Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
town is pleasant if still unsubstantiated conjecture . 13
Masonry was so much part of the eighteenth century that it is hard to think anyone interested in laying out a new city would be unaware of it , but one should be careful about assertions as to the influence of Freemasonry anywhere , including its first appearance in what is now the District . Masonic historiography is a minefield of the unsubstantiated . 14 This exaggeration is not just something recently popularized by the novels of Dan Brown or the Disney movies . 15 The history of Masonry does not go back so far as some believe but is quite interesting without embellishment . first was part of a land grant in 1662 , with the first colonists building a fort in 1697 . Georgetown was formally organized in 1751 and the first Masonic meetings possibly took place in houses there shortly afterwards . 10 In fact , Potomac Lodge in Georgetown has the enigmatic Blandensburg Bible that was published in Edinburgh in 1754 and inscribed to a “ Colin Campbell , St . Andrews Lodge , the 30 th January 1773 , Bladensburg ”. 11 Stories recorded only long afterwards claim the Bible was used for early Masonic meetings . 12 Since Freemasons are taught by their rituals that one reason for belonging is to enable travel in foreign lands , the presence of individual Freemasons befriending each other in early Georgeand had put religious icons where we now revere more secular symbols .
10 Georgetown remained a separate city within the District until merged with Washington by an Act of Congress in 1895 .
11 A number of Colin Campbells were on the rolls of lodges in the Grand Lodge of Scotland in the eighteenth century . So could this be the Bible of one of them , brought to the New World ?
12 “... one called St . Andrews at Georgetown , now in D . C ., but then in Frederick County , formed by the Scotch settlers some time prior to 1737 .” Oration by Bro . John M . Carter at the Centennial Celebration , Grand Lodge , A . F . & A . M . of Maryland , May 12 , 1887 , 4 , bound with Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons of Maryland , Semi-Annual Communication , May 10 , 1887 .
13 There are ways in which this early activity could be confirmed , but the lack of organized research into Washington Masonic history has so far prevented confirmation of many interesting anecdotes like this .
14 An example of historical invention is the well-publicized assertions by David Ovason about masons placing signs of the zodiac around the capital : “ Ovason ’ s theory stands or falls on the assumptions that L ' Enfant and Ellicott were freemasons , that freemasons held similar views about astrology that he does , and that freemasonry places any significance in Virgo . All his assumptions are unproven and his theory fails to pass any reasonable examination .” “ David Ovason , Zodiacs and Washington , D . C .” n . a . Website Grand Lodge of British Columbia , Retrieved March 16 , 2011 from http :// www . freemasonry . bcy . ca / anti-masonry / washington _ dc / ovason . html . See Ovason , D . ( 1999 ). The secret zodiacs of Washington DC , was the city of stars planned by masons ? London : Random House .
15 The indefatigable antiquarian George Oliver , writing in 1855 , was not content with masonry beginning in the Garden of Eden , thinking it was present before that on other worlds , and confidently proclaiming that , it “ existed — before the creation of the globe , and was diffused amidst the numerous systems with which the grand empyreum of universal space is furnished .” Oliver , G . ( 1865 ). The antiquities of free-masonry comprising illustrations of the five periods of masonry from the creation of the world to the dedication of Solomon ’ s temple ( p . 18 ). New York : Jno . W . Leonard & Co .
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