Albany, New York

Albany, New York. This was one of the points of early Masonic activity in the United States, particularly the Rite of Perfection. Henry Andrew Francken, who had been made a Deputy Inspector General by Stephen Morin at Kingston, Jamaica, visited the North American Colonies and created Moses Michael Hays of Boston a Deputy Inspector General. On Oct. 7, 1767, in the City of New York, Francken conferred the degrees of the Rite of Perfection from the 4th to the 14th on two Masons from Albany named Pfister and Gamble. He gave them a warrant dated Dec. 20, 1767 for a Lodge of Perfection at Albany. So far as known, the Lodge of Perfection at Albany in 1767 was the first body of the Rite to be planted on the North American Continent. The Albany body later became dormant and remained so until Giles Fonda Yates, one of the most famous of Freemasons in the North, discovered the original patent and book of records and revived the lodge.

Albany was also the starting point for Thomas Smith Webb’s career as the first and greatest of American ritualists and lecturers. He established there a chapter of Royal Arch Masons and an encampment of Knights Templar, but his fame rests largely on his Freemason’s Monitor, which he issued at Albany in 1797, the same year in which he assisted in forming the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons.

Macoy Collector's Note: Albany stands as a monumental historical pillar for both the Scottish Rite and the American York Rite systems in North America.