Ritual, Secrecy and Civil Society Vol. 7, No. 1, Fall, 2019 | Page 23

Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
constitution which it offers to deliver . It was decided that the said letter will be correctly translated and read in the lodge for deliberation . The dear brother deputy received thanks from the lodge and was charged by the Master to please also tell the committee which wrote it and was then conducted out from the Temple by the Master of Ceremonies . It was decided that the lodge would assemble next Wednesday at 5 o ’ clock in the evening to deliberate on this subject . 7
Joseph Da Costa was the son of the former Deputy Inspector General Isaac Da Costa , who died on November 23 , 1783 and was succeeded by Hyman Isaac Long . The younger Da Costa served as Sublime Grand Secretary of the Order of the Royal Secret in 1787 . 8 His attendance represents both the formal proposal of the Grand Lodge to gain La Candeur , and also as a formal visit to a lodge which had been granted a constitution to form a Sublime Grand Council less than two months earlier by the former Deputy Grand Inspector of the Order of the Royal Secret of South Carolina .
At the following meeting , the fully translated letter was read by the lodge and a course of action was established .
The Master read a letter written by the Grand Lodge of the Province addressed to the Worshipful La Candeur lodge which was correctly translated into French and then put into deliberation if the Worshipful La Candeur lodge wishes to accept the offer of a constitution and if they wish to establish a committee to answer this letter . It was decided that a committee would be named to write a letter of reply to the Worshipful Lodge of the Province and that this letter would be read in the Lodge at the meeting next Sunday . The brethren named for this committee are dear brothers Magnan , Delahogue , de Grasse , Lacoste , St . Paul , Bouisson , and Greniel . 9
We see the first direct traces of the Order of the Royal Secret in the lodge meeting on January 8 , 1797 , with the appearance of Hyman Isaac Long , a former Deputy Inspector General of South Carolina who had also been visiting the English speaking body in Charleston and whose lodge room had burned several months before on June 13 , 1796 . 10
The Master asked from all the lodge present at that time in the name of brother Long who has
7 January 1 , 1797 . Ibid .
8 “ By the Glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe .” The City Gazette or the Daily Advertiser , Charleston , South Carolina , Thursday December 8 , 1788 .
9 January 4 , 1797 . Ibid .
10 Mackey , Albert Gallatin . The History of Freemasonry in South Carolina , from Its Origin in the Year 1736 to the Present Time : Written at the Request of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of South Carolina . Steam Power Press , 1861 . 496 – 497 .
20