Excerpt from Freemasonry in America Prior to 1750: Being an Address The early Lodges and Provincial Grand Lodges were careless about the keeping of records. Even the Mother Grand Lodge itself has no formal record book for more than six years after its organization. And the premier Provincial Grand Lodge of the Western Hemisphere, organized in Boston, Massachusetts, July 30, 1733, has no formal and continuous records written in a book at the time of the recorded events, until 1750. This has led some argumentative Brethren to assert that there is naught but tradition of duly constituted Masonry in America prior to 1750. And it has led me to attempt a chronological compilation of all the real known facts of Masonry in America prior to the middle of the eighteenth century with references to the original evidence, most of which I have personally examined. Now and then are also included, for convenience of the student, references to certain things which even some of our best historians and their readers have swallowed with much consequent ptomaine poisoning. No pretension is made that this is complete. It does contain, however, everything for which the investigations of the writer have disclosed credible and authentic evidence. It is hoped that others may be stimulated to publish all possible facts of the period for which they can and do cite authority worthy of and available for examination and test as to historical accuracy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.