Historian's Report - December 2025

Patriot's Feast: Lodge No. 3 and the Spirit of '76

Worshipful Master, Officers, and Brethren,

We gather tonight, as Masons have for centuries, and reflect on the enduring light of our Order. Tonight, as we approach the 250th anniversary of the pivotal moment in American history, I ask you to travel back with me to **Philadelphia, December 27th, 1775**—a night that blended ancient tradition with the fierce, young spirit of American liberty.

This was no ordinary gathering; it was a **Table Lodge** held by **Lodge No. 3** on **St. John the Evangelist's Day**.

St. John's Day and the Christmas Season

For us, Brothers, **St. John's Day** is one of the pillars of our Masonic year. It is a day to honor the Patron Saint who, as the **Apostle of Love and Light**, symbolizes the duty of every Mason: to perfect his own morality and illuminate the path for others.

In 1775, this Holiday season was different. The sounds of musketry and revolution were already ringing from Boston to the Carolinas. Liberty was not an abstract ideal; it was a present, immediate struggle.

The Table Lodge: Cementing the Bonds of Brotherhood

The **Table Lodge** is one of our most ancient and cherished Masonic traditions. It is here, around the festive board, that the work of the lodge is truly cemented. It is where our lessons of Temperance, Prudence, and Charity are expressed in fellowship. It’s where the formal, speculative Masonry of the Lodge Room is transformed into the **operative, social bond** of Brotherhood.

But the meeting of Lodge No. 3 in 1775 transcended mere sociality. It was an act of quiet, profound patriotism.

The Symbolic Act of Liberty

Lodge No. 3 was a hotbed of revolutionary fervor. Many of its members were dedicated **Patriots and Liberty Activists** who knew that every meeting, every gathering, was a risk in a city occupied by growing British influence.

This particular Table Lodge is one of the best-documented early American Masonic festive boards and is notable for its **13 patriotic toasts** – a deliberate echo of the 13 colonies. The event was held at the “Free Quaker” meeting house or a tavern adjacent to it (sources vary), and many prominent revolutionary-era Masons were present.

The records of this meeting show a deliberate, symbolic act of homage to the cause of American liberty. They measured their entire banquet, not by a traditional Masonic number, but by the **patriotic number THIRTEEN**:

* They had **thirteen dishes of meat**.

* They served **thirteen bottles of wine** and **thirteen bowls of toddy**.

* And critically, they drank **thirteen toasts**—one for each of the thirteen defiant colonies soon to declare themselves a nation.

Here are the **exact 13 toasts** as recorded and published shortly afterward in the *Pennsylvania Evening Post* (January 2, 1776) and later preserved in Masonic records:

1. The King and Craft.  

   (Still formally required under the English Constitutions they worked, even if sentiment was shifting.)

2. The Queen and Craft.

3. The Prince of Wales and Craft.

4. The Royal Family.

5. The Grand Master and Grand Lodge of England.

6. The Grand Master and Brethren of America.  

   (Referring to the newly independent Provincial Grand Lodges)

7. The Memory of Brother George Washington.  

   (Washington was not present; this was a sentimental toast to the absent hero who had been initiated in Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4 in 1752–53)

8. All Freemasons throughout the World.

9. The Memory of Brother Benjamin Franklin.  

   (Franklin was in Philadelphia at the time but apparently not at the lodge that night; he had been Deputy Grand Master of Pennsylvania)

10. The Governor and Brethren of Pennsylvania.

11. All Charitable Masons.

12. The Memory of Brother Warren and all those who fell at Bunker Hill.  

    (Joseph Warren, Grand Master of Massachusetts, killed June 17, 1775 – a deeply emotional toast)

13. The Thirteen United Colonies.  

    (The climactic toast – greeted with loud cheers and the firing of cannon outside)

After the 13th toast, the brethren reportedly sang a patriotic song and fired a volley with small arms and a small cannon that had been brought into the lodge courtyard for the occasion.

This Table Lodge is considered one of the clearest examples of how colonial American Freemasonry was rapidly transforming from loyalist British institutions into revolutionary patriotic societies during 1775–1776. Within months, most Pennsylvania lodges would drop the first four royal toasts entirely.

Our Legacy

Brothers, as we approach the 250th anniversary of this remarkable event, and the continuing events of 1776, let us recall that the spirit of this Table Lodge is our direct legacy. It reminds us that our Order may be non-political, but our individual duties as citizens—especially those duties rooted in the pursuit of **Liberty**—are absolute.

May we always remember the courage of those Patriots who honored their God, their Craft, and their country around the festive board, and may we continue their work for the good of the Order and the welfare of mankind.

Thank you.

Primary sources:  

- Pennsylvania Evening Post, Jan. 2, 1776  

- Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania (early records)  

- Julius F. Sachse, *Old Masonic Lodges of Pennsylvania* (1912)