135 / 239
134
250
[
LAFAYETTE
, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de]
Lettre autographe signée par Joseph Evelett
Boston, 20 juin 1825
3 pp. in-4, suscription au verso du dernier feuillet “General Lafayette”
EXEMPLAIRE DE LAFAYETTE. IL DEVIENT MEMBRE HONORAIRE DE LA “St JOHN’S
MASONIC LODGE”, LA PLUS ANCIENNE LOGE MAÇONNIQUE DES ÉTATS-UNIS
PUISQUE FONDÉE À BOSTON EN 1733, OÙ ELLE EXISTE ENCORE
Joseph Eveleth, en tant que “Presiding Master of the St John’s Masonic Lodge” confère un
certificat de membre honoraire au “R[ight] W[orshipful] Lafayette” ; il lui demande : “to gratify
your brethren of this ancient Lodge by allowing your revered name to appear on the Lodge books
as a member” ; il discute ensuite des modalités de la visite de Lafayette
Instituted on July 30
th
, 1733, by Right Worshipful Henry Price, Grand Master, at the
Bunch of Grapes Tavern (Boston), and known until February 7
th
, 1783, as “The First
Lodge”, this is the first duly constituted Lodge of Free Masons in America. Lafayette
had visited the lodge prior to laying the foundation stone of the Bunker Hill Monument
three days earlier :
“At seven o’clock in the morning, passing through a crowd, agitated by glorious recollections
of the 17
th
of June 1775, General Lafayette went to the grand lodge of Massachusetts, where
deputations from the grand lodges of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
Vermont, and New Jersey, had joined the officers of the chapter and knights of the temple,
to receive and compliment him. At ten o’clock two thousand free-masons, sixteen companies
of volunteer infantry and a corps of cavalry, the different corporation and the civil and military
authorities, assembled at the Capitol... whilst the grand master, and deputies of the masonic
order, went for General Lafayette to Mr Lloyd’s, where he had retired on leaving the temple. At half
after ten, the procession took up the line of march” (Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, II, p. 202).
3 000 / 5 000
€