Who was Henry Price?

The following was adopted from the Spring 2023 edition of The Trowel Magazine and written by Rt. Wor. Walter Hunt, Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

In our Grand Lodge, a portrait of Henry Price hangs above the West in Corinthian Hall, and in the office of the Grand Master. He is a modest-looking man, dressed in the fashion of the middle eighteenth century, and is looking away into the future, with no knowledge of what might come.

Remarkably, given the impact that our first Provincial Grand Master had upon the development of Freemasonry in Massachusetts in particular, and in America in general, the life of Brother Price is largely a closed book. We know far less about him than most of his successors – in part because he lived so long ago. He is the only Grand Master born in the seventeenth century. His original term in the Oriental Chair lasted only until 1737, at which time he withdrew in favor of Boston merchant Robert Tomlinson. Yet, each time there was a vacancy in the Grand Mastership and the Brethren in Massachusetts had to wait for a replacement commission to arrive, Brother Price assumed the East of Grand Lodge and directed its affairs, including from 1766 to 1768, following the death of Grand Master Gridley. As the first Worshipful Master of the Masters’ Lodge (a lodge specifically chartered to confer the Master Mason degree, as was custom in English lodges at the time), he was active in the progress of the Craft. He also served in the East of other Boston lodges, including First Lodge (now St. John’s of Boston).

Even in the modern era we feel his influence. At the installation of a Grand Master, his name is mentioned and his words, given at the installation of M. W. John Rowe as Grand Master in 1768, are quoted:

“Right Worshipful Brother: the first and most essential requisite towards a right conduct of the great trust you are undertaking is to study the utility, as well as to enforce the practice of all moral and social duties.

To that end: Here, Sir, is the Bible, the Compasses, the Square, the Level and the Plumb Rule, the symbols of Masonry. The first is to be the Rule and Guide of your faith; the others are well known Instruments necessary to Builders.

The Compasses teach us Prudence and Circumspection; the Square teaches us Justice and Truth; the Level and the Plumb teach us the Equality of States, and Uprightness of Conduct among Masons. If there be any Virtue, and if there be any Praise, think of these Things.”

Henry Price came to Boston around 1723, when he was only twenty-six years of age. Little is known of his Masonic experience in England, though he appears to have been a member of Lodge 75 in London (which met at the Rainbow Tavern). He was a tailor by profession, and did business in a shop near the corner of what are now Bedford and Washington Streets. By 1733, he held the position of Cornet, and for most of his life was referred to as ‘Major Price.’ Despite aspersions to the contrary, and though he was not a gentleman by birth, he was well regarded by his fellow citizens and soon occupied a position of respect in the colony.

Price’s commission made him the principal member of a very small association largely unknown to the general public. Freemasonry, both in the mother country and abroad, was – if nothing else – a select and exclusive brotherhood, a private society much prized by its members, and ignored, or even ridiculed, by outsiders. A much-circulated exposé from its early days derided the members as having no knowledge of actual stonemasonry, and suggesting that Freemasons’ scientific acuity was the equivalent of “teaching a pig to play the Flute, or having a horse practice Algebra.” It was viewed as a thin veneer of camaraderie disguising yet another opportunity for debauchery. William Hogarth, the famous illustrator, showed Freemasons in a less than favorable light, even though he was a member of the Fraternity.

Nonetheless, for more than three decades, Price’s active role in the Fraternity – with the Masters’ Lodge, with First Lodge, and as ad interim Grand Master on the death of his various successors – casts a long shadow over the Massachusetts Provincial Grand Lodge. Charles W. Moore wrote of him in 1873, nearly a century after his death:

Henry Price, as a civilian, statesman or ruler, rose to no distinction above that attainable by any of his fellow-townsmen of equal intelligence, integrity of character and business capacity. But as a Mason — as the head and founder of the first Masonic Grand Lodge on this continent — he rose to an eminence beyond the reach of any other of his brethren, and secured for his memory a fame, and a place in Masonic history, more enduring than marble . . .

His personal life is less well known. He married three times, first to Mary Townsend in 1736. His success in business allowed him to buy a “country house” in Menotomy, in what is now Arlington, and Mary died there in 1751. Not long after, he married Mary Tilden. They lived prosperously in Boston, summering in Menotomy, and they had a daughter together, but sadly both wife and daughter died in 1760. Major Price was much affected by this loss, and ultimately he retired to Townsend, a town well away from Boston, in 1763. He represented it in the General Court (the state assembly) for two years, and his name is recorded on a number of petitions and other business matters that appeared before it. Finally, in 1771, he married Lydia Randall of Townsend, who bore him two daughters. Both wife and children survived him after his death in 1780. A biographer records that he was sympathetic to the Patriot cause, but due to his age he did not take part in the contest.

Decades after his demise, a group of Masons traveled to Townsend to memorialize him and found his grave badly kept. They erected a slate gravestone in the style of the eighteenth century. In 1888, the Grand Lodge, led by Grand Master Henry Endicott, traveled to Townsend to replace that marker with an obelisk “of hammered granite…the whole expense of the erection was borne by the Grand Lodge. The monument stands on a beautiful eminence, commanding a view of the homestead formerly owned by Price, and where he lived many years.” The slate marker is now on display at the end of the corridor on the third floor of our Grand Lodge building in Boston, with a photograph of the obelisk hung opposite.

At the dedication of the monument, Grand Master Endicott offered the following sentiments about his predecessor:

“We have come here to-day to bring our tribute of affectionate respect to a man born in a distant country nearly two centuries ago, and a stranger would hardly understand the deep significance of our loving remembrance of one who was neither statesman nor soldier. Henry Price must be considered as the type of the men who do bravely and simply their nearest duty, and who do it dreaming of no other reward than the pleasure of contributing to the welfare of others and the approval of a good conscience…

In this quiet retreat, undisturbed by the bustle of business or the whirl of pleasure, we dedicate the hour to thoughts of his simple manliness. The life of the summer season is around us, renewed year by year with unfailing bounty. We feel a thrill of gratitude for the goodness which blesses our days with the summer sunshine and the summer rain; and we recognize that it is the same goodness which sends refreshment to our hearts and minds through the influence of a good man. Let this hour strengthen us in all good works, and let us resolve to hold sacred and pure the principles handed down to us through him and others like him. Thus following them do we most truly honor them and thus transmit to those who come after us the message of loyalty to the ideal brotherhood of man.”

Thus did our Brethren dedicate the memorial to our first Grand Master, and thus do we celebrate him today, the first Grand Master of the oldest Grand Lodge in North America.

“...If there be any Virtue, and if there be any Praise, think of these Things.”

THE HENRY PRICE LODGE

A lodge was constituted in Charlestown in 1858 that bore the name of Grand Master Henry Price. This lodge, the second in Charlestown (after King Solomon’s Lodge), was independent until 2002, when it merged with Everett C. Benton Lodge to form Price-Benton Lodge. This lodge in turn merged with Germania-Revere Lodge in 2004 to form The Consolidated Lodge.

In March 2023, The Consolidated Lodge – a combination of many constituent lodges, including those listed above – chose to restore the name of our first Grand Master to the roll of lodges in Massachusetts. With the approval of the Grand Lodge, this body is now The Henry Price Lodge.