SILVER SQUARE
LODGE #791
PRINCE HALL AFFILIATE
NORTH CAROLINA JURISDICTION
Prince HallPRINCE HALL   September 12, 1737 - December 4, 1807
         Silver Square Lodge #791 traces its lineage to the founder of Prince Hall Masonry.  Though myth, aggrandizement, and the racial climate of the times have shrouded the earlier life of Prince Hall, it has been established that he was a great man and his legacy needed no help.  It is widely accepted that, "Prince Hall was the son of an English leather merchant and a free Negro woman of French descent. Born in Bridgetown, Barbados and after having served his apprenticeship in the leather trade, under the tutelage of his father, migrated to Boston, Massachusetts in 1765."  These myths, among others, were authored by William H. Grimshaw in his book, Official History of Freemasonry Among The Colored People in North America. In defense of Mr. Grimshaw, I ask the reader to step back in time, momentarily, to the time when this book was written, 1903.  During this period "colored" peoples were led to believe that they would be more readily accepted if they were of mixed heritage, with the father almost always white, willingly migrated to the United States and was FREE!  There is the strong possibility that Bro. Grimshaw felt that through his aggrandizement of Prince Hall that our Masonic Order would be more readily accepted and recognized.
         Prince Hall, the Mason, was also a man of great foresight and it has been established that he championed unpopular causes of the times.  Those causes included education for "colored " people, the halt to the kidnapping of free "colored" persons for the purpose of  being sold as slaves, abolition of slavery in Massachusetts, and the inclusion of "colored" men into the Continental Army.
          Prince Hall, with fourteen other men of color, approached Sgt. John Batt "Marster" of Irish Constitution military lodge #441, attached to the 38th Regiment of Foot,  for the purpose of becoming Masons. After due course and instruction "Marster" Batt caused the following freedmen to be known as Masons:
 
PETTER BETTS
JOHN CANTON
PETER FREEMAN
PRINCE HALL
FORTON HOWARD
CYRUS FORBES
PRINCE TAYLOR
PRINCE REED
DUFF RUFORM
THOMAS SAUNDERSON
BRISTALL SLINSER
BOSTON SMITH
CESER SPEAR
BENJAMIN TILER
RICHARD TITLEY
 
          At the departure of Irish military Lodge #441, Master Prince Hall and these Masons were given the right to meet and conduct business as a Lodge, go in public procession in observance of St. John's Day, and to bury their dead as a Masonic Lodge.  However, without benefit of a warrant or charter, they could perform no degree work allowing their Masonic fraternity to grow.  Prince Hall, Master of the African Lodge, through petition, approached Provincial Grand Master Joseph Warren for Masonic recognition.  Before this petition could be acted upon, GM Warren was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill.  This sad turn of events dashed the hope of being recognized and accepted into the Caucasian Masonic Jurisdiction of Massachusetts.
          Two letters of petition were sent to the Grand Lodge of England, one of which was successful and a warrant was issued to African Lodge No. 459 on September 20, 1784.  Prince Hall received this charter April 29, 1787, which remains in the hands of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
          We honor the memory and achievements of our First Grand Master on Prince Hall Americanism Day, normally on the Sunday closest to September 20.
PM Howard R. Jones, 33o
Past D.D.G.M
**Information gleaned from:
        Black Square & Compass - 200 years of Prince Hall Masonry by Jooseph A. Walkes, Jr.
        A Prince Hall Masonic Quiz Book by Joseph A. Walkes, Jr.
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