Carolina lodges were at the Tarborough convention with the exception of Saint John's in Wilmington. This convention rechartered the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina on 12 Dec 1787. Montfort's Cabin Point Lodge No. 7 went on to become a founding Lodge of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, being rechartered as No. 8 on their roll.
Over the next several years, member lodges were re-warranted to bring their charters in amity. Minutes are not clear why, but may suggest masonic landmark differences from the Ancients and Moderns schism or incongruent charters from other grand jurisdictions.
Union Lodge became Phoenix Lodge, Blandford-Bute became Johnston-Caswell, Old Cone was re-chartered, but kept their name, Dornoch was rechartered with the same name, and Royal William became American George Lodge.
Logistics out of the way, in 1791 the Grand Lodge focused on precedence for numbering purposes. Saint John's in Wilmington, now able to show its true charter date, proved to be working longer than Royal White Hart and Saint John's in New Bern by one year. It was given No. 1 and joined the convention. Montfort's remaining lodges were organized in order after that, and then Phoenix, Old Cone, and Johnston-Caswell. Dornoch Lodge became extinct before this renumbering and therefore was not given a new number. It's also possible that its membership joined an adjacent lodge instead of continuing.
Shortly after its founding, the new by-laws were established and signed by a delegate from each lodge. In 1797 the Grand Lodge was incorporated by act of the General Assembly of North Carolina.
Its previous association being with the Moderns' Premier Grand Lodge of England, the rechartered Grand Lodge chose to align closer with the Ancients' Grand Lodge of England (1751–1813). North Carolina used Laurence Dermott's Ahiman Rezon, William Preston's Illustrations of Masonry (1804 ed.), and Thomas Webb's Illustrations of Masonry (1802 ed.) to create and publish its own Ahiman Rezon and Masonic Ritual in 1805. There were ten printing presses in the state at the time and only a handful of books had ever been printed. The Grand Lodge ordered that fifty copies be created for the current lodges and for future lodges. An original copy of this book is exceptionally rare.
Release of Tennessee Jurisdiction The newly formed North Carolina government of the United States inherited the territory of the former province in 1776. The western boundary of the state was the Mississippi River. In 1790, the state government gave its western lands on the opposite side of the Blue Ridge to the Federal Government to absolve its recent war debt. In 1796, this territory became Tennessee. North Carolina did not divide its masonic jurisdiction until 1813. The Grand Lodge included Tennessee in its formal name. Up until then, the Grand Lodge of North Carolina and Tennessee had chartered nine lodges in Tennessee. Those nine lodges in convention petitioned the Grand Lodge for a release of jurisdiction or charter so that they could assemble a formal independent Grand Lodge of Tennessee.
Authorized by Grand Master Robert Williams and the delegates of the Grand Lodge, the document was sealed and signed on 30 Sep 1813. The following lodges retired their North Carolina charters for Tennessee charters:
No. 29, Saint Tammany, Nashville: became TN No. 1 (extinct by 1813)
No. 41, Polk, Knoxville,: became TN No. 2 (extinct 1816)
No. 43, Greeneville: became TN No. 3
No. 50, Newport: became TN No. 4 (extinct 1827)
No. 51, Overton, Rogersville: became TN, No. 5
No. 52, King Solomon, Gallatin: became TN No. 6 (extinct 1836)
No. 55, Hiram, Franklin: became TN No. 7
No. 60, Cumberland, Nashville: became TN No. 8
No. 61, Western Star, Port Royal: became TN No. 9.
Philanthropy Grand Master William R. Davie laid the cornerstone for the first public university in the country, the University of North Carolina (now UNC-Chapel Hill), near New Hope Chapel in Orange County in 1793 just several weeks after George Washington laid the cornerstone for the United States' Capitol in the newly rising Federal City.