Thomas Smith Webb, An Appreciation

Thomas Smith Webb had something to do with our Masonic Ritual.

"May the blessing of Heaven rest upon us and all regular Masons may brotherly love prevail and every moral and social virtue cement us." That as you know comes from our Craft Ritual. Paragraphs that have come down unchanged in many petitions for the degrees in which the petitioner “seriously declares upon his honor” that the petition is made “unbiased by friends, uninfluenced by mercenary motives— a desire for knowledge and a sincere wish for being serviceable to your fellow creatures” were put there by Webb. It is to Thomas Smith Webb that ritualists owe the necessity to memorize those fine mouthfuls of paragraphs of the four cardinal virtues. It is Webb that the Senior Deacon or other officer in the Second degree must memorize to utter his description of Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy, not to mention the five orders of architecture and the five senses. To Webb we owe the charges of the degrees and the words regarding many an emblem, including Bee Hive, Pot of Incense, Book of Constitutions, Sword and Naked Heart, All Seeing Eve, Anchor and Ark, Forty Seventh Problem, Hour Glass and Scythe.

And finally, in many a Grand jurisdiction, the installation of a newly elected Master is conducted in the very words which Webb printed, with hardly a deviation, from "You agree to be a good man and true" to "Do you agree to these charges---as masters have done in all ages before you?"

Yes, Webb had something to do with our ritual but he was more than that – besides being the father of American Masonic Ritual. He was the Father of the York Rite. He created the Monitor which is the basis of ritual for our Craft and York Rite degrees. And he helped establish two national Masonic bodies

Thomas Smith Webb was born October 30, 1771 in Boston. Throughout his childhood America was fighting for her freedom from Great Britain and American Masonry was finding its freedom from the Grand Lodge of England.

The Premier Grand Lodge of England, formed in 1717 introduced organized Freemasonry to America. The Irish and Scottish Constitutions closely followed but it was the Antients formed in 1751, arch rivals of the premier Grand Lodge who were aggressively promoting Freemasonry in the Colonies.

The rituals of freemasonry were many and varied. After 1776 there was a closer Masonic affinity with the Antients who were perceived to be less aristocratic than the Moderns (Premier Grand Lodge). Many of the Provincial Grand Lodges formed themselves into Grand Lodges and were using rituals derived from many different sources – Moderns, Antients, Irish, Scottish and other European influences.

Thomas Smith Webb attended the Boston Public Latin School and at the age of 15 he started to work as an apprentice printer. Four years later at age 19 he was initiated, passed and raised in Rising Sun Lodge in Keene, New Hampshire. In 1793 he moved to Albany, New York and established a paper-staining factory.

Seven years after he had been raised, he published (on 14 September, 1797) “The Freemason’s Monitor, or Illustrations of Masonry. This work brought international fame to the author and became the standard of ritual exemplification for many jurisdictions. Iowa uses the Webb work. He later enlarged the work and improved it in editions from 1802 through 1818.

It should be noted that the work was not all original with Webb. It was compiled from the writings of William Preston of England. Preston devoted a lifetime of service to the craft in the study and perfection of Masonic lectures.

Webb had a long and useful service in Masonry. He joined Union Lodge in Albany and served as it Worshipful Master. He also helped organize Temple Royal Arch Chapter and became its High Priest. In 1797 he married and moved to Providence, Rhode Island and affiliated with St. John’s Lodge No 1. He also accepted an invitation to join Providence Royal Arch and was elected its High Priest two years later.

This brings me to another “claim to fame” for our distinguished Brother. One of the matters of disagreement between the Antients and the Moderns was the disposition of the Royal Arch as a part of the Masonic system. In the Antients the Royal Arch was very much a part of the Lodge. Royal Arch Chapters were attached to lodges.

The Articles of Union, which finally resolved the differences between the two Grand Lodges states "Pure Ancient Freemasonry consists of but three degrees, that of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch."

Webb assisted in the formation of the Grand Chapter of Rhode Island and served as Grand High Priest from 1804-14. Along with others he eventually organized the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons and was guiding it as Deputy Grand High Priest at his Death.

The General Grand Chapter is now the oldest national Masonic body in America

Webb’s Masonic zeal also accomplished the formation on August 11, 1802, of St. John’s Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States. Governor DeWitt Clinton was elected Grand Master and Webb served as Deputy Grand Master an office he held until his death.

In 1814 a British man-of-war appeared off Newport. Providence, like other coastal cities, was fearful of bombing and possible invasion. At a mass meeting before the State House in Providence, a Committee on Defense was appointed to insure the protection of the town. Volunteers were called for to erect breastworks. Webb, as Grand Master, called a special meeting of Grand Lodge and instructed the brethren to "bring shovel, spade or axe and one day's provisions." After opening Grand Lodge the brethren marched to Fox Hill and by sunset had erected breastworks 430 feet long, 10 wide, and 5 high, naming it Fort Hiram, an act confirmed by the Governor that evening. This was one of only two Masonic forts in the country.

To Thomas Smith Webb and his system of Masonic work Americans owe a large part of the ritual of the American (Often called York) Rite. In practically all jurisdictions some of his words are used, or more properly, Preston heard from the lips of Webb.

Webb died on July 6, 1819. A Masonic burial service was held in Cleveland, Ohio. Later his body was moved to the West Burying Ground in Providence. When that cemetery was converted to a park, Webb’s body was moved to the North Burial ground. Thus it was that, like another famous freemason, his body was buried three times.

The Baltimore Convention from May 8 to 17, 1843, meeting in the Masonic Hall on Saint Paul Street with sixteen of the twenty-three Grand Lodges in the United States represented adopted this resolution regarding the Webb work: “… the forms in the ‘Monitor,’ under the authorship of M.W. Thomas S. Webb, republished in 1812, possesses the least faults of any which have been before them, and has a high claim to antiquity, and having been in general use as a standard work for nearly half a century, possess no errors of material as to re-quire alteration, except as follows.” There followed six minor changes that it recommended be made, three of them in the Installation Ceremony.

Thomas Smith Webb was a rare combination of poet, dreamer, visionary and practical man of action. His genius found in Freemasonry both an untitled field and an opportunity for expression of his poetry, his idealism, his passion for improvement and for teaching.

Bibliography

Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon Web Site

Founding Father of the York Rite By Norris G. Abbott, Jr., 33°
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/webb_t/thomas_webb_bio.html

Thomas Smith Webb
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/webb_t/webb_t.html

Short Talk Bulletin #54
www.la-mason.com/stb54.htm

Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of California
Thomas Smith Webb
Submitted by Edgar Fentum -- 02/17/2003
http://www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org/royalarch/raeduc003.htm


THE FACE OF FREEMASONRY
By Allen E. Roberts
Compiled by Jay Cole Simser